How not to fail a music history exam (like I did)

[@cocozeng3039]

Now I really feel better about my RCM music history exam.

[@primalphatman]

Music history hurts my brain and I very much dislike it

[@parvgosai]

My favorite part: Eh...they can't be THAT mean....they would AT LEAST choose CONTRASTING EXCERPTS.........right?

[@jayveeaurea9091]

60% of 25 is 15 and 14 is surely a failing grade.

[@tanmusicch]

Did your professor learn them off by heart? Alright for them, they have the answer book.

[@anhhuydo7147]

I always get excited when I see your post on a new video while I'm scrolling Instagram!

[@JustAnotherFlutist]

Whee, I'm glad!! I noticed that a lot of you guys are pretty active on Instagram ;)

[@angelicaricardo171]

"but of course what did I do, I crammed." 😂😂😂😂

[@genericide8231]

Speaking of classes in music school, my first real semester of classes is about to start in 2 weeks, and I'm going to be taking... a lot of classes. I have 3 or 4 general ed, and in music, applied music, music theory, musicianship, music workshop, a performance class, a music history class, and a piano class. SOMEONE SEND HELP PLEASE!

[@MorganasTurtle]

Yeah, I usually take 9-10 classes a semester, and sometimes that doesn't even add up to a full 18 credits. The problem is that music has so many 1 credit courses, but those courses often require more than 1 credit hour's worth of work :/ you aren't alone!

[@genericide8231]

I'm sure that at my school the classes all add up. I've done the math and I'm probably gonna have to get permission from a counselor to take over the 21 unit limit. And people say that music is an easy major!

[@JustAnotherFlutist]

+Genericide Oh man, I've been in your shoes! The first and second years are packed with required courses, so it feels incredibly overwhelming at first. The most important thing to do is to KEEP YOURSELF ORGANIZED. Use a planner or a calendar app to plan your study, homework, and research time. Set tasks for yourself using reminders. You got this!

[@mariamann8292]

The mere thought of having multiple choice exams seems so foreign to me as a german. The only thing I remember that had a small multiple choice section were the listening and reading comprehension tests in foreign languages.

[@Lord_Lepidopteron]

THE LEGENDARY SLEEVELESS TANK TOP!!

[@JustAnotherFlutist]

LOL HAHAHAHAHA I KNEW some of you would notice XD

[@Lord_Lepidopteron]

JustAnotherFlutist lol

[@desteddyeggroll]

I'm going to take Music History this coming Fall. WISH ME LUCK!

[@maiiaskrypnyk5234]

How It went?

[@desteddyeggroll]

@@maiiaskrypnyk5234 Wow! I took the class 3 years ago! But it went well! I learned about the history of Western European music (Germany, Austria, Italy, France, etc.). Also about specific composers and from the Middle Ages to Present Day. It is not an easy class, but it is super important for your music career!

[@hsbvt]

I have "A history of western music 5th edition" It's a great read when you are having trouble getting to sleep at night! HAHA! I had that class in HIGH SCHOOL!

[@EtienneZhou]

Could you do a video about how to learn these books by oneself without having "classes" in school?

[@LemonCrush72]

Best part of the weekend! Yay!

[@JustAnotherFlutist]

Hahahaha, yay! I'm glad ^_^

[@justanotherpiccplayer3511]

56% is a high 2:2 in our grading system, you need 40% to pass in England, that sounds low but it's coz the exams are really hard

[@JustAnotherFlutist]

56% was definitely NOT considered high by any stretch of the imagination in Canada, hahahaha! I wish though! XD

[@LouisBertrandTech]

I took a music "appreciation" course as a non-technical elective in engineering school. I like music so I passed no problem, but the real test came in real life, and it was a pop quiz where failure was not an option. Here's the setup: I'm a summer student in an electronics lab and one of the engineers, a bit snooty, took offense at what he was overhearing from my earbuds (high volume because I was just getting off the bus). If I recall correctly, it was Cabaret Voltaire (80s industrial synth pop). So he takes my Walkman (yes, this was a while ago) and puts in his own cassette, as if to say this is *real* music. Him: Who composed this? Me: J.S. Bach Him: What is the piece? Me: Um, one of the Brandenburg Concertos Him: Which one? Me: Number 3, I think Him: Aha! So what key is it in? Me: (recalling from the course that tonality was pretty tame back then) G major. Me: Can I have my cassette back? (I'm glad he didn't ask anything serious like orchestration or structure.)

[@JonathanMoser93]

I teach music history at a small liberal arts university. I appreciate this detailed explanation of your experience as it provides a relevant point of reference. I haven't been in school for a long time, but your experience was similar to mine. Students have changed a lot since I was in school, but it is good to know that the expectations haven't changed in other places. Your video is going to be a required prerequisite to my course.

[@desteddyeggroll]

That is exactly how I fail my final Theory IV Paper... );

[@justanotherpiccplayer3511]

Also at uni in England, it may vary from uni to uni we do loads of musicology modules as opposed to music history as a separate module

[@JustAnotherFlutist]

That's interesting! I'm guessing it helps establish a stronger connection between music history and music theory? I like it!

[@justanotherpiccplayer3511]

+JustAnotherFlutist well at least at manchester, they do modules that relate to the specialties and research that the lecturers do, so for example, we did a module on the 1848 revolutions and how these political and social events affected say wagner and liszt, and another lecturer did a module on avant garde 21st century english composers, but I do know that other unis like southampton do a much more general music throughout the ages musicology course which lasts the whole of first year

[@JustAnotherFlutist]

Wow, that certainly makes things more interesting! I wish we had that mixed in with our general music history courses :)

[@franciscadavies]

Learning music history to me is more scary than applying for music school in the first place.

[@HighlandViolinist]

I was able to use my UBC theory and history courses as "transfer credit" for the RCM history and theory exams, so I don't have to take them. The only one they didn't recognize was the counterpoint exam.

[@JustAnotherFlutist]

+HighlandViolinist Oh man, I recall that at the time I was doing the exams, RCM was not yet accepting transferred credits from ANYWHERE. This meant that not only could I not transfer music history and theory credits from university, I also could not transfer credit from the other piano exam program in California to obtain my Grade 6 piano certificate! That's why I ended up self-studying it all 😉

[@christinaramos7858]

The ninth edition of HOWM is what I used last year! And its got 1009 pages (not including appendix and index). The first time I carried it around campus with me my arms actually got sore haha thank goodness it comes with a PDF download. My anthology is actually spiral bound too, which is nice because it lays very flat on a desk. I'm entering my second year of my BMUS and this entire video just gave me horrible flashbacks of sitting in my first year history exams and truly questioning whether or not my prof had just played two excerpts from the SAME piece because I was so severely underprepared hahaha thank you so much for talking about this, less and less people need to be like us!!!

[@JustAnotherFlutist]

OH BOY, you know the pain!!!! Also, omg, so jelly that you guys have a PDF download to go with the textbook!!! Laptops were JUST starting to be accepted as a note-taking device when I first entered university, so publishers for textbooks hadn't really thought of publishing PDFs of their material. I believe one of my anthologies is spiral bound as well, so you can see that I was sort of on the cusp of publishing change when I was going to school XD

[@justanotherpiccplayer3511]

Medieval: your best bet is Dowland "Flow my tears" because the dude milked the fame he got from that piece A LOT

[@JustAnotherFlutist]

LOLLLLLL YES I remember this one!!!!

[@justanotherpiccplayer3511]

+JustAnotherFlutist we had to transcribe some old manuscripts in a module called 'notation' and as soon as our lecturer said it was flow my tears the entire room groaned

[@JustAnotherFlutist]

HAHAHAHAHA

[@TheArtofFencing]

*couch* its renaissance...^^ and its great (or they are great? how many variations did he write? like 7? )

[@Tang0Fox1]

This video brings so many memories.

[@sophielanthierflute2096]

I took a year off before university (I just graduated from University of Toronto with my BMus in flute performance) and crammed all 3 history and harmony exams into that year, with the former being totally self-taught. Your old video on how to study for RCM history helped so much! Of course, they released the handy booklets with all that you need to know, but I was inspired to still do extra research (with real textbooks, as demonstrated in your video) so that I would actually comprehend the material rather than regurgitate it. It made university so much easier... except for those fricken Renaissance listenings.... that never gets easy.

[@cytas1976]

I just studied for 6hours a night the week before the exam... It actually worked for all 3 levels 😂😂, what you say is actually so relatable though. Thank goodness we now only have a 70-100 page textbooks these days for the ARCT history exams

[@JustAnotherFlutist]

Oh boy, hahaha!! Yep, I really should have studied that much for that first exam, spread out over a couple weeks! Ah well, you live and learn XD

[@MorganasTurtle]

I wish I had seen this LAST year before I took music history! We used the same books, they are on the 9th edition now 😂

[@JustAnotherFlutist]

+Morganachan Oh man, I was right when I said this was going to date me 😆

[@brynmarie9655]

When you brought out the Burkholder textbook and anthologies I got war flashbacks. Our prof was so notoriously difficult that after our first exam the upper years waited outside with muffins for us 😂

[@dalmacietis]

As for the genre question, Wikipedia says "Douglass M. Green [..] lists madrigal, motet, canzona, ricercar, and dance as examples of genres from the Renaissance period," but also that "music can be divided into different genres in many different ways." So can someone please provide a correct example of early Baroque category: genre?

[@Yorkieman6666]

Hey could you make a video about applying to music school and keeping up with deadlines. College applications are right around the corner and I'm already petrified by stress!

[@JustAnotherFlutist]

Hahaha, sure, I'll definitely keep that in mind!

[@danielcohen9637]

You look so young

[@stellafoster4732]

Classical name that tune was super difficult for me! Especially chants

[@JustAnotherFlutist]

+Stella Foster SAAAAAAME

[@danielcohen9637]

You look 26

[@christopherwilliams2092]

It's summertime! 😎

[@JustAnotherFlutist]

+Christopher Williams Break out the sleeveless tops!

[@christopherwilliams2092]

JustAnotherFlutist hahaha 😄

[@danield.6842]

hi! I am going into my first year as a music major and am super excited. The one thing that got me though is how expensive my music textbooks were! like I had one for theory, aural, piano, and sight singing with each being around $100 each :O Great video as always :) I also did the IB program and everything you said about what to write in the history essays reminded me of my history teacher back in high school who always told us the same thing about not regurgitating facts but rather connect them XD

[@JustAnotherFlutist]

That's great!! Means you had yourself an amazing history teacher ;) You got this, and most importantly, don't forget to have fun!!

[@stellafoster4732]

Same experience here with music history in college!

[@louietang7636]

Can you get a review on sankyo flutes? I mean sankyo 301,401,501

[@JustAnotherFlutist]

On the list! :)

[@louietang7636]

Ok, thanks!

[@emmaaplin2066]

I feel like American schools run way different from New Zealand schools, because as our national qualification standard for music we have an assessment where it's music history but we have to understand and explain everything in the way you described you didn't know that it's what you had to do...XD

[@beckymccarthy7016]

You and I have had some very similar experiences. I too graduate in 2007. I failed music history 1 the first time around (because of listening) and we used the same exact books! I still use them

[@jessicadayla]

I took an intro level music history course, sounds like I got off lucky. Yeah, the stuff post 1600 started to sound the same after a while, never liked the listening portion, thankfully it was multiple choice... On a different note, looking forward to another Flute with Mom when you can!

[@JustAnotherFlutist]

+JDDBeyondTheSky Hahaha, awesome! It also sounds like professors have been slowly changing their testing system, so it's not quite as bad now 😆

[@johnmoore2636]

I'm pretty sure it's the 9th edition now! The Norton books are both the bane of my existence and my saviors. 😂😂😂

[@jessicadayla]

Do you happen to know of any ways I can increase the number of viewable pages on a stand to 4? I'm thinking a binder might be the easiest way to do it, but I don't know of any that exist for this purpose.

[@NoodleyBits]

I never took Music "History", but I did take Music "Appreciation", which was a lot of music history. I took it twice, failed the first time because the instructor spoke in monotone and he did not think anything after the Baroque period was "real music", so I didn't learn much and failed that class. I took it again a couple years later with a different instructor and he made it much more fun. One of the assignments (both times) were to attend three performances and write a critique. The first instructor wouldn't accept any "modern" music or musical theater. Now, in small town Midwestern USA, finding a live performance of Gregorian Chant is not an easy task. The second instructor let us do a rock concert or musical theater, as long as each concert was a different genre. Since I was in a band at the time, he also let me do a critique as a performer rather than a spectator. Besides the critiques though, both times were mostly "regurgitation of facts" like "What years were the Classical period?" or "What was Mozart's main influence when writing Eine Klein Nachtmuzic" (I know I spelled that wrong lol). It's been almost 20 years since I had that class and honestly, I couldn't remember a single fact from it.

[@JustAnotherFlutist]

+FarfalleAlfredo Hahahaha, you often only remember the things you put your heart into, which is why you probably remember those concerts far more than the material. It doesn't really matter nowadays though, because we can now look everything up on the internet 😆 Anyhow, I'm sorry you had such a terrible instructor the first time around. Just sad, really, sigh... So glad you got a better one later!

[@sofiyah9552]

What are good sources for studying music history? (i.e. Publishing companies, websites, authors)

[@JustAnotherFlutist]

To be honest, it's best to get a variety, and actually, you can learn A LOT from just browsing the internet. Norton is really good in-depth look at music history in general. We ended up using this textbook for... I think 4 music history courses? I can't quite remember, but I believe it carried us through the basic music history courses we were required to take. :)

[@sofiyah9552]

Thank you, I'll have a look at Norton. I'm not studying music but I really love it. I watched your video about research and from my mum reminding me I realised that knowing about the era and composer helps you to play the piece while keeping the context in mind. :))

[@pinkkittymusic]

I feel you so much. Don't learn from me either! I'm almost done my major in music (program is very general, BA and not BMus) and I have been through many of these courses. I would just listen to them on repeat while studying for all of my courses, music or not. Now I was lucky in the sense that it could be textbook and lecture bullet point based and not critical thinking (most of the time). However listening and reading on repeat doesn't really help me remember everything (since I would do each separately...) . Therefore when it comes to the exam I could only remember the actual piece and how it goes musically or the info associated but never both at the same time. The irony is I do a double major and what is it? History (but w thinking and write in full sentence bc English).

[@JustAnotherFlutist]

+PinkKittyMusic Oh man, I had a similar problem! I figured that it'd be like how I knew a bunch of movie scores and the behind-the-scenes associated with them. But music history is different! I found out too late that you actually need to treat studying like researching and preparing for a presentation. That would have helped so much, hahahaha...

[@Luka1180]

Joanna, are you a fan of Hans Zimmer's score to The Prince of Egypt? I would love to hear some of the tracks on flute from you. Like The Burning Bush. I think it is one of the most beautiful musical pieces/tracks in film music history, and very underrated :) I also think it is one of those rare Zimmer tracks that are surprisingly melodic. I mean compared to most of his work that tends ot be more texture-based with a little oto many drums for my taste.

[@kiaraeijo]

I was pretty good with music history and one of the reasons why my most influential teachers ( the ones who I felt guided me, helped me and even comfort me when I was going through moments of second-guessing myself and self-doubt) admired me was because I was good at theory. One class that I took during my undergrad that I struggled with was a 20th century music history class ( it was a two part course). It was an elective for me but it was required for the composers at my school and the class was hard ( it was hardest class that I took at New World) but thankfully I passed with a B😃❤️🎶🎹

[@JustAnotherFlutist]

You know, I definitely notice that people have different inclinations when it comes to music history. You'll typically pick up a few eras with ease, but other eras just don't jive really well with your brain. It's funny debating with other musicians about which era was "easier" to study! XD

[@michelleliu2298]

I did the rcm history exams in grade 6 and 7...it shouldn't be so hard for a university student...

[@dianrong5727]

idk about u but i'm in ib and they're constantly telling us about how ib teaches us critical thinking...

[@ryanclever5580]

Oh Btw, could you do a flute review on a Brannen or Powell? I love your flute reviews and those brands seem to be very, very, very good brands! Btw I love your channel and videos so much!!!!

[@JustAnotherFlutist]

Hahaha, don't worry, they're on the list ;) I did do a Powell Aurumite review a while ago, be sure to check that out!

[@ryanclever5580]

Sempai notice me

[@JustAnotherFlutist]

🙃

[@jljslu88]

Did you have a research project for your class?

[@Sophia-ht9ng]

"I was one of those Asian Kids" Lol Luv your channel btw, even tho I don't play flute, and only now learning to play guitar and I'm no where close to University...so....

[@JustAnotherFlutist]

You know what? It's NEVER too late to learn an instrument. ;) Keep it up, you'll get there!

[@kafkag1rl1]

The secret to listening tests/quizzes: memorize the instruments