“Oh wad some power the giftie gie us, to see oursels as others see us.” So spake the Scottish bard Robert Burns. Many directors would surely make some changes in their conducting mannerisms and techniques if they could see themselves in action as their audiences see them. Devoid of aesthetics, their deportment may actually detract from the performance of the group.

    In my case, a photo of me conducting a small elementary school orchestra from a fairly high podium led to a change. Because I am a little over six feet tall and have added a few pounds to my fighting weight of younger years, the photo showed me towering over those little kids like King Kong. I no longer use a podium, and I try to shrink a little.

    So, directors, see if you fit into any of the categories depicted below.

Toy Soldier

    Strictly mechanical. Does it run on a battery, or is it wound up before each performance?

Exhibitionist

    Exaggerates all cues, all dynamics. Strictly on an ego trip. Convinced that the audience came only to watch him.

Traffic Director

    Tries to cue every section on every note played. Point, jab, point, jab. Players find it funny at first.

Jumping Jack

    Great fascination for the audience members, who can anticipate each graceful, leaping bound.

Big Bird

    Both arms flapping continuously in perfect symmetry. May become airborne at any time.

    Note: All the foregoing depictions are the result of observing directors within my school district only. With this statement you can be safely assured that I am not describing your conducting style but rather just the mannerisms of a few misguided unfortunates. And, of course, my own directing techniques are impeccable.

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The 48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene
    I almost felt guilty reading this one. Machiavellian and heartless in many ways, the book is a history of how humanity has often ruthlessly sought power. Nonetheless, the examples in the book were captivating. While there are many ideas I did not find palatable, the book has helped me to be on the lookout for those who might try to use unsavory power tactics on me. Here are two of the laws I found interesting and helpful:
    Law 1: Always make those above you feel comfortably superior. In your desire to please and impress them, do not go too far in displaying your talents or you might accomplish the opposite – inspire fear and insecurity.
    Law 13: When asking for people’s help, appeal to people’s self-interest, never to their mercy or gratitude.

The Power of Negative Thinking by Bobby Knight
    Iconic and controversial basketball coach Bobby Knight was known for his violent outbursts and volatile temper. But he was also a great coach in many ways, winning three NCAA championships at the University of Indiana.
    While I have spent most of my life trying not to worry, I learned that worry isn’t so bad. Knight cites a study purporting that people who plan and worry tend to stay healthier and live longer than those who don’t. In a nutshell, individuals without worry who carry an excess of optimism may feel so invincible that they don’t take reasonable precautions.

Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking by Susan Cain
    I’ve had many quiet students over the years. Because I am an extrovert, I have sometimes wondered if introverts are actually happy people. How can someone be happy just sitting there, not saying anything? I read this book to find out. This book is an essential read if you want to understand all of your students.
    We perceive talkers as better leaders and smarter than quiet types, but this is untrue. Introverts are excellent at leading initiative-takers and go-getters, giving them direction and focus. They lead but know when to get out of the way. Extroverts, on the other hand, can be so intent on putting their own stamp on things that they risk ignoring the good ideas of others, allowing them to lapse into inactivity.
    One other idea I liked: Group work is overrated; valuable work can be done alone. Mention this at your next committee meeting.

My Age of Anxiety: Fear, Dread, and the Search for Peace of Mind by Scott Stossell
    Many researchers believe that people with anxious temperaments are better employees. Provided that they can avoid full-blown anxiety disorders, they are generally conscientious, well-prepared, and attentive friends. Furthermore, worriers who are smart tend to be the most productive of all. The author intertwines his own experiences with history and research to weave a frank and darkly humorous but fascinating account of anxiety. You’ll find it hard to believe that any one person can harbor all the fears that Stossell does. I didn’t know such people existed. But don’t worry, Stossell has managed to be successful.

The Official Dictionary of Sar­casm by James Napoli
    Band: A group formed half-heartedly in high school in the hope of meeting girls. Starts out by mastering the riff from Smoke on the Water and progresses to three-hour rehearsals in the drummer’s garage. Much goes into discussion of their name ranging from “Bilbo’s Hat” to “Frothing Mongoose.”
    Musician: A person who is genetically incapable of feeling shame or guilt over being supported by his girlfriend.

Because I Said So! by Ken Jen­nings
    Jennings, the Jeopardy! Greatest of All Time champion, examines sayings that your parents told you during your formative years. For example, we were told, “Never run with scissors.” There are records of scissor injuries dating back as far as 1880, some of which involve running. However, according to Jennings, cutting with scissors is a vastly bigger problem. Surprisingly, in some cases, buttock lacerations outnumber injuries caused by running. “Don’t sit on scissors” would probably be a better admonishment for your students.

The Power of Body Language: How to Succeed in Every Busi­ness and Social Encounter by Tonya Reiman
    Research says that 93% of our interpersonal communication is nonverbal. Emerging science in many fields of study suggests that nonverbal signals are the most honest and reliable sources of communication. The problem is that we do not pay enough attention to these nonverbal signals.
Reiman discusses what she calls the five immutable truths of body language:
    Body language is constant. You always communicate, whether it’s your body’s stance, your facial expressions, or even the cut of your clothes.
    Body language is always determined by context. Different social or cultural situations call for different uses of body language. Successful people understand this, but remain true to themselves.
    Body language can never be judged based on one signal. Covering the mouth is often a sign of deception, but not always. One has to look at a group of gestures to be more accurate in any assessment. (The book discusses this more in depth.)
    Body language reveals the discrepancies between what a person says and what a person truly believes. When someone’s spoken language and body language do not match up, there is a disconnect and incongruence results.
    Microexpressions, brief flashes or gestures betray inner feelings, are where true communication takes place. They are next to impossible to control, and you can see them in someone else’s face if you are alert and watching.

The Humming Effect: Sound Healing for Health and Hap­piness by Jonathan Goldman and Andi Goldman
    Whenever my wife is in a particularly good mood, she will walk around the house performing various tasks while humming. Intrigued, I decided to do a little research on humming, and this was the first book I purchased. Although it wasn’t the angle on humming I was looking for, it had some interesting ideas.
    The authors purport that the simple act of humming helps lower stress levels and blood pressure, enhances sleep, increases melatonin production, releases endorphins, and creates new neural pathways in the brain. They also describe humming as an internal massage that can heal many maladies like headaches. Sustained humming did get rid of a headache that I had, so I am one for one in my own personal experiment. As for helping me go to sleep, my humming worked for me, but kept my wife up. There’s a lot of sense and research to what the authors say, and they provide exercises that you can do. I lack the discipline to do them each day, but next time I have a headache, I’m going to hum and shoot for two for two.

Daily Rituals: How Artists Work by Mason Currey
    This interesting, but not earth-shattering book describes 161 entries about the daily routines developed by some of the world’s most creative and successful artists. George Gershwin (1898-1937) was said to have never relaxed. He typically worked twelve hours a day, beginning in the late morning and going until past midnight. He was dismissive of inspiration, believing that if he waited for the muse, he would only write three songs a year. Gershwin is quoted as saying, “like the pugilist, the songwriter must always keep in training.”

Moonwalking with Einstein by Joshua Foer
    This is a very interesting cultural history of memory and how many great feats of memory are actually a skill that can be learned by anyone. The brain is an organ liable to change, capable of reorganizing itself and adapting to new kinds of sensory input, a concept known as neuroplasticity. In other words, you can teach an old dog new tricks.
    Our brains don’t remember all types of information equally well. We are exceptional at remembering visual imagery, but typically terrible at remembering other kinds of information like lists of words and numbers. Convert something unmemorable into a series of engrossing visual images and mentally arranging them within an imagined space and suddenly those forgettable items become unforgettable. Based on this concept, the book teaches how to create what are called “memory palaces” to retain information. The technique is practical and amazing.
    To remember people’s names, associate the sound of a person’s name with something you can clearly imagine. It’s all about creating a vivid image in your mind that anchors your visual memory of the person’s face to a visual memory connected to the person’s name. When you need to reach back and remember the person’s name at some later date, the image you created will pop back in your mind.

Conducting with Feeling by Frederick Harris, Jr.
    Aesthetician Suzanne Langer believes that tonal structures we call music bear a close logical similarity to the forms of human feeling. Further, she regards artistic training as the education of feeling. Conducting students must think outside the box when it comes to the parameters of beat patterns. One innovative approach is not using any beat patterns at all during the first four weeks of a ten-week conducting course. This promotes feeling and the conveyance of the music without being tied down by measures and bar lines.

    I am hoping that several of these books will soon turn into a full column, but until then I’ll have to be satisfied with using these takeaways to hum away headaches, avoid sitting on scissors, hunt for microexpressions, and worry about what my next bite of food tastes like.

The post Takeaways appeared first on The Instrumentalist.

    A review of my past shows that the sum of all that playing didn’t add up to the total experience needed to successfully play that piano part. In the band, I was a wind player who was trained to respond after the information was given by the conductor and played an instrument that had a slight delay between the initiation and production of the sound. In the orchestra, I was also trained to respond after the gestures from the conductor were received, but also received information from the principal violist and the concertmaster about when and how to produce sound. Although I played piano in jazz band, it was conducted much less, and most of the emphasis was on the rhythm section locking in together, which was monitored through what we were hearing.

    My experience as a choral pianist influenced how I responded to the conductor on my first concert band piece. The biggest difference, based solely on my experience with multiple high school programs, is that choirs often follow the pianist (what they hear) rather than the conductor if there is any discrepancy between them. Just as I had done as a choral accompanist, I did my best to stay exactly with the conductor in the concert band, which is why it didn’t work. The experience I didn’t have yet was one of playing a percussion instrument in a conducted ensemble, and that realization was the missing piece.

    Since then, I’ve had many experiences playing keyboard instruments with bands and orchestras, and each has required me to remember that the ensemble creates sound at a different moment than when I see the beat. What has helped me the most is the same advice I heard as a tuba and viola player: listen to other parts within the group and breathe with each entrance. However, sometimes it is easiest for me to imagine when I would expect to hear the sound as a conductor and place the sound with that expectation.

Surveying Pianists

    This led to a desire to learn more about the experiences of other ensemble pianists and of other ensemble directors working with pianists. My sample size is relatively small but still useful in presenting different experiences and perspectives. I received survey responses from five pianists, including an undergraduate piano major, two current DMA piano students, a pianist with a DMA who performs regularly and professionally, and a pianist with a BA in music and a lifetime of experience playing piano for ensembles and as an accompanist. I re­ceived nine responses from conductors, representing conductors in band and orchestra from six universities and two professional orchestra programs.

    The responses from the pianists were mostly consistent, with the ex­ception being from the pianist who already had her doctorate. Most pianists described having challenges with following a conductor (both in knowing where they were in the music and in seeing unfamiliar gestures), playing piano parts that are unusual or very different than solo literature, and questioning when to come in because entrances didn’t feel obvious. One pianist mentioned difficulty seeing the conductor. When asked what steps they took to help alleviate the issues they experienced, all pianists reported that they listened to recordings of the piece and most looked at a full score to see how the piano part fit within the entire piece. The pianist with a doctorate explained that she regularly performs her part while reading from a full score (she plays mostly for orchestras and has a large library of digital scores). A few pianists reported working with the conductor or their applied piano teacher individually or working with other ensemble musicians outside or normal rehearsal time.

    The last question asked on the survey was about advice they would want to share with pianists who are new to playing in a larger ensemble, and the responses were interestingly varied.

    Undergraduate Student: It is essential to be able to play your part with a metronome up to tempo before rehearsing with an ensemble. Wind and string players may not do this, but their parts are usually not as technically demanding as the piano part is. This is obviously on a case-by-case basis. Once you can do this it is much easier to follow a conductor.

    DMA/Professional: Be prepared. There is no substitute for proper preparation. There will always be another person who can be hired. Work on your timing and listen.

    BA/Accompanist: Listen, count (out loud if necessary), watch everyone, and do not be afraid to leave out a note or so if it makes coordination easier. Do not assume that the other players know the rhythm. Be nice to everyone.

    DMA Student: I am a pianist who is new to playing with an ensemble. After I met the conductor, I felt more comfortable playing in the band because it is much easier to know the gestures.

    DMA Student: Put numbers on the repeated measures (the measures that have the same materials for a while.) Conduct the piece as you learn and practice. Look at the conductor as much as you can.

Surveying Conductors

    The survey given to the conductors was based on the same or similar topics but from the perspective of the conductor. Not all the conductors reported working with pianists who had challenges with being in the ensemble, but from those who responded the most common concern was with pianists not feeling the same pulse as the rest of the ensemble. A few also reported that the ensemble pianists seemed to have difficulty following a conductor, or specifically seemed to have difficulty with the parts written for newer pieces (late 20th century and later). A follow-up question was asked about how the conductors addressed any challenges, and most of the responses follow traditional and logical rehearsal strategies:

• A one-on-one lesson.
• I used standard rehearsal strategies for pulse, timing, and ensemble unity.
  
• Pianists are often more accustomed to playing by themselves or with few other performers. With this in mind, if the pianist is struggling to find pulse or follow, I will isolate out a few other players in the ensemble whose parts can represent the composite pulse and have them play for bit with the pianist as a sort of trio or quartet. Often, I do this without conducting at all, recreating the listening responsibilities pianists are accustomed to in chamber music. Then, in adding more players/doublings to the texture, the pianist has acclimated to what they should be listening for to locate pulse. When I join in as a conductor, the pianists’ newly found comfort allows for them to have more flexibility in following my gesture.
  
• Once the pianist is familiar with the piece and gets comfortable being a part of the large ensemble (orchestra), the pianist is able to follow the conductor more easily.
  
• I addressed the challenge by asking the pianist to collaborate with a particular instrument or section of the orchestra and to breathe with these instrumentalists.
  

    The last question for conductors was an open-ended request for additional thoughts on the topic. One director responded, “I’ve generally had great experiences with orchestral pianists. I think the biggest problem we run into is that they’re totally unaccustomed to counting rests.” My experience, on both sides of the baton, is the same. It is usually the long stretches of rests that lose the pianists, especially if the music contains rubato or fermatas, or if there is a slow and more horizontally conducted tempo or style.

    A different director commented, “Often, in large orchestrations where piano is required, it is necessary to place the piano in a spot that does not impair the usual setup of the orchestra. This can result in the piano being far away from the percussion section, or at the least, far from the center of the orchestra. Some discussion of possible spacial and hearing challenges before the first rehearsal often results in a significantly better performance through rehearsals and performances.” From a piano player’s perspective, although there is room for debate on this stance, I think it is acceptable and necessary for pianists to look at the keyboard from time to time. This is especially true when there are large leaps or changes in register, when playing in octaves within a hand, or when coming in out of rests on a new entrance.

    Wind and string players do not have this concern (with the possible exception of string players visually spotting for shifts) and could likely play any memorized piece of music with their eyes closed. This leaves their eyes free to look at just their music and conductor, and they can also adjust their stand heights and angles to minimize the distance between the two. Unlike most of the other musicians in the ensemble, the pianist’s music stand is mounted to the instrument and cannot be raised, lowered, or angled left or right. A challenge that I experience regularly in ensembles is that my eyes and head are regularly changing position to go between the conductor, the music, and down to the keyboard. Percussionists may be the only other musicians in the ensemble who experience playing with the same range of visual coverage. If possible, position the piano so that the pianist is looking right at the conductor.

    The placement of the piano within the ensemble can vary based on the space or other needs of the ensemble, but the most common locations are at the front edge of the stage to the left of the conductor, or in the back of the ensemble approximately 30 degrees to the left or right of the conductor. In all three cases, the piano is placed so that the pianist is facing the conductor. These positions can allow for line of sight, and will allow for the sound to come out with the lid up. The reason the edge of the stage to the right of the conductor is avoided is because the lid would then open to the back of the stage, rather than the audience. Taking the lid completely off might allow for more options of piano placement, but this usually involves more work than just moving the piano.

    Returning to the matter of pianist placement relative to the other percussionists, the piano parts are often written as part of the larger percussion section and placing them away from the rest of the section can cause timing problems. Although the distance between players is relatively small compared to a marching band spread across a football field, the difference in stage location combined with players trying to listen across the stage (especially stage left to right) can lead to a noticeable phase to the audience. This situation might require isolated rehearsal to allow all players to hear what it will sound like to them when the sound reaches the audience at the same time.

Suggestions for Conductors

    Nothing beats experience, and if you find a pianist who shows promise and (more importantly) interest in continuing in the role as an ensemble pianist, keep this person as long as you can. Although I still have to make adjustments each time I play with a new ensemble or conductor, my ability to adapt has grown considerably over time, and no amount of reading or imagining could have replaced the experience of playing in ensembles.

    If an extra score is available, have the pianist borrow it to make markings in their parts and to use during rehearsal. Even if an extra score isn’t available, having an extra copy of a melodic part at the piano could help the pianist make connections about when sound is produced relative to the conducting gestures.

    Piano performance majors might not be required to take undergraduate conducting classes, so their understanding of conducting patterns and gestures can be limited. Setting up a short meeting to explain some of the basics can be informative, and it can be immensely helpful to discuss moments where tempo changes occur (especially if changing the note value that is conducted), and how fermatas will work. Although most ensemble players have enough experience reading around fermatas to know that rests in their parts usually imply that someone else in the ensemble will be playing on those rests, people new to ensemble playing might not know how or when to move on from the fermata.

    If there are multiple ensembles with multiple pianists at differing experience levels, ask if partnering would be of interest to the players. Less experienced players can sit next to (and turn pages for) more experienced players to see and feel how they interpret time and the conductor. Similarly, more experienced players can sit in and offer advice throughout the rehearsal and serve to double check the counting and interpretation of the beat.

    Aside from these suggestions, the common methods already mentioned of helping any individual within the ensemble align their internal pulse to that of the ensemble will also be helpful for the pianist.

    Although pianists might need help with the above aspects of performance, most classically trained solo pianists will be ready from day one to receive feedback about the color, tone, line, and weight of their playing. Pianists spend a lot of time thinking about their approach to sound production, including the weight and speed they use to press a key, the level of pedal to depress or release at any moment, and the amount of overlap between pressing a new key and releasing the old. Describe the sound you want to hear or the approach you want the player to have in creating the sound.

Suggestions for Pianists

    In addition to individual practice on the part, spend time with a copy of the score or audio recording and write in audible cues from other instruments in the piano music, especially during rests. Unless the piece is formatted with rehearsal numbers every five or ten measures, most rehearsal marks follow phrasing, and noticeable changes usually occur between phrases. Even if a section is simple to count, having a written-in trumpet entrance halfway through an 80-measure rest can be reassuring when it confirms where you think you are in the music. Related to this, when there are measures with extreme rubato or fermatas, try to find the active rhythm from the ensemble (or check the score) and write the rhythm in the music above the rubato passage or fermata.

    During rehearsals, pay attention to how the other players – especially the percussionists – breathe before their entrances. You will most likely find that your entrances are with other players, and breathing with them before you start will help you align the timing.

    If you feel that you are playing out of time, especially in early rehearsals of the piece, play softer or even stop for a moment to check in on what the rest of the ensemble is doing and join back in when you feel the group’s pulse. Work to play with a strong sound while still being able to hear the other parts. Other players are also listening to you to confirm their tempo and pulse as well.

    Play along with a recording to learn the music leading up to your entrances. The website www.tunetranscriber.com allows you to upload mp3 recordings and change the speed without changing the pitch, as well as isolate specific sections to play on a repeating loop. The drawback of this is that most ensembles might not sound like the ensemble in the recording, and your position in the ensemble will not give you the same balance as that of the recording, but overall this can still be helpful.

    Do not be afraid to ask for help from the conductor, other ensemble members, other ensemble pianists, or the piano faculty on how to approach challenges to the experience.

Conclusion

    As a conductor, conducting student, and band and orchestra teacher I’ve spent much time studying the considerations needed when conducting and rehearsing wind players, string players, percussionists, and choirs. A conductor should be able to make music with any type of ensemble. Still, knowing more about the approach a musician has in creating and shaping sound on their instrument can greatly inform how to approach leading them from the podium.

The post Pianists in Large Ensembles appeared first on The Instrumentalist.

• Strive to play with a homogenous sound through the entire range of the instrument. No note should stick out as sounding different.
• Promote stability by allowing the least amount of change or manipulation necessary to produce the desired result. Mini­mize the visible em­bou­chure movement as well as the movement of the tongue.
  
• Convey a sense of ease to the listener at all times. Keep the air moving in a fast, relaxed stream so everything sounds effortless.
  

Altissimo Notes Do Not Speak

    Occasionally a high note will not speak while playing. This happens to even the best clarinetist from time to time, so it is important to have a basic troubleshooting procedure. Follow these steps in the listed order.

    Verify the fingering. It is amazing how often an incorrect fingering causes the problem. This solution should be considered before anything else; an incorrect fingering will not work. Once it has been verified that the fingering is correct, work to be able to use it with both confidence and ease. Hesitating can cause problems. Additionally, it is important to ensure the holes are completely covered using the pads of the fingers.

    Air. Once it has been verified that the fingers are not to blame, make sure the air is fast and well-supported. Clarinetists can become so concerned with a fingering that they lose focus on their air or tense up while playing.

    Reed strength. Before considering a change to the embouchure, make sure that the reed is strong enough. If a reed is too soft, high notes might not speak because the reed can close against the mouthpiece facing and stop vibrating. To be sure this is not the case, try putting on a different, slightly harder reed to see if that permits the high note to speak more easily. Remember that when a reed is played for an extended period of time it will soften. Thus, a reed that was of adequate strength when it first came out of the box, will eventually become too soft after considerable use.

    Consider the embouchure. If nothing else solves the problem, the em­bouchure might not be allowing the reed to vibrate correctly. First, check that the bottom jaw does not pull away from the reed as one plays the altissimo notes. Pulling the jaw away can prevent the reed from vibrating sufficiently. The top and bottom teeth should be more or less aligned. If the bottom teeth fall behind the top teeth, the amount of reed vibrating decreases significantly. Relax the bottom jaw forward, gently towards the reed, so that the bottom teeth are more in line with the top teeth.

    Placing too little mouthpiece inside the mouth can also cause the reed to vibrate incorrectly. Identify the fulcrum point on the mouthpiece, which is where the mouthpiece facing starts to slope away from the reed. The lower lip should contact the reed just above this point. An easy way to find the fulcrum point is to slip a piece of notebook paper between the reed and mouthpiece facing. The paper will stop right at the fulcrum point, giving a clear picture of the correct amount of mouthpiece to place in the mouth.

Altissimo Notes Are a Struggle, and Notes in the Clarion Register Often Come Out Flat

    This is a common problem, particularly with younger players who are relatively new to playing in the altissimo register. If this happens, first check that the reed is hard enough. If the reed is too soft, the embouchure must nearly collapse to allow any notes to speak. This embouchure collapse often causes both pitch and tone quality to sag flat.

    If the reed is an appropriate strength but the pitch still goes flat, ensure that the embouchure is held firmly against the teeth. The embouchure should always form firmly around the musculature of the face. This is not to imply that the lips are locked into place rigidly, but simply that they are held taut against the face. Too often, players form their embouchure around the mouthpiece and reed, rather than inserting the mouthpiece into the aperture created by the embouchure. This can allow the pitch to fall flat as the lips rest lazily against the mouthpiece and reed. Instead, practice forming the embouchure without the clarinet in the mouth and gently press against the embouchure with a finger to be sure the lips are held firmly. Then, place the mouthpiece into this embouchure.

Altissimo Notes Speak but Are Pinched and Tend to Be Sharp

    This is usually caused by excessive upward jaw pressure. To fix it, form an embouchure without the clarinet. Put an index finger on each cheekbone (the X in the diagram in the next column) and draw the lips firmly down against the face towards the chin from these two points. The chin should be pointed down and slightly forward while the lips are drawn down to the chin itself. By grounding this motion from these two points you help train yourself to form the embouchure around the face. Once you find this position, blow shh as if you are playing the clarinet. Try to keep the air moving fast with a shh sound while drawing the lips down towards the chin. If done correctly, the chin should appear flat and drawn down to a point.

Refining the Quality of the Altissimo Register

    Many people can get the altissimo notes to speak reliably, but the quality is not as refined as the chalumeau or clarion registers. In this case, I would suggest practicing a few different ways.

    Practice the passage down an octave. After years of playing, we become so accustomed to how we normally sound that we can easily stop critically assessing the tone quality. To see how the tone is being compromised, practice a passage down an octave several times with a full, resonant tone. Next, try to play with the same quality of sound in the printed octave. Alternate between the two octaves until both have the same quality of sound. The goal should always be to produce the desired sound rather than accept the sound that comes out through happenstance.

    Practice playing opposite the desired dynamic. It can be difficult to make the tone as full at piano as it is at forte. Conversely, when playing forte, the sound can get a bit strident in a way that does not happen when playing piano. Practicing a passage at the opposite dynamic can help students develop more control over the tone quality and use their ears to identify exactly where a problem may lie.

    Practice playing register skips without any embouchure movement. Legendary clarinetist Daniel Bonade suggested practicing register skips in this manner to help find more flexibility in the tone.

    While playing the example take a breath only where printed. Try not to allow any visible movement in the embouchure and try to make as much dynamic contrast as possible. In many years of teaching I have found that this simple exercise helps correct a number of fundamental problems, and I recommend that clarinetists make this exercise a part of their regular practice routine.

Conclusion

    Refining the quality of sound in the altissimo register is an undertaking that never ends for clarinet players. To grow as clarinetists, students must work to play with the same ease and tone quality across the range of the instrument.

The post Troubleshooting Altissimo Clarinet appeared first on The Instrumentalist.

The First Year

    When I started teaching, I only used the fingering chart in the back of the method book if someone played the wrong note and I did not remember the fingering. What I failed to realize was that I am a visual learner, and some of my students might be as well. I started marking the low concert Bb on students’ fingering charts, with a goal of getting every student to play a one-octave Bb scale by the end of the first year.

    My beginners are divided into woodwind and brass classes. Woodwinds meet Monday sand Wednesdays, and brasses meet Tuesdays and Thursdays. The full band meets on Fridays. Percussionists come every day because they need more time to learn everything percussionists have to learn.

    On woodwind days, I sometimes take the clarinets aside to work with them down to low F. Once they can play a strong low F, I then show them the register key. I have found this to be helpful for getting clarinetists over the break.

    For the first two weeks with my beginning brass students we only use mouthpieces and play call-and-response rhythms. I teach brass players two types of buzzing, called horse buzz and bumble bee buzz, terms I learned from Scott Watson, the tuba professor at the University of Kansas. Horse buzz, so named because children can relate to the sounds horses make, is a slow buzz with warm air. I have all brass players blow slow, warm air on their hands before we start playing. Bumble bee buzz is a fast buzz done with cold air and a smile. I used to tell students to firm the corners of the mouth, but this is a difficult concept for beginners, while everyone understands what a smile is.

    I don’t teach students the terms at first; we start with siren sounds on the mouthpieces. I will have kids alternate the horse buzz with the bumble bee buzz. Then I demonstrate the siren on the mouthpiece going from low to high to low. Brass students love doing this, and I have fun challenges to see who has the best siren.

    While working up to sirens I watch students to see whether they produce a high or low buzz at first. Students who produce a high buzz will need to relax and work on the horse buzz, while students who buzz quite low should first be brought up to a Bb and work on getting a good sound there before expanding the range.

Second Semester

    We start working on the Bb scale second semester. We open the method book to the fingering chart and play a scale, alternating between whole notes and whole rests. This break between notes gives woodwind players a chance to find the fingering for the next note and everyone time to take a full breath. By the end of the year almost all students can play the one octave scale, with the exception of some struggling clarinetists.

    I have found that if a song only uses six notes, many band directors focus on those six notes so students can play that particular song. If you encourage and challenge your young students to see how high they can play, you will be amazed at what they can do. They have all the information they need from the fingering chart. Last year, I had fifth-grade flutes, clarinets, a trumpet player, and a baritone player who could play a two-octave Bb scale.

The Second Year

    Several years ago, I was invited to spend a day with the Blue Devils Drum and Bugle Corps. I sat inside their warm-up circle and was forever changed as a teacher by how loud their lip slurs were and how powerful their pedal tones were. I had never heard a group whose pedal tones were as loud as their highest notes. I realized that I needed to focus on the lower register daily so that my middle school band students know the importance of consistency of sound.

    We start with chromatics in sixth grade. I have students start on low Bb and descend as low as they can, still in the whole-note-whole-rest pattern. Students will run out of notes at different times; for example, a trumpet player will run out of low notes before a trombonist with an F attachment. It is worth noting that I would have an oboist start on on Bb4 and a bassoonist start on Bb2 rather than having both of these instruments start on their bottom Bbs (assuming the oboe had a low Bb key).

    Then, I go immediately to the flutes alone, who start on their low F and descend by half steps down to C. I have them play this twice, as loud as they can. I explain to the flute section that in my middle school band they most likely will never see music with that low C, but it is important that they learn to play the full range of their instrument.

    Next, everyone in band will play a one octave chromatic ascending scale starting on low Bb, alternating with whole rests. I will then have all students stand up and we continue the chromatic scale up a second octave. I have them stand so I can monitor how high students can play. Most of my brass players can get to the next F with little difficulty. It is in going up to the high Bb that I emphasize the bumble bee buzz and everything it takes to produce it. I also talk about the clarinets and saxophones needing to smile (firm corners) to lift their pitch around that second F. Students are instructed to sit down when they miss a note or when they reach their full range – which typically happens to alto saxophones first – but to keep fingering while sitting.

    After high Bb, I will have every student who is still standing play individually and will praise each of them while providing feedback. I then revisit smiling and the cold air concept – at this point, I describe it as freezing air – for this group of high notes. We continue the same steps and we keep ascending chromatically. A handful of my 6th grade clarinets make it to altissimo G, and a few trumpet, baritone, and trombone players will attempt to go up to the equivalent concert F (G6 for trumpets, F5 for low brass). For most of my brass, I write the notes into their fingering charts At this point these brass players are playing notes higher than the fingering chart shows, so I write them in.

    My sixth grade trumpets are never going to get a part from me that goes higher than E5, but I have learned that if you don’t tell students something is difficult – and can teach them how to move air and buzzing correctly, you can help students develop their range.

Conclusion

    The best things about building range in younger players are that it is loud and there is safety with numbers. Students are much more likely to try to play high in a group setting than they would practicing at home by themselves. They are also less concerned about what their peers think at this age than they will be in high school. As long as the band room is a safe place for kids to fail, they will make the attempt. They will also motivate each other. If one student learns something new and shows it off, suddenly everyone else will want to learn how to do it, too. Teach them how to use their air and never tell them something is difficult, and students will grow into outstanding young musicians.

The post Building Range in Middle School Musicians appeared first on The Instrumentalist.

     John Philip Sousa was born in 1854, the third of ten children, and grew up in Washington in and around the Marine Band rehearsal hall and parade ground.¹ Sousa’s father Antonio was a trombonist in the United States Marine Band, the band that often played for the chief executive and traveled to Gettysburg on the same train with him to march in the parade and play at the cemetery where the immortal address was delivered.

Lincoln’s Marine Band, showing Sousa peeking out beside his father. Taken by Mathew Brady.

     Young Sousa attended schools within blocks of his home and studied the violin. The boy vividly remembered the events surrounding the assassination of President Lincoln, especially how hard his father took the news. Businesses and schools were closed on the day of Lincoln’s funeral. Following the service in the White House, a massive procession of 15,000-20,000 led by the Marine Band was formed to bear the President to the Capitol where he was to lie in state. Church bells tolled from early morning and minute guns fired throughout the day. The date was April 19, 1865, and John Philip Sousa was there.

     Just four weeks later, a massive Grand Review of the Armies marking the end of the Civil War was held in Washington. It lasted two days with more than 80,000 soldiers marching in a series of parades. Sousa recalled this thrilling event in his 1905 novel entitled Pipetown Sandy. Photographs and prints captured the scene as President Johnson, General Grant, and members of the cabinet looked on as each brigade passed a huge reviewing stand in front of the White House. The band and drum corps of each brigade marched to a spot opposite the reviewing officer, who was positioned next to the President. The groups played the great martial music of the time – Tramp! Tramp! Tramp!, The Battle Cry of Freedom, Yankee Doodle, When Johnny Comes Marching Home, and The Battle Hymn of the Republic. As the next brigade approached, its band would continue the music, adding greatly to the spectacle.²

Sousa the Professional

     Early on, Sousa played violin in theater orchestras (including at Ford’s Theater), served as a pit conductor in early vaudeville, married, and built a reputation as a composer of operettas. His star continued to rise and in 1880, at the age of 26, he began leading The President’s Own U.S. Marine Band. Sousa rapidly transformed the band’s performance quality, instrumentation, and repertoire. The marches he composed and conducted, including The Rifle Regiment, Semper Fidelis, and The Thunderer were all well received by the public.

Marine Band on Tour

     Sousa’s popularity soared, and people nationwide clamored to hear Sousa and the Marine Band in person. Up to this point, the Marine Band performed only in the Washington area, but popular demand and Sousa’s persistence, led to the group’s first tour. A 34-day tour began on April 1, 1891, in Bridgeport, Connecticut, traveled north through Massachusetts, Rhode Island, west to Albany, New York, on to Ohio, Michigan, Chicago, and further west to Iowa and Nebraska. A performance in Springfield, Illinois marked the beginning of the Band’s eastward route, which carried it through Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and home to Washing­ton for the final performance at Lincoln Hall. In all, they played 43 concerts in 32 cities.

Lincoln’s Springfield

     The matinee program in Springfield on April 25, 1891, took place at the Chatterton Opera House, jammed to the rafters. The scene was described as “one of the most fashionable audiences ever assembled in the capitol” according to the Daily Illinois Register. Impressive on many levels, the concert program included an overture, the movement of a symphony, soloists, ballet music, Sousa’s own hilarious Stag Party humoresque, patriotic selections, and Sousa marches – all beautifully performed. It was also visually impressive, featuring the 42 musicians wearing their elaborate and handsome military uniforms: scarlet full-dress coats trimmed with blue braiding and gold and white epaulets, blue trousers with a scarlet stripe down the outer seam of each leg, and white gold-spiked helmets.³

     Just prior to the final selection on the program (Hail Columbia), Illinois Governor Joseph W. Fifer took to the stage and glowingly praised the performance by declaring it “delightful” and of quality not heard in Springfield “in a very long time.” He mentioned that the tour schedule precluded Sousa and the Band from visiting the Lincoln tomb but they would honor his memory with a visit to the Lincoln Home immediately after the concert. He extended an invitation for all to attend “an even better concert than this one, if such a thing is possible.” Following a rousing ovation at the conclusion of the concert the band was transported in omnibuses to the Lincoln Home, where over a thousand neighborhood residents had gathered. Sousa and the Band favored the crowd by playing Hail Columbia followed by Nearer My God to Thee, which undoubtedly brought back many fond and lasting memories of Mr. Lincoln, because Springfield considered him one of their own.

Meet Mr. Lincoln by the author.

     Sousa, the Governor, and the band members were then escorted into the residence, where they were introduced to Mr. and Mrs. Oldroyd, the current occupants, and given a guided tour of Mr. Oldroyd’s collection of Lin­colni­ana.⁴ After the tour, the Governor made a few additional remarks and Sousa followed by leading the band in his distinctive arrangement of The Star-Spangled Banner featuring the trombones and lower brass near the end.⁵ The band was trans­ported back to the St. Nicholas Hotel before catching a train for Decatur, Illinois, where they ap­peared that evening.

     Sousa and the United States Marine Band toured again the next year, beginning at the World’s Colum­bian Exposition in Chicago and heading west to Cali­fornia and then back to DC after playing 72 concerts in 38 cities over seven weeks. This tour did not include a performance in Springfield. At this point in time the lure of a career with his own civilian band was very tempting to Sousa, and he gave his final Marine performance on the White House lawn on July 24, 1892.

The Sousa Band

     The Sousa Band was formed in New York City a short time later and existed until his passing in 1932. Musicians came from all over the world to audition and play with Sousa over the years. Virtuoso trombonist Arthur Pryor, who also served as Sousa’s assistant conductor, was called the “Poet of the Trombone.” Another performer was soprano Estelle Liebling of the Metropolitan Opera, whose students later included Beverly Sills and Meryl Streep. In 1922 Meredith Willson, composer of The Music Man, was Sousa’s principal piccolo/flutist when the band performed at the Illinois State Arsenal in Springfield.⁶ And perhaps the most important star soloist was Herbert L. Clarke, considered the world’s greatest cornetist. In the band’s history, traveling 1.5 million miles and being heard live by more than 50 million people are incredible statistics, considering that travel was done exclusively via train and ship. In all, the Sousa Band performed a staggering 15,623 concerts and marched only 8 times. In essence it was a concert band.

A Sousa newspaper ad from 1922 listing a young Meredith Willson.

Sousa and Springfield

     In all, Sousa appeared 13 times in Springfield – once with the Marine Band and 12 more times with his own band. This city was certainly important to him, and Lincoln was a key reason. In April 1895 he again toured the Lincoln Home. It is unclear whether the Sousa Band members accompanied him, but his signature appears in the guest register now held in the Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum’s collection.⁷ That day Mr. Sousa went out of his way to make the visit. His time was limited because there was a concert scheduled for that evening in Jacksonville, Illinois at the Grand Opera House.

     The year 1906 was especially important to Springfield since he not only conducted a concert on March 6 at the Chatterton’s Opera House but returned later that year in October to appear with the band for six days at the Illinois State Armory Music Festival, drawing 40,000 people to 13 concerts.⁸ On October 23, 1920, Sousa returned yet again to tour the Lincoln Home and this time also visited the Lincoln Tomb.⁹ On his last appearance in 1927, Sousa conducted the 55-member Springfield High School Band during intermission in two of his most famous marches – El Capitan and the Washington Post. At the conclusion of the concert, he posed for a photo with the group along with the elementary band and presented them with an engraved silver cup as a memento.¹⁰

Lincoln’s Meaningful Music

     Abraham Lincoln was not a musician, but he did sing in church and elsewhere. He loved all sorts of music – cradle songs, ballads, hymns, dancing jigs, opera arias, anything by Stephen Foster (the leading composer of the day), and, of course, weekly band concerts. He intuitively understood the importance of music and everything it could do to enhance the lives of people. In virtually every book in the vast Lincoln literature, Dixie is said to have been a favorite song. The tune was, in fact, popular in both the North and South. In the final days of the war he asked bands specifically to play it on several occasions. Carl Sandburg said that “Lincoln wanted it to be a goodwill song of the reunited States.”¹¹ As a boy Sousa most certainly heard it often and later made a band arrangement that he played on concerts from 1895 to 1930, sometimes repeatedly on the same program as an encore, thrilling his audiences. He also used snippets of the melody in his musical fantasy The Blending of the Blue and Gray (1887).

     In 1861, Julia Ward Howe wrote lyrics to John Brown’s Body, a tune that had been around and known for some time. She titled it The Battle Hymn of the Republic. Lincoln heard it many times but on one occasion, it was special. On February 22, 1863, President and Mrs. Lincoln attended the first anniversary meeting in Washington of the Christian Commission held that evening in the Capitol Building. The meeting was to raise funds to support soldiers and their families, not unlike the Wounded Warrior Project of today. A man known as the “Singing Chaplin,” Rev. Charles McCabe, spoke about being imprisoned at the infamous Libby Prison, where he taught the song to the other prisoners. As he sang it for the President and the other dignitaries, the entire audience spontaneously stood and joined him along with a band located in the gallery. Before the last note had died away Mr. Lincoln called out, “Sing it again!” It was repeated immediately, Mr. Lincoln reportedly standing – singing, tears streaming down his cheeks.¹² Ever since, the Battle Hymn, considered by many to be our national hymn, has become closely associated with Abraham Lincoln, who became one of the last causalities of the Civil War. Rev. McCabe sang the song for Lincoln once more at his funeral in Springfield at Oak Ridge Cemetery in May of 1865. Sousa did not make a free-standing arrangement of this piece but highly praised the lyrical verses written by Julia Ward Howe in a 1924 article – the third in a series of 22 published in newspapers throughout the country – entitled Songs of a Century that Never Grow Old.¹³ In his autobiography he wrote about the irony of the Battle Hymn being a southern tune and Dixie composed by a northerner.

     Existing sources do not tell us if Sousa ever performed Dixie in Springfield, but it was always in the musicians’ music folders ready to play as an encore or on short notice. Such was the case following the February 21, 1899 Springfield concert. The next afternoon in Kansas City, Missouri, it helped to avoid disaster.

     A crowd of 12,000 was on hand to dedicate a new Convention Center. As the concert was about to end a man in the balcony wanted to hear the scheduled trombone solo by Arthur Pryor. Pryor had not performed either in Springfield the evening before, or that afternoon, due to illness. Herbert L. Clarke stepped in to cover for him. The audience misunderstood the man’s shout “Pryor!” as “fire!” A stampede toward the exits began. Sousa urgently whispered “Dixie! Dixie!” calmly turning toward the audience conducting it through three times as people returned to their seats. Newspapers across the country reported the incident.¹⁴

     Sousa never performed Dixie and the Battle Hymn together on the same program. In early March 1932 Sousa found himself in Reading, Penn­syl­vania to conduct an anniversary concert of the Ringgold Band. After a rehearsal and banquet he retired for the evening to his Abraham Lincoln Hotel room, later suffered an unexpected heart attack, and passed away at the age of 78. Twenty years after his death, in 1952, 20th Century Fox released Stars and Stripes Forever, a movie of Sousa’s life written by screenwriter Lemar Trotti, who had written the script for Young Mr. Lincoln starring Henry Fonda many years earlier.¹⁵ As with most Hollywood films, the historical record was altered for dramatic effect. But in this case, the elements of an important scene were based on fact and depict a full performance of Dixie followed immediately by Sousa (played by Clifton Webb) conducting a wonderful rendition of the Battle Hymn arranged by composer Alfred Newman. Sousa speaks to the crowd saying:

“We would like, with your permission, to play one more selection. [Sousa motions to a black choir to step forward.] It has long been a source of satisfaction here in the South, that on the night of General Lee’s visit to General Grant’s headquarters at Ap­pomat­tox, the Marine Band in Washing­ton, of which I was later to be Leader, marched to the White House to serenade President Lin­coln. On this occasion, one of jubilation for the North, of defeat and despair for the South, Mr. Lincoln asked for only one tune – that which you have just heard – Dixie. In return for that compliment, we will now play, assisted by the Stone Mountain Church Choir of Atlanta, another tune which has come to be identified almost exclusively with our late President.”¹⁶

Sousa Triptych by the author – Sousa as he appeared in Springfield over the course of 40 years.

Meaningful Connections

     Some may question a Sousa-Lincoln-Springfield connection, saying that Springfield was simply a convenient performance stop on its many tours taking the Sousa Band back and forth across the country. However, Mr. Sousa, and indeed on several occasions his entire band, went out of their way to visit the places most closely associated with Abraham Lincoln – his hometown, residence, and grave – all to pay the deepest respect to a revered American.

     That said, music is the key connection between a king, a president, and a city – Sousa, Lincoln, and Springfield. All three continue to help define, represent, and sustain Amer­ica’s identity to the world. The stories of the interconnected aspects of a culture shape its unique character. They, now more than ever, are important to our country as a nation, helping to remind us of who we were as people in the past, are now, and may continue to be in the future.

Notes
1 According to grandson John Philip Sousa III, a Mathew Brady photograph of the Marine Band taken in 1864 captures “a very small boy whom we presume to be my grandfather. He is virtually invisible” standing next to his trombonist father Antonio. Jon Newsom, Perspectives on John Philip Sousa (Library of Congress, 1983) 136.
2 Sousa wrote three novels; The Fifth String (1902), Pipetown Sandy (1905), and The Transit of Venus (1920). In the 1905 work he has the main character “Sandy Coggles” describe in detail the Grand Review of the Armies including a reference to the recent assassination and his father’s reaction – “Lots of flags had crape on ‘em. One of the guv’ners sed it was cause Mr. Lincoln had died. An’ that wuz mighty sorrowful to ev’rybody aroun’, to say nuthin’ of poor ol’ dad.” Sousa, John Philip, Pipetown Sandy (Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 105) 195-204. See also: Noah Brooks, Washington in Lincoln’s Time (Rinehart & Company,1958) 280-281.
3 Daily Illinois State Register, April 26, 1891, 1.
4 Oldroyd’s collection, amassed over a 20-year period, included nearly 2,000 books, medals, pictures, badges, sermons, eulogies, and Lincoln mementos. Visitors were charged an admission fee and through the mail could obtain a “box of relics such as pieces of Lincoln Home bricks, apple and elm trees, roof shingle, dining room floor and ceiling plaster.” Oldroyd moved his collection to Peterson House across from Ford’s Theatre in 1892. James T. Hickey, The Collected Writings of James T. Hickey (Illinois State Historical Society, 1991) 190-196. See also: Wayne C. Temple, By Square and Compass: The Building of Lincoln’s Home and Its Saga (Ashar Press 4000 limited numbered, 1984) 97-108.
5 Daily Illinois State Register, April 26, 1891, 1.
6 Interestingly the size of the bands Sousa conducted increased over the years along with his popularity. The Marine Band of 1891 that performed in Springfield numbered 42 musicians and by 1922 grew to the 100-piece Sousa Band that performed there at the Illinois State Arsenal as noted in newspaper advertisements. See Illinois State Register, October 20, 1922, 7. See also Warfield, Patrick, Making the March King: John Philip Sousa’s Washington Years 1854-1893 (University of Illinois Press 2013) 117. Always resplendent in military style uniforms, Meredith Willson, the principal flutist, recalled that he felt he had “scaled the heights and the world was his apple wearing his Brooks Brothers uniform,” coincidentally the same company that tailored President Lincoln’s coats, sadly including the one worn to Ford’s Theatre the night of his fatal attack. See: Meredith Willson, And There I Stood with My Piccolo (University of Minnesota Press, 2009) 34. See also: .
7 Cornelius, James M. “Research Re­quest.” Message to the author on July 26, 2016. E-mail.
8 The Music Festival concerts were performed Monday through Saturday October 1-6,1906 (six days), two concerts each evening with an additional matinee on Saturday for a total of thirteen performances. Illinois State Journal, June 17, October 2, 7, 1906.
9 During the World War I era Sousa held the rank of Lieutenant Commander in the Navy Reserves, and he and the band members were welcomed to Spring­field by a joint committee representing the Chamber of Commerce and Sangamon Post 32 of the American Legion. He and the musicians were given a tour of the city, including visits to Lincoln’s Home and Lincoln Tomb in Oak Ridge Cemetery. There were two different programs performed at The Illinois State Arsenal on this occasion; one at 3:00 p.m. and another that evening. Both concerts were under the auspices of the Crippled Children’s Aid Society with proceeds to go to provide medical attention in the area, some children being treated at St. John’s Hospital. Daily Illinois State Journal, October 24, 1920. 11 See also: Illinois State Journal, November 10, 1927, 8.
10 See also: Illinois State Journal, Novem­ber 10, 1927, 8.
11 Sandburg, Carl, Abraham Lincoln: The War Years IV, (Harcourt Brace, 1939), 184.
12 Covered extensively in the classic work on music and Lincoln during the Civil War period by Bernard, Lincoln and the Music of the Civil War (Caxton Printers, 1966) 218-220. There is little doubt that the Battle Hymn greatly affected Lincoln and that he held it in high regard. The lyrics connect the clear hand of providence to explain the meaning and outcome of the war. Ultimately however, he chose a different interpretation, as represented in his Second Inaugural – what some have called a sermon and I call a symphony. Lincoln believed it was a providential chastisement for the national sin of slavery of which both North and South were guilty. In balancing these views Lincoln demonstrates the challenge and appreciation for the mysteriousness of providence. See also: Newsom and Soskis, The Battle Hymn of the Republic; A Biography of the Song that Marches On (Oxford University Press, 2013) 98-99.
13 Sousa actually wrote an earlier article in the same series on John Brown’s Body, lamenting that during the war the “new” lyrics by Howe intending to replace those of John Brown never really caught on with the soldiers. In his follow up article on the Battle Hymn he went on to opine that the lyrics by Howe were some of “the most beautiful pieces of verse to have come out of our country.” Cincinnati Inquirer wire service articles, June 6, and July 20, 1924.
14 Bierley, Paul E., The Incredible Band of John Philip Sousa, (University of Illinois Press, 2006) 137.
15 A Southerner by birth, Trotti’s work in the film industry consistently promoted the theme of reconciliation between North and South as he assumed the role of unofficial ambassador. The Sousa film is acknowledged as helping to establish the inevitability of the growing civil rights movement. See: Barker & McKee ed. 2011. A “Professional Southerner” in the Hollywood Studio System. American Cinema and the Southern Imagery (122-147) University of Georgia Press.
16 Trotti (Producer). Koster (Director). (1952). Quotation. Stars and Stripes Forever [Motion Picture].

Bibliography
Abraham Lincoln: The War Years IV by C. Sandburg (Harcourt Brace, 1939).
American Cinema and the Southern Imagery edited by Barker & McKee (University of Georgia Press, 2011).
The Battle Hymn of the Republic: A Biography of the Song that Marches On by J. Stauffer and B. Siskis (Oxford University Press, 2013).
By Square and Compasses: The Building of Lincoln’s Home and Its Saga by Wayne C. Temple (Asher Press [Limited], 1984).
The Collected Writings of James T. Hickey: from Publications of the Illinois State Historical Society, 1953-1984 by James T. Hickley (Illinois State Historical Society, 1991).
The Incredible Band of John Philip Sousa by Paul E. Bierley (University of Illinois Press, 2006).
John Philip Sousa: American Phenomenon by Paul E. Bierley (Prentice Hall, 1973).
Lincoln by David H. Donald (Simon & Schuster, 1995).
Lincoln and the Music of the Civil War by K. Bernard (Caxton Printers, 1966).
Making the March King: John Philip Sousa’s Washington Years 1854-1893 by Patrick Warfield (University of Illinois Press, 2013).
Perspectives on John Philip Sousa by J. Newson (Library of Congress, 1983).
Stars and Stripes Forever (motion picture). Producer: L. Trotti, Director: H. Koster. (United States: 20th Century Fox, 1952).
Washington in Lincoln’s Time by N. Brooks, edited by H. Mitgang (Rinehart, 1958).

Acknowledgements
    Without the assistance of the following, this article would not have been possible. Thank you to all! Justin Blanford (Superintendent, Illinois Department of Natural Resources), James M. Cornelius (Curator, Lincoln Collection at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library & Museum), Timothy Good (Super­in­ten­dent, Lincoln Home National Historic Site), Mark L. Johnson (Historian, Spring­field Historic Sites), Scott Schwartz (Di­rec­tor, Sousa Archives at the Uni­ver­sity of Illinois), and especially Curtis Mann (Man­ager, Springfield Public Library Sangamon Collection).

The post President and King: Lincoln, Sousa, and Springfield appeared first on The Instrumentalist.

How do you communicate the importance of music?

    Music is important because it’s music. The increase in testing scores is a by-product, but music is important because it’s an essential element to this human experience. It is important because of what it means to us and how it shapes how we see and experience life. This is why music permeates so many aspects of life. I teach a fine arts survey class, and the way I open the class is to play the throne room scene from the end of Star Wars. They have won the battle and walk down the aisle to such epic music. Even the part where Chew­bacca screams is so fitting with the music. Then, I play a second version of the same scene without music. When you take music away, it becomes an long walk punctuated by an awkward Chewbacca noise. It makes the students giggle every time.

    I tell students that art decorates space, but music decorates time. When you hear a song, it takes you back to a moment, and when we think about that moment, we think about an experience. That’s why a certain type of music can put you in a funk while a different type takes you to a beautiful place.

    I don’t have a formula yet to quantify our humanity when exposed to music. It is difficult to explain that beyond saying it is something that is felt. All I can do is share personal testaments and stories that I believe anybody with a reasonable set of eyes and ears and half a heart can understand.

What stories do you share to inspire your beginners?

    At the beginning of the year I explain to my students that my first sounds on the saxophone were amazing, or as I like to say, amazingly terrible. They were so bad that I was encouraged by my mom to keep on going, not simply with my practice, but also with the location of my practice. I was encouraged to take the horrendous sounds of my beginning band exploits outside, down the driveway, and ultimately across the street and into the forest. That forest became my practice room for the next year or so. In that isolation I achieved an elevation of my craft, by which I mean the practice and the process I participated in led to the sounds I can share with my students and audiences today. I conclude my story telling students that I now realize that my mom never said to stop, she simply said to keep on going. I also share with them that “keep on going” is the message we will share with one another throughout the year. I tell them that there will be many times this year that they will not always understand what is going on, but they should trust that it is going somewhere. To reach the promise, they must trust the process presented by me in the classroom. Thus. “keep on going” becomes our class mantra for the year.

    My process and promise were made more evident when my parents finally welcomed me back into the house to practice for them. It was at that point that I knew anything and everything was possible. When my parents opened up that door and invited me in to play for them, I knew I had improved. During this story, I explain to my students how much that opened door meant to me as a little boy who struggled with self-esteem. The door that my parents opened to me said that I was loved, valued, and wanted. The story of “Keep On Going” is one of persistence, patience, and perseverance that becomes a foundation for the success of our band, our students, as well as in their future life endeavors.

    For my students, this one tiny whiff of transparency and vulnerability that I share at the start of the year communicates that I am neither aloof, nor untouchable. It expresses to them that Mr. Smith is simply a caring adult trying to navigate the school year and share some wisdom with them along the way. It also makes me more human in their eyes – human enough that they then feel as though they can share their concerns, motivations, and dreams.

    I often hear music educators lament that students are reluctant to participate in class for fear of being labeled as bad sounding. A phrase I like to share with students is that I am humanity on display, meaning that I have experienced failure and disappointment as I learned this craft called music. This fosters trust, which leads to a relationship, which gives you the opportunity to influence students. Influence is the door for instruction.

    Telling this story is the start of a presentation I call First Days Lasting Ways that creates lasting ways of success by outlining classroom culture, growth mindset, guidelines, procedures, and strategies in a way that students can understand and appreciate. It consists of team-building exercises and more of my stories, but everything is strategically planned and set up in a PowerPoint presentation developed from my past experiences, books I have read, and things I have been told by students. That last bit is especially important. A 2000 movie, What Women Want, was the story of a advertising executive who, after an electrical accident, gained the ability to know what women were thinking. I have figured out what kids want through a more direct approach: asking them.

    The first thing students want to know is who this person at the front of the room is. They don’t use the word teacher; they just want to know who we are. They want to know what the expectations are, what they’re going to teach, and how it will be graded. They want to know they are in the right classroom. It is easy to forget these kids are ten years old. It might be their first time in middle school. They’ve never opened up a locker before. They’ve never had to change classes. The school is big. The eighth graders are huge. They’re scared to death.  On top of that, they’re at that age when they think everyone is looking at them, so anything that you can do to mitigate that stress that comes with sticking out or being wrong is huge. They care about that more than music.

    I use this as a springboard to explain how music shaped my life, how I was the first in my family to go to college, and that I grew up in a forgotten community but am now able to stand on phenomenal stages, not because there is anything special in me, but because music was so special to me, and it provided me a platform for me to discover who I am. I finish by adding that if they believe and trust, music can be the same thing for them. When you tell a student, “Your story won’t be my story, but your story may be greater,” it opens up the possibilities of what this class can be. Every day that students come to class, I’m not giving them something to do, I’m giving them something they can be. I want the children to see themselves in my experience. I show them the possibilities of what they could become through music. As adults, we understand what the end game can be, but we rarely take the time to explain it to our beginners.

    The PowerPoint presentation takes two weeks to get through because there is only so much that ten-year-olds can process in a day. Too much information will leave them frustrated. This is why Sesame Street only covers one letter and one number in each episode. If children watch Sesame Street diligently enough, they will be ready for pre-kindergarten, but the show doesn’t teach everything in one day.

    We start with things that might not be musical in and of themselves but are essential for music, such as toe tapping and watching the conductor. One day I spend ten minutes talking about posture, intentionally making it as boring as possible. At the end, I remark, “That was a lot of information about posture, but you don’t have time to hear that again,” to which students quickly agree. At this point, I break down posture again, only taking a minute or so, but still too long. When I ask students who can say that back, no one can because I used too many words. I then start beatboxing, getting students to clap to the beat while I say, “First you got to sit tall, let your shoulders fall. Make them meet in the back, and put your feet down flat.” I repeat it in rhythm a couple times, then nod at students, who instinctively realize it is their turn to say the rhyme. I point out that we just said in ten seconds everything that originally took me ten minutes to say, but then I say it is still too much time to spend on posture. I explain that in this class our cues will be either non-verbal or concise verbal cues, and for posture, the cue is the word s-e-t. I spell it rather than say it because I want to be very intentional that when I say something, that’s what we do. I tell students, “When I say the word s-e-t, I need you to sit tall, shoulders fall, meet in the back, feet flat. All right now, can you say that quietly to yourself in five seconds?” When you tell a kid to do something quickly, they get excited. “Oh, of course I can say it fast.” Then I’ll say, “Who can say it in their head in two seconds.” Oh, man, all the hands come up. I’m giving them these challenges, but I’m also giving them an opportunity to win. I’ve taught this element of musicianship in such a way that students can’t lose.

    Kids like to win, and I use this to teach teamwork. If one student gets an A in math and another gets an F in math, that first student is going home happy. Someone else’s F doesn’t affect her. In band, however, if one student has an A performance, but another is performing at a F level, it makes the A student sound bad, no matter how much she practices. I want students to develop the mindset that it’s not enough for you to win. We’ve all got to win. I punctuate this by proclaiming that every day in this class is wins-day.

    First Days Lasting Ways lasts so long because we focus on one thing every day, making games out of these basic skills, and then, like Legos, we stack them up until we get to that predesignated end of us being able to model all these different things simultaneously before we hand them the horn.

How do show students that they are progressing during those first days?

    Our class has a First Days Lasting Ways mascot named Tatiana the Turtle, which we move from shelf to shelf around the room according to the students’ participation, progress, and overall success. Tatiana’s movement is predicated on their ability to exact any one of the basic skills we are learning. On a day we are working on posture, at the end of the day I’ll give them a thumbs up and praise them for their posture. They come back the next day, anticipating seeing Tatiana move. If they truly did well, then Tatiana might move five feet. If it is a day where students weren’t getting the concept or behaving well, Tatiana might only move six inches. This gives me an opportunity to say, “Tatiana didn’t really move much today. Can we get Tatiana moving?” This gets students excited to work hard and see her move farther.

    Tatiana is simultaneously a visual representation that things start slowly and a way for students to see that they are getting better, even if we haven’t touched the instruments yet. It takes about two weeks for her to make her way around the room before she disappears. On the day this happens I congratulate the students, telling that they are no longer my band babies and are ready to take their music to the next level. Tatiana comes to show students their progress, but now they are at the point that they can hear themselves improve.

    I recently had a 20-year-old former student stop by to gift me with a blinged out turtle she found on vacation. She said it could be Tatiana 2.0 in case the original ever retired. She was a beginner ten years ago, but she still thinks of Tatiana as special. Little things like this stuffed turtle are the drivers in getting young children to learn. It is a way to show them that they can win – and that they are winning.

Besides showing students that you care for them, what are some other traits you have seen in successful teachers?

    I often ask other educators, “Hey, what’s your process? What are your thoughts?” I see some common threads between all those educators that we deem successful, and one thing that I find is that the educators I feel exhibit those successful traits – the ability to elevate their craft and their program and keep that love for it – are those folks who see teaching as an extension of performance.

    In college, you had a principal instrument, took lessons, attended masterclasses, and performed in both large and chamber ensembles. These exist to make you a better performer. We understand the value of practicing, and we understand that it is an endless process – that with every level, there is another level to be attained.

    Teaching is just like playing a musical instrument: everyone has a unique sound. The components of that sound are having passion and heart, knowing who you are, having knowledge and competence in the field, being an effective communicator, and physical energy. This is a sound that communicates “I love you the way you are, but I love you enough not to leave you the way you are.” It is in our best interest to develop that sound, just as we would on our instruments. We best do this by observing other teachers. Just as we listen to music for enjoyment but also listen critically, we should also observe other teachers to emulate their best practices.

    On top of this, practice teaching. No one blinks at the idea of practicing their instrument, and educators know myriad ways to practice, one of which is making audio and video recordings. If anything, many educators are too uncomfortable with the sound of their own voices or too afraid of what they might see to want to do this. However, this is where the growth comes from. Improvement happens when you get out of your comfort zone.

    I even script what I’m going to say at the start of class. This is no different than a football coach scripting the first few plays. In football, the first few plays are almost always planned. Teams establish their identity on the field and then adjust as needed. It is easy to go into a situation ready to adjust right off the bat, but no great performer would do that. Any great performance you see always has a show opener. I think that teaching is much the same way. That’s why each class period I start with the Code of Cooperation:

Follow Directions
Raise Your Hand to Speak
Stay In Your Seat
Be Prepared
Respect Property of Others
Treat Others With Respect
Gum, Candy, Food, or Drink Are Not Allowed

We start every day with this because the kids that I’m reaching – notice I didn’t say teaching – need some level of consistency, and my class might be the only consistent thing they have in their day. I find that many teachers make the mistake of expecting students to come to class already ready to participate and equipped to learn, but there are many reasons a student’s focus could be elsewhere. Saying the Code of Cooperation religiously not only creates a positive, purpose-driven tenor to the class, but also each day it points us in the direction of success. Once I provide those initial moments of consistency, the trust manifests again, and that sets the stage for me to be the performer that I need to be. It is a behavior management tool as well. When they fail to follow directions, instead of me admonishing them directly, personally, and possibly in a hostile manner I simply give them the signal that cues them to say “follow directions” collectively. This has a calming, redirective effect, and we can get back to what we were doing together.

How important is emotion in teaching music?

    I used to think that if you wanted to be rational and think well, you had to suppress emotions as well as your willingness to show and express them. This led to a mindset that teaching was a matter of me knowing a lot of things and consisted of me downloading knowledge into my students’ brains, devoid of any passion, but the truth is that people have been given emotions for a reason. Emotions assign value to things. If you don’t know what you want, you can’t make good decisions.

    Emotions can also tell us what to pay attention to, care about, and remember. Personally and professionally I have found that it is more difficult to work through hardship if your emotions are not engaged. Our students are no different. As I speak to educators and students across this country I am reminded that in the classroom and life information is often plentiful, but motivation is scarce.

    The late Rita F. Pierson made it her mission to teach the world that kids don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care. I am reminded that children learn better from people who love, and that love in this context means an ability to will the good of another, and offer active care for the whole person. I make a point to take time every day, every class period, to tell my students that I love them and I love being there for them at the start of class. This is not mere lip service; I also provide them consistency and intentionality, while communicating their importance to me at that moment. They must know that they are the most important thing in my world at that time and as a result, I find that I become the most important thing to them as well. What I’m imparting to them, in turn, becomes of great value to them.

    When you think about your favorite teacher, your first thoughts are never about what that person taught you. They are about how that person made you feel. Once you feel a certain way about someone, then you start to trust them. There are kids in my class who have come from difficult situations, and they do not trust people easily. That lack of trust often manifests as misbehavior or defiance. This is almost never personal;  I don’t think children wake up in the morning thinking, “Let me see how I can make Mr. Johnson’s life terrible today.” Many times the kids who need love the most show it in peculiar ways, sometimes through their behavior.

    When there is trust and that sense of connection and belonging, typically people want to be better for that person who believes in them. I think that at the end of the day, children are natural people pleasers, but they have to trust you, believe in what you do, and see you as a sound adult. I believe that every child is one sound adult away from discovering their sound of success – whether that is in music or something else.

How do you show students that you love them the way they are, but also enough not to leave them that way?

    Part of what is so impactful about the opportunity to teach children music is that it is more than an opportunity for them to discover the sound of their instrument. We want them to sound good, but there’s another level to it, which is the ability to discover their sound as a person. By this, I mean that every person has a unique significance and purpose. Ten-year-old children are rarely aware of what makes them unique. I have students from age 10-14, and this is a key age for self development.

    I share my story with them to let them know who I am, not only as a teacher, but as a sound adult and someone they can depend on, because it is important that trust is developed.

    Trust is essential to developing a relationship with your students. From trust comes relationship, from relationship comes influence, and with influence, we then are able to instruct. While we are instructing, we should not just teach the components of the instrument, but also give them key elements and principles that show them who they can be.

    I find so many of my students, even those who don’t continue with music, count their time with me as an experience they will never forget. This is built on trust and comes through offering them more than a class – an experience that they can see themselves in.

At one point, you were ready to give up on teaching. What changed your mind?

    It’s important to remember that individual differentiated instruction is more than just the instruction alone. Today’s educators must provide both instruction and inspiration to every student. We don’t make tubas try to sound like flutes. We try to make the two sounds fit together and complement one another. Just as we do with instruments, we should do with students. Rather than forcing children into a mold that will never fit them, take the opportunity to see who your students are and then by virtue of that, make them work together. A student taught me this.

    She was struggling with some things I was unaware of, and although she was normally chipper, there were a couple days when she walked to class with her head hung low. Normally I give everybody a fist bump, tell them good morning, and welcome them to class, but when I saw her I said, “I see you.” In response, she only drooped more I can be silly, and I got down even lower, looked up at her, and said, “Hey, Miss Jones, I see you.” She smiled of a little bit and walked into class without a word.

    Four years later, as happens with so many educators, I was ready to quit teaching. I couldn’t see how I was making an impact. I went home one day intending to write my letter of resignation. Waiting for me in that day’s mail was three letters from students who had been instructed by their 12th-grade English teacher to think of the most impactful, influential individual they had met during their school years and write that person a thank-you letter.

    Not one of these three students continued with band, but they all thanked me and told me that what they remembered about band was who they saw themselves as when they were with me. The girl went on to share that at the time she had been feeling invisible and thinking that no one would miss her if she was gone. She carried that “I see you” all they way through the rest of her school years to battle the dark thoughts. She is the only person to whom I’ve ever said “I see you” rather than “good morning” or “hello,” and I still get chills about it, because who knows what would have happened if I hadn’t said that? This is how I learned that teaching is not just about the subject matter but about showing children that they matter. That was the last line of her letter: “Thank you for always showing us we were loved. Thank you for always showing us that we mattered.”

    Last year I shared that story with a local civic group, and a woman pointed out that I had missed the most amazing part of it. She said, “When that girl was at her lowest, your words were everything that she needed to keep on going.” She said, “Little did you know, that when you’d be at your lowest, her words in that letter, would be everything that you’d need to keep on going.” She was right, because I tore up my resignation letter after reading the letter my student wrote me. I had no idea that the next year I would be a finalist for the Grammy Music Educator of the Year Award and the following year win it all and hear Alicia Keys say to me and educators across the country, “We need you. You’re loved and valued and you’re wanted.” I think if people understand their sound (significance and purpose), they will be able to teach from a better place. At the end of the day, everybody wants to know they are loved, are valued, are wanted, and that they belong. Nothing has a greater sense of belonging than ensemble whether it’s a band, choir, orchestra.

    Contact Mickey Smith, Jr. through his website, .

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