GirlwiththeBlueBox Posted November 13, 2012 Report Share Posted November 13, 2012 Question is pretty self-explanatory. Right now, my hardest subject by far is IB Music; I just can't seem to write everything I want to say without it sounding like an utter mess. I'm terrified that I'll get a 3 or a 4 on the exam. Does anyone here have any tips for analysing a piece of music?Thanks! Much appreciated! Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
macrofire Posted November 18, 2012 Report Share Posted November 18, 2012 Do you mean the blind listenings? If so, then create an outline, then do a proof essay in which you analyse the musical elements and use that to prove the contextual detail (or part thereof). That's how I usually do it. I get pretty high...unless I screw up on the contextual parts. Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
GirlwiththeBlueBox Posted November 19, 2012 Author Report Share Posted November 19, 2012 Thanks for your reply! But how would you specifically analyse the musical elements of the piece? Whenever we do blind listenings in class, there's just so much going on that as soon as I write something down, I've missed part of the song and we'll only listen to it 2-3 times, so I never have enough time to write. Yes, I know I'll basically have 2 hours on the exam to write about the pieces, but still. What do you listen for when you are analysing musical elements of a piece? Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
macrofire Posted November 20, 2012 Report Share Posted November 20, 2012 You should practice for a REAL exam. Get an iPod...or something with that draggable thingy, and take 30 mins to listen, analyze and write something.Usually, I go for musical details, then structure, then context. Sometimes I miss the tiny bits, but the overall message, I usually get.EDIT (added by Gaby):By the way, what kind of music have you listened to already? It'd be a good idea to build a database of different cultural contexts... Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
GirlwiththeBlueBox Posted November 20, 2012 Author Report Share Posted November 20, 2012 So far, we've done Medieval (Gregorian chant), Renaissance. Baroque, Classical, World Music and we're just starting on Romantic. Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
macrofire Posted November 21, 2012 Report Share Posted November 21, 2012 Sorry, I wasn't talking about music history. For that, I'm on the same page as you. Let me rephrase: what kind of blind listening did you do?Our teacher decided to draw random songs from the "World Music" section of Naxos...so I can't really expect anything thematic in blind listening choices. Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
GirlwiththeBlueBox Posted November 21, 2012 Author Report Share Posted November 21, 2012 But all of the genres I mentioned all have different musical elements, so I wasn't talking about music history either. That's really all the kind of music we've been listening to, aside from our prescribed pieces. Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
macrofire Posted November 22, 2012 Report Share Posted November 22, 2012 ...so you've never listened to or analyzed jazz (and its variants) pieces? Nor rock (and its variants) nor pop (and its variants).?Well, I was thinking of dividing everything into 3 broad sections: ancient, traditional, and modern. Three different time categories to work with before we can distinguish different musical cultures. Modern music is going to be the worst to deal with...or the easiest. It's only a starting point anyway. Do you want to build a music culture database with me? Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
GirlwiththeBlueBox Posted November 22, 2012 Author Report Share Posted November 22, 2012 No, not yet. We haven't gotten to modern music yet. And yeah, I'll build a music culture database with you! It sounds like it would be very helpful. Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Franz Liszt Posted February 24, 2013 Report Share Posted February 24, 2013 Just read other peoples opinions and various analyses on musical works! Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.