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Tips For Efficient Score Study

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55 views

Tips For Efficient Score Study

Tmea

Uploaded by

Victor Posada
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Tips for Efficient Score Study When

You are Short on Time

CLINICIAN:
Lt Christy Muncey

Texas Bandmasters Association


2017 Convention/Clinic

JULY 20 – 22, 2017


HENRY B. GONZALEZ CONVENTION CENTER
SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS
Tips for Efficient Score Study When You are Short on Time
10:00 AM Saturday July 22, 2017 - 1st Lt Christina Muncey
christina.muncey@us.af.mil - christyw@gmail.com - (970) 310-9661

Purpose of Score Study


♪ Build aural picture of the piece
♭ Articulations
♭ Dynamics
♭ Phrases
♪ Realize the composer’s intent
♪ Anticipate problem spots and possible solutions
♭ Begin to build a rehearsal plan

Seven Trips Through the Score


♪ Instrumentation (including clefs and transpositions)
♪ Tempos (with metronome markings)
♪ Form and possible climaxes
♪ Harmonic Structure
♪ Phrasal Analysis
♪ Melodic Analyses and cues (main melody, countermelody, accompaniment)
♪ Dynamics (colors)

Additional Trips to consider:


♪ Articulations
♪ Special effects (mutes, pizzicato, harmonics, etc)
♪ Mood and character

Choral Considerations
♪ Tessitura
♪ Diction
♪ Cut-offs

Marking Your Score


♪ What to use
♪ How to mark
♭ Large enough to see from a distance
♭ Don’t cover notes, rests, anything pre-printed on the page
♪ Mark in such a way that you can glance briefly at each page and absorb everything you
need to know
♭ Your score is your notes for the open book test that is rehearsal/performance, but you
can only check your notes once every thirty seconds for only two seconds at a time

1
♪ Mark what happens at page turns
♪ If you suddenly couldn’t be at rehearsal/performance, could your sub/assistant figure out
what you wanted to teach/emphasize?

Pro Tip: Always have your metronome going whenever your score is open!
♪ Develop your relative tempo with pieces familiar to you

Trips Through the Score

Rehearsal Starts In Five Minutes (First and Second Trip)


♪ Check to see if your score is transposed or in C
♪ Flip through the score quickly
♭ Notice meter, tempo, key, road map, and anywhere these change
♭ Notice any transposing instruments you are not used to (Alto flute, A clarinet, etc)
♭ Mark staff breaks
♪ As time allows, mark the following:
♭ Tempo (with metronome markings)
♭ Tempo Changes
♯ Faster (Accel, stringendo, animando, etc)
♯ Slower (rit, allargando, etc)
♭ Meter(s)
♭ Road map (to repeat, or not to repeat?)
♭ Rehearsal numbers/letters (if they cannot be seen easily from a distance)

“Duty-Free” Lunch (Third Trip)


♪ Tab movements if a multi-movement piece
♪ Mark phrases
♭ Aim for one to four bar phrases
♭ Use a ruler
♭ Use context clues such as bass line, texture or accompaniment changes, dynamics,
percussion, etc.
♪ Look up and translate any words you do not know
♪ Start to hear the music in your head
♭ Hear the correct register/pitch/articulation/color/dynamic
♭ Determine how articulations should be approached

Unexpected Snow Day (Fourth Trip)


♪ Mark important moments
♭ Cues – use shorthand for instrument names
♭ Don’t cover notes/rests/printed text!
♪ Mark symbols for anything written out
♭ Cresc.
♭ Decres.

2
Federal Holiday/Long Weekend (Fifth Trip)
♪ Sing individual parts in your range
♭ If still short on time, only sing lines that are different from each other (melody,
harmony, accompaniment, etc)
♭ If you have the time, sing every part
♯ Good way to find errors in the score
♯ Mark errors/corrections clearly – then check parts!
♯ Don’t neglect to sing through your percussion parts as well
♪ When/if to play the score at the piano

Fall Break/Winter Break/Spring Break (Sixth Trip)


♪ Practice conducting entire piece while you sing/hear music in your head

Summer Break (Seventh and Other Additional Trips)


♪ Research piece and composer (if unfamiliar)
♪ Harmonic Analysis
♭ Is it necessary?
♪ Formal Analysis
♭ Is it necessary?
♪ Needs for your specific ensemble
♭ Intonation tendencies
♭ Fingering charts

When to Introduce Recordings Into the Process


♪ The very beginning – programming process
♪ The very end – practicing conducting
♭ But I was told never to practice conducting to a recording . . .

The Ideal:
♪ Start early
♪ Have a full aural picture before the first rehearsal

3
Meter Marking System

2 3 5 5
8 8 8 8

6 7 7
8 8 8

8 8 2
8 8 4

3 4 5 5
4 4 4 4

6 4 6 4
4 8 4 4

4
Instrument Names Shorthand
Flute - Fl
Oboe - Ob
English Horn - EH
Bassoon - Bsn
Contra Bassoon - CBsn
Eb Clarinet - Eb
Bb Clarinet - Cl
Bass Clarinet - BC
Bb Soprano Saxophone - Sop
Eb Alto Saxophone - AS
Bb Tenor Saxophone - TS
Eb Baritone Saxophone - BS
Cornet - Cor
Bb Trumpet - Tpt
F Horn - Hn
Trombone - Tbn
Bass Trombone - BTbn
Euphonium - Euph
Tuba - Tba
String Bass - DB
Harp - Hp
Piano - Pf
Celeste - Cel
Timpani -
Snare Drum - SD
Bass Drum - BD
Crash Cymbals -
Suspended Cymbal -
Marimba - Mar
Xylophone - Xylo
Bells/Glockenspiel - Bells
Chimes - Ch
Violin I - I
Violin II - II
Viola - Vla
Cello - VC
String Bass - DB
Voice - Vox
Soprano - Sop
Alto - A
Tenor - Ten
Bass - B

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