March 5, Friday

The instructor began class very much on time, asking students to open their books on a certain sight-
singing exercise, which would work as a warm-up.

For this warm-up exercise, Dr. Elswick played the first pitch on the piano and then asked all students to
sight-sing it without unmuting themselves. Although she was not able to hear any of the students, she
observed through her screen whether all the students seemed to be singing.

She asked all students to sing a second time, but this time also conducting. She reinforced that students
needed to frame themselves well in their cameras so that she could see their faces and hands.

For the third time, she asked all students to unmute themselves while singing and conducting. I was able
to hear only one or two students, because of how Zoom works, but I am not sure if she had the same
experience.

After the group warmed up, the instructor invited two students to unmute themselves and sing and
conduct the same exercise by themselves. Both students who were chosen went very well and were
applauded by everyone else.

The next activity seemed to be about an exercise assigned in the previous class. I was not able to see it,
but it seems that the melody, which was composed by Beethoven, was in 6/8. The instructor called out
various students and asked about the differences between 3/4 and 6/8 in the way of grouping and
beaming the 8th notes. She asked why the melody that they were analyzing was beamed in an
"unconventional" way and a student rightly pointed out that it was because of the words. She then
talked about how in vocal music notes are beamed in such a way to reflect the syllables.

The instructor then proceeded to the next melody, which was composed by Schubert, and was also in
6/8 meter. She asked a student to sing and conduct it. After she was done, the instructor pointed out
that it seemed as though she was conducting in 3/4. This mistake led to a discussion on the differences
between simple triple and compound duple and, further on, on the differences between compound and
duple. She pointed out that this subject goes back to Chapter 2 and shows on the white board how notes
are beamed differently in each case.

The instructor then asked another student to sing and conduct the same Schubert melody, keeping in
mind that it's a compound duple, and the student goes well.

The following activity was a dictation. It involved the instructor playing 7 chords and having the students
write the soprano and bass lines. She provided the the first note on each voice and then played the
sequence of chords, after asking students to make sure that they "just listen the first time." After a few
repetitions, she played the same melody three times reinforcing the bass voice, followed by three more
times bringing out the soprano. The instructor goes to the white board and calls out on specific students
to help her complete both the notes on each voice and the roman numerals below each chord. She
observes that "if you have the outer voices, listen for the qualitites to be able to determine the roman
numerals." After the soprano and bass lines, as well as the roman numerals, are completed, the
instructor asks about second level analysis: where the tonic, pre-dominant and dominant areas are.

For the next dictation exercise, before providing the first notes, she announced that it had two flats and
quickly played the new sequence of chords. She then asked whether that excerpt was in Bb major or in G
minor. After they figured out it was in G minor, the activity followed as the previous dictation, with the
same prompts and with no major problems or interruptions.

The instructor finally asks students to get their books and explains how their homework for the next
class was supposed to be done.