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Breaking Barlines

April 12, 2021 By Aron Bernstein Leave a Comment

Weekly Music Theory Challenge: 4/12/21

Show off your music theory chops with my weekly challenge! You’ll find a new question posted here every Monday, and you can comment to post your reply.

This week’s challenge:

What is the correct time signature for a measure with five beats and the dotted eighth note as the beat?

CHECK BACK on Friday, 4/16 for the answer!

Filed Under: Breaking Barlines Tagged With: beat, meter, music, musictheory, rhythm, theory, timesignature

April 5, 2021 By Aron Bernstein Leave a Comment

Weekly Music Theory Challenge: 4/5/21

Show off your music theory chops with my weekly challenge! You’ll find a new question posted here every Monday, and you can comment to post your reply.

This week’s challenge:

When writing in four voices, what’s the best note of an Italian augmented sixth chord to double?

  • A) The Root
  • B) The Third
  • C) The Sixth

Hint: choose the option that avoids parallel octaves.

CHECK BACK on Friday, 4/9 for the answer!

Answer

B) The Third. The Italian sixth is the only augmented sixth chord with only three notes, so in a four-voice texture one of them has to be doubled. If you double either the root or the sixth, you get parallel octaves. The only note in the chord that can resolve either up or down is the third, so this is the best note to double. On the staff below, we have an Ab Italian sixth resolving to the V chord in the key of C minor. The third of the Italian sixth, C, can either resolve up to D or down to B. So the alto and tenor double this third, thereby avoiding parallel octaves.

Filed Under: Breaking Barlines Tagged With: 6th, augmented, augmented6th, augmentedsixth, chord, harmony, Italian, Italian6th, musictheory, sixth

April 5, 2021 By Aron Bernstein Leave a Comment

An Auspicious Opening!

Twenty-eight years ago today, I walked into the town library and checked out two books on music notation.  In so doing, I took my first step toward becoming a musician, composer, and educator.  Now, on a beautiful April morning, I’m excited to bring you more than a quarter-century of teaching insight and experience.  Breaking Barlines is open and ready for subscriptions! 

[Read more…] about An Auspicious Opening!

Filed Under: Breaking Barlines Tagged With: aronbernstein, breakingbarlines, chromatic, counterpoint, diatonic, harmony, music, musiclessons, musictheory, musicvideo

February 18, 2020 By Aron Bernstein Leave a Comment

Not Every Good Boy Does Fine

If you’ve had piano lessons before, there’s a good chance your teacher taught you to read music with “Every Good Boy Does Fine” for line notes, and “F-A-C-E” for space notes.  I used these mnemonic tools for a long time as a teacher, and with surprisingly limited success.  The reality is, students who stop to consider the name of every note end up being very slow sight-readers.  I should know––that’s how I read music for years!  Here are some reasons why it doesn’t work well.

[Read more…] about Not Every Good Boy Does Fine

Filed Under: Breaking Barlines Tagged With: aronbernstein, breakingbarlines, lessons, music, musiclessons, musictheory, piano, pianolessons, reading, sight, sightreading, theory

February 4, 2020 By Aron Bernstein Leave a Comment

The Toxic Now

We live in a culture of now.  With the unprecedented speed and convenience of the internet, there isn’t much premium on patience.  And when it comes to learning music online, you’ll find sites that pander to our thirst for “instant results” around every corner.  Learn piano in just three weeks.  Master music theory in an hour. It sounds so enticing.  

[Read more…] about The Toxic Now

Filed Under: Breaking Barlines

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