The Music Factory Method Book 1 allows the student to learn and understand
music and their instrument in a holistic way. The aim is to develop the student's
overall musical ability right from the start. Rather than jumping from piece
to piece, being confronted by something new at each turn, the book is set
out in clear sections based on the 3 primary meters (time-signatures) –
Simple 4 time (4/4), Simple 3 time (3/4) and Compound 2 time (6/8), each
section beginning with a Rhythm Chart. This allows the student to build
an ingrained knowledge of these primary meters. I have found over the years,
that the most proficient students can feel the pulse and the meter strongly.
This skill allows the student to build a solid platform on which further
musicianship skills can be learnt. How the book works
Students work on each section progressively until all the pieces in
the section are mastered. Consequently the pieces are played many times
and are learnt in far greater depth than it’s possible to convince
a student to do using standard tutors. Once the student has learnt all
the pieces in a given section, they are given a test on the whole section,
the pieces performed correctly are marked off and the remaining will be
continued until performed successfully (generally this takes another few
weeks). As a result all students achieve a 100% success rate. Following
the test, the student will start memorising the tunes from the beginning
of the section as well as starting the next section.
The beauty of progressively working on the whole section is that the
student's practice time gets longer and longer. Initially the student will
work on the first tune and as they develop new pieces are introduced.
The student continues to play from the beginning of the section, consolidating
what they have done as well as having new pieces to work on, thereby always
expanding the boundaries of their technique. There is always a combination
of the old and the new.
Holistic learning encourages a deeper understanding of music. From the
very first piece, the student is being made aware of the primary elements
of music - notes, rhythm, meter, phrasing and form- in a structured way
that can be applied to each piece. If this process is repeated enough
times, these musical elements will be thoroughly learnt.
The pieces in the Music Factory Tutor Books are “real” pieces.
In contrast to many tutor books, which have short, often abbreviated pieces,
the Music Factory Method Books have substantial pieces. The advantage
being the student practises for longer as the pieces are longer and they
have a greater sense of satisfaction. The pieces also seem more mature
to the student than the short one or two liners often found in other tutor
books.
Rhythm Charts
Each section begins with a Rhythm Chart. A Rhythm Chart is a rhythmic vocabulary list of the primary
rhythms of a given time-signature. Each rhythm is played for 4 bars on
the first 3 notes of a major scale eg a bar on C, a bar on D, a bar on
E and a bar on D again.
The Rhythm Charts develops
1. Primary rhythms of a given meter (ie time-signature)
2. A strong sense of meter (ie the ability to “feel” the length
of a bar)
3. 4 bar phrase structure and 4 bar breathing
4. Joining of notes ie so there is no gap between them
5. Tonguing technique co-ordinated with sustained tone (i.e. blowing)
6. Co-ordination of fingers and tongue
7. Strong tone, independent of finger and tonguing.
The Rhythm Charts are an essential tool to develop the students tonguing
technique. Right from the start the student is being asked to engage in
thinking about and being aware of the action of their tongue. It also
gets the student to do “fast” rhythms such as semiquvers/16th
notes, which is highly beneficial as the faster the tongue moves the better
the tonguing technique has to be.
Rhythm Charts also introduce “advanced” rhythms at a very
early stage, but in a very elementary way. So when a student is presented
with such rhythms later on in their development, they already know them,
making learning the “advanced” rhythms in context, far earlier.
Phrase Structure
A key feature of the books is how the pieces are set out. Most music
has a 4 bar phrase structure and as an understanding of phrasing is crucial
to glean meaning from music, teaching students phrasing and phrase structure
is vital right from the start. Each 4 bar phrase takes up 1 line, with
the breath mark at the end of each line. The advantage of this is that
the student can see the whole phrase in a glance. With this understanding
students start to develop an awareness of where to breath and as a result
start to develop an innate sense of phrasing.
Pattern Recognition
Another benefit of forming each phrase as 1 line, is that both the rhythmic
and melodic patterns can be easily recognised. Rhythmic and melodic patterns
are often repeated from line to line. With the phases clearly laid out,
students can easily see the patterns repeated throughout the piece.
Pattern recognition is essential to reading music fluently. The Music
Factory Tutor Books help students understand and recognize both rhythmic
and melodic patterns right from the start.
Intentional Omissions
What Music Factory Tutor Book 1 doesn’t have is key signatures,
dynamics and tempo markings. The reason for these omissions is to reduce
the amount of non-essential information on the page. In Book 1, the primary
elements of music – Rhythm, Meter, Pitch, Phrasing and Form - are
being introduced. By eliminating key signatures, dynamics and tempo markings
the student can focus more, on these essential elements of music. Key signatures,
dynamics and tempo markings are introduced in Book 2.
All but 2 of the pieces in Book 1 are tongued. Tonguing is emphasised
because it is so important to develop this most complex of techniques
right from the start and the more a student does of it, the more chance
they will have in developing it successfully. Slurring is not omitted
though as it is introduced right from the start in the tetrachords.
Tetrachords
A tetrachord (Go to Downloads for a tetrachords pdf) is the first 4 notes and/or
the last 4 notes of a scale (ie half a scale) eg CDEFEDC (ascending and
descending) - this is both the first 4 notes of C Major and the last 4 notes
of F Major. The tetrachords are organised in the cycle of 5ths and in
consecutive octaves. In both Book 1 and Book 2, I use tetrachords as an
introduction to playing full scales. Tetrachords are far easier to play
than scales, as they are half as long. I get students to repeat the tetrachords
in triplets 3 times, thereby developing strong finger technique. Repeating
it 3 times also develops an awareness of the 4 bar phrase pattern. I also
get students to play the tetrachords to various rhythms, which further
strengthens rhythmic skills. Once the student has learnt the tetrachords,
playing the major scales is very easy, as all a major scale is, is 2 tetrachords
stacked on top of each other eg C Major is the C tetrachord (CDEF) and
the G tetrachord (GABC).
The tetrachords are in all the flat and sharp keys, covering the entire
range of the instrument. One to the great things about tetrachords is
they allow the student, from a very early stage, to learn all tetrachord
patterns, in all keys, in all octaves. After one year of learning most
students can play the first and second octaves in all keys.
Playing Tetrachords develop
· Knowledge of all major scale finger patterns
· Slurring
· Strong finger articulation
· Sense of meter (the tetrachord is repeated 4 times, therefore
the student is developing a 2 time awareness)
· Ability to play in 12 keys over a 2 octave range of the instrument
(this is generally achieved in the 1st year) and 3rd octaves subsequently
· An awareness of enharmonic equivalents
· Knowledge of all the notes a student will ever play
· An understanding of octaves
· Knowledge of the instrument
· An introduction of the cycle of 5ths
Tonguing
Many students have inadequate tonguing technique, but I have yet to meet
a student who has difficulty with slurring. Tonguing is a technique which
is vital to attain correctly right from the start, consequently Book 1
is all tongued (except for the tetrachords and 2 pieces in the 3/4 section).
Also, the rhythm charts help develop tonguing by progressively getting
the tongue moving faster and faster, by end of the 4/4 section rhythm
chart (the first section of the book) the student will be playing semiquavers
(1/16th notes).
Slurring
Slurring is introduced from the start in the tetrachords. Slurring and
articulation patterns are introduced in Book 2.
Transposition
A number of the tunes are repeated in different keys - introducing students
to the concept of transposition, which in turn leads on to an understanding
of keys, and how the same piece can be played starting on different notes.
Familiar tunes
The books use well-known tunes that students will be familiar with, making
it easier for the student to learn them. They are classics from popular
children’s songs, folk songs from Europe and America to the music
of the great classical composers. These songs have stood the test of time
and are loved and appreciated by all.
Rhythms of the Tunes
Students often find it difficult to recognise the rhythm separately from
the melody. To help improve rhythmic skill, the rhythms of each tune are
written out at the back of the book. This allows the player to develop
the rhythm, with out the added difficulty of the melody. It is often best
to work on the rhythm of a piece first, before playing the tune.
Advantages of learning from the Music Factory Tutor Books
· Develop a strong tone
· Strong focus on tonguing
· Understanding of meter
· Strong focus on rhythm
· Learn to play in all 12 keys right from the start
· Develop an understanding of phrasing
· Develop pattern recognition
· Develop an understanding of form
· Develop an understanding of transposition – that a tune
can be played in different keys
· Develop understanding of octaves
· Develop strong finger technique
· Develop memorisation
· Material presented in a clear and simple format |
