Bladder Pads
    Of the many brands and variations of bladder pads, the most common are pads that have bevelled shoulders and those that have angled shoulders,  designed with the back part of the pad inside the key cup and the shoulders outside the key cup. Non­bevelled pads are made to be almost entirely recessed within the key cup; they are often used for oboes and piccolos. Larger flute pads have a hole in the center. There are also single- or double-skin pads. (top photo of Bevelled Bladder Pads; bottom photo of Nonbeveled Bladder Pads.)

   Bladder pads are made with three components: a piece of wool felt that conforms to the shape of the tonehole; a cardboard backing that gives strength and durability to the pad; and a piece of sheep’s bladder (sometimes called fish skin) that wraps around the felt and is glued to the cardboard, giving the pad an airtight seal.
     Soft-felt bladder pads, which are made with woven felt, are used on many clarinets imported from Asia or are sold as emergency pads, such as the ones found in many band director catalogs. Semi-firm pads are made with woven or pressed felt, and firm-felt bladder pads, which I prefer, are made with pressed felt.
     The felt in bladder pads easily conforms to toneholes. Older pads usually have an indentation in the pad, called a seat, showing the outline of the tonehole. Firm-felt pads show little seat and retain their original shape. Con­se­quently, they last longer and feel firmer than the other types of bladder pads.
Installing new pads takes patience and care because the tonehole has to be level and the pad parallel to the tonehole. If it is not parallel, the pad will leak air and cause the instrument to play poorly or not at all. Con­sequently, pads should be installed only by qualified band instrument repair technicians.

    Soft-felt pads show a deep indentation made by the tonehole, making it obvious that they can cover a multitude of sins, such as uneven toneholes  and poor installation. The shape of soft-felt pads usually becomes distorted, and larger pads often show a mushrooming quality in the center of the tonehole-seat because of the softness of the felt.
    This mushroom can extend into the tonehole when the key is open, causing less air to escape the tonehole and making the note sound stuffy. These pads also have a mushy feel on the open keys, especially when they aren’t installed parallel to the tonehole. If they hit the tonehole in one spot on the pad before another, the first spot will give a little until the lower area hits, producing an insecure feel to the pad and forcing the player to push the key harder to make it seal.
    Carpet beetle larvae like the wool felt in bladder pads. When instrument cases are stored for a long period of time, you can sometimes see bites taken out of the bladder pads. This can ruin the seal of the pad. Some­times the shells of larvae turn up in instrument cases, left from when they matured into adults. When you see these ominous signs of carpet beetle larvae, the clarinet should be re­padded and the case replaced to prevent a re-occurrence.

Cork Pads
    Cork pads are made from the bark of cork oak trees grown in Portugal. It may seem hard to imagine, but regularly trimming bark from a cork tree contributes to the longevity of the tree, making its life three times longer. Most cork used for woodwind instruments, such as tenon corks, is cross-grain cut, showing the pores. The best cork for cork pads is shive-cut, with the pores running horizontally, eliminating air leakage through the pores.

    Cork pads are extremely firm and show little or no seat from the tonehole; because of this firmness players can’t push the key harder to get a poorly fit pad to seal. The toneholes have to be free of chips or distortions that might cause air to leak, and the pads have to be absolutely level to seal the tonehole. To fit a cork pad to the tonehole, the part of the pad that sits inside the key-cup is bevelled, keeping the pad in a position exactly parallel to the tonehole. The bevelling is done by hand sanding the top edge of each pad.
    Cork pads cost more than bladder pads because of the time-consuming, skilled hand work necessary to bevel  and float each pad correctly. On the positive side, cork pads don’t distort because of their firmness. They are extremely durable, resist wear much better than bladder pads, and can easily last 20 or 30 years. They are impervious to moisture and to the carpet beetle larvae that love to eat the wool felt in bladder pads.
     Denatured alcohol or water easily cleans cork pads of cork grease or sticky foods. Although their firmness gives players a secure feel, these pads can make more noise for players when the key is pushed down. The smooth, hard surface of cork pads allows air to escape the tonehole easily, making normally stuffy notes play much more clearly and freely. This is called venting.
     Cork pads are traditionally used for the clarinet register key because of this excellent venting characteristic, and because the cork holds up so much longer than bladder pads that touch the metal vent-tube of the register tonehole.

Synthetic Pads
    Many types and brands of synthetic pads are made from a variety of materials, especially those used on student clarinets. Most of these pads are nonbevelled and designed to sit inside the pad cup. They are available in white to look like bladder pads or in tan to look like cork pads. The saxophone pads are brown but don’t look at all like leather. I have seen the old red emergency pads on clarinets from band director emergency repair kits that should have been replaced long ago.
    One type of pad is made of semi-firm synthetic material and has an adhesive backing. These pads are usually sold to band directors as part of rather expensive repair kits and are helpful as a quick fix when a pad falls out and the student needs the instrument for a rehearsal. The director pulls off a piece of paper to expose the adhesive, then inserts the pad into the pad cup, pressing the back of the key-cup so the pad forms a seat with the tonehole making the clarinet playable.
    The pad material has some give, so the key has somewhat of a mushy feel; if the player pushes the key down firmly, it will seal. These pads actually hamper good technique in the long term because pushing a key harder to get it to seal slows finger movement. This is only an emergency pad, and it should be replaced by a professional repair technician who will be sure a new pad is level with the tonehole.
    Professional repair technicians use another type of pad made with the same synthetic material, but it has a paper backing. It has to be slipped into position with some type of glue to make it level with the tonehole. When a pad is level, it hits the tonehole in the back, front, and sides all at the same time; it feels as firm and secure as a good firm bladder pad without any kind of mushy feel.

Heat and Synthetic Pads
    A synthetic pad costs about the same as a bladder pad. It takes about the same amount of time and effort to install, so labor costs should be about the same, although many repair technicians charge more because synthetic pads are new. Repair technicians have to be careful of the heat used to slip in and seat the pad because the synthetic material melts at a lower temperature than bladder or cork pads. An overheated synthetic pad causes too deep of a seat, making the pad stick as it rubs the edges of the tonehole; it also distorts the sound coming out of the instrument. Adding even more heat transforms the pad into a melted mess – something to avoid.
    Because these pads are made of a synthetic material, they are durable, easy to clean with water or denatured alcohol, and they hold their shape through years of use; they aren’t susceptible to insect damage or humidity change. These pads work well for clarinet register keys and bassoon high notes that normally require cork pads. They don’t feel as firm or vent as well as cork pads, acting more like bladder pads. If a player correctly swabs his clarinet after each use, synthetic pads can last for years, which is also true of bladder pads.
    Musicians tend to be conservative people – just try to get a professional clarinetist to try a brand of clarinet other than the one he has played for years. Even though synthetic pads may be superior in many ways, manufacturers and technicians are slow to change to them.

Piccolo and Flute Pads
    Although piccolos are manufactured with nonbevelled bladder pads, I prefer synthetic pads for them.  These instruments often are used only for marching band in the fall (and occasionally in the spring), then put on the shelf for the rest of the year. Bladder pads on these instruments ex­pand and contract with seasonal hu­midity changes, making them continuously go out of adjustment. It doesn’t take much change in humidity for piccolo pads to leak. Synthetic pads don’t change significantly with temperature of humidity variations.
    Flutes are padded differently than  the other woodwinds. They use non-bevelled pads that sit almost entirely within the pad cup, and the pads are secured with screws and washers, not by glue (except for the high C key and two trill keys). The pads are levelled to the toneholes by adding paper shims of various thicknesses.
    While flutes come from the factory with bladder pads, I’ve overhauled several flutes and had good success experimenting with synthetic pads. One problem with flute keys is that they are made of soft metal  so the key cups easily get bent out of level with the toneholes. I plan to keep traditional bladder pads in stock for play-condition repairs that only require a few replacement pads so they look and sound like the rest of the pads, but I’ll continue to recommend synthetic pads for repad­ding an entire instrument.
    An expensive, high-end variation of the bladder pad can be used on professional flutes; the instrument’s tone­holes have to be extremely level for them to work. They use plastic shims instead of paper to eliminate dimensional change in the shims. An overhaul with these pads can cost more than $1,000, and a repair technician has to be trained by the pad maker before he can use them.

Oboe Pads
     Most student-model oboes come equipped with bladder pads. Humid­ity-caused pad leaks, the oboe’s fragility, and the less-than-careful treatment that most school-owned instruments get cause oboes to be sent into the shop a lot.
    Better oboes come from the factory with cork pads on all keys except the lower four (low C#, C, B, and B flat), which have bladder pads because cork pads don’t work on the larger keys. Cork-padding helps a lot, but I also like to put synthetic pads on the low four keys because these pads seem to go out of adjustment and leak easily.
    Using humidity-stable synthetic pads on these four keys seems to make the low notes play better, longer. They are also a lower-cost alternative to cork pads on the upper keys.

Pads for Clarinets
    Most clarinets are still manufactured with bladder pads, except for the register key, whose metal vent tube causes bladder pads to deteriorate.  Register key pads are traditionally cork, although many manufacturers now use synthetic pads.
    Many clarinetists repad their professional instruments with cork pads, except for the lower four keys: low G#, F#, F, and E, which are generally bladder pads. Cork pads vent much better than bladder pads, thus giving a freer feel to the playing, and they give players a firm, secure feel on notes with open keys. They last many times longer than bladder pads, making it well worth the added expense to cork-pad a good clarinet.
    A former Army repair technician at West Point used to repad the band’s plastic clarinets that it used for marching with synthetic pads, making them playable in any type of weather – rain, snow, or sunshine. This might be a good idea for all marching band clarinets. This technician used only cork pads on the band’s professional clarinets because of their firm feel.
    Another repair technician in North Carolina specializes in professional clarinets and uses cork pads on most of the keys and synthetic pads on the lowest four keys (G#, F#, F, E) because of the stability of these pads. He says they feel as firm as a firm-felt bladder pad, but once they are set level, they stay that way, regardless of humidity changes.
    I repadded my own professional clarinet about 15 years ago, replacing the closed keys (trills A and G#, chromatic B flat/E flat, D flat/A flat, chromatic B/F#) with cork pads and the open keys (ring keys and the lower four keys) with a firm-felt double-skin, bevelled bladder pad. The cork pads allow the closed keys to vent better, getting rid of the stuffy, flat sound.  Bladder pads on the open keys are quieter than cork pads when I play those keys, but the firm felt still gives a solid feel to the pad.
    To keep the pads of a woodwind in good shape, looking and feeling like they did as a new instrument, I suggest   students clean their mouth before they play and  carefully swab out the instrument after each use. The pads will continue to look, feel, and play as though they are new.

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    These deviations also appear in other areas of percussion performance, such as keyboard percussion. They also may occur in combination, and you might notice the simultaneous existence of more than one of these bad habits.
Simply introducing and demonstrating correct hand position to students only in the beginning is not likely to produce the desired results. Teachers should continue monitoring and correcting hand position each class period until they believe that it has become a stable habit. Failing to do this could result in the future development of one or more poor habits, as well as eventual frustration on the part of students and teachers alike.

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Pitch and Hand Position
     The point of this history is to show that hand position was always applied in the context of changing pitch through hand stopping, prior to playing the valve horn. This is true both chronologically in history and by pedagogical choice, even after the development of valves. Therefore the hand position should reflect its origins with the hand horn. An historically correct hand position begins with the mandate for changing pitch. Kling ex­plained the mandate:

The player must endeavor to produce these Stopped Notes as clearly as possible, and the difference in tonal quality between these and the Natural Tones must be equalized as much as possible; the Stopped Tones must not sound as though a cloth had been introduced into the instrument.

This mandate to change pitch should also include a minimal difference between open and closed tones.
     Because of a resurgence in historically informed performance on the natural horn, there is little doubt that the hand position should make the sound about a quarter-step flatter than with the hand out of the bell. If the hand is too far out, the tones are too dissimilar; if the hand is too far in, the tone is too covered.
     Extending the inside of the convex bell with a concave hand at a spacing of about two inches produces a sound that is neither too open nor closed with a stable scale, particularly in the upper register. To facilitate quick pitch changes outside the natural harmonics, the hand has to open and close like a door with the knuckles acting as hinges.
     Modern professional horn players use the same hand movement to fine tune individual notes, produce a tightly stopped brassy sound, or give the impression of distance with a loose seal of the bell producing an echo horn effect. The same movement is also used at the periphery of the range with the hand more open in the low register so the notes are stronger and clearer and more closed in the extreme upper register to stabilize the pitches.

Good Hand Position

    
    Ideally the hand should also be in a position to hold the horn off the leg or to stand; however, there is also a small and waning school of horn playing that uses a different hand position better suited for sitting and playing with the bell on the leg. To hold the bell off the leg, support it on the thumb and index finger with the thumb positioned at 12 o’clock and the finger knuckles pressed against the side of the bell at 3 o’clock.
     The optimum hand position is historically correct and fully functional for quick hand horn movements. It allows hornists to stand for performance or for playing with the instrument off the leg, while producing a stable and in tune scale with a tone that has the same amount of openness as the open notes on the hand horn. These are the historic parameters that form the basis for the modern hand position.

Typical Problems for Beginners
     Because most beginning horn players are too small in size for the instrument, starting them with the correct right-hand position is asking a lot. These students often end up using some kind of contorted playing position because the distance between the mouthpiece and the bell is fixed; many of them struggle with the weight of the horn, initially putting it on the leg, perpendicular to the floor because their left shoulder can’t support the instrument if it is held across the chest. This can make the right arm position more difficult because it comes from a different angle at the bottom instead of from the side.
     Additionally, holding the bell correctly in place takes resolve and hand strength, which is difficult with an undersized hand. The right hand in­evitably follows the path of least resistance and drifts closed over the bell or to a point on the bell where it has no effect. This is exacerbated when students, whose legs are shorter than adults, have to sit at the edge of a seat with an inclined leg and the bell slipping off.

Waiting Helps
     It is easy to underestimate the difficulty students have with getting the hand in the right position, which is why it is important to wait. If newcomers to the instrument are not successful in the first couple of months, they will inadvertently ingrain bad habits into their playing that may take an inordinate amount of time to correct.
     The best practice is to introduce the right-hand position as soon as it is feasible to do it well. Depending on the students’ ages, their size, and strength, I suggest waiting two to five months before attempting the correct right-hand position. Before using the right hand, beginning horn players should grasp the bell around the rim toward the bottom, giving their ears time to become familiar with the clarity of the instrument’s sound without the hand in the bell.
     Another danger is waiting too long to introduce the right hand because the ear becomes accustomed to a sound that is too open and the players develop a habit of ignoring the right hand. This recommendation comes from having seen teachers introduce the right hand at every stage possible, from the beginning to the end of the first year. Once the learning curve kicks in and the basics of holding and playing the horn are underway, teachers can turn their attention to the task of using the right hand.

Listening for Good Sound
    The difficulty is that most teachers think students are using the right hand correctly when they aren’t. There are several audible signs to listen for. First, the sound should be neither too open nor too closed. Second, the sound should be clear – regardless of the degree of openness. Problems develop if the hand is poorly formed or the fingers become curled, even though everything looks perfect from the outside. Believe your ears – not your eyes – if you know what to listen for.
    Also, ignore the common adage, “Cup your hand like you are drinking water,” because it leads to curled fingers partially obstructing the bell. Instead, have students form the hand outside the bell with two parallel lines, the fingers and the forearm, connected by the palm in an oblique angle. Add the thumb going to the second knuckle on the forefinger to widen the tube, and the odds of getting it right improve dramatically. This position keeps the ends of the fingers up against the bell wall and a uniform distance between the palm and the bell every time.
    Finally, listen for a stable scale, particularly in the high register. The heel of the hand plays an important part in stabilizing the high notes. Monitoring this is difficult in young students who can’t play high notes yet, so it’s difficult to check, and it can also be complicated by the size of the bell and each student’s hand.
     Eventually it all matters. Once you begin to teach the right hand you have to continue to check the hand position until you know the students have it right.   

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Listening Versus Watching
    In an ensemble there is a critical balance between listening to others and watching the conductor because sound is directional. A good balance of both skills directly influences an ensemble’s ability to unify all the musical ideas in a score, especially the sense of pulse. Students learn to develop a strong sense of internal pulse by breathing in time together with the performers around them and by learning to subdivide the beat at different tempos. The ultimate test of good ensemble pulse is whether all the performers can align the audible result.
    The relationship between listening and watching is different for nearly every performer, a dilemma based on a person’s seating location in the ensemble. I refer to this problem as the geography of the ensemble, and it is similar to that of a marching band performing on a football field but on a smaller scale. In terms of pulse, the farther a student is from the conductor, the more he must rely on what he sees and not what he hears.
    If performers in the back of an ensemble listen to musicians in the front of the group, then they will sound late. Instead, they have to play consistently on top of the pulse to have their sound arrive in time. For example, tuba players have to play on top of the audible beat in marches, otherwise the ensemble’s pulse drags.
    Similarly, players toward the back of an ensemble have a greater ability to influence the style and articulation of the group because their sound travels forward through the ensemble. This can be both a blessing and a curse depending upon the players’ attention to musical details. Conversely, players in the front of the ensemble generally have to spend more time listening to those in the back.
    Players seated directly in front of the conductor are often guilty of playing ahead of the pulse. Because of their proximity to the conductor, they tend to follow what they see rather than waiting for the rest of the ensemble sound to arrive.
    In particular, upper woodwind players should  play in time with the ensemble’s pulse and not create their own. The higher acoustics of these instruments make it is easy for players to simply listen to the higher tessitura of sound that immediately surrounds them. Good listening relationships across the ensemble will help to avoid this problem.

Listening for a Groove
    The relationship between listening and watching is different for each composition. During rehearsals the conductor should help players decide which section is the primary time keeper at any moment in a work and for how long.
It is important to identify motor rhythms that create an underlying groove in a piece. Composers often use percussion or low winds to establish a groove, but an ostinato can appear in any voice, such as the ride cymbal and bass drum in Shortcut Home by Dana Wilson (Boosey & Hawkes/Hal Leonard), measures 71-72.

    Training players to listen for this compositional technique will help them to unify the ensemble pulse.
    A simpler version of an ostinato is what I call the audible metronome, such as a wood block scored alongside a trumpet ostinato in Percy Grainger’s Children’s March (Hal Leonard), measure 283.

Low Winds and Percussion
    Time and again my attention focuses on the low winds and percussion in establishing good listening relationships. Because the bass voices are the foundation of the ensemble sound, all members of a group must listen to them for pitch center, balance, and pulse. Playing chorales develops the ears and is a useful exercise to help critical listening become habitual.
    Often times, I have the low winds lead the ensemble through a chorale and do not conduct. Because of their location toward the back of the ensemble, low winds and percussionists often have to memorize the auditory sensation of how far ahead of the audible beat to play. The conductor should provide feedback to them so they can consistently do well. I also suggest training percussionists to breathe like wind players so they can correctly align their attacks with other instrumentalists. The time spent developing the leadership of the low winds and percussion will be beneficial only if the director holds the rest of the ensemble accountable for following them.

Functional and Harmonic Relationships
    Training students to understand the function of each performer’s part, especially in terms of its texture and harmony, contributes to good listening in an ensemble. This includes learning to identify the voices in a texture – the melody, countermelody, bass line, and harmony – and then deciding which ones to emphasize and how much.
    Different types of textures require different balances. For example, the independent lines of a polyphonic texture might have relatively equal sounding voices, whereas a homophonic texture would have a clear melodic line that has more emphasis than its accompanying voices. Directors usually adjust the dynamics of individual parts to create good balance. One lesson I teach students is that dynamics are relative. An mp marking might indicate a certain volume in one passage, but a softer or louder volume in another passage.
    I often ask players whether a particular line is in unison or harmony. Although this seems basic, performers will only be able to answer it if they listen carefully. I also ask players to identify the exact moment at which the music splits from a unison line into a harmonic line and vice versa, such as in the opening of Sousa’s Hands Across the Sea (Barnhouse).

Students should also be able to identify pedal tones to help align their pitch center.

    Good intonation in harmonic passages is the result of critical listening. Performers should be able to identify the quality of any chord, including triads and seventh chords, as well as added chord tones, such as a suspended fourth or a ninth. Listening for these harmonies will help them determine the relative balance of notes in a given texture, such as in Eric Whitacre’s October (Hal Leonard) with its chain suspensions throughout the work.

We take time to discuss the color of a melodic line, or of a given harmonic texture, the goal being to determine which instruments should be more prominent than others.

Establishing Listening Relationships
    While working on listening skills with a student, I may ask him to identify the other instruments that are playing with him at a given moment. If the student can’t, the band replays the passage. It is extremely important to have your players identify each level of listening – to himself, the section, and the ensemble – for themselves, rather than spoon feed them from the podium.

    I may ask students to close their eyes and play a chorale or short excerpt from memory because this trains them to hear the subtleties of balance and blend. Each player has to take personal responsibility for listening to others and to the ensemble.
 
    A final consideration is the players themselves. In any ensemble the conductor has to think about the strengths and weaknesses of each performer because this will often determine who will lead a particular listening relationship. One player might have a strong sense of internal pulse, making him useful as a time keeper. Another might have a great sense of pitch center, so players could listen in to him.

    Conductors have the ultimate responsibility of drawing the players’ attention to the listening that is necessary to perform a work convincingly. It is not enough to simply tell them what to listen for; rather conductors should train their players to make independent decisions about listening that they can apply to works they will study in the future.

The post Teaching Students to Listen appeared first on The Instrumentalist.

College in New York
    “My New York college options for jazz were the Manhattan School of Music and The New School. There was no jazz program at Juilliard at that time. I chose Manhattan because it provided a well-rounded education, with humanities professors from Columbia, had an exceptional classical music department, and they took a very disciplined approach to music education.”
    Drummond played her entrance audition on both jazz flute and jazz piano. They offered her a larger scholarship as a pianist, so she became a piano major. Her piano instructor turned out to be pianist Kenny Barron, who soon hired her to play flute in his band. “My lessons with him usually consisted of playing flute and piano duos together. Many of the Manhattan students didn’t even know that I was a piano major because they always saw me with a flute.
    “However, from the beginning of freshman year, I also sought out Linda Chesis, who saw my tight smiley embouchure and worked with me to relax it for a more open sound. I played long tones in front of a mirror for a year, in a way starting over, but it was well worth the time and effort. I periodically took time off from school to go on the road and had to make up all the missed work and then some. In hindsight I realize that Manhattan was absolutely the best choice for me because they didn’t allow me to lose focus from getting my degree. You see it all the time.  Students start working on the road and then often drop out. Manhattan kept me dedicated towards the degree, even when I when I was away on long leaves of absence for tours.
    “The teachers were incredibly giving of their time and attention as mentors and often joined students for meals and supported our shows. I keep in touch with them to this day and return for concerts, master classes, and fundraisers.”

A Return to Idaho
    That the Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival was the influential root to Drummond’s growth and development as an artist is well known, but I was curious how she felt about returning to the festival professionally. “This has been a nostalgic experience as well as a reunion with the band, Canta Brazil (Kenny Barron with Trio de Paz). This was the band that helped launch me, and I haven’t played with them in such a long time. Back then, we played and toured together so much that we were like a family.
                     (Kenny Barron, Drummond, and bassist Nilson Matta)
  “When I came all those years as a student, the festival was always in the back of my mind. On the bus coming home, I would start thinking about what I might play the following year. Getting on stage and playing with Lionel Hampton was huge. Now, some 10 years later, I am so happy to see how the festival has grown and how it is being presented. More students are interested in playing jazz, and more schools are competing. You also see more girls which is fantastic. These developments are so important as youth involvement is essential in preserving a future for jazz.”
    I asked her what her thoughts were about the growing trend towards more female jazz flutists. “There are more female jazz instrumentalists across the board these days. Female jazz flutists have had more exposure and have seized the moment. I have been fortunate to have not experienced any sexism, although I have encountered a dislike for the flute itself. Some people think of jazz flute as an acquired taste and have a blanket dislike for it.
    “Any negative feedback I receive from fellow jazz players is usually a reaction to the fact that I play an instrument with sonic limitations, which other musicians sometimes find creatively restrictive. Playing with a flutist requires a certain level of sensitivity from rhythm section performers. This has turned out be a critical issue when choosing musicians to play with. At the same time, however, I don’t want a drummer to automatically reach for the brushes when I walk in with a flute.”
    Drummond lists her major musical influences as singers like Dinah Washington, Ester Phillips, Shirley Horn, Billy Holiday, Nancy Wilson, and Cassandra Wilson. “There is no doubt that music goes through you, so perhaps you can hear traces of them in my playing. Other musical influences include Chet Baker, Herbie Hancock, Glenn Gould, D’Angelo, James Galway, John Coltrane, Pavarotti, Oscar Peterson, Kenny Garrett, Ray Brown Trio, Ella Fitzgerald, Rampal, J.J. Johnson, Gene Harris, Ray Charles, Stan Getz, Curtis Mayfield, Aretha Franklin, Al Green, and Marvin Gaye, The composers I love passionately are Mahler, Brahms, Ravel, Debussy, Wagner, and Puccini among many others.” 

Technique
    “Jazz players need the facility to execute the ideas they have. I stress scales with my students: chromatic, whole tone, diminished, augmented, and every mode from Lydian to Phrygian. It’s good to learn melodies in all 12 keys, from Bach to Bebop. Transcribing solos directly to manuscript paper is also important, although it is sometimes even better to skip the notation, exercise your memory, and simply figure it out. A good way to keep from falling into the trap of playing flute ‘licks’ is to transcribe solos played on other instruments, such as guitar or trumpet solos.”

On Style
    “I like to hear individuality in someone’s playing.  It is important to find what is unique about your style. You have to be yourself with conviction, because anyone can copy someone else. I listen for meaning and personality and try to help students develop tools that will help them unleash their own expression. The flute is so delicate that it lends itself easily to manipulating the keys and the air for subtle nuances as well as dramatic embellishments. Slowly opening and closing the keys and actively rolling in and out are various ways to slither between notes, something I do for a seamless effect. I also use a variety of vibratos: wide and slow to shallow and fast, and so on. My vibrato shifts from diaphragm to throat to mouth – a technique not to employ in Mozart!”

Microphone Placement
    “To avoid the air stream hitting the microphone I place the mic above the headjoint and pointing downward, both in the recording studio and in live performances. In the studio I like to use old RCA ribbon mics, but not all studios have them. As for live situations, I just use what the venue offers and try not to get upset if it’s less than perfect. I used to use an attachable mic, but I didn’t like having a chord attached from a belt preamp to a PA system. I felt entangled. I may try a different setup in the future because being attached to a stationary microphone on a boom (floor mic stand) is confining as well.”

On Tone
    “I like to think of my sound as an extension of my singing voice. If Ella Fitzgerald were singing through a flute, what would that sound like? An excellent example is Chet Baker, who demonstrates stylistic continuity between his trumpet and voice. An even better example is Ian Anderson, who unabashedly demonstrates his individualistic and virtuosic side.
    “Sometimes I just start a paractice session by putting on James Galway or Pavoratti recordings, or someone with moving air whose vibrato I fancy, and just practice along with them. If my sound is slow to develop that day, I move to singing-while-playing exercises.”
    I asked if she was interested in wooden and various ethnic flutes. “No, not really, but I have a wooden headjoint that has a wailing quality – in a good way. I love my alto flute, even though it’s not putty in my fingers like my C flute. No one would disagree that the sonorous sound is absolutely gorgeous on alto. The last recording I did with Kenny Barron I played it almost exclusively.” She remarks that piccolo is something she never had much interest in. “I played piccolo recently for the first time on a recording, but I only practiced it the day before the session.” Laughing she adds, “it wasn’t very good.”

Advice for Students
     “There is no one formula for those pursuing jazz. The best thing you can do is focus on your musicianship and develop skills that will help the development of your music. Those skills might include learning a notation program or studying orchestration. The more perspective and abilities the better. It’s important to learn standards like “I Got Rhythm” and “There is No Greater Love” because that is the common language in jazz. Last year I did a show in Madagascar with local musicians who spoke absolutely no English, but it was a wonderful performance. What made it great was that we didn’t need to read charts as we played tunes we all knew like “Days of Wine and Roses” and “Summertime.”
    “When I go to really learn a standard, I practice the melody in every key, and I also study the lyrics. To me it’s like eating my vegetables.”

Plans for the Future
    Drummond admits that developing as a composer is at the forefront these days. “I have a strong desire to do much more writing. I have many sides as a composer and ideally I’d like to incorporate them all into one show, to be executed by one stylistically versatile band. That’s just one vision I have for myself, others are still forming in the works.”
    Drummond’s debut solo recording, Like Water, features flute and alto flute in an instrumental setting that includes a string quartet and a Brazilian rhythm section. She is excited about the release of the recording for the obvious reasons but also views it as a point of departure for new projects. “Like Water was recorded two years ago, but it feels like two lifetimes ago and I’m itching to do more. I am however pleased that this record captured a great musical chapter of my life. On it, my music is played by superbly talented friends. As always we had a ball recording and you can hear that fun through the music.”              

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A Special Place for Students

     Staley views the Neuqua Valley music department as a special place because every student, regardless of ability, can attend rehearsals, participate, and feel as though he is an important part of the community. Even with 500 people in the band program, staff members treat the students in the less-experienced ensembles with the same kind of care and passion for music making as they do the Wind Ensemble, a group that is receiving national recognition.
     “Students want to feel satisfaction from the moment they enter the band room to when they leave, as far as making progress towards a common goal. Not many are interested in finding satisfaction only through performance.”
To promote musical growth, Staley says, “We offer a 20-minute technique class each week where students meet with a director and receive expert guidance in developing skills, such as articulation and phrasing. This is a small group lesson that focuses on learning to overcome technical problems in order to play more musically; it is not a sectional to learn the band music.
     “We also have a series of exercises that students complete for each level of instruction. For the Symphonic Bands, for example, players complete level four of our technique curriculum that uses the Rubank Intermediate Method Book (Hal Leonard) as its core material. Students in the Symphonic Bands are not required to study privately, so they set performance goals with the help of the music staff, which is separate from the ensemble work. That effort, along with expert instruction as an ensemble, makes them capable of playing musically.”

Guest Clinicians

     “For the end-of-the-semester assessment for the Symphonic Bands, which are nonaudition groups, we bring in an expert clinician to work on the pieces they are preparing. That expert gives them a culminating activity by crafting the work at the highest level; it would be the same as the Wind Ensemble asking Mallory Thompson of North­western University to come in for an event. An ensemble is at a particular level in its development, and the clinician takes them to the next level.
     “We’ve had Ross Kellan from Elmhurst College and Ron Polancich from Roosevelt University work with our Symphonic Bands. Some of the works prepared by these groups were Courtly Airs and Dances by Ron Nelson (LudwigMasters), Fan­tasy on American Sailing Songs by Clare Grundeman (Boosey & Hawkes/Hal Leonard), Freedom Road by Jim Curnow (Curnow Music), and Chorale and Shaker Dance II by John Zdechlik (Kjos). We treat our Symphony Bands exactly the way we treat our top ensemble by selecting great music and preparing our students for intense scrutiny by outside experts.”
     With the recent accolades for the Wind En­semble, Staley’s principal asked what he was the most proud of. “The only thing I could think of was one of the Sym­phonic Bands, a group that has about 80 students who just want to play. It’s a nonaudition group including many seniors who are thrilled to make music to­gether, performing works they love.
     “I’m proudest of the fact that no matter where students fall in the hierarchy of the pro­gram, there is a place where they can feel comfortable performing music. They should leave this place feeling good about the experience they had.”

The Right Music at the Right Time


     Staley and his staff devote large amounts of time to finding the right literature for each ensemble. It has to be sophisticated enough to keep the students interested and to reflect the fact that they are responsible young adults who will learn the music. Repertoire that is too simplistic gives students the impression they are still in middle school.
     “It’s a happy time when we can match the literature with the students’ abilities and also help them to develop musically. The music is not in a simple ABA form all the time, and it doesn’t always have to follow a fast-slow-fast model. It is well-crafted music that stimulates a deeper understanding of form and harmony. It’s tough to find.”

Sitting In

     In the past some Neuqua Valley band students have performed in more than one ensemble, especially those interested in teaching who play secondary instruments. “Once a flute player in the Wind Ensemble wanted to learn oboe and played it in the Symphonic Band. We’ve also had people in the Wind Symphony, our second most experienced group, play in the Wind Ensemble if we need an English horn and two oboes for concerts. If we need a bass trombone or an extra percussionist, we’ll ask people from other ensembles to help.”
     There isn’t a lot of flow between groups, but when Staley needs special instrumentation, the students help out. “There are few rehearsals outside of the school day, so to get someone to fit in with an ensemble, I have to be careful to have the right part so students can prepare on their own and then play with us at a dress rehearsal.”

Constructive Criticism

     The music faculty at Neuqua Valley agrees that the most important part of their work is developing the students’ abilities. Perhaps the best example is when Staley invites other instructors to listen to the Wind Ensemble and give him feedback about the performance. “Music teachers understand the motivation for constructive criticism is to help everyone learn and to sound better. You need another set of ears, and none of the staff is afraid to help for fear that something may be misconstrued.
     “Constructive criticism is welcomed by all of the music faculty, especially if it is accurate and helpful. Neuqua Valley’s principal, Bob McBride, came up with the term critical friends, and I like the idea of being a critical friend. If you think of criticism that way, then your approach becomes one of  building up without necessarily tearing down.
     “When teachers and students have a trusting relationship, it’s a lot easier for the students to accept criticism when things aren’t correct. We are all interested in having the music be as good as it can be; that is the only goal. Although the goal is never to criticize a person, teachers often fall short, just because of the pressures of performance. As experienced adult musicians, we have heard suggestions that help us to improve quickly – even though the person providing the feedback didn’t take into consideration the fact that his criticism was hurtful.”

The Critical Friend

     There are no simple formulas for being a critical friend. It is not just a matter of telling students something positive before you present a laundry list of problems about their playing. Staley believes it is more about the teacher and students sharing ideas about the music. “It’s something that develops over time: you are focusing on a goal that everyone in the ensemble agrees on, which is meeting the intent of the composer. It means any criticism is really to benefit the music, and it is up to the director to convince students that is what it is, plain and simple. It is not a criticism of anyone as a person, and it isn’t something that originates in a teacher’s mind that no one else understands.”

Teachers Who Ignite Talent


     Staley recommends that band directors read the book The Talent Code by Daniel Coyle (Bantam)  because it describes talent, even athletic talent, from the perspective that people have igniters in their life who say just the right thing and have just the right intent that it ignites talented individuals with the ideal of perfection or excellence. One person provides the spark, and another person takes off with it.
     “Conversely, some people are annihilators, figuratively taking a bucket of water and pouring it over a student. It takes a long time for the person to “dry out.” If you do that, even in a trusting relationship, it takes the person a while to feel any enthusiasm for developing his talent because the teacher has really dampened his  spirit.
     “All of us can be annihilators, especially because in the urgency of the moment it seems more expeditious to fix the symptom – but you don’t necessarily address the problem. For example, there is the problem of students who tune every note to a tuner that drives directors crazy. It’s fixing the symptom without understanding the problem, which has to do with the function of equal temperament.
     “For me to focus on the symptom of an out-of-tune triad during band rehearsal doesn’t work. A student can tune the third to the tuner, and the chord remains out of tune. He has to understand the principles behind tuning a major third, which has to be tuned lower, and a minor third, which has to be tuned higher, to tune a third. Solving the problem happens when students understand how to tune the fifth first and then add the third so that it sounds correct to their ear, because the result will be better than the tuner.”

Critical Friend, Reprise

     Staley says that if he is always the one to generate solutions to whatever musical problems occur in a work, then the students never become responsible for making improvements. “If students become engaged in solving problems, they become better musicians and thus learn to serve the music. Whereas if they depend on me for the time, the tuning, or a smiling face or a frowning face for their tone, I will paralyze them.
     “If they are waiting for permission, the result can’t be musical. This goes back to the idea of being a critical friend to students. They come to understand that I respect and admire them so much that I trust they will take responsibility for their parts and together we will make the music happen.
     “I was pleased, for instance, at the Midwest Clinic when Dennis Glocke guest conducted ‘Wonderous Love’ from Southern Harmony by Donald Grantham (Piquant Press). The clarinet has a solo at the beginning and then the flutes enter. It was terrifically out of tune to my ear, but the musicians dissolved into being tuned correctly so quickly that I forgave them.
     “As a teacher I was gratified because had they depended on me to fix the problem, I wasn’t there; and Professor Glocke wasn’t going to do it. It was up to the students, and they shouldered the responsibility by immediately adjusting. A musician is brilliant beyond means if he can come in perfectly in tune after a solo line when the harmony, the tonality, is not yet established. These students got it. They adjusted immediately because that is what we do.
     “Steve Squires at Roosevelt University says it best when he comments that even the Chicago Sym­phony Orchestra plays out of tune, but they adjust so quickly no one can tell except for them. They know. The Wind Ensemble is not at the level where it is instantaneous, but tuning is certainly not going to detract from a performance.”

Awards for Excellence

     In 2009 Neuqua Valley High School was the only public school in the country to earn the Kennedy Center Award for Excellence in the fine and performing arts. It was a detailed, extensive project, Staley says. “We have a fabulous 20-minute video of basically what Neuqua Valley offers in the arts – dance, multi-cultural choir, all of the visual arts, and musical theater – with snippets of each of those productions. The music that we used in the background was 20 minutes of samplings of each of our ensembles.
     “In addition, we had to give a full accounting of the curriculum, describing it in detail so that someone who was reviewing the materials for the first time would be able to visualize what is available to students in the arts.”
The music department also received the Grammy Gold Status Award and the Grammy National Signature School award in recognition for having the best high school music program in the United States. “Anyone can apply for those awards. The first round is basically an accounting of what the school offers students; it’s not a review of the quality of the program. From that information, the Grammy Foundation staff invites schools to submit more information to be considered for the actual award.
     “There are some 30,000 high schools in the country, so in theory 30,000 programs could apply. From those who apply the organization  selects 300 high schools in the country to apply for the final award. I like the Grammy process because it honors schools that have a comprehensive program, so you have an opportunity to submit recordings of all of your groups.
     “It might get the wheels churning for schools that don’t have an orchestra and the administration would really like to be recognized. An orchestra is at least a third as important; it’s 33% of a music program. I really like that message.
“Another enjoyable aspect about the process is that we record everything for our purposes, so the instructors can evaluate what a group is doing and the students can hear their playing. Everything is professionally recorded. We take all of our recordings, literally hours and hours of recording, and the staff picks the excerpts they think represent our very best work.
     “The process of listening to everything that has been recorded in a year provides me with professional growth. When we use the recordings to consider musical pro­blems to solve and greater attention to detail, I listen differently than when I’m seeking out the very best musical moments for outside scrutiny.”

The Measure of a Program

     Do these award programs motivate students to practice more? Staley says no. While everyone is proud of the distinction, he doubts that students spend an extra 10 minutes a day in the practice room because of them.
     “The payoff for the students is that we rehearse as we perform. They love playing in these ensembles because every class period has musical moments. A performance is stringing together as many consecutive musical moments as possible. It’s hard to describe, but when you are in a very fine ensemble as a musician, gaining approval from outside your world seems less motivating than the music you make every day.
     “Rather than speculating if we might garner more awards this year, my students will ask, ‘What are we going to do to make music today?’ or ‘What music is in our slots?’ That is what is most important to each student, and that is the most effective motivation tool.”

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