i am just getting ready to teach my son to read using the same phonetics based "box of games" that my mother used to teach me. it's all material that was written and thought of in the '70s.
to my amazement it seems that there is still some sort of argument amongst academics about how to teach kids to read. the two camps are phonics and whole-word. to make the comparison simple, i'll put it like this: with phonics you teach what the letters sound like (as well as some other weird combinations), with whole-word you teach kids what words look like (recognize the whole word). which would you rather try to do? teach 45 sounds and the letters that make them.... or try to teach your kids to memorize by sight every word in the english language? in mandarin you have no choice, with an alphabet you do!
putting all the academic mumbo aside, my mom taught me to read/spell using phonics, and that's how i'm going to teach my son. it works.
just my tuppence.
2006-05-31
2006-05-30
quel lascivissimo cornetto...
as a birthday present from my wife i received "How to Play the Cornett" by Jeremy West. this gracious gift will go miles towards me making noises that are more melodious than rude when my resin cornett arrives from Christopher Monk Instruments a few months hence.
now your obvious question - unless you are a fan of Monteverdi, Gabrieli, and Bassano - what on earth is a cornett (also variously known as cornetto and zink)? well.... imagine, if you will, a recorder with a brass type mouthpiece; six finger holes and one thumb hole at the top, made of wood, and sounding “like a ray of sunshine piercing the shadows, when heard with the choir voices in the cathedrals or chapels” according to someone in 1636.
the cornetto was the 'cool' instrument from about 1500-1650. every group that was any good had cornettos in it. the top players were the highest paid musicians of the day. its use in virtuoso music was at least equal to the violin, with much of the music indicating "violino o cornetto" meaning that either was a suitable choice. there are a number of theories as to why its use died out. one has it that many of the greatest players died out during the Venetian plague of 1630 leaving few to teach the instrument; another that since it is a difficult instrument there were few players to begin with, and the development of violin technique and new instruments like the oboe made it outdated.
thankfully for classical music buffs, interest has been revived in the last half century and there are now a good number of players world wide, and groups making recordings for us to enjoy: Jeremy West, His Majesty's Sagbutts and Cornetts, Bruce Dickey, Concerto Palatino, and many more.
as an example of the sound i have linked a cornett/vocal duet from the website of Kiri Tollaksen: In Dulce Jubilo
buona notte tutto!
now your obvious question - unless you are a fan of Monteverdi, Gabrieli, and Bassano - what on earth is a cornett (also variously known as cornetto and zink)? well.... imagine, if you will, a recorder with a brass type mouthpiece; six finger holes and one thumb hole at the top, made of wood, and sounding “like a ray of sunshine piercing the shadows, when heard with the choir voices in the cathedrals or chapels” according to someone in 1636.
the cornetto was the 'cool' instrument from about 1500-1650. every group that was any good had cornettos in it. the top players were the highest paid musicians of the day. its use in virtuoso music was at least equal to the violin, with much of the music indicating "violino o cornetto" meaning that either was a suitable choice. there are a number of theories as to why its use died out. one has it that many of the greatest players died out during the Venetian plague of 1630 leaving few to teach the instrument; another that since it is a difficult instrument there were few players to begin with, and the development of violin technique and new instruments like the oboe made it outdated.
thankfully for classical music buffs, interest has been revived in the last half century and there are now a good number of players world wide, and groups making recordings for us to enjoy: Jeremy West, His Majesty's Sagbutts and Cornetts, Bruce Dickey, Concerto Palatino, and many more.
as an example of the sound i have linked a cornett/vocal duet from the website of Kiri Tollaksen: In Dulce Jubilo
buona notte tutto!
2006-05-27
aha! that's better
ok, we seem to be in business now. let's try posting a picture.... hmmmmm.... what's out the window?
the weather today has been kind of variable. this was taken during a breif respite from the rain shower that has been falling on and off through both cloud and shine.
rain stops, for a while
spring is fresh, and clean, and green
sun low in the west
testing.... testing.... 1....2.....3.....
i'm not sure what's going on. status says that my last post is published, but it's not showing.... and neither are the changes to the links. so this is a test of the publishing again, to see if this will kick start it. there was a message while i was publishing last night about there being a problem with the servers but an 'engineer' was 'aware'....
2006-05-26
so many settings!
that was a blur. i have set a bunch of settings in the blogger.... hopefully i haven't broken anything. if there are any settings that would make this blog more useful, please email me as i'm still completely ignorant of how this whole thing works.
hello world!
well.... this should be interesting....
i had wondered about this blogging thing.... thought that it might be a bit narcissistic. ;-)
i guess we'll see how far this rabbit hole goes, eh?
i had wondered about this blogging thing.... thought that it might be a bit narcissistic. ;-)
i guess we'll see how far this rabbit hole goes, eh?
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