Memorizing music pieces

Henry is trying to make the school team for some sort of music appreciation
competition our school district organizes. To try out, he will be tested on
recognizing 12 pieces of music -- he must know the name of the piece and the
last name of the composer.

He has an audio tape of the 12 pieces and a list of them in order. We've
listened to it a couple of times and have come up with some ways to recognize
certain pieces (Copeland's "Variations on Simple Gifts," for example, reminds
us all of Thanksgiving at our church in Iowa).

Has anyone helped a child study for such a test? Any pointers or creative
ideas on how to study? I'd really like to encourage him as this is the first
school activity he's wanted to join at his new school

TIA,

-Dawn
Mom to Henry, 10

x-no-archive:yes (Iowacookiemom) wrote:

Henry is trying to make the school team for some sort of music appreciation
competition our school district organizes. To try out, he will be tested on
recognizing 12 pieces of music -- he must know the name of the piece and the
last name of the composer.

He has an audio tape of the 12 pieces and a list of them in order. We've
listened to it a couple of times and have come up with some ways to recognize
certain pieces (Copeland's "Variations on Simple Gifts," for example, reminds
us all of Thanksgiving at our church in Iowa).

Are they going to play the exact tape or could they play the selection
done by another artist or orchestrated differently? Will they play a
place in the middle?

Has anyone helped a child study for such a test? Any pointers or creative
ideas on how to study? I'd really like to encourage him as this is the first
school activity he's wanted to join at his new school

I had to do this for college music appreciation. Some of it was just
hearing the pieces over and over. There were available at the music
lab, and I'd go in and play them over and over again. They gave us
the scores, because these pieces were things like Brahms Variations on
a Theme by Hayden, and the prof in class pointed out the various
themes to us and what instruments were playing them. Eventually, I
could recognize the piece no matter where in the piece the music wa
started.

Henry might probably be able to recognize them easier if he could play
the melody on some instrument (cello??) (Can he pick out a melody by
ear? I never could)

The other hint (not knowing what the pieces are this may work and may
not) is to separate them out by orchestration. That is are all of the
orchestral works or are some of them piano or organ or string
quartets? There's a difference even between various types of
orchestras.

TIA,

-Dawn
Mom to Henry, 10

HTH

grandma Rosalie

Iowacookiemom wrote:

Henry is trying to make the school team for some sort of music appreciation
competition our school district organizes. To try out, he will be tested on
recognizing 12 pieces of music -- he must know the name of the piece and the
last name of the composer.

He has an audio tape of the 12 pieces and a list of them in order. We've
listened to it a couple of times and have come up with some ways to recognize
certain pieces (Copeland's "Variations on Simple Gifts," for example, reminds
us all of Thanksgiving at our church in Iowa).

Has anyone helped a child study for such a test? Any pointers or creative
ideas on how to study? I'd really like to encourage him as this is the first
school activity he's wanted to join at his new school

TIA,

-Dawn
Mom to Henry, 10

When my kids were studying Suzuki method I made a bingo card with the
tunes they should knwo and played "BINGO" by playing a short snippet of
the piece.

(Iowacookiemom) wrote in message ...
Henry is trying to make the school team for some sort of music appreciation
competition our school district organizes. To try out, he will be tested on
recognizing 12 pieces of music -- he must know the name of the piece and the
last name of the composer.

He has an audio tape of the 12 pieces and a list of them in order. We've
listened to it a couple of times and have come up with some ways to recognize
certain pieces (Copeland's "Variations on Simple Gifts," for example, reminds
us all of Thanksgiving at our church in Iowa).

Has anyone helped a child study for such a test? Any pointers or creative
ideas on how to study? I'd really like to encourage him as this is the first
school activity he's wanted to join at his new school


If Henry is visual, have him draw a picture for each piece of music
and then he can use that as a neumonic device of sorts. Like
Gershwin's American in Paris could be a picture of people dancing
around the bottom of the eiffel tower.

Marjorie
TIA,

-Dawn
Mom to Henry, 10

Elizabeth Gardner wrote in message ...
In article ,
"Jayne Kulikauskas" wrote:

"Iowacookiemom" wrote in message
...
Has anyone helped a child study for such a test? Any pointers or creative
ideas on how to study? I'd really like to encourage him as this is the
first
school activity he's wanted to join at his new school

Make up some words to sing along to the tune that include its name and the
composer. It is easier to memorize songs than words alone. I realize some
music is not very singable, but if you can isolate the themes it still
should work.

Jayne



A friend of mine learned one for the main theme of the last movement of
Mozart's 40th Symphony that went:

Mozart's in the CLO-set
Let him out!
Let him out!
Let him out!

The only drawback is that once you learn a mnemonic, it will ever after
run through your head every time you hear that piece of music.

You mean like Wagner's Valkyrie march:

We love to kill and always will
that is our thrill
we love to kill
When we're off and on a killing spree
Nothing can STOOOOOP MEEEEE!

Sorry... just an example. :-) I'm not really insane. Really, I'm not!

Marjorie

"chiam margalit" wrote in message
om...
Elizabeth Gardner wrote in message
...
In article ,
"Jayne Kulikauskas" wrote:

"Iowacookiemom" wrote in message
...
Has anyone helped a child study for such a test? Any pointers or
creative
ideas on how to study? I'd really like to encourage him as this is
the
first
school activity he's wanted to join at his new school

Make up some words to sing along to the tune that include its name and
the
composer. It is easier to memorize songs than words alone. I realize
some
music is not very singable, but if you can isolate the themes it still
should work.

Jayne



A friend of mine learned one for the main theme of the last movement of
Mozart's 40th Symphony that went:

Mozart's in the CLO-set
Let him out!
Let him out!
Let him out!

The only drawback is that once you learn a mnemonic, it will ever after
run through your head every time you hear that piece of music.

You mean like Wagner's Valkyrie march:

We love to kill and always will
that is our thrill
we love to kill
When we're off and on a killing spree
Nothing can STOOOOOP MEEEEE!

Sorry... just an example. :-) I'm not really insane. Really, I'm not!

And the ever infamous...

Kill da wabbit, kill da wabbit, kill da wabbit, kill him now!!!

Seriously, so much of this is repitition, repitition, repitition (I used to
snitch my younger brother's tapes from his college Western Civ class -- at a
music college, it was all music based and his professor played 'drop the
needle' (i.e., would start a piece *anywhere* and the students had to
recognize it).

We spend a lot of time in the car, so our classical CD's go everywhere with
us.

It gave me great satisfaction a few weeks ago, when we first arrived on the
grounds of the PA Ren Faire to hear the clarion bell player (4 sets a day,
next to the booth where many of us hang out)...clearly heard in the parking
lot...Daniel cocked his head and said, "Mom, it's 'O, Fortuna'!"

Many commercials use classical pieces in them, so keep an ear open for
those, too, for association purposes. Even now, the boys refer to
Copeland's "Rodeo" (IIRC, I'm having a brain freeze moment) as 'The Beef
Song'.

Leah
________
In Memory of David, 11/10/61 - 5/21/03
Beloved Husband, Father, Heart's Companion

Marjorie