We are pleased to publish your letters, but cannot include readers' email addresses since this can lead to problems of privacy. All letters should be addressed to me, John Woodford, at editor@musicteachers.co.uk. In association with Oxford University Press, we are pleased to give away ‘The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Music’ (4th Edition, Michael Kennedy) for each month’s most interesting letter. This valuable resource should be on any musician’s reference shelves.

From Mrs Victoria Larley, Chichester

Thank you for providing an excellent resource. It is interesting to read that most of your correspondents are established professionals. I have been teaching for almost three years and it is a job that I love.
I wondered if anyone knows of professional training and funding, and how to apply for it. I am currently preparing for my LRSM, but it is a lonely process, and I would welcome the chance to talk to other peripatetics about our work. Although most of my friends are music teachers, talking shop at the end of the day is not always something most teachers want to do!
The CTABRSM for singing only takes people of 25 and above. I am slightly younger, but feel I have a lot to contribute and it is a shame to be excluded on grounds of age. I know that it is difficult to regulate private teachers, as many graduates often feel a BA is grounds for a teaching career, but I would love to take my qualifications further.

John Woodford replies:
This is a difficult problem. Initially, as you will see from this month’s editorial, it seems that there is going to be a statutory requirement for any instrumental teacher working in schools, state or independent, to have a PGCE. Therefore, although the CTABRSM seems like an excellent course, it might not be much use in peripatetic school teaching. Nevertheless, we cannot recommend the CTABRSM highly enough and it is in most music teachers’ interests to see what it has to offer. However, there does seem to be a slight inconsistency in the ABRSM’s requirements since, to take the LRSM, a teacher needs to be only 21 but, as you said, to take the CTABRSM, a singer needs to be 25. Therefore a singer can qualify as a teacher when taking a more exacting qualification before the age at which s/he is capable of attaining a ‘lesser’ one. Nevertheless, we spoke to Richard Crozier, the ABRSM’s Director of Professional Development, who explained that 25 is considered the age at which most voices settle, but that it is not written in tablets of stone. The Board will consider applications from anyone that it thinks has a suitable breadth of experience; so, send in your application with a covering letter to explain your position and state why you feel the need for professional development. He is also quite happy to discuss this with any prospective candidate and can be contacted directly on 020 7464 88257, email mailto:rcrozier@abrsm.ac.uk. As far as funding is concerned, the Musicians’ Benevolent Fund provides for purchase a fairly comprehensive booklet of grant-giving organisations that might be applied to for money. Details may be had from the MBF, 16 Ogle Street, London, Tel: 020 7636 4481. JW

From David McKay

I teach music theory in a course called Musicianship. Students always ask why you mustn't have parallel fifths and octaves. If you say "Because it sounds peculiar" they say "It doesn't sound peculiar to me." Does anyone know a snappy answer, or can anyone point me to printed material etc on the Net about why parallel fifths and octaves are naughty in 4-part harmony, please?

Ken Durling replies:
There's a very simple and direct answer. First you have to remember that the ideal of 4-part writing is to establish and maintain maximum independence of voices - not true in every style - i.e. each voice must have an innate musical interest and style that a singer could engage with. Because of the structure of the overtone series, which proceeds from the fundamental by octave and fifth for the first 4 partials, voices that proceed by parallel fifths and octaves, and to a lesser extent, that approach them in certain ways ("hidden" 5ths and 8vas), tend to sound like the same voice - blending their harmonics - and thereby lessen the independence of the voices. It is not very difficult to demonstrate how, in a 4-part setting where there are parallelisms, the texture weakens (relatively) as it resembles more of a 3-part texture at those moments. Beginners may not hear it immediately, and some are easier to hear than others. An interesting footnote to this "rule" is the exception for parallel fifths of tritones: when one of the fifths in question is a diminished one, generally implying the presence of a chord seventh or a leading tone, the parallelism is allowable, as the dissonant content of that fifth tends to maintain the distinguishability of that voice, obviating the above concern.

From L. Vanhove, Belgium

I'm new to your journal; it seems there are a lot of interesting things to discuss.
Perhaps someone may be able to help with my problem. My daughter would like to do high school studies in music. She has good theoretical knowledge of music. However, in order to be allowed to take the kind of studies she prefers, you should pass some kind of "musical harmony hearing" test : "write down the notes AND chords of a specific song from CD".
I don't mean to be pretentious, but I personally am able to do this. When my daughter asked me a few years ago how I do this, my answer was no better than ' I can't explain, I just hear it.' I wish I could connect some optical fibre from my brain to hers and download (upload?) the data. Recently, during the preparation of the first attempt for her test, we improvised some training where we focused on listening to the bass, which is probably - but not always - is a good indication of the chords played. She failed in the test because she was confused about a lot of "7", "6" and even "maj7" chords. I must admit that listening to the bass is not a guarantee of success (but we had to work quickly); it is not truly listening to the harmony of the music itself. Now my question is: is there any training methodology with which we can "build up" her harmony-hearing ability? For example, starting with exercises using only tonic and dominant chords, and further expanding with other and more advanced chords? I myself can be her (free!) teacher, but I don't know what method to use. Is there any book or article or software about this? Even when there is some software, it does not necessarily tell you what steps you should take.

Any suggestions, folks? JW

From Colin Broom

Does anyone know if there has been much written about about the psychology of musical notation? I'm thinking particularly about how notation variants influence the interpretation of the performer, e.g.: sharp keys as opposed to flats, alterations in rhythmic grouping or even metre - basically how all these affect the mindstate of the performer and consequently the final result. Also, the more extreme examples found contemporary music such as Ferneyhough, who alters the the frame of mind of the performer by facing them with incredibly complex notation. Are there any texts, papers, etc. on this subject?

Samuel Vriezen replies:
I think there is something in the writings of Ferneyhough himself. There is at least one essay 'Aspects of notational and compositional practice' which does address the issue. Also, I know that a friend of mine wrote an impressive PhD on notation in Ferneyhough, Cage and Berio, but it's not too available, although perhaps that text exists in some electronic format. I suppose that you are mostly interested in a text that deals with the psychological implications of the 'structural' aspects of notation. It might of course also be interesting to see a big study on 'The Performance Indication', or it might be interesting to leaf through the many books on ancient notation practices, etc. If a book that studies the thing in general happens to exist I'd like to know about it myself. It sounds like the fun thing to read after Wegman's Obrecht biography (a very nice study).