Tuesday, December 15

1:30 p.m. – Clinics
Musical Problem Solving as the Ultimate Motivator
Martin Norgaard
     We have all had that exceptional student who comes to class and says, “I figured out ‘Smoke on the Water.’” Although that will inevitably lead to numerous unwanted interludes featuring the beginning notes of the famous song by Deep Purple, chances are that same student learns regular repertoire faster and are able to play songs without looking at the book. In many cases, that same student finds beginning instrumental class easy and appears more motivated than other students.
     I will outline the skills this exceptional (though sometimes disruptive) student appears to possess innately and demonstrate ways to teach them in a classroom setting. One example of such a skill is the willingness to experiment and make mistakes. Teachers have a natural tendency to supply easy answers. If you see a frustrated student get stuck while trying to figure out a tune, you are likely to show him the next couple of notes. This may not always be the best course of action as long as the student has the necessary tools to figure out the tune on his own. To modify an old saying: If you teach a student a tune, he will know one tune. If you teach a student how to figure out tunes, he will know a million.
(This clinic repeats Thursday at 10:00 a.m.)

Technology on a Dime
Mike Fedyszyn
     Never let creativity be hindered by financial concerns. This session will focus on ways to include technology in any music classroom on a budget. Attendees will learn numerous practical methods to use, such as creating an interactive white board for less than $100 and discovering how to locate potential grant donors using online grant services. Don’t be left behind because of a lack of funds.
(This clinic repeats Wednesday at 4:00 p.m.)

4:00 p.m. – Clinic
Using the Alexander Technique
Cody Gifford
     How often do you get to lie down and refresh in the afternoon at the Midwest Clinic? Clinic attendees will experience “constructive rest,” an efficient 10-15 minute procedure you can use for yourself and your students at any time to regain poise, to get centered, and to increase self-awareness.
     Frederick Matthais Alexander developed principles and procedures to regain the use of his voice when he lost it at a critical point in his career as a Shakespearean actor. The loss of his voice was not from disease or injury but from misuse and patterns of excessive muscular tension, conditions frequently experienced by instrumental musicians. Alexander Technique is particularly useful for musicians who want to eliminate performance-related pain or who want to enhance their artistry and technique.
(This clinic repeats Thursday at 4:00 p.m.)

5:15 p.m. – Clinic
The Anatomy of Instrumental Conducting
Eugene Corporon
     Performers relate to sound in time. Conductors relate to sound in space. If a conductor is going to present the music proportionately in space he must place himself evenly in the viewing frame of reference. I call this space-forming.
     Conducting is a diverse and highly individual art. No matter how different, their method of presentation all great conductors share the ability to swim in the sound. The designs they draw in the nowhere must convince viewers that they are connected to the sound. The goal is to maintain individuality while showing commonality.
The session will explore these and other topics that help conductors to make a difference in the music making and make it possible for them to create a unique and honest version of the work while making the players’ job easier.
(This clinic repeats Wednesday at 2:30 p.m.)

Wednesday, December 16

8:30 a.m. – Clinic
Creating Interactive Concerts that Engage, Entertain, and Educate
Lawrence Stoffel
     Since 2003 Lawrence Stoffel has produced a concert series titled “Discovery: Music!” These annual interactive concerts for concert band introduce students of all ages, parents, and even seasoned concert goers to the joys of music. In the tradition of Leonard Bernstein’s “Young People’s Concerts” and Wynton Marsalis’s “Marsalis on Music,” these discovery concerts illustrate universal themes in music and focus on the music-making process, from composing and performing to the joys of listening. This clinic session will discuss how these entertaining and educational concerts are constructed. Examples from actual “Discovery: Music!” concerts will be shared, including suggestions as how to select themes and concepts, develop appropriate repertoire, design a captivating printed program, write a script, and other production details.
(This clinic repeats Thursday at 10:00 a.m.)

10:00 a.m. – Clinic
Medical Problems Interfering With Students’ Practice and Performance
Dr. William Dawson
     It’s a rare school orchestra or band rehearsal that finds all musicians in 100% physical shape for playing the music planned by the director. It’s a challenge to continue with scheduled rehearsal and lesson plans, while at the same time avoiding the pitfalls of interfering with a student’s rehabilitation or making a condition worse by demanding more than a student can produce. Practice techniques are most important to serious musicians, and Dawson recommends play-ing or practicing 25 minutes out of every half-hour, resting the other 5 – an accepted technique to minimize or prevent musical overuse. Methods of instrument support to minimize strain are equally important, as well as strategies to produce effective seating and sound and noise control; both topics will be covered in the clinic.

1:00 p.m. – Concert
Clarksville Middle School Wind Ensemble
David Smith
     Conductor David Smith says the hardest thing about preparing for the Midwest has been the amount of music (about 10 pieces) he has had to teach for a 45-minute concert. “The Wind En­semble usually performs three pieces for an adjudication in December, and later I add two seasonal pieces to the program for Hanukkah and Christ­mas. Now, when we get to the fifth piece, it would normally be the last work we play; instead it is only half way through the concert.”
     This Maryland middle school instrumental music program includes some 100 students who play in the wind ensemble, concert band, and a jazz band, which meets before school. Some 80 students take part in orchestra, and several hundred are in choir.
     “Once a band’s name goes up on the Midwest web site, the director is inundated with hundreds of CDs and manuscripts from publishers. Up until October I was still receiving music. In June the school added five extra days to its calendar to make up for snow days from the previous winter, so I used this time to have students begin sightreading through volumes of literature. This helped me decide which selections to include on the Midwest program.” The program includes  saxophone soloist Chris Vadala, who is director of jazz studies and professor of saxophone at the University of Maryland.

4:00 p.m. – Clinic
The Seven Deadly Sins of Low Brass
John Mueller
     Of the problems I correct in college low brass students, 70% began during the students’ earliest band training. The most common problem is bad posture or instrument position. The easiest way to improve the intonation and tone quality of your marching band’s baritone section is to swap marching baritones for bell-front baritone horns.

Thursday, December 17

8:30 a.m. – Clinics
Piccolo Can Make or Break Your Band
Leonard Garrison
     The piccolo is not just a small flute; it has its own tricks of the trade, including special fingerings and a different approach to em-bouchure, tone, and vibrato. Fast air is the key, as airspeed doubles in each octave. Gar-rison will demonstrate some of the high points of the band literature, with solos from pieces by Goldman, Grainger, Persichetti, and Sousa.

Technology in the Practice Room
John Best
     A beginning wind student can practice maintaining a consistent pitch by using a delay effect on the sound. When a student plays, it will sound as if he is playing as a member of his section; however, any intonation fluctuations will be immediately perceived as beats the same way that he would hear himself being out of tune with an ensemble. This allows students to learn both the critical listening required to accurately tune as well as the breath and embouchure control necessary to accomplish maintaining a steady pitch. This can also easily be applied to tuning intervals, because the delay allows for stacking pitches.

The Care and Feeding of the Emerging School Jazz Program
Glenn Williams
     This clinic will include repertoire ideas, curriculum ideas, and logistical tips, including a list of 40 guaranteed repertoire choices. It also offers an assessment practice that leads your students toward mastery of 48 scales and a tip to eliminate conflicts with before-school rehearsals.

10:00 a.m. – Concert
Neuqua Valley H.S. Wind Ensemble
Charles Staley
     The Wind Ensemble read through the music for its Midwest program for the first time on a summer evening in August, then director Charles Staley waited to begin work on the more difficult pieces five weeks later. “The reason we didn’t start immediately is that I used the rehearsal time on the music of Bach to center the ensemble’s sound. Through Bach students develop an ability to understand how their balance and tone issues change based on register and volume, because the higher or the lower the register, depending on the instrument, the tone color changes and that is not good. We are trying to even that out to keep control of the instrument. Bach forces musicians to do all kinds of mental gymnastics to get the balance and the tone colors right. I’m a huge fan of Pablo Casals, and if Bach was good enough for him to study for a lifetime, then it’s good enough for my students to study for a month.” The Neu­qua Valley (Naperville, Illinois) band program includes 11 instructors who teach over 500 students in eight curricular bands; the 200-member marching band is extracurricular.

11:30 a.m. – Clinics
Encouraging Oboists: Tips for Directors
Nora Lewis
     A properly working oboe reed is an essential starting point for development of all fundamentals such as tone, intonation, embouchure, articulation, dynamics, and vibrato. To determine if an oboe reed is suitable for playing, try this quick reed test. Put all of the cane in your mouth, so that the lips touch only the thread. Take a slow and deep breath through the mouth and then blow strongly to produce a robust sound. The reed should respond immediately, vibrate freely, and have the pitch of C in two octaves. If the reed is flat in pitch or if the sound is wobbly and unstable, then the reed should be adjusted or discarded. This process is called crowing the reed, and it gives oboists important information about how well the reed is working. Once placed in the oboe, the qualities of the reed are magnified, so if the reed does not play well on its own, it will not be possible to play the oboe well either. Crow a variety of reeds until you find one that easily crows octave Cs, and then you are ready to sound great.

Repertoire for High School Band
Paul Cummings and Brian Cardany
     The idea of incorporating the wind band’s core repertoire into a high school music curriculum does not have to be a daunting task. Many band directors have addressed the problem by adapting a core repertoire list from an existing source, such as Frank Battisti’s book, The Winds of Change, in which several repertoire lists appear in appendices. Selected works from the list may then be systematically rotated into concert programs so that, over a four-year span, students will rehearse and perform about 12-16 masterworks. The session will also show directors how to complete a grid that maps out the rotation cycle while ensuring that a wide variety of styles and musical challenges are represented.
(This clinic repeats Friday at 1:00 p.m.)

Lessons from the First Two Years of Teaching
Stephen Meyer and Nicholas Conner
     Little did we know there were many experiences and incidents we were unprepared to handle, such as driving a U-Haul Box Truck. This clinic offers insight to future music educators about the things completely unrelated to music education that are apart of the job.

2:30 p.m. – Concert
Kimmel Intermediate School Symphonic Band
Sharon Kalisek
     Director Sharon Kalisek and her assistant Joel Wren never expected their ensemble would be accepted for the Midwest because the band program is so young. Kimmel has been open for only three years. “The first year the band was made up of nearly all seventh graders,” Kalisek says, “so this year we kept working with the students and building their skills in sectionals and rehearsals, held before and after school. Of the 1,500 students at this school in Spring, Texas, 285 are in band, 140 are in chorus, and another 140 are in orchestra.
The band program on the school’s website includes a section titled “How to Practice” that includes the ideas and suggestions of several area music teachers about how to divide up a practice session to make it simpler for students, says Joel. “The majority of beginners come to us in sixth grade and have had no experience in music. A few may have had some piano study or learned about music on the elementary level, but we develop their skills from the ground up.”
     Of the music on the Midwest program, students like Whale Warriors by Brian Balmages (FJH), which is based on the Animal Planet series Whale Wars. The music sets the mood, describing how the ship sails out to open waters with a crew that tries to protect whales from being killed for the Japanese restaurant industry.

Friday, December 18

8:30 a.m. – Concert
Valdosta Middle School Percussion Ensemble
Travis Downs
Director Travis Downs knew he would have a strong percussion ensemble this year. “The most difficult part about teaching beginning percussion is getting students to develop rhythmic skills and internalize a pulse. Both the current seventh- and eighth-grade percussionists progressed extremely quickly as sixth-grade beginners.”
The ensemble commissioned composer Brian Bondari to write a lyrical piece called Inscription to Athena. “Percussionists often hear directors talk to brass and woodwinds about keeping notes connected and smooth. To finally work on sustaining rolls and connecting phrases and playing over the barline, now the percussionists understand what we’re telling the brass and woodwinds about shaping.”
     There are 300 students in band at Valdosta  (Georgia) Middle School, with two bands each for sixth, seventh, and eighth grade. Percussion ensemble is combined seventh and eighth grade.
     Downs believes in including percussion on all warm-up exercises. “Growing up as a percussionist, I was always in the back of the room, and we got the least attention. When I became a band director, I found myself doing the same thing, so I started including percussion in the daily warm-up; while wind players breathe, percussionists work on technique. Students can play rudiments on snare or melodic lines on mallets. I even include timpani. Many middle school timpani parts are simply tonic and dominant, so students spend warm-ups practicing tuning.

8:30 a.m. – Clinic
iPod Use in the Classroom
Kathleen Kerstetter
     There is a concert in a few weeks, and students are reminding you that re-seating challenges are long overdue. Although it may seem that there is not enough time to do both, take a look at that iPod in your pocket – or in your students’ pockets – and think again. You don’t have to have an iPhone or iPod Touch to access recording features of the iPod. Many people overlook the full potential of Apple’s ubiquitous music playback device. Every iPod produced since 2005 that has a screen has some features hidden to average consumers.
Given that one third of teenagers report owning an iPod, wouldn’t it be nice to take full advantage of its uses without adding to your technology budget? And for those of you who are – or are interested in – using an iPod Touch for iPhone in your classrooms, there are many useful music and non-musical apps that can make the iPod an all-in-one musician’s aide.

10:00 a.m. – Clinic
A Legal Primer for Music Teachers
Barry Morgan
     The Sheriff is at your door with a warrant for your arrest that you know contains false al-legations. What steps should you have taken to protect yourself? I’m certainly glad to know in my state that as long as one party to a recording consents, I of course, it is not illegal to tape contact with other people. I am also glad I never meet with a student alone in my office. I have the recordings and the witnesses to prove that the allegations are false. Legal issues relating to music teachers will be presented at this clinic.
(This clinic repeats Friday at 4:00 p.m.)

11:30 a.m. – Concert
Hebron High School Clarinet Choir
Andy Sealy
     Chamber music is becoming a year-round affair at this Carrollton, Texas, high school. The first chamber ensemble was a trombone choir started by the private lessons teacher; and in addition to an established clarinet choir and percussion ensemble, the school has a fledgling brass quintet as well a woodwind quintet that started at the end of marching season. There are also plans to start a jazz ensemble.
     Says director Andy Sealy, “One of our goals with the chamber groups is to do community outreach. The marching band and drum line play at some community events each year, and we want other groups to go to places these cannot. The clarinet choir started from a combination of a talented group of clarinet players that enjoyed performing and a request from a local nursing home for Christmas music.” One highlight of the group’s Midwest performance will be an arrangement of Greensleeves patterned after a large guitar ensemble.

11:30 a.m. – Clinic
Top Tips for Improved Timpani Tone
Mark Yancich
     One of the many aspects of timpani tone this session will explore is stick placement. One tip for good timpani tone is to focus on stick placement on the timpani head. The most common technical error students make is playing too close to the rim. Timpanists are afraid of sounding thuddy, dull, or too percussive, so they tend to shy as far away from the middle of the head as possible. This can result in less-than-ideal position too close to the rim, eliminating the potential for the greatest tone possible. At the rim the tone is thin, like a ponticello effect on a string instrument. Great players pay attention to their position and use a slightly deeper stick placement while using a lifting stroke to obtain a rich, characteristic timpani tone with plenty of ring. All it takes is a little attention to detail.

1:00 p.m. – Concert
Forbes Middle School Honors Band
Jackie Fullerton
     Conductor Jackie Fullerton is in her ninth year of teaching at Forbes, in Georgetown, Texas, and her second year as principal director. Of 650 students who attend the school, nearly half participate in some type of music class, including 140 in the band program. The students audition for the honor band each May, playing three etudes, eight major scales for two oct-aves, and the full chromatic scale.
     Weekly practice reports are an important part of band. “Every week I send the seventh- and eighth-grade students a practice-report log that lists the areas I will be concentrating on in rehearsals. Students check off what they’ve practiced each night, such as such as warm-ups from a warm-up book, passages of certain chorales, a piece of music from measure 13 to measure 36 at a certain tempo, or scales at a certain tempo. The practice sessions are not timed; it’s fine whether a student works for 20 minutes or an hour. A test date is included so everyone can be organized and prepared.”

1:00 p.m. – Clinic
The First 100 Days: What Every Teacher Should Know after Signing the Contract
Anthony Pursell
     Most first-year music teachers are inundated with many nonmusical decisions immediately after they interview and are hired for a position. From health care options, W-2 forms, beneficiary declarations, and retirement plans, the decisions and administrative tasks that are required of new graduates may seem daunting. The clinic offers a plan to implement soon after signing the contract. Divided in to two main components, A Time to Talk and A Time to Work Alone, the topics presented lend themselves to music teachers from all levels and across all disciplines.

Saturday, December 19

8:30 a.m. – Concert
Clear Lake H.S. Wind Ensemble
Joe Muñoz
     Twenty-five years ago to the day, the Clear Lake High School Band played at the Midwest, and this year director Joe Muñoz is returning with school’s Wind Ensemble for a second performance. Some  3,500 pupils attend this Houston school, with 240 participating in the instrumental music program. Students play an audition in May to determine which of four bands they will be in and the first-chair players for each ensemble.
     “It’s a little different this year because students are rotating parts for the Midwest performance to give everyone a chance to play important parts.” Muñoz says parents in the community are well educated and support the arts, and most of his students study privately. “There is a definite understanding of the correlation between academic achievement and participating in the fine arts. We have wonderful support from administrators, who always attend the band’s concerts and contests. At the beginning of the school year, the principal started talking about the Wind Ensemble’s anticipated Midwest performance at faculty meetings and to the entire campus.

The post 2009 Midwest Clinic appeared first on The Instrumentalist.

    These missing notes can be covered by playing the pedal tones on an the E-flat tuba.

    Although an E-flat tuba will also have at least an additional pedal B flat and A, available, it is best to have the BB-flat tuba can pick up where the BB-flat pedals begin. Experienced tubists can produce a continuous range of pedal tones on the BBb tuba, below the piano range to G0, that are consistent in quality and accurate in intonation before the limitations of breath and mouthpiece size end practical tone production.

    It’s best to use one E flat and one BB-flat tuba to specialize in producing these sub-bass tones because all of these tones are actual pedal tones. Directors can also team up an Eb tuba with a C tuba, which is now being included in more American bands. With this instrumentation the E-flat tuba fills in only EE-flat, DD, and DD-flat to bridge to the CC pedal on the C tuba.
    After learning about pedal tones, some tuba students will inadvertently play an in-between sound as they fish for a pedal tone. It is a less-focused tone half way between the fundamental and the first overtone or key tone. Professional players may refer to it as a ghost or fog tone; it is more correct to call it a false pedal.
    For directors who don’t have an Eb tuba, these false pedal tones can fill in the span. The open fog tone is either an EE or an EE flat, depending on the bore of the tuba. If an open false pedal turns out to be E-flat 1, it would be the same tone as the pedal on the Eb tuba. If the open fog tone centers more on an EE, the fingering going down would be a half step lower.
    These false pedals are more effective on a large bore tuba and can provide an alternate way to produce these low tones. Al­though they may feel somewhat unfocused and loose, players can control them through careful practice by comparing their sound to the same tones played an octave higher by another tubist.

Four and Five Valve Tubas
    The same magnificent sub-bass tones made on three valve tubas are also possible on more sophisticated four and five valve tubas. The fourth valve lowers the pitch by a perfect fourth, and the fifth valve usually lowers the pitch by a sharp minor third. It is easier to understand this by thinking of the fourth valve as transforming the instrument to a tuba in low F. In this case, however, the first three valves are woefully short. They need to be one- half times longer to function correctly. The result is severe sharpness that requires adding another half step to the process; this in turn over compensates causing flatness. Thus, the tubist has to correct most of the tones by manipulating the tuning slide. Professional tubists usually use the first valve slide for this purpose. Note that low B0 is not available on the four valve tuba because the half step is added on the way down.

    In an ongoing attempt to correct these problems, instrument makers added a fifth valve that is usually an expanded whole step or a sharp minor third. Each tubist has to decide on the amount of slide pulling he needs to achieve for correct intonation.

Compensating Tubas
    It would be remiss not to mention compensating four valve tubas. The fourth valve lowers the pitch a perfect fourth to FF. The tube is then positioned back through the first three valves, adding tubing to each valve and creating the correct lengths for the FF tuba with the fourth valve depressed. Thus, it is possible for a tubist to play a complete chromatic scale down to the pedal Bb. Although this seems to be the best way to get these sub-bass tones, this compensating BBb tuba has not caught on in the United States, probably because it is expensive, unwieldy, and the longer winding tubing produces a bit of a stuffy sound.

Suggestions for Band Directors
    Band directors should carefully consider both the frequency and the artistic implications of adding these sub-bass sounds. They are slower to respond and require more air to sustain than notes in the general playing range of the tuba, and they should be used only in consecutive tones played slowly and deliberately. Sustained pedal points and climactic chords can be expanded by doubling them; however, their value and effectiveness diminish the more you use them. Fortunately, isolated pedal points are easy to hear and their presence is easy to feel. Listeners can sense a soft, sustained pedal by a single player played against several tubas on the octave above.
    I recommend that only one tuba in a section play in this register, especially if it is a fog tone on a BB-flat instrument, because more care is necessary to center the pitch and lock into the octave above. Over the years my tuba colleagues in the United States Navy Band realized that using only one lip, shifting the embouchure either up or down, provided a firm base from which to initiate the slower oscillations in the tube. My suggestion is that each player experiment and find out which way to adapt his embouchure; the end result may depend on his facial features.

Adding New Sounds
    School band directors interested in adding a sub-bass sound to their ensemble should start their selected players with the open pedals on both the E-flat and BB-flat instruments. First students should work to establish the amount of embou­chure shifting, and then try for good attacks and long tones. The E-flat tubist should work his way down to a pedal C flat, mastering one half step at a time; the BB tubist can try for an pedal A and Ab. By working together they can cover the sub-bass tones to below the piano range.
    If only a three valve BB-flat tuba or Sousaphone is available, the student should begin the same way by practicing the pedal tone using a shifted embouchure. Next, he should find the false pedal by relaxing the regular embouchure sufficiently and determing wehther it is an E or E flat . When the open fog tone is strong, playing down the chromatic scale should be simple and sound satisfactory.
    I propose that directors consider adding these sub-bass tones judiciously to the bottom of a work as one of the  prerogatives of the interpreter – the conductor – in his task of producing an effective performance of a composition. It is a fair assumption that the composer or arranger did not know these tones to be available and would have used them had he known them to be universally available. When the tones are included, doubled at the octave, they are not really new tones in the basic harmony but meant to embellish the bottom line of a work.
    If any doubt remains with busy band directors as to the merits of adding this capability to the tuba section, I suggest you try one experiment. Simply ask one BB-flat tubist to play his open pedal B flat underneath a full B-flat chord with the band. You will hear an entirely new, commanding depth of sound. 

Another option is to track down a double tuba, such as this one owned by Harvard University and played by Sam Pilafian in this photo.

The post Tuba Pedal Tones appeared first on The Instrumentalist.

A Starting Point
    I typically begin with a B flat concert scale in three groups. Students are assigned to three instrument groups based on low, middle, and high voices. Low voices begin playing half notes, and the middle and high groups enter every four beats.
    Early in the year I establish default parameters: a mezzo-forte dynamic and a legato style with a du articulation. This way the warm-up period can begin with no talking as soon as I step on the podium. I vary the tempo to make sure students are watching closely. There are many variations to this exercise. My favorites include changing the entrance order of the groups or dividing students into four groups so a few seventh chords are produced. As students become accustomed to this exercise, I add fermatas on various chords to emphasize the harmonic intonation. Often I pause on the last major second just before the entire group is playing unison B flat.
At other times I designate a single low wind player to be in charge of the pulse for the entire exercise. Students are instructed to listen carefully for this player and follow any tempo changes he makes. The B-flat scale in groups is the starting point for each warm-up period; from there I vary the order and type of exercises daily.

Improving Listening
    During warm-ups, I ask students to consider whether they are producing a characteristic sound on their instruments and if they are beginning to establish a pitch center in relation to others. The relationship between playing with good tone and playing in tune should be monitored by both performer and conductor. I encourage students to spend more time listening to the players around them than to themselves. This is an exaggerated request, but students inherently listen more to themselves than to others, when ideally they should be listening to themselves and those around them with equal intensity. Some directors like to say, “Listen louder and play softer.” The natural outgrowth of these listening skills is proper blend and balance. If needed, I will ask students to close their eyes. Eliminating the visual can temporarily increase listening ability.
    Singing should be a regular part of the warm-up period. Unison pitches can be used to help students get started. Students should use the same syllable and sing at the same volume with good blend, just like they would on their instruments. Alternating between singing and playing will improve students’ ability to sing well and their ability to play with better intonation. When students are accustomed to singing, I will often ask them to hear a pitch in their heads before they play it.
    Occasionally, if I give other instructions before students play, I will ask if they can still hear the pitch. H. Robert Reynolds, retired director of bands at the University of Michigan, believes that 90% of intonation has to do with the performer’s ability to predict accurately the next note. As students become more comfortable and confident in their ability to sing, they should start singing four-part chorales in harmony. I usually have students sing the part for their instrument rather than divide them into their natural voice ranges. The improvement this will have on harmonic intonation when students play the same passage is extraordinary.

Monitoring Progress
    Independent musicianship can only be developed by holding each student responsible for his progress. I use a wide variety of questions to get students thinking about this. After performing a warm-up exercise, I might ask them to rate their playing on a scale of 1-10. Sometimes I permit students to volunteer a response, but other times I call on specific students. I often ask other students whether they agree with a rating and have them explain why. I also have students close their eyes and ask them all to respond to a question by raising their hands or using their fingers to indicate a scale of 1-5. With their eyes closed, students are not influenced by the responses of others. By frequently asking students questions about their performance, they learn to pay attention to and be responsible for their sound and the ensemble’s sound.

Hand Signals
    The warm-up period can run more efficiently through the use of hand signals. This keeps students engaged, because everyone has to watch closely. It also permits students to listen and react to musical sounds instead of spoken instructions. During the first few exercises, I cup my left hand and place it on my diaphragm to remind students to support their sound.
    Similarly, I will point across my body with my left hand and slowly push it in an arc to remind students to keep air moving fast so they can produce a vibrant sound.
    I use the analogy of an air conditioning system in which the fan never shuts off. The air must continue to move or the music will become stale.
If the band is struggling to tune a unison pitch, then I will use a hand signal to indicate pitch bending. I visually alert students by placing my fists out with my thumbs pointing toward the center.

    As I turn my thumbs down, students use their embouchures to make the pitch go flat.

I then turn my thumbs slowly back up to the center while students similarly bring the pitch back up to the center of their sound. This exercise improves both the overall pitch center as well as ensemble sound.
    When tuning chords, we often use dissonance to contrast the stability of the consonance that we are working for. I place my hands together on top of one another with my palms flat to the floor and then spread them apart.


Warm-Up Exercises
Four Quarters Per Pitch
    Students play four quarter notes on each pitch of a major scale ascending and descending. The conductor varies the tempo, style, and dynamics using gestures. The exercise forces students to keep their eyes on the conductor during the entire exercise so they can react to frequently changing gestures. Over time, this improves responsiveness to the conductor’s visual cues. This exercise is also helpful when students are learning a new scale. By playing four quarters on each pitch, students have time to think ahead to each new pitch. Possible variations include inserting a measure of rest between each pitch or varying the time signature for each note of the scale. Frequently changing the time signature teaches players to recognize various beat patterns.

Remington Exercises
    These were developed by Emory Remington, who taught trombone at the Eastman School of Music. Most commonly, band members play a concert F in the middle range of their instruments. On the conductor’s cue, students descend a half step and then return to F on a second cue. The band descends again, each time adding a half step to the descending interval until the band reaches B flat.

    If the band struggles to lock the intonation of any given note, I use the hand signal for bending unison pitches. We also frequently sing the next pitch before playing it. The exercise can be expanded into a B-flat chord Remington.

Chord Detuning
    I learned this exercise from Dennis Glocke, director of bands at Penn State University. Each student selects the root, third, or fifth of a B-flat major chord. Low winds should always play the root; all other players should vary the note they play on any given day. The exercise begins by playing the major chord in tuning order: root, fifth, third. Each note should sound steady and beatless before adding the next tone.
    When the major chord is tuned, the director uses hand signals to detune the triad. The left hand indicates which note will move next, and the right hand signals when to move. The third is lowered a half step first to produce a minor triad, then the fifth is lowered to make it diminished. Finally, the root is lowered to return to a major triad. It is important to give each chord time to lock in tune before changing to the next.

Bach Chorales
 The 16 Bach Chorales arranged by Mayhew Lake are still a favorite of many directors. I use Chorale 12 frequently because it is largely diatonic and scored in a comfortable range for all players. Early in the year I isolate each respective voice part so players can hear their line separately. Next, we combine two voices to create simple intervals. I use the players not performing to evaluate the other players. When the pitch center of each line is secure, we focus on overall harmonic integrity, especially at cadences. We tune major and minor triads in many different ways, such as using hand signals for dissonance or by having students sing and then play their notes. I look forward to the point in the year at which the entire ensemble can sing full phrases in four-part harmony.

    Students can select any note up to a whole step above or beneath their respective chord tone, which produces an extremely dissonant cluster chord. It is important that students play with the same tone and dynamic as the original chord. I then bring my hands back together to indicate a return to the original chord tones. Students’ ears are instantly drawn to the consonance of the pure intervals, and the harmonic intonation usually locks in quickly.
    The warm-up period must reestablish the musical, mental, and social-emotional connections between performers and conductor. It is similar to a diagnostic test in that the conductor and performers have to check all of the connections to make sure they are working properly. A warm-up routine that is simply repeated on a daily basis may prepare players physically for rehearsal, but it is unlikely to prepare them mentally or musically. The warm-up period should focus on teaching students to think independently and play musically as well as establish the standards for the rehearsal that follows.           

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James Barnes
     When I was in the ninth grade (1964), I bought the Eastman Wind Ensemble LP British Band Classics. My introduction to Holst’s First Suite in E flat for Military Band was Frederick Fennell’s masterful interpretation of the work, so I suppose my opinion of it started at the top. It is a wonderful piece, but certainly not on the same creative level as Florent Schmitt’s incredibly demanding Dion­ysiaques, which was composed in 1913 for the Garde Republicaine Band in Paris. The beauty of Holst’s First Suite, however, is that it is simply cast and straightforward but still it retains musical and artistic integrity. Any good high school band can play the work, but it can also be played by the finest professional band without batting an eye. That is wonderful.
     Having conducted more performances and rehearsals of the First Suite than I can recall, I have a few suggestions about performing the work.
     1. The version edited by Colin Matthews is best to use because the 1948 Americanized version is a mess. Use cornets if you have them. The trumpet parts are not essential, and all they do is mess up the cornet lines. Don’t double the alto and tenor saxophone parts, and the baritone saxophone isn’t necessary either.
     2. The first movement is not a Chaconne but a passacaglia. The British have always gotten this backwards. A chaconne is a set of variations on a chord progression, as in the last movement of Brahms’s 4th Symphony. A passacaglia, on the other hand, is a set of variations on a ground bass, which precisely describes this movement. It is a set of 15 variations on the opening measures, which are played by tubas and euphoniums. Most conductors take this first movement too rapidly, and I pay more attention to the moderato than the Allegro in the tempo marking. At too fast a tempo the first movement loses majesty and profundity; it runs right over the dark sonorities and takes the drama out of the movement.
     3. The Intermezzo is a tiny masterpiece of dancing and joy that is just about as clever as it can be. It is my favorite movement. The way Holst weaves all these different motives together at the end of the movement is remarkable. Play this as lightly as possible and don’t spare the tempo – it truly is a Vivace.
     4. Even in the Matthews version, some editing of the opening little march in the “B band” needs some extra dynamics; otherwise, this rather long passage has a rather dull sameness about it. Don’t slow down at letter A as the “Elgar melody” comes into play after the key change. This is done all the time, but it is a poor choice. If Holst wanted it to be slower, he would have indicated it so. Eight measures after D the low woodwinds and low brass should cut beat one short along with the rest of the band or it sounds sloppy. I think this was just an editing oversight on Holst’s part; I cannot imagine his wanting half the band playing through the melodic cutoff.

James Barnes is professor of music and division director of music theory and music composition at the Uni­versity of Kansas.

Frank Ticheli
     Twenty-five years later, my memory still rings from the experience. It was late spring of 1984. I was 26, a graduate student playing trumpet in the University of Michigan Symphony Band under Bob Reynolds. We were on our European tour and had been in Italy for two weeks as performers in La Scala’s production of Stockhausen’s opera Samstag aus Licht (Saturday from Light).
     We needed a break, both spiritually and tonally, and off we went to perform a side concert at Florence’s Maggio Musicale. Some Strauss, some Hindemith, and then Bob’s assistant conductor, Larry Rachleff, ascended the podium to conduct Holst’s Suite in E flat – business as usual.
     But at the first movement’s climax, something  happened. Larry’s face turned a bit more intense than usual, he spontaneously stretched the ritardando just a bit further than usual, goaded us to play just a bit more passionately than usual. We went with it, and suddenly, without warning, something happened. All at once, I felt I was being transported, floating, hovering. The moment was almost otherworldly. My hair stood on end.
     By intermission I began to suspect it was all in my head. Maybe nothing magical really happened. After all, it was just the Holst suite, a work we’d all played many times before. But as I looked into the eyes of my fellow musicians, I knew it was real. We all did. Some asked, “Did you feel that?” “What just happened?” Some didn’t say a word, preferring to savor the moment in silence with that dazed, deer-in-the-headlights look that said more than words could express.
     The magic has happened many times since then. Like that evening with Holst’s music in Florence, it is never planned. It shows up like a stray cat when you least expect it. You enjoy it while it lasts and you thank your lucky stars that you are a musician.

Frank Ticheli is professor of composition at the Uni­ver­sity of Southern California Thornton School of Music.

H. Robert Reynolds
     The First Holst suite has been on my all-time  favorites list ever since I first heard Frederick Fennell conduct it with my band at Long Beach State. It was the concluding composition on my final concert at the University of Michigan and remains close to my heart. I have conducted the piece many, many times and look forward to doing it again in the future and whenever possible.
     This remarkable composition is filled with numerous goodies of compositional skill, but the heart and soul of it is the reason it has captured my heart and soul for so long. The fact that it came to the band repertoire without previous original compositions of high-quality band music is a sign of Holst’s genius as a composer. With one piece he changed the destiny of band music forever and provided a model for other composers to follow when they compose original music for bands. Our entire profession will always be profoundly grateful to Gustav Holst.

H. Robert Reynolds is adjunct professor of conducting at the University of Southern California Thornton School of Music. It is a position he has held since retiring from the University of Mich­igan after 26 years of teaching.

John Locke
     I was in the 10th grade at South Charleston High School in West Virginia playing trombone when I had my first opportunity to perform the Holst First Suite. The school year was 1967-68. My band director and mentor was A.E. Pete Raspillaire, and our high school concert band was the very best in the state. In fact, we performed at the West Virginia Music Educators Conference that year and played the Holst First Suite. I still have the recording. I owe so much to my high school band director for performing great music like the Holst, among others. He was also a trombonist and my private teacher. I believe I had heard the piece previously when my older brother performed it in the All-State band, but hearing it and paying it are completely different experiences.
     I can vividly remember sitting in my high school band room rehearsing the Suite and thinking that the third movement, the march, was the best music I had ever played in band. It was such a thrill. I can remember singing or whistling the tune after leaving the band room walking all the way to my father’s store where I worked after school. My father passed away in the spring of 1968, about a month before we performed at the state convention. Ironically, he was born in 1909, the same year that Holst wrote the First Suite. Some things you never forget.
     Is this the greatest work ever written for band? Probably not, but it is among the most influential, especially in establishing the basic band instrumentation. I think Frederick Fennell said it best in commenting that the Holst Suite in Eb was like an old, dear friend and he could not conceive of life without it.
     As I became a little older, I realized for myself what Fennell was talking about. I also realized that the only thing better than playing trombone on that piece is the opportunity to conduct it and introduce it to new generations of musicians.

John Locke is professor of music at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro where he has conducted  the wind ensemble since 1982.

David Holsinger
     If there is any composition for band that I perform too much, this piece is probably the one. It is bad enough that I seem to program it at the university every seven semesters, but I can’t seem to go on the road in the spring without playing it with two or three high school bands every year. Admittedly, some of my ardor was revitalized several years ago when I asked an All-State group of 112 members how many had played the First Suite in their home bands and three hands went up – all from the same school. Shame, shame, shame!
     This is a magnificent piece. I love the Chaconne; it has the world’s greatest last chord. The Intermezzo is absolutely perfect in its whimsy and melodic interplay. The March is perfectly British. All young conductors who have relegated this work to the old music pile should probably reexamine their career choice. This may be the first great band work of the 20th century.

David Holsinger is a composer and director of the wind ensemble at Lee University, Cleveland, Tennessee.

Craig Kirchhoff
     My experience with this great masterwork extends nearly 44 years to my high school days at John Marshall Junior-Senior High School in Milwaukee. Michael Yindra, my high school band director whose inspirational teaching and passion for music making remain an inspiration to me, introduced us to the Holst in the Spring of 1966. Our spring performance of the First Suite was later included on a record of selected performances from the school year. I haven’t listened to that recording in years, but I can distinctly remember thinking that this piece of music was very powerful and different from many of the pieces that we played that year.
     As a junior flute player I certainly didn’t know what a chaconne was, had no understanding of the concept of inversion, nor was I aware of the connection of E-flat major, C minor, and C major, yet this music resonated very strongly within me. It was not until my first encounter with Frederick Fennell at a conducting symposium in the Summer of 1974 in Madison, Wisconsin that I began to comprehend the structural genius of this score and the importance of this structure as the primary unifying element of the Suite that must guide and inspire every rehearsal.
     The University of Minnesota Wind Ensemble performed the Holst in October of this year to honor the 100th anniversary of its creation. I return to this work with great joy and enthusiasm every time. I never tire of its challenges, its depth, and its powerful simplicity of form and orchestra. I’m sure that if I were to revisit that 1966 John Marshall Junior-Senior High School recording, it would reveal that we didn’t capture all details. Perhaps there could have been more emphasis on the unifying suspensions and resolutions throughout the work.
     Perhaps our limitations as instrumentalists resulted in the opening chaconne statement being played as two, four-measure phrases rather than one eight-measure phrase. We certainly did not play each movement without pause because that important note from Holst’s manuscript score never appeared in the early Boosey & Hawkes plates.
     I have no doubt, however, that another hearing of this recording would reveal that we, indeed, captured the spirit and essence of Holst’s intentions. This defines the magic and mystery of this great masterpiece. It can inspire and motivate the high school instrumentalist, and it can inspire and challenge the artistry and the creativity of the experienced musician on many musical levels. My recent journey in October with this wonderful old friend with my colleagues in the University of Minnesota Wind Ensemble, once again, proved this to be true.

Craig Kirchhoff is director of bands and professor of conducting at the University of Minnesota.

Michael Haithcock
    English Folk Song SuiteHolst’s First Suite remains one of my repertoire favorites as it represents both great craft and ingenious substance. The lack of continuous tutti playing throughout is in stark contrast to the expectations of the day (see Vaughan Williams ) and continues to serve as a model of effective orchestration for musical purposes as does the way the germinating three-note idea is explored fully in each movement.
     The proportion of tempos is extremely important to the character of the Suite. Keep the first movement moving in an English chorale style. Slow and expansive may feel romantic, but this is not a form that benefits from excessive rubato. Keep the second movement brisk and avoid the temptation to  slow down for technical safety. Investigate the myth that English marches are stoic and reserved, such as the change of guards at Buckingham Palace. The last movement should be more like a folk dance than a ceremony for the Queen.

Michael Haithcock is professor of conducting and director of bands at the University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre & Dance.

Stephen Peterson
     It is difficult to remember a favorite performance of this great piece. As it turns out, my favorite
performance of the Holst is the one I am working on at the time. I always look forward to experiencing and sharing the Holst. Its elegance can be found in its simplicity and Holst’s masterful use of the main motive throughout.
     The beauty and patience with  which the Chaconne unfolds is unmatched in band literature, and stands among all music literature with no apology. There are moments of pure joy within the suite that I always look forward to, and of which I never tire. That is the mark of a masterwork.

Stephen Peterson is director of the wind ensemble at Ithaca College, Ithaca, New York.

Timothy Mahr
  Holst’s First Suite was a favorite of my predecessor at St. Olaf College, Miles Johnson. He structured month-long study tours to the British Isles for the St. Olaf Band. In large part he believed the Holst was part of the bedrock upon which the bands of his time were built, and that we students should experience the work as thoroughly and as viscerally as possible. During the 1977 tour, he arranged to have Imogen Holst come to our rehearsal and take us through each movement, stopping often to tell us how her father liked a particular phrase shaped or a specific movement to be articulated. I remember many things from that rehearsal, but to this day I wish that we had recorded every moment of that experience.
     I marvel at how this work, so often abused and maltreated by well-intended conductors, has stood against their assault and endeared itself to many generations of performers and audience members. Truly, in the hands of top-notch performers and an unselfish conductor, the work offers a strong model to composers for expressive, economical writing and to all who hear it as music that transcends the mundane to shine a light on what the band is capable of being.

Timothy Mahr is professor music at St. Olaf College, Northfield, Minnesota, where he is conductor of the St. Olaf Band.

Robert Rumbelow
     This is one of my all-time favorite band compositions because of its elegant compositional design. It is truly a work of master craftsmanship from an inspired  composer. I’m attracted in a number of ways to this core work of the band repertoire on both its compositional and musical merits.
     I continue to be intrigued that the work isn’t difficult in terms of technique, yet offers tremendous opportunities in mature music making. This is one of the works I use for conducting students in both analytical and gestural study. I do so in part because it never fails to amaze students (and me) how tightly integrated the entire work is from such modest tonal and rhythmic motives. The connections within the work and the perfectly paced dramatic evolution set it in a class by itself. The genius of Holst is apparent throughout, and this fact isn’t lost on performers or audiences.
     Once discovered, there are many thoughtful compositional elements that dramatically influence its performance. Two of my favorites in the Chaconne deal with the drama Holst creates with rhythmic hemiola, and the orchestration realities of the last chord that links to the second movement. The two-beat feel within the 3/4 time creates musical stress in a variety of ways. It is interesting to discover and clarify the smaller moments aside from the obvious two feel at rehearsal letter D and the two groupings that delay and intensify the climax of the movement (letter F). I regard the little motive in measures 87-89 (2nd clarinet and alto sax) as an important example, and work for clear articulation. The two feel is one of the psychological reasons that trombones sometimes miss their entrance in measure 88.
     Another point to share in first movement is the orchestration of the final chord with only two thirds (unfortified intentionally) in the E-flat major triad. In my mind, Holst was obviously creating an orchestration of compelling resonance based on the sonic qualities of the perfect fifth to ring in the hall between the first and second movements. Not only are the movements harmonically related, but the orchestration itself takes care of the link between the two movements.        Trying to balance the 3rd in the chord robs Holst of his resonant orchestration. There are a wealth of unusually interesting details to discover, and I love sharing them with performers in the process of rehearsal and with listeners through each performance.

Robert Rumbelow is conductor and director of wind ensemble activities at Columbia State University’s Schwob School of Music, Columbus, Georgia.

Loras John Schissel
     We could pay tribute to this staple of the concert band repertoire by taking out scores and studying them as if for the very first time. While I’m always delighted to see and hear this work on concert programs, I am often puzzled that it feels as though I’m listening to the old Mercury Eastman Wind Ensemble recording of it. A higher tribute to the work would be to forget everyone else’s interpretation and forge our own based on what Mr. Holst gave us. There are all sorts of delights and surprises in this classic. They are there for those who choose to look.

Loras John Schissel is the music director and conductor of the Virginia Grand Military Band and the Cleveland Orchestra’s Blossom Festival Band.

Frank Battisti
     It is always a pleasure to conduct the Holst First Suite. I’ve been involved in performances of this piece for 60 years, first as a high school band player in 1949 and then as a conductor since 1959. Through a combination of a wealth of imagination and economy of notes, Holst achieves a classic balance between musical content and form in this work. The First Suite, along with the Second Suite, are the Haydn symphonies of band literature and the foundation of the great repertoire of works created for band during the 20th century and the first decade of this century. It was a special privilege to conduct the International Youth Wind Orchestra in a performance of Holst’s First Suite at the WASBE conference in Cincinnati last July during the 100th anniversary year of its composition.

Frank Battisti founded and directed the wind ensemble of the New England Conservatory of Music for 30 years.

Bruce Moss
     Much has been written that does not need to be reiterated about the significance of this great suite for band. Detailed analyses and papers abound, not only on the theory and structure of the work, but on how to approach the many inherent conducting issues.
     What I find so appealing is the magnitude of what can be taught through this work – the sheer impact of the piece from an educational standpoint. It is a great work for the conductor as teacher. From form and analysis, to musical tone, to  stylistic nuance, to ensemble blend and balance, the suite is packed with teaching material in every way. As often as it is studied and performed, it still has room for individual interpretations. It fits so many types of concert and contest programs.
     Bob Reynolds programmed it on his final concert at Michigan. Frederick Fennell recorded it with the Eastman Wind Ensemble on his Mercury series. When a musical work has staying power, as this work does, it usually is a winner for many reasons. This work is a fine example.

Bruce Moss is professor of music and director of band activities at Bowling Green State University in Ohio.     

A Discenting View
Mark Camphouse
I don’t consider the Holst First Suite to be great, per se. It is most definitely a cornerstone of band literature and history, but it is a rather minor work compared to his orchestral and choral music. I believe band directors will conduct the First Suite more effectively if they explore andvvvvthe symphonies and choral music of Vaughan Williams. I respect the First Suite as a fine and important work for band, but please, let’s keep it’s significance in proper perspective. In many respects, I actually prefer the Second Suite.

Mark Camphouse is interim chairman of conducting and composition at George Mason University, Fairfax, Virginia.

Have a performance tip or a favorite memory of Holst’s First Suite?
E-mail us: editor@theinstrumentalist.com

The revised edition of First Suite in E flat, edited by Colin Matthews, was published by Boosey & Hawkes in 1984.

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