Hey Blog! This week I’m going to revisit something I talked about in a very old post: Music!
If you go and have a look at my post called Focus on Music, which I did on 5th Nov. 2021, the fourth post on this site, you will find out about how I started to play the piano and what I had been doing then, so I’m just going to update you on what I have done since. I am still learning with some of the same books as before, but instead of being at Grade 2 standard, I’m now playing at the higher Grade 3 standard (so my teacher says) and therefore I am playing more advanced pieces from the Grade 3 syllabus book for 2021 and 2022. However, I have also been learning pieces in different ways. For example, once I started by using a copy of the piece with some of the notes blanked out; this helped me to focus on learning the tempo and the hand movements between chords. Another way of learning is to write the notes out with your own notation after just watching a video and listening to the notes. It is that method by which I learnt one of the pieces I am comparing today.
The first piece is called Clowns, and is by Kabalevsky. Kabalevsky was a Russian composer born in 1902, and is famous for the Comedians suite, a bouncy, fun piece of music with a feeling exactly like that of what it was inspired by and about: Comedians! This piece is similar, but not part of the same collection. He wrote music for teaching purposes, so it seems likely this is a kind of mini version of Comedians for children to play.
The second piece, which I learned only from a video, is Ecossaise in G Major. (G Major is a scale, where you play eight notes from one key to the key of the same name an octave above, and the G because that’s the note the scale starts on.) This piece is by Ludwig van Beethoven, one of the greatest composers of all time. You’ve probably heard of him, as his third symphony (Eroica) and fifth symphonies are especially recognised. He lived from 1770 to 1827, and was famously deaf for his later life. Though you might think this made him unable to play and compose, he did, and some of his most beautiful music too!
Here are some of the comparison points I recognised between the two pieces:
Similarities:
- Both pieces are played staccato, meaning bouncy, where the marked note is short, spiky, and separated from the others.
- Both start da-da-da going from low to high pitch.
- Both pieces have a repeat of the first section at the end, this is much more pronounced in Ecossaise.
- Both pieces are played in 2|4 time, the first (2) denotes how many beats in the bar, and the second (4) is how long those beats are: in this case, a crotchet, a ¼ of a semibreve, which is a very long note.
Differences:
- Ecossaise in G Major is obviously in G major, whereas Clowns is in A Minor, but with A Major contrast.
- Clowns is at 132 beats per minute, but Ecossaise is much slower, more like one hundred!
Though I am predominantly a performer and listener, I have composed music as well. A very long time ago, before I wrote the previous post on this subject, I composed a piece called ‘The Kingfisher’; this was my first composition. The latest full piece is named ‘The Otter’ – they’re both river animals, so perhaps I should do ‘The Duck’ and ‘The Grass Snake’, put them all together and call it the ‘River Suite’! It’s unfortunate that I can’t upload videos on Home Ed In A Shed (well, it is possible – it’s just that I don’t know how!) or I would show you all the pieces mentioned, but perhaps another time.
I think music is really important. The word itself comes from the Muses, the deities of the arts and learning, and it is vital we keep this talent alive. Music brings us together, and can heal rifts in relationship, family, and friendship. So if you listen, you can always hear the sound of Music.