I have some left handed pencils for pupils to borrow.

Presumably they have a bass clef on them to show that they're for left hand.......

do viola teachers use their mouths to hold their pencils then?

Obvious from this that you could never be a string teacher.

Any string specialists here able to alleviate anacrusis' woeful ignorance.

Hey, this thread has served a really useful puprose.

I can now spell acciaccatura with complete confidence.

....and pronounce it too?

*sneezes*

So here's my stupid question, that I'm really having problems with:

I've got a barbershop song in E flat Mjr, but the first chord is:
Bass - B flat
Bari - D flat
Lead - F natural
Tenor - G natural

So for those of you who don't know, in barbershop, we blow the pitch note, which in normal cases would be an Eflat, and the four parts would work out their note from that.

However, in this case, if we blew E flat, the Basses would just about get their note and the Tenor's would get theirs, but the Bari's and Lead's have both got an awkward not to pitch (and they're not allowed to make any sound whilst they are finding the note).

So first question - what do you guys reckon the chord is?

Second question - what should we blow to make the pitching easier... we had been blowing a G (as I got all confubbled, and decided that the relative minor to Eb is G minor, not C minor), which worked for everyone except the Leads.

Thanks

Donna

In jazz chord nomenclature that would be Bbmin6, or possibly Gmin7b5/Bb

No idea which note you should choose though

Go for the Bflat I think! The tenor will be able to get the note from the lead. (or by singing l d m f, not necessarily the most correct way, but you would end up on the right note!). Or blowing the G and the F?

I agree that if the key is Eb, the chord you describe is most likely to be Bbm6. I would blow the Bb, being the root of the chord. I'm a bit puzzled as to why people can't pick up a Db or an F from an Eb - or an F from a G - as they're all just intervals of a major second (i.e. a tone). Anyway, blowing the Bb should solve the problem.

Thanks to all of you for your comments.

I'll try the B flat.

Donna

About Acciaccatura's....

I remember my teacher telling me how to pronounce it, he told me to say it like this:

Aki Akka tura

Thats how I say it - don't know if it is right or wrong though!

Try this way instead, and sneeze a bit as you do so. (preferably over your teacher!)

There is a 'ch' sound ? Oh dear, I've been saying it wrong for years then!

Me, too. But I'm afraid it's not right!

Ditto.

http://www.musictheory.org.uk/res-musical-...sical-terms.php
Oh what a shame its not on the list musical terms prononced for you in an english voice this site also deals with key signatures, scales and has manuscript paper to download not forgetting a guitar tuner.

I don't know any Italian but I know quite a lot of French and German and his pronunciation is not always correct ... so don't alter the habits of a lifetime without checking elsewhere first ......

Does it matter exactly how its said if its in another language anyhow and we all know what it means??