Winter Piano Seminar, Grade 5 Theory and... Folk Songs
Hi there Blitzers,
Winter Piano Seminar - Sydney
Keep Friday July 16 free for the best day of professional development you’ll ever have! Not only will you be inspired and enthused by experts on various pedagogical topics, there is also great food, great prizes and great company!
If you would like to take advantage of the special Early Bird rate, CLICK HERE. Full details are on the BlitzBooks Events page.
Grade 5 Theory - New Edition
The new edition of Grade 5 Theory is due out next month. The layout is extremely friendly and tricky concepts such as chromatic intervals and four-part harmony are explained clearly and succinctly.
Accompanying this new edition is the FREE downloadable Grade 5 Theory Answer Book, available in pdf format from the BlitzBooks website. BlitzBooks is the only series to offer free pdf versions of out-of-print titles.
Free Music Downloads
Speaking of free downloads, check out the full range of downloads on the BlitzBooks site. There's more than 100 downloads now and they're all free (of course). You can download them now from the BlitzBooks site.
AMEB Update - No More Folk Songs
That’s right, the most welcomed change in the history of AMEB written exams... students are no longer required to write the folk song tunes from memory (hooray!). All that is required is to be able to recognise a few bars on the printed page (and in the case of Grade 4 Musicianship, to be able to recognise an aural excerpt).
In the recent NSW exam, candidates were told not to complete the folk song question and that they would receive full marks for this part of the paper. The question asked candidates to insert the correct key signature for the printed folk song. Whilst most candidates would no doubt have been able to do this, it was deemed this was not part of the AMEB syllabus and so the question was effectively withdrawn.
So whilst there has been much conjecture over the way the folk songs will be examined, it now seems pretty clear... as long as you can simply recognise fragments of the folk song you’ll be fine!
To your music education,
Samantha
Samantha Coates
BlitzBooks
PS: We hope you like our new monthly email newsletter. Let us know what you think (please email me). If you've been enjoying our regular snail-mail newsletters don't worry - we'll still be sending those out too.
PPS: Make sure you read my BlitzBitz blog - where I regularly discuss music theory, upcoming workshops and new downloads.
Upcoming Music Event - Winter Piano Seminar
After the huge success of our Summer Piano Seminar we've been inundated with enquiries about when the next one's going to be held.
As mentioned above, we're excited to announce that the next Piano Seminar will be on Friday 16 July 2010.
Click here for full details.
Help us promote the event
Please forward this email on to your work colleagues if you think they will benefit. A tweet about us would be appreciated!
Community
There's tons of excellent music resources available online for teachers, parents and students. Here's some that caught our eye:
Music Teachers Online
Australian directory of music teachers - details here.
Elissa Milne's Blog
Thoughts on music and piano teaching - read here.
Got a recommendation?
Got something worth sharing? Please email me with your recommendations and I'll add them in to our next newsletter.
About BlitzBooks
BlitzBooks is the series by Samantha Coates that has revolutionised music theory teaching. Students are no longer bored with their theory books! Since January 2001, music students have been able to ENJOY their theory education with fun, user-friendly texts. The conversational, easy-to-use format has made BlitzBooks incredibly popular with students as well as making teachers’ lives easier.
The BlitzBooks® series covers the AMEB syllabus for Grades 1 to 5 in both Theory and Musicianship as well as offering fantastic publications in the areas of beginner music theory, sight reading (piano) and general knowledge (any instrument).
Each Theory/Musicianship workbook is complemented by a comprehensive Teacher Guide and separate Answer Book, a feature no other theory series offers. There are many additional music resources on the BlitzBooks website, as well as constant updates relating to revisions and changes to the AMEB syllabus.
BlitzBooks® remains on the cutting edge of music theory education, making this series the number one choice for students and teachers in Australia and overseas.
The BlitzBooks titles are available from all good print music retailers.
You can learn more about BlitzBooks at Blitzbooks.com.au.
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