Rhythm is one of the most important elements of the musical language, arguably even more so than melody and harmony. Try this: without singing, clap the rhythm of “Happy Birthday.” I bet you could ask someone what you are clapping and they would be able to guess “Happy Birthday.” Now try singing “Happy Birthday” without rhythm. I don’t mean with the wrong rhythm; I mean completely without any duration or strong and weak beats. You can’t do it. That is why rhythm is so essential to the musical language.
Posts Tagged 'learn to read sheet music'
How to Read a Fake Book
Published July 23, 2014 General , How To Articles , Teacher Resources 44 CommentsTags: b-flat instrument fake book, bass clef fake book, C instrument fake book, chord changes, chord symbols, e-flat instrument fake book, fake book, How to Play from a Fake Book, how to read jazz music, how to read music, how to read sheet music, jazz, lead sheet, learn to read music, learn to read sheet music, music education, piano fake book, read music, reading music, reading sheet music, real book
By Kevin Harper
History of Fake Books and Lead Sheets
Imagine this: you’re a famous jazz player; you’re busy on the road going from gig to gig. One day you come up with a great tune and want to write it down and orchestrate it for your ensemble, but orchestration takes a long time. So instead, you write down the melody and then write out the general chords and any potential rhythms. When you read it during the gig (for the first time no doubt!) you and your bandmates have a general outline of what needs to happen – everything else is improvised. Because improvisations are different everytime, writing down the “correct” way of playing any tune in the old days was impossible.
As jazz grew in popularity, everyone wanted to hear all the popular songs, but the problem was that many of these tunes were hard to find or unpublished. Eventually, lead sheets were circulated from band to band and that became the standard way of notating tunes.
The original fake book, known as The Real Book, contained illegally reproduced, copyrighted songs. It was meant to be used as a textbook of standard jazz tunes. The publishers wanted to pawn off the tunes in the book as “real” versions of the songs. However, legal battles ensued, so any other future books had to have a different name. Thus, the term fake book was born from The Real Book. It also has a double-meaning in that the performer is “faking” his way through the song because the arrangement is not the same as the original version.
Glossary of Non-Italian Musical Terms
Published May 14, 2012 General 2 CommentsTags: Debussy, French, German, Hindemith, how to read music, how to read music notes, how to read piano music, how to read piano sheet music, how to read sheet music, learn music theory, learn to read music, learn to read music notes, learn to read sheet music, Mahler, music education, music notes, music student, music teacher, music theory, musical terminology, musicians, performers, read music, reading music, reading music notes, reading sheet music, Schoenberg, Segovia, sheet music, Spanish, Wagner
By Charles Moehnke
As musicians we all are familiar with Italian musical terminology. From our first glimpse of sheet music we are exposed to words like andante, crescendo, accelerando and meno mosso until they become a natural part of our lexicon.
However, many composers choose to write instructions in their native language, which can lead to Continue reading ‘Glossary of Non-Italian Musical Terms’
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