Parallel Fifths/Octaves

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“Is parallel motion between two voices OK?”

I often get asked this question in class. Typically, a student has been told by a teacher that parallel fifths are bad. The student is often a bit indignant about it, as they like and want to use parallel fifths in their own compositions.

The following is my two cents on the topic.  If you wish to skip the details…  The main point will be, “If you want two parts to be perceived as independent voices, then parallel motion is bad.  If you want two parts to be perceived as a single voice, then parallel motion is acceptable.” Continue reading →

Score in C vs Concert Score

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In general, I don’t like to nitpick terminology.  For the most part, we make up the terms, so we can decide what they are and what they mean.

That said…  I make an exception for terms that confuse people and lead to mistakes. With that in mind…  One of the most misleading terms in music is “Concert Score”. In this blog, I’d simply like to propose that we forget that term and use “Score in C” instead.

Continue reading →

Hondidldo and the Apple Thief

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A while back, I worked on the music for a fun tale about a farmer, his boy, and an apple thief. It’s now on iTunes as a multimedia eBook (in English or German) with narration, music and animations. It plays on iPhones and iPads.

Hope all is well out there!

Music College Trends

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As many of you know, I am an alum of the Eastman School of Music and teach at the Berklee College of Music.  Being involved with both, I thought this was interesting.

 

 

The above chart is from Google and shows the search trends of three searches, Julliard, Eastman School of Music, and Berklee College of Music. At the beginning, Berklee College of Music is bouncing around near Eastman School of Music. At the end, it’s moved up and is bouncing around Julliard.

Of course, you can different curves if you tweak the terms… Berklee instead of Berklee College of Music. Julliard School of Music instead of Julliard. Etc.

But it’s interesting nonetheless.

And it’s also interesting that when you post a graph like this using Google Trends, it continually updates the graph.  This was originally posted in 2013…