Thoughts on Pitch Development

Singing involves the ability to mentally hear music. The ability to relate tones (mathematically related vibratory rates) and rhythms (mathmatically related time sequences) is developed in early childhood.


A strong musical ear develops naturally in early childhood with HEARING SIMPLE MELODIES and then learning to sing them by rote. These simple melodies, using only 2, 3, or 4 notes of the scale, later become the 'anchor' or 'skeleton' of the adult pitch sense. A lack of clear mental hearing or remembering of these 'skeletal' notes makes for poor pitch intonation of the entire scale later in adulthood.


Most songs purported to be children's songs are not simple enough. They use too many notes of the scale. They do not emphasis the 'skeletal' notes that the child can most effectively hear.


But children often instinctively choose their own music for early experiments in comprehending and matching pitch through singing. Have you ever heard preschool children taunting one another with song? When I was a child I saw a group of children cruelly taunting a boy on the playground with this chant (the numbers below are of the major scale):

"Rand - y . . peed . . his . . pa - ants"
5.........5......3..........6 ...... 5......3

I've also heard this chant sung with the taunting syllable "neea" ('a' as in 'cat')

"Neea . . na . . . . na . . na - na"
5...........3............6 ..... 5......3

There is a famous nursery rhyme that uses this motif:

"Ring a . . round . . the . . ros - ie"
5.......5......3............6 ...... 5.....3


There are specific kinds of simple melodies that help children develop mentally at a young age. They basically fan out from this rather 'modal' or tonally flexible interval set (6-5-3 in major, 4-3-1 or 8-7-5 in minor). This interval set is not so much conceived as a 'key' at first. The child's comprehension of it is as an instinctive interval set, only vaguely related to the highly rational structure of adult major melodies that they are hearing all around them. Children are groping after the kind of melodies they can SING, not just the kind that it can enjoy listening to.


Musical aptitude is typically developed through singing more than through instrumental playing in the formative preschool years. This singing must be family oriented, modeled as a fun activity by the parents, and positively motivated with encouragement rather than with negative pressure. A significant degree of musical aptitude for music is lost in children when there is no musical culture of singing in the home during their infancy and toddler years. Whatever aptitude a child is born with, they will lose some of it by age nine in a non-singing culture. To be the child's most effective early teacher, the parent must expose the toddler and preschool child to melodies that the child can most effectively remember, mentally hear clearly, and eventually sing in tune precisely. The parent can sing just two notes (a minor third apart) at first, making up little songs about cleaning the room, picking up toys, putting on shoes, dealing with a big brother, playing with a puppy, etc. The parent can make up these songs, or they can use the ones I have composed and compiled in my book 4, Nursury Rhymes. These songs are later read without words (through my Da-di system) in the first vocal music reading lessons at age five or six.


The minor third is the easiest interval to sing.

We develop the child's ear first through melodies which employ it:

"Hey .... Mis - ter .. Shoe!"
5 ......... 3 .... 3 ...... 5

"Da .... di .. di ... Da"
5 ........ 3 ... 3 ..... 5


After the inundation stage in infancy, in which lullabies are heard, there is a drastic reduction of notes to focus the child mentally. First, two notes are used, then three, then four note melodies. Precise 'singing ear' pitch awareness expands in a number of fairly particular ways in relation to various scales and cultural factors. If early awareness of the most essential "embryo" notes is strengthened and encouraged, the underlying structure of music will be sensed more deeply later in life, because, the underlying structures of adult music are essentially two found in nursery rhymes:


1. the minor third, sometimes embellished with a note a major second above the top note- ("Ring Around the Rosie"), and


2. the double major second (3-2-1 in major, that is, two major seconds stacked together- "Hot Cross Buns").


From these joined together comes the pentatonic scale, from which we later get the full major and minor scales and various modal scales, through the 'rational' modulation of these elements at perfect intervals. The child grasps at music's most essential scale structures then, through nursery rhymes.

Things going on

I have been placing free ads here and there online, like this one.

Musical Activities for Children

Playing piano at Church Triumphant and learning about "aggressive" faith.


http://www.churchtriumphantlc.com/

Here is what I am believing God about: I will get a printer set up that is compatible with my old UMac computer at the church so I can print up "Stand Middle Sit" and the other first grade material, and then as God gives me favor, use the recording facilities there at the church to record the curriculum and make it available for use in the fall for an after school program the church will set up.

If this doesn't sound like a big deal, believe me it is. The devil has hindered me a long time from doing this because he knows it will greatly benefit many aspects of God's Kingdom.

My legit ("classical") stuff

Well My Magnificat is finally being recorded soon by ERM Media I understand.

The following recordings of my music are now available by Arabesque.

Piano & Choral: The Music of Scott McClain,
Chiu-Tze Lin, David Arnold, CLF Choir from Westminster Choir College, Sanctuary Choir from Princeton Presbyterian Church, J. Christopher Pardini

http://arabesquerecords.downloadcentric.net/app?page=Product&service=external&sp=SD06036E80FRXMWKZN5ELT

http://www.isound.com/chiu_tze_lin/albums/1161794/piano_and_choral_the_music_of_scott_mcclain_v

http://mp3.rhapsody.com/chiu-tze-lin/piano-choral-the-music-of-scott-mcclain-vol-3

http://www.tescodigital.com/Store/Music/David-Arnold,Scott-McClain,Chiu-Tze-Lin/Albums/Piano--Choral:-The-Music-Of-Scott-McClain,-Vol.3/2:26866583/"

http://www.emusic.com/album/David-Arnold-Piano-Choral-The-Music-of-Scott-McClain-Vol-3-MP3-Download/11455825.html

Scripture Songs Vol. I William Riley CLF Choir from Westminster Choir College
http://us.puretracks.com/catalog/details.aspx?pid=IODA_026724030093_MP3&mod=1

http://musiikkikauppa.dnainternet.fi/album/William_Riley,_Scott_McClain/Scripture_Songs_The_Music_of_Scott_McClain,_Vol_/EEB7F85C-195F-4864-AFA4-4DA4D96020F1/

http://svr1.cokeutcmusic.com/catalog/details.aspx?pid=IODA_026724030093_MP3

Scripture Songs: The Music of Scott McClain, Vol. 2
David Arnold, David Pasbrig
http://musiikkikauppa.dnainternet.fi/album/David_Arnold,_David_Pasbrig/Scripture_Songs_The_Music_of_Scott_McClain,_Vol_/FBBEA48A-76CA-489A-8840-400F9837877E/
http://www.amazon.ca/Scripture-Songs-Vol-Scott-McClain/dp/B00000FDIT
But I don't care about that. This is what is needed to be marketed: hundreds of songs to make "SIGHT-SINGING" easier to learn, and to develop the singing ear of ordinary children.

http://www.angelfire.com/mac/mcclain/preschooler.html

global warming, energy, culture, the future- which way to go?

O good grief. We have the global warming concern dictating our diet. We don't want too many cows around farting methane gas.
http://www.mad-cow-facts.com/2008/05/14/abc-wants-you-to-fight-global-warming-one-cheeseburger-at-a-time/

We have the anti fossil fuels concern pushing for nuclear power. This site claims that 'back to the land", (burning wood, etc.) would be more harmful to the environment than fossil fuels. But my impression is that nuclear power has yet to prove itself a safe alternative.

http://www.truthaboutenergy.com/religions.htm

I am fasinated with localism, neotribalism and some certain specified reduction of technological dependance (semi-luditism?), and am aware of some potential cultural problems of this direction, ie. the cultic nature of small groups, the empowering of localized dictators. Some claim that 'back to the land", (burning wood, etc.) would be more harmful to the environment than fossil fuels.

http://anthropik.com/2007/06/nine-nations-bioregionalism-in-north-america/

I'm not sold on the global warming scare. I think just maybe the climate is supposed to change. This is part complex intuition and part intellectual construct. Let me explain the intellectual part (i can't explain the intuition part).

The "greenhouse effect". Hold that thought. Wait.

It all depends on what you believe about history, prehistory, creation, evolution, science, and the bible. This plays on your theory of man's destiny (sorry, humMAN, sorry, hu-FEM.....ugh, male?, o forget it, destiny).

I always believed in history (respect your elders), and so came to believe that Jesus was resurrected (respect awesome heroic testimony of those who saw it and those who knew those who did), and therefore came to believe in the bible (respect the prophets who died as martyrs, believe that God had witnesses throughout history, and start to see the totality of the biblical system or world view), and therefore came to believe in creation (the substance of life is not impersonal), and therefore came to believe in a universal flood as a faithfully recorded history. What was before this universal flood? Creation scientists think it was a "greenhouse effect."

http://www.biblestudymanuals.net/k41.htm

Getting from the world in which people lived almost a thousand years to the present world was pretty cataclysmic. Mere hills became mountains like Everest. Civilizations were buried in the sea. The earth's crust was upset. Volcanos erupted... and I believe there really was a flood of the whole planet. The greenhouse effect of the 'water above the sky' was taken away. People began to live less long, less protected from the harmfull rays of the sun. Seasons came into being. The cold-heat contrast is first mentioned as the cycle of what man was to expect from his Creator AFTER the flood, when they got off the ark.

Creating a non interest loan culture

Are Muslums the only people of faith whose Book councils them against interest loans? Are they the only ones who need non interest loans, help from their own people? Christian people of wealth, be ashamed. Look around and see.

http://www.journalism.ryerson.ca/online/masthead/mar2807/March28-07_pg4.pdf

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neo-Tribalism

Simple Note Reading for First Graders

I am being considered for a small loan of 600 dollars by my bank to print up "Stand Middle Sit!" the first grade book. I am going to visit the "cirriculum deciders" in various local school districts (what is their title- "reviewers"? "facilitators"?) if I can get enough money to print up the first grade material and some samples. I will also visit private schools with this material ready in hand. This is the most modest bootstrap step I can take with little money.

(A couple of days later)...........

The bank turned me down because I don't make quite enough monthly income as a sales clerk. Even if my hymnal english translation/ arrangment project gets going and I begin to recieve money for it, it may be hard to verify this as income as far as they are concerned. I do not want to ask my former patron to cosign.

What I will have to do is live in the shelter, put my inventory in storage, take care of car expenses, and then begin to save my money for this project.

But at any rate, I may move soon to take a job offered to me. I will probably be moving in late August. (later comment: No, it fell through, postponed until perhaps winter.)

.....

It seems a pity that I cannot print and promote this book here right now, but I have to trust the Lord. It may really take off under a different auspices later anyway.

.....

As for "Teaching Your Child", it too may fare better where I am going, if it works out that I go in the fall. I had hoped to email market it, etc. through a company, http://www.physxmedia.com/ , I think it was. I think they are the ones who called my this morning while I was trying to sleep from my graveyard shift. The Bank called to discuss my loan proposal as well. Anyway, for the "Teaching Your Child", I discussed with http://www.physxmedia.com/ :

1. doing an email marketing campaign,

2. doing a special kind of internet ad campaign that they have, I forget what they called it, but it sounded uniquely apt for my project, where peoples' searches tailored to my product would get my ad, and

3. doing a good basic site that would present my book (without the annoying stuff I now have on the free site)

The sales lady was cool, and I enjoyed talking with her. She had enough musical background to understand where I was coming from with my idea. She is supposed to be getting the financial figures for these three areas of the marketing project to me, but informally, the money talk was

(me) "I guess to do the email, the ads, and the site, would be about a thousand dollars, no, (pause) more like two thousand."

(her) "Well, actually to do all three of these projects together, which is really the best way, would be closer to three thousand."