The Johnny-One-Note Method

This is a terrific method for learning songs. I've been experimenting with it as I work on Liszt's Sonetti di Petrarca. If you didn't go to conservatory, or have studied music in a spotty way, you may not have come across such a systematic approach to learning new music. It will be a big help to you. The name "Johnny-One-Note" stems from the distinctive exercise of practicing the song-text repetitively on a single note.

The method requires a series of steps that may seem lengthy. If you're tempted to skip to the end, resist the temptation and do all the work! A good solid hour, for example, spent practicing a six-minute song as directed will prepare you well and save a lot of time and anxiety in the end.

Adapted from Tami L. Petty, Carol S. Webber, and a number of other voice teachers.

The pricipal stages are:
1. Translate
2. Speak/intone
3. Write
4. Melody
5. Perform

The step-by-step process:

1. TRANSLATE:
Write one line of original text with the literal, word-for-word translation directly beneath it. Repeat with each successive line of text.

2. SPEAK/INTONE:
a) Speak the text poetically; look for special qualities in imagery, word emphasis, rhyme or lack thereof, assonance, alliteration, etc.
b) Speak the text in rhythm observing all rests (under tempo is fine). Add a layer to this preparation by observing dynamics and articulation markings, as well.
c) Chant/intone the text on one pitch poetically: you may change the initial pitch periodically throughout the exercise, but aim for a comfortable tessitura.
d) Chant/intone the text on one pitch in rhythm as in step 2c).

3. WRITE:
a) Write each line of original text with its literal translation directly beneath, as in the translation step. Do this five times for each single line of text. If no translation is required, simply write each line of text five times before moving to the next.
b) Write from memory as much of the original and translated text as possible. Leave blank spaces on the page if you miss words or phrases. You may be surprised to find out how good your memory is!

4. MELODY:
a) Sing the melody on a neutral syllable in free rhythm omitting all dynamics, articulation markings and timbral qualities. Sing a syllable like “la,” “za,” “ah,” etc., at a comfortable dynamic: mp or mf. You are putting the pitches and intervallic leaps into your voice and on your breath. Give yourself time to incorporate this important vocal step before moving onward.
b) Sing the melody on a neutral syllable following all rhythms, rests, and articulations. Dynamics are not important yet, but the articulation markings are – they relate directly to the language and interpretation.
c) Sing the melody on its written vowels, omitting all consonants. You may need to look directly at the original text during this step: tricky! If you find any one passage difficult, go back first to intoning, then to steps 4a) and 4b). Some vowel modification may help.

5. PERFORM AS WRITTEN:
Having spent time on steps 1-4, step 5 should come easily. You may actually find that you are close to memorization by this point, as well. Continue writing your texts (with translation) as you work towards memorization!

James Alison -- We Always Start from Where We Are

On Being Liked, Chapter Four, “Creation in Christ”

James Alison realizes that many of us are seriously baffled and troubled by the story of Christian salvation that we’ve heard.

“We begin with creation and the fall, we move on to salvation, and from there to heaven.(47)” This order of events gives the impression that God created a perfect world that humans spoiled, forcing Jesus Christ to come fix everything, after which the duty to keep the world from getting spoiled again, if fulfilled, will permit humans a permanent place in heaven. This interpretation is a distortion that paralyzes us.

I consider that what is first in the order of our knowledge is an intuition of salvation, first worked out and elaborated over many centuries of ups and downs by the Jewish people, which issues forth into a very special refinement of this Jewish discovery in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. It is starting from this intuition of salvation that a critical understanding of creation was worked out, and not the other way round.

If we stay with chronological intuition (that starts with creation, etc.), we get stuck. But the world wasn’t created to be saved. Salvation created the world. Or rather, salvation CREATES the world.

This notion is wonderful enough on its own, but one of its really terrific consequences is that it puts the biblical story of creation into its proper light. In other words, it shows how pointless today’s Creation vs. Evolution debate is.

That’s my reaction, at least -- Alison might or might not like it. I hope I’m not twisting his words.

We always start from where we are. When Catholics say that God created the universe, we are not making a claim about a ‘religious’ way of describing how things came into existence… We are saying something about our contemporary wonder at the fact that they came into existence at all… We are expressing amazement at the gratuity of it all.
       This expression of amazement at the gratuity of it all is not an alternative scientific explanation of anything. It is, on the contrary, a condition of possibility for us not to be frightened of advancing as far as we possibly can in our understanding of how things came to be.
     …So we make a real mistake if we consider creation to be something which very specially has to do with the remote past… The only access we have to the past is the access for which our present understanding equips us.
     …Both the contemporary holding on to a sense of wonder or mystery that there is anything at all, and the contemporary refusal to accept specifically ‘religious’ accounts of how things came to be are central to what we are talking about when we talk about creation. And of course, the ability to do those things, to hold on to that mystery, and to refuse religious shortcuts, let alone the ability to do both of those together, are abilities which have been acquired over a long time, and have a history. (49-50)

*tap, tap...* Is this thing on?

Judging by the intermittent flow of comments arriving at this blog, a few people are actually reading what I’ve posted. This means I’d better give them something new to read.

In the news:
I voted this week. Hip, hip, hooray for the Democrats. I guess I did my part.

I’m preparing to move in with Mr. Supersweetie. At the end of the month I leave Manhattan, where I have lived ALL MY LIFE, and set sail for Astoria, Queens. The distress of leaving the borough I call home is abating little by little with the help of Mr. Supersweetie’s love. In the meantime, anyone looking for an apartment share in Manhattan should be aware that my current roommate is looking for a replacement for me. Do contact me if you might be interested.

At the moment I am devouring the books of James Alison. Any further postings here on Penguin Great Ideas and Anglo-Catholics: What they believe will have to wait because all my powers of concentration are focused at the moment on Alison’s far-reaching vision of Christianity, gayness, and human conflict. Faith Beyond Resentment was a huge eye-opener, staggering. I wanted to re-read it and ponder it and write about it, but the impulse to move on to its sequel, On Being Liked, was too great to resist. And I’m so glad I didn’t -- it’s an even better book, taking up unanswered questions posed in the previous one.

He’s so good, I’d like to give you taste. I’ll quote him in a second posting.