Benjamin’s Britten’s Nocturnal Op. 70.An Analytical Study By Paul Svoboda Introduction   Completed in 1963, Benjamin Britten’s Nocturnal, Op. 70 for solo guitar, is essentially a set of variations on a song of John Dowland, Come, Heavy Sleep (No. 20 in Dowland’s “First Book of Songs or Ayres of Four Parts,” published in 1597.) In...

Improvisation and Style By George Golla "To improvise: To make up (something, such as music or poetry) on the spur of the moment; sing, recite or speak without preparation.” (The World Book Dictionary)   Share this: [feather_share] Were this true in regard to music, our troubles as players of instruments would be over; our problems...

How To Remember 10,000 Tunes By Bruce Clarke Most music has form, and most conventional classical or popular music that uses the diatonic scale or its related modes as its binding agent can be broken down into a small number of acceptable forms. In turn, these forms themselves can be broken down into musical modules...

A Connective Philosophy of Education What is There to Teaching in Teaching? By Dr. Peter Calvo I would like to sketch the broad outline of the question, "What can a philosophy of education do to further our understanding of methods and contents of teaching in any field of human enquiry in general, and in music...

Mudarra's Harp Fantasia: History and Analysis By John Griffiths It is the Fantasia que contrahaze la harpa en la man era de Ludovico [Fantasia that imitates the harp in the style of Ludovico] that has secured the vihuelist Alonso Mudarra a place among those renaissance musicians whose music is frequently performed today.   Share this:...

Turnarounds By Bruce Clarke In a conventional jazz performance the following general format prevails:   Chorus 1. Statement of melody or harmonic chart. Chorus 2 etc. Unspecified number of improvised choruses or solo sections. Final Chorus. Restatement of melody plus coda or tag.   Share this: [feather_share] Obviously these repeated choruses must be joined by...

Get Smart with Jazz Guitar and Free Flowing Improvisation By Bruce Clarke Musical learning should not be confined to the re-creation of what others have done" -an obvious enough statement, but one that is preached more often than it is practiced. Learning should be an active process, not a passive one. At a certain point...

Highly Strung? A Possible Solution By Ad van Beers Timothy Garcia sat there alone on the huge stage of the Hong Kong Island concert hall and retuned his guitar for the umpteenth time, and as I fought with the impulse to stand up and offer some assistance, the apologetically smiling guitar player proceeded to put...

Improve Your Sight-Reading Skills! By Bruce Clarke Good sight readers have the ability to play almost any piece of music put in front of them, accurately, first time through. It's a valuable skill, and one which anyone with a good basic understanding of reading can develop or improve.   Share this: [feather_share] There are three...

In the performance and study of music, the player, the music, and the instrument, are the components of a whole whose engine (and source of energy) is really the person themselves, PLUS their perception and understanding of what is being played – particularly its form and structure.