General Music 101

Musical Notes

Here's some trivia about the structure and history of music:

1.) There are more than 42,000 playable guitar chords.

2.) The first modern piano was built in 1700 by Bartolomeo Cristofori in Italy. The instrument's real name: piano et forte, which means "soft and loud" (But you knew that right?).

3.) Since 1955 piano keys have been made of plastic, not ivory.

4.) In 1987 Missouri named the fiddle it's official state instrument. In 1990 San Francisco named the accordion its official instrument.

5.) Purdue University had the first collegiate marching band (1886). They were also the first to play on a sports field and make a formation-they formed a giant "P" (1907).

6.) Most recognizable piece of Western music: the opening of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony (duh-duh duh-duuuh).

7.) Clarinets are made from the wood of the granadilla tree.

8.) Most frequently sung songs in English: "Happy Birthday", "For He's a Jolly Good Fellow", and "Auld Lang Syne".

9.) Written music, as we know it today, originated in the 1200's.

10.) Mozart wrote the opera Don Giovanni in one sitting. It was first performed the very next day with no rehearsals.

11.) The trombone is based on a medieval instrument with a much better name: the sackbut.

12.) Florida state song: Stephen Foster's "Old Folks Home".

13.) For an album to go "gold" in the United States, it must sell 500,000 copies. For England it's 100,000; Canada, 50,000; Australia, 30,000; New Zealand, 7,500.

14.) Oldest piece of music found: a choral work from 408 B.C. used in a performance of the Greek play The Orestia.

15.) "Guitar" comes from the kithara, the name of an instrument popular in ancient Greece.

16.) There are more than 10 million pianos in the U.S.

17.) The first flutes originated 20,000 years ago. They were made of reindeer antlers.

18.) British scientists say chickens produce more eggs if they listen to easy listening or Top 40 radio (They hate heavy metal, opera, and jazz).

Frederick Fennell's Points for Performance

1.) Listen!

2.) Have some idea what the music should sound like before you play; learn to listen for EVERYTHING - not just yourself.

3.) Line up your chair and stand so you look directly over the top of the music at the conductor.

4.) The conductor MUST have your eyes before he/she begins the music - ESPECIALLY IF YOU DO NOT PLAY.

5.) Play your whole instrument - learn to listen!

6.) Prepare! Be cocked and ready to play - Listen!

7.) Play with intensity - breath and finger support - keep your stomach in it.

8.) Resonance is the whole reason for your instrument to exist and for you to play it in the first place.

9.) Learn to look at the conductor ONCE EVERY BAR in music of a slow pulse, FREQUENTLY in music of a rapid pulse. - Listen!

10.) Music is also a waiting game - wait for ONE!

11.) Vibrate. Music is also controlled and ordered vibration; you, too, must make it a vibrant sound; support your sound CONSTANTLY.

12.) Pulse is music's lifeblood as well as yours: learn to feel it - it is always present. Seek to play by it.

13.) Learn to listen and look for the phrase - listen for phrase ENDINGS.

14.) Help stamp out mechanical error - Listen!

15.) The perfection of ensemble playing is not a matter of acquisition. Rather it is a matter of ELIMINATION - of mechanical error, unnecessary motion, the wandering mind, and all those things that get in the way - Listen!

16.) Don't repeat your mistakes - they become a disease!

17.) The group that plays together - stays together.

18.) Get it the FIRST time - get it right - Listen!

19.) You can only read a piece of music for the first time once. Make that time memorable.

20.) Constantly widen your range of dynamics - avoid messonothing - Listen!

21.) At a pianissimo release, let the sound evaporate.

22.) When the dynamic is FORTISSIMO, hear only YOURSELF; when the dynamic is PIANISSIMO, hear only your NEIGHBOR.

23.) Uncontrolled silence is the enemy of music - Listen!

24.) The group that breathes together - plays together - Listen!

25.) Music is not an art for the chicken-hearted: seek what is right, but don't be afraid to be wrong.

26.) Give all your energies to performance. Avoid fatigue; blow out your chops; shake out your hands.

27.) The music turns you on, but only YOU can wind yourself up for it.

28.) Legato playing is mostly a thu-thu business.

29.) Blow through the whole passage.

30.) Beware of practice-room sound - get out of that telephone booth.

31.) Good performances are planned that way.

32.) Seek the style of the music - and this you can only do by listening TO and FOR everything.