Reproducing a performance:
Now that you have some experience in performing in front of an audience, you probably remember parts of your own or other's performances in class that were very successful, i.e. that captured the idea or feeling that you intended very well. But now that moment only exists in your memory or in that of those who were present at that time. If you wanted to get that performance into some form so that others could share your success, or perhaps to play it again for another audience live, you require a means to ' re-produce' it. There are a variety of ways to do that. Can you think of three of them right now?
If you don't have the means to do these yet, don't worry! Western music (which we are embedded in ) has developed a variety of symbols on paper called notation to write down a record of piece to be performed. This is called a score.
If you don't have the means to do these yet, don't worry! Western music (which we are embedded in ) has developed a variety of symbols on paper called notation to write down a record of piece to be performed. This is called a score.
If it is an accurate record of a performance that has already taken place it is called a transcription.
While it does take a long time and plenty of effort to learn to read and write music notation, to not do so would like speaking English, without being able to read and write in it as well. Sure, you can get by with just 'playing by ear', but notation is such a powerful tool in a musician's tool-kit that every experienced musician worth the name would urge you to learn how to do it now, rather than later.
The quickest way to begin is by notating something yourself. But until I train you in detail, we will apply a method called a graphic score. The first picture below shows some of my former Prep. and year 1 students creating a graphic score of their own performance piece and the second picture shows some of the symbols developed by my former year 3 students to represent particular instrumental sounds (seen on the left of the blackboard):
[Now the teacher in me asks, impressed as I was by my junior students' ability in writing notation (without any tuition from me), is this an early indicator in musical (Tonal and rhythmic perception? Then I found this abstract years later Press here.
And as an aside, I noticed with classes that included students that had been exposed to the use of formal western notation, less evidence of such perception. Sorry Guido! ]