The Joy of Back to Basics
Colin MacDonald explains what's behind his winter three-part Music Theory for Recorder Players workshop, and why it could be a game-changer for you
The idea actually came from former BCRS Board member Paulus Vrijmoed. “Why don’t we have a primer on music theory for our members,” he asked one day. Like so many of us, Paulus started playing music as an adult and missed out on those all-important building blocks. Realizing there was a big gap to fill, he thought others might benefit from this as well – and no surprise, there were nods of agreement all around. So on Saturday January 20th, 27th, and February 3rd, BCRS hosts a three-part workshop entitled Music Theory for Recorder Players, conducted by none other than professional musician and BCRS member Colin MacDonald, our congenial co-host of the Festivus For the Rest of Us! revels coming up later this month. Each session will run from 2:00pm to 4:00pm PST. Registration for the three-part workshop opens in January. |
Colin has lived and breathed music theory ever since he started his music degree at UBC. He knows first-hand how useful a solid understanding of basic theory concepts can be to musicians, be they pros or amateurs. He sat down with BCRS Magazine to give us a preview.
BCRS Magazine: What was your first experience with music theory?
Colin MacDonald: My first experience with music theory was learning to identify scale and arpeggio patterns in the saxophone repertoire I was practicing. This happened in conjunction with the basic harmony classes I was taking, but as a performer of single-line melodies I didn’t see the connection right away to chordal theory. I appreciated learning the grammar and vocabulary of music theory, but it wasn’t until we began to do small composition exercises in third-year theory that I started to understand the relationship between melody and harmony. I didn’t have any piano skills when I started studying saxophone, so my understanding of chords and harmonization came more slowly. In our modern position, looking back over the course of music history and having access to so many genres of music from around the world, it is really beneficial to understand the basic tools that we can use to analyze any kind of music in order to inform our performance interpretation.
BCRS: There’s the temptation for amateur musicians, especially adults, to skip the theory and use as much time as possible working on playing skills. Is this wrong?
CM: There is certainly a temptation to spend all of our time learning our notes, but basic theory can give us a boost in just knowing important tools like playing our scales or recognizing patterns in the music. Being informed in this way helps us to anticipate the music and understand the grammar behind the sounds we are learning, which can save us time in the practice room. We are better musicians if we can think like a composer and understand why the score works in the way it does. When we can follow the internal structure of the music it makes us able to be more flexible in the musical choices that we make, such as knowing when to take a breath or how to be expressive with the tempo. If we don’t understand how to analyze a score, we risk playing very mechanically, and very often we miss the composer’s point.
BCRS: Some music theory can feel like a math course -- and we know how phobic people can get about numbers. How do you make this a bit more palatable for people?
CM: Traditional harmonic analysis, with its Schenkerian chord numbers and figured bass digits, does feel a bit like doing algebra, but that is only one aspect of music theory. My plan is to introduce specific tools and vocabulary to recognize the common language of 17th and 18th century music, and how to use that knowledge to be a more expressive musician. We will not be doing dry voice-leading exercises but will be applying the concepts straight away to playing on the instrument.
BCRS: What are people going to learn with you during this six-hour long program? Will there be homework? Should people get ready for a pop quiz now and again?
CM: No homework! No quizzes! Just a friendly environment of working together. The first week will focus on how to understand melodies, the second week will get deeper into harmony, and the third week will introduce broader formal structures. With every class I will be working from examples taken directly from the recorder repertoire so we can apply our knowledge straight away.
BCRS: What difference do you think this will mean for those who join you for this music theory survey when it comes to their music making?
CM: It is my firm belief that an understanding of music theory makes you a more expressive and better-informed performer. When we play the music of the past we have to assume so much about a composer’s intentions, and we often miss the “unwritten” aspects of notated music. A knowledge of the building blocks and structural elements of a composition puts us in a better position to be a helping partner to the composers, living and dead, whose music we are bringing to life.
BCRS Magazine: What was your first experience with music theory?
Colin MacDonald: My first experience with music theory was learning to identify scale and arpeggio patterns in the saxophone repertoire I was practicing. This happened in conjunction with the basic harmony classes I was taking, but as a performer of single-line melodies I didn’t see the connection right away to chordal theory. I appreciated learning the grammar and vocabulary of music theory, but it wasn’t until we began to do small composition exercises in third-year theory that I started to understand the relationship between melody and harmony. I didn’t have any piano skills when I started studying saxophone, so my understanding of chords and harmonization came more slowly. In our modern position, looking back over the course of music history and having access to so many genres of music from around the world, it is really beneficial to understand the basic tools that we can use to analyze any kind of music in order to inform our performance interpretation.
BCRS: There’s the temptation for amateur musicians, especially adults, to skip the theory and use as much time as possible working on playing skills. Is this wrong?
CM: There is certainly a temptation to spend all of our time learning our notes, but basic theory can give us a boost in just knowing important tools like playing our scales or recognizing patterns in the music. Being informed in this way helps us to anticipate the music and understand the grammar behind the sounds we are learning, which can save us time in the practice room. We are better musicians if we can think like a composer and understand why the score works in the way it does. When we can follow the internal structure of the music it makes us able to be more flexible in the musical choices that we make, such as knowing when to take a breath or how to be expressive with the tempo. If we don’t understand how to analyze a score, we risk playing very mechanically, and very often we miss the composer’s point.
BCRS: Some music theory can feel like a math course -- and we know how phobic people can get about numbers. How do you make this a bit more palatable for people?
CM: Traditional harmonic analysis, with its Schenkerian chord numbers and figured bass digits, does feel a bit like doing algebra, but that is only one aspect of music theory. My plan is to introduce specific tools and vocabulary to recognize the common language of 17th and 18th century music, and how to use that knowledge to be a more expressive musician. We will not be doing dry voice-leading exercises but will be applying the concepts straight away to playing on the instrument.
BCRS: What are people going to learn with you during this six-hour long program? Will there be homework? Should people get ready for a pop quiz now and again?
CM: No homework! No quizzes! Just a friendly environment of working together. The first week will focus on how to understand melodies, the second week will get deeper into harmony, and the third week will introduce broader formal structures. With every class I will be working from examples taken directly from the recorder repertoire so we can apply our knowledge straight away.
BCRS: What difference do you think this will mean for those who join you for this music theory survey when it comes to their music making?
CM: It is my firm belief that an understanding of music theory makes you a more expressive and better-informed performer. When we play the music of the past we have to assume so much about a composer’s intentions, and we often miss the “unwritten” aspects of notated music. A knowledge of the building blocks and structural elements of a composition puts us in a better position to be a helping partner to the composers, living and dead, whose music we are bringing to life.