Yup, I can sympathise with all this (especially the bit about unintentionally rude or nonsensical - I was once warning a class of Germans learning English to avoid the word "backside" when they mean "back" or "verso" and managed to make precisely the same mistake myself in German while doing so - doh!!!). Mercifully, I'm no longer teaching but translating, which is marginally preferable. C
> > I also found it really confusing when trying to teach traditional >music in this system to French speaking groups. >Given that tonic solfa allows a movable "doh" (Or should that >be "Doh!"? >) it's a very helpful system for singing with, as long as you indeed >don't forget which of the arbitrary names means which relative pitch. >But when you're familiar with that system, trying to then translate a >tune in G from the alphabetical name system into continental style >solfa, where the instinctive tonic "Doh" of G is now called >"Sol", etc., >so that players can sing it knowing which note they're going to use on >the instrument, left my brain even more confused than you probably are >after trying to read this. >(Meanwhile trying mentally to summon my inadequate French in order to >explain the next bit of teaching material without saying anything >unintentionally rude or nonsensical at the same time.) >:) >Richard. > >On 12/01/2011 09:14, [email protected] wrote: >>> I think in France they have a "fixed do" system, where mib >>> =Meeflat = Eb >> This is correct. At the Conservatoires they teach people to >sing the note names, which I personally find a pointless >exercise for various reasons, including the fact that they >miss out the words "bémol, dièse and bécart" (flat, sharp, >nat) because there is no time to fit them in. There is also >the fact that the note-names are arbitrary (they are the >initial syllables of the lines of an ancient Latin hymn - Ut >quaent laxis) and hence don't follow any pre-existing sequence >(unlike A, B, C etc.). This is also why C is often referred to >in French as "Ut", which is strictly speaking bottom C in an >octave, the top C (or do) being, historically "haut" i.e. high. >> >> It's very impressive to hear French-trained musicians do >this at high speed tho. >> c >> >> >> >> To get on or off this list see list information at >> http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html >> > >
