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Curriculum Guide: Song Composition
Sample Discussion/Exam Prompts
- (M) How does the process of learning musicianship differ in a self-taught scenario? Based on Volpert’s description, what benefits and disadvantages does self-teaching offer?
- (W) How does the graphic design and layout format for this section of the manuscript impact the reader’s experience of the book? To what extent are the chord progression diagrams worthwhile to include?
- (W) Taking the “Chord Progression” chapter as a stand-alone text, under what genre label would you market it? What are the features of the text that cause you to categorize it as part of that genre?
- (C) How does learning to play a musical instrument reveal important cultural influences in the background of the learner?
- (M) In what ways might Volpert’s tuning in open G be a contributing factor in the meanings she will make throughout her analysis of “Straight into Darkness”?
- (P) How is the piano/guitar duality presented in relation to the ballad/anthem duality in this section of the book?
- (C) How do historical and critical perceptions of a piece of popular music change when it is piano-driven rather than guitar-driven?
- (P) What portion of the evaluation of live music performance hinges on the visual rather than the acoustic? Why does the author analyze so many different performance examples of the same song?