The next edition of MTC Live will be held
Wednesday, January 13th
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Congratulations to the following students who achieved recognition this past Sunday (February 28th) by being listed on the Hamilton-Halton ORMTA Honour Roll.
Alon Coret Toshe Zlatanoski Yujiang ZhangThe list consists of all those who achieved 80% or above in a conse…
As part of an ongoing series of posts on the 2009 RCM Theory Syllabus, I’m examining the changes in the Basic Rudiments requirements in comparison to the 2002 syllabus. There are actually very few changes, so you may sense that I’ve having to dig deep to find them.
The biggest change, I su…
With the release of the new 2009 theory syllabus, we have entered a transition period. I am currently teaching my online classes to align with the new syllabus. The following information is from Music Matters, the official newsletter of RCM Examinations, and explains the transition:
As with all…
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At the recent Promise of Music Symposium at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto, the question above was posed to Dr. Daniel Levitin, Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience at McGill University (and best-selling author of the book "This is Your Brain on Music"). Dr. Levitin's response was interesting.
This is a paraphrase: Lack of exposure to music in utero or before age 8-10 can shut down the music circuitry in the brain. This, however, is extremely rare. Perhaps, 1 in 500? A person with true tone-deafness would find it difficult to differentiate between different voices, since the same perception measures pitch and tone quality! End of paraphrase.
So, although you may think that you are tone-deaf, you are more likely a member of the large group of people in need of training to develop and fine-tune your sense of pitch. If you get a chance to do so, you won't regret it!
Very interesting topic. I once had a student whose mother kept telling me she (the student/daughter) was tone-deaf. Then one day, the student told me excitedly that THIS part of her piano piece was just like THIS one, 15 pages later in the book.
I think the mother had probably been told to go to the back of the elementary school chorus and just mouth the words. That sort of thing sticks.
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