Key Signatures Help!

Here is an ingenious way to memorize key signatures! You'll love it.

Everyone knows that C major has no sharps or flats, right? That's the easy one--just remember it.

The memory device for major keys with sharps works like this: to write an A, you use 3 penstrokes. A major has 3 sharps. D takes 2 penstrokes and has 2 sharps. Here's a chart to help you remember:

A-3
B-5
C sharp-7 (use 3 sides on a C, like a square missing one side)
D-2
E-4
F sharp-6 (use a lowercase "f")
G-1

For major keys with flats, remember the phrase "Battle Ends And Down Goes Charles' Father."
It tells you the order of flats. If you see the key signature below, which has 2 flats, you know that the second flat is E flat. Go back one and you will get the name of that major key.



Did you get B flat? If you did, great. If you didn't, reread that last part until you understand it.

This principle can be applied to any major key with flats. Go to the last flat, then backtrack one to find the key! Once you catch on, it can really be a helpful way to remember major keys.

The minor keys are slightly more complicated, but as long as you can read treble or bass clef and you know the musical alphabet, you'll be fine.

As you may already know, each major key has a relative minor key. They share a key signature, so if you know one, you can easily find the other. Now that you know B flat major above, let's find its relative minor.

Start on B flat and go six steps up its major scale (B, C, D, E, F, G). Don't worry about accidentals right now. The sixth step of this scale is G, and the key signature says G is natural. So the relative minor to B flat major is G minor. Its key signature looks like this:

Make sure to practice these tricks and share them with others if they work for you. Email me at agrishner21@gmail.com with questions. I hope this helps!

Idina Menzel

Idina Menzel is awesome.

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And thats all there really is to say...here's her site...www.idinamenzel.com

Indianapolis Children's Choir

If you've read my first post, you're probably wondering when I'm going to tell you about Indianapolis Children's Choir (ICC). Well, you wait in agony no more.

What it is: A big group of choirs that (some of them) perform all over the world. I can't (yet) since I didn't audition into one in my first year and you have to be in one of the most advanced choirs to tour. But when you do audition into one, you get to travel all over the world! ICC has performed in Austria, Disney World, the Indy 500, Spain, and so many other countries, its hard to keep track of them!

Where it is: Most of the choirs meet at Butler University (except for the lowest level of choir, the sattelite choirs, which meet in places like Lebanon, IN, and Laffayette, IN) on various days of the week. My rehearsal time fits perfecltly into my schedule. There's no other way I could drive to Indianapolis and back any other day, so it was really lucky that was the day my choir meets.

How to get involved: You have to audition for it. The easiest way to do that would be to come to the Choral Festival this summer, where you can audition and they just pull you out during rehearsal to audition. You can look it up online and have your music/choir director sign the papers for it or if your school's music/choir teacher picks the students every year already, get on his/her good side. There can only be 2 people going per school, so don't tell all your musical friends about it.

If you're homeschooled and would like to audition, you can still go to Choral Festival, but you have to audition for that in the first place, so be prepared to do a lot of singing!

The Choral Festival really is a lot of fun. You can learn some great music and make some great new friends...I still keep in touch with one of mine, even though she didn't make it into a choir.
= (

Taylor Swift

Taylor Swift is another one of my favorite singers. I just recently realized how much I like country music. For a long time I thought I hated it, but I think that was just bacause my dad liked it so much! I still only like the girl singers, though. Must be something about the fact that they aren't always talking about their wives and how it is they find it fit to sit around and let their spouse do all the work. Sorry, guys! I know it's hard to face the facts sometimes but it has to be said. Hehehehe...

Anyway, back to Taylor Swift.

She really is an amazing singer. She has so many songs that I can't pick a favorite! But I really like "Picture to Burn", "Stay Beautiful", and "Oh My, My, My".

Here's a link to her website: www.taylorswift.com

Francesca Battistelli

I recently got a great CD from my aunt as a birthday present. It's a Francesca Battistelli CD. I had never heard of her She's a Christian Singer and got her backround in musical theatre which makes her perfect for me because I do a lot of musical theatre. Her dad is Italian, hence the cool name. She has some amazing songs! My personal favorite is "Free to be Me". The chorus is:

I got a couple dents in my fender

Got a couple rips in my jeans

Try to fit the peices together

But perfection is my enemy

On my own I'm so clumsy

But on your shoulders I can see

I'm free to be me

This is a great song and I listen to it all the time. In the car, in bed, in the morning, in my head, or anywhere. It's the kind of song that gets stuck in your head and you're happy about it- if you know what I mean. She has a wonderful voice and this song really compliments it.

Here's a link to her site: www.francescamusic.com