WEEK 6

Welcome to WEEK 6.  This week's activities include:

SCORE STUDY ACTIVITIES:

• Review Eb transpositions
• Discuss and practice F transpositions

CONDUCTING PRACTICE:

• 2-3 conducting sessions of Student Conductor Piece

**Below are the answers from last week's Eb transposition exercises

 

F Transpositions
Most likely, the only F transposing instrument in your Student Conductor piece will be: 

• Horn

Since the Horn is pitched in F (and F is a Perfect 5th below C), the composer counteracted that by writing the horn part a Perfect 5th above C.  That way, the SOUND is in "concert pitch."

For example, when you see this note (WRITTEN for a horn player)
 


it will SOUND this pitch:

(a Perfect 5th below)



An abbreviated way of saying this is: "The Horn sounds a Perfect 5 (P5) below written."

Below is an example with the SOUNDING notes written-in below each pitch.  Remember, each sounding note is a Perfect 5th (P5) below what is written.

Try one on your own.  What would the sounding notes be for the following passage? (the first two notes are given)

**Play your sounding notes at the piano to check your work.  (It should sound familiar)

Below are 4 brief melodies to practice your F transpositions.  (Answers are on WEEK 7).

Apply your transposition skills to the Student Conductor Piece.  Try playing through several phrases of the Horn part at the piano.   

Score Summary:

Revisit your 250-300 word score summary.  Are there any aspects that you should change?  Often, after working with a piece for a period of time, certain aspects of the music can become more evident than previously noticed.  Make any necessary adjustments to the essay so that you feel it appropriately summarizes the composer and the Student Conductor Piece.  

Conducting Practice:

**Continue to practice your conducting technique using the conducting exercises from the previous weeks, conducting exercises you've written, and conducting exercises you've acquired from other sources.  

Ask your band director if you can schedule 2-3 conducting sessions this week - preferably evenly spread throughout the week.

Remember to fully prepare each time before you step on the podium. 

Video record all conducting sessions.  Review each video and take notes on successes and areas for improvement.

Journal Reflection:
Are you comfortable with the basic concepts of F transpositions?  After reviewing your most current conducting video(s), what improvements have you made in your conducting gestures?  In what areas can you use the most improvement?