I have been looking for articles to do with 'Singing'. There are many but so far there is a lack of reference to amateur singing, particularly in the 16th century. There are some articles in the Grove Dictionary of American Music which detail all styles in their history. These are new articles to our Grove Music Online and hence links referenced in these are not online as yet and I am therefore unavailable to access these fully.
Online research today has been at Oxford Music Online, which for me includes access to Oxford Dictionary of Music, The Oxford Companion to Music and Grove Music Online. This is a very welcome free subscription accessed through my membership with Edinburgh Libraries. A big thank you to them for providing this.
I have been looking for articles to do with 'Singing'. There are many but so far there is a lack of reference to amateur singing, particularly in the 16th century. There are some articles in the Grove Dictionary of American Music which detail all styles in their history. These are new articles to our Grove Music Online and hence links referenced in these are not online as yet and I am therefore unavailable to access these fully.
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Dear St. Margaret’s Singers,
I am writing to invite you to be involved in my Honours year project. I am planning to investigate singers’ personal reception of new repertoire and the effect of teaching intervention on this. I therefore need a group of singers willing to participate. I cannot reveal the material to be used as this may influence the result. What I can say is that the commitment required from you would be 2-3 normal practice sessions about 2-3 weeks apart in February 2015. I will be preparing and providing all materials and presenting the songs. Then I will be conducting a short survey on each occasion. Your participation would enable me to carry out my planned project. The possible benefits to you would be the addition of two new works to your repertoire and perhaps an insight into a different genre and way of learning. I would be grateful for your replies either individually or as a group through your secretary by the 18th December 2014. With thanks, Yours sincerely, Amy Moar
Tonight I had the pleasure of attending a rehearsal of the St. Margaret’s Singers who are preparing for the Candlelight Carol service at Roslin Chapel, directed by John Cranston. John is the organist at Roslin but taught the ladies to sing when they were at school. The choir even attended the Eisteddfod at Llangollen on several occasions, winning honours there. The current group reformed the choir after a reunion concert some years back. I had the pleasure of leading them for six months a year ago.
Having met them again I am confident they would be a highly suitable participant group for my project this year and will be wording an invitation to be issued by email to all the members as soon as possible. No costs will be incurred other than the participants time; two practice sessions at Craigmillar Park Church, Edinburgh, in February/March 2015. The deadline for the reply will be the 19th December 2014. Current actions as of 08.12.14
· Submit Concept development document before 6pm · Meeting with Pete Sparkes at Drake Music Scotland 2p.m. today. Action – Discuss my desired outcomes from the traineeship · Complete a draft timetable for the practical component with assigned provisional dates. · Observing John Cranston leading St. Margaret’s F.P. choir rehearsal at Roslin Chapel 7-9pm Action – Assess suitability for the practical component - If appropriate send initial email invitation to participate to the choir with draft timetable attached and deadline date for reply. · Submit Pre Production document before 11pm This is something that Dr. O'Callaghan said a few weeks ago and it has been coming back to me this week. I am going to try and get to grips with statement until I fully understand it. One explanation I have found that I like so far is: 'If a creative artefact is the basis of the contribution to knowledge, the research is practice-based. If the research leads primarily to new understandings about practice, it is practice-led.' http://www.creativityandcognition.com/research/practice-based-research/differences-between-practice-based-and-practice-led-research/ Skills I wish to Develop:
· To learn how to put together proposals for future funding · Improved time management · Leadership skills and working to best practice · Report writing - helpful when doing my project research · Cultivating activities and contacts that support me in my tasks and help motivate me · Contingency Planning for if things go wrong · How to manage emotions if things get too much To enable me to be : · Fully immersed in the flow of the Project. · To stay on track to collect what data I need to answer my question . To develop my practice Research still to do Edinburgh University Library to source Choral Teaching Methods texts and more on andragogy. Continue reading: Scott; Eisentraut; Daines et al. Traineeship with Drake Music Scotland. Title: Developing Potential traineeship funded by The Youth Music Initiative, under Creative Scotland. http://www.drakemusicscotland.org Drake Music Scotland – A charity that encourage people with varying disability to play and compose their own music without any barriers to doing so is the host of such an opportunity. Drake Scotland is a key contact and when looking for expertise and contacts for participants for a choir or otherwise they came to mind as a starting point. They are local and easier to manage for my Honours project practice. Potentially the workshops I may lead could be anywhere in Scotland. Question: What are my needs in relation to where I am at with my Honours Project? By doing work I learn and I’ll be matched with a mentor as well. Interview: There were 3 people on the panel. This was the first time I had done a real interview for work experience, as for my previous traineeship with Hear My Music I was invited. The experience was a challenge but the nerves were good and I relaxed when I got into the room and I felt comfortable with my performance. My interview was successful and is a big boost to confidence in helping me achieve my aims and objectives for my Honours Project proposed earlier this month. It also opens up opportunities for my future career and what to do once I finish at Abertay University. I have an initial meeting with the other appointee, and Pete Sparkes of Drake Music on Monday 8th December. Then I can think further how to align this with my practice for my Honours Project. Key will be the timing and how to best fit this in to compliment or enhance my project. The commitment is for 30 days over the period from January to June 2015. Essentially it gets me into Practice again where I am most confident and proactive. Here are example scores of Modern Choir scores.
My Bonnie Lass and Help I Fall. These are samples and depends on the choir I source. The chosen score needs to be appropriate for a choir and potentially a woman’s choir in particular. I have access to Edinburgh University with a membership EUL card. I can only view books for reference, not take them out of the library, so with the silence required it was not very practical working in group session with my PA. In future I will need to book out a group study room or at the very least try and position myself where our reading or the voiceover will not disturb other students and I can be active in learning. http://www.ed.ac.uk/schools-departments/information-services/library-museum-gallery# Adult Learning and Adult Teaching an accessible and practical tool for when working with adult learners. And Looking at how we learn as adults compared to childhood, our learning styles how our expectations as adults are different and our motivations tool. A useful resource to the planning for learning what methods to use and how to review and learn from such learning and teaching. In particular for self reflection and learning from the practice itself. Key Term:
From Pedagogy to Andragogy. My PA is familiar with the teaching of adults and learning styles she mentioned that technical speaking the teaching for adults is a different practice to teaching for kids so as my choir will potentially be for adults only this key term was worth exploring linking me to Dabback. Useful book:
Visualizing Research a guide to the research process in art and design Carole Gray and Julian Malins. Like “looking back over my shoulder” by Mike and the Mechanics.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p1GkR54wQaM A personal research journey. I have learnt a lot about self. It has been a challenge to keep on top of my log or diary and managing the time effectively. Personal health and circumstances can get in the way and with lots of information to process it has been difficult to manage the exploratory research side of things as this is infinite and requires self control to be selective in what is relevant and not get drawn in or off on other interesting tangents. The course aims for me to me a reflective practitioner in practice at first I did not understand this. It was difficult to comprehend but now that I have a large body of research literature together I now naturally find myself reflecting in order to compile a summary of my work to date. I have had to question, to analysis, to challenge and to clarify. All are evidence of reflecting in order to put my proposed work into practice. Like “looking back over my shoulder” http://joyfulpublicspeaking.blogspot.co.uk/2013/09/explaining-hard-ideas-simply-always-is.html Broad general knowhow at first narrowed down to a more specific topic. From Madrigal Knowhow to the topic of teaching music using the madgrical as an example or tool in which to demonstrate my key findings. A model for scheduling for reporting, presenting and communicating plans quickly a Gantt however for accessibility a tactile version is being developed. Kinetic learning for understanding and development of work and what needs to be done and it will also give me a bit of understand of the gantt chart concept itself. Every activity has its own line or brick built on top of each other and or along side each other similar to a wall progress build. Including different colour or textured bricks to distinguish differences categories or elements. These brick at not fixed but linked together easily moved slotted in and out when needed making it a flexible system to work from. iCal and reminders will be used for prompts and a .pdf of my schedule to speak through the timeline. Experimentation - Work in Progress: Gantt chart to be measurable so we can divide up the weeks. Designs as follows: SEMESTER 1 Documents : Purple Oval Foam Proposal: Hexagon. Preproduction: Concept Development: SCORES: Green small moon SURVEY: Blue small triangle Including contingency time . 2 week notches. Exploring the subject of mindmapping This document will Illustrate my active engagement in the preproduction of my project which is entitled “The Personal Accessibility of the Madrigal Form: The influence of Andragogy on singer’s reception of an unfamiliar work”.
I have learnt of and selected key methods and methodologies to plan and concept develop my material into a focused creative practice of ideas. I have also explore new means to the gathering of data itself and creative ways to monitor such progress. My research has informed my practice and the development of such in many ways over the course of this module. The development my blog is supportive evidence. I hope to be able to include some audio/video content in the second semester once the practical component is under way. http://www.businessballs.com/project.htm#project-management-tools
Workflow Tools: Miss O’Callaghan talked about Gantt charts in an earlier lecture. I felt these are not accessible to me therefore I decided to include a schedule table in my proposal. I found two websites that describes Gantt charts and fishbone diagrams clearly. Hence I think I may be able to use one for the project by creating a simple tactile Chart similar to my explorations for mind maps. I looked at project management tools to see if I can come up with a better way of organizing my schedule that is applicable to me. I needed something tactile as a process to work with to breakdown my project into its specification, milestones, key dates and target aims and objective points. The options included: · Brainstorming · Fishbone diagram · Critical Path analysis flow diagram · Gantt Chart Looking at the Fishbone and Gantt Charts: The Fishbone option is used as a fault detection tool and to improve process. Ideal to help gather and organize factors throughout the workflow process also known as “Cause and Effect” Diagrams. As it is shaped like a fishbone I can relate to the shape and function of the diagram. The Bones are the primary elements followed by the secondary elements or factors and the spine to keep it all together. A good way to map out all the key points for the project. key milestones to date: · Identified key words : Accessibility, Madrigal, andragogy, Reception, Choir, Singer, Expert, teaching methods. · Identified resource requirements: Score, Piano, Choir and venue, Libraries, IT, PA support. · Process Tools Find more about Gantt charts here: http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newPPM_03.htm This is a strategy used for stress management and key to keeping on track of personal wellbeing in relation to my project world. Provided my Abertay's course I have been proactive in responding to needs as the course develops. Delivered by Trisia Williams a counsellor at Abertay University and has proven successful so far. To develop Self motivation Attending a Mindfulness Course on Wednesdays. Taking breaks and reminding myself of the big picture and where you wish to be when you finish out in the community engaged in music practice and teaching The Flora Gave me fairest Flowers is a compilation of Madrigals by John Rutter. I sourced as research but also to help the selection process for me own scores.
How the world wags is mainly ballad and ayr, which is a subform of Madrigals. |
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April 2015
AuthorAmy Moar is a Scottish music student who is working towards her BA Hons Music Performance. Amy has worked professionally both in community music projects and as a performer. Categories |