# Classical Music Crossword Puzzles



## Minona (Mar 25, 2013)

Hello, I'm just wondering if anyone has any crossword puzzles on the theme of classical music theory, history, composers, genres, pieces, etc. I mean either to post up as images or links to any available online. I think it would be a good way to learn.

Thanks

M


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

I wonder... since crosswords rely upon reaching into that grab-bag of terms / words you've already got in store, what possible "learning" could be had from a music-themed crossword puzzle.

Then there are the Brit type, with a lot of blanks and much more oblique clues, or the American sort, where after a number are filled in, such a solid grid begins to show chunks of other words enough to give you another clue or prompt.


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## Minona (Mar 25, 2013)

It is widely understood in educational circles that a good way to learn is to test knowledge. 'If you don't know the answer, you don't know it' ...at least in a way that is practical. A crossword can teach us to get the answer from the back of the mind faster, and know how to spell it. Of course, if you don't know the answer, you look it up and the process of writing it down and slotting it in can help us store it.

I think it might be useful for knowing terms (dynamics, tempos, titles of works, etc).


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

Minona said:


> It is widely understood in educational circles that a good way to learn is to test knowledge. 'If you don't know the answer, you don't know it' ...at least in a way that is practical. A crossword can teach us to get the answer from the back of the mind faster, and know how to spell it. Of course, if you don't know the answer, you look it up and the process of writing it down and slotting it in can help us store it.
> 
> I think it might be useful for knowing terms (dynamics, tempos, titles of works, etc).


I do crosswords as a pastime, but will look something up because that to me is part of 'the fun' of them.

I suppose if well designed, all due pedagogical concerns well-met, they might have a use. I'd just advise that not all equally bright people have a natural inclination or mind-set for crosswords, period, and that you might not have as "universally useful" a tool as you may have been hoping for. (intelligence, it is known, does not include the qualification that all bright folk are great spellers 

And, no, sorry, I have yet to run across a crossword specialized in terms of musical definitions, composers, etc. You will likely have to end up making your own. (if you do, please make them available on TC: I'm in, being rather a sucker for crosswords -- American variety, that is


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## Minona (Mar 25, 2013)

I've seen pop trivia ones, but I think it would be good to know all the key classical works off the top of my head by doing a weekly crossword ... mainly because I'm less likely to look them up for the hell of it.


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

Minona said:


> *It is widely understood in educational circles that a good way to learn is to test knowledge*. 'If you don't know the answer, you don't know it.'


You should know that the part I highlighted in bold has now become, in the States, anathema to me, the emphasis on testing being all. This has virtually turned American Public Education back in schooling technique to the mid 1800's, where all was rote, and _spitting back facts or laundry lists of terms replaces any attempt to instill real understanding and working knowledge._

This also renders the students as a bunch of trained monkeys vs. intelligent and creative thinkers and problem solvers.


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## Minona (Mar 25, 2013)

Yes, I agree. I don't think testing is 'all'... just 'some'. With key facts and vocabulary, like a composers works, genres, what the names Greek modes came to be, and so on, ...I think crosswords would help to have that knowledge more to hand.

Also, I do think learning some things 'by rote', like spelling, vocabulary and times tables, has helped previous generations to write properly and do better arithmetic than recent generations, like me. They teach it now, of course, but at one time you couldn't really get away with not knowing it.

The objective then is not always to be creative, but sometimes to just know stuff that is useful for conversing, to help us understand discussions in books, and with the 'working knowledge' by having concepts to hand (I like to know obscure things like that a 'diatonic scale' is also called a 'heptatonia prima').


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