January 2012 Archives - The Instrumentalist

The First Few Years

theinstrumenta — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 22:09:27 +0000

I remember my first year of teaching. Fresh out of college I was brimming with knowledge of music history, theory, and conducting patterns. I quickly found out that despite several years of experience constructing German sixth chords, there were many areas where I felt unprepared. Getting a handle on the 80% of the job outside of rehearsal was the biggest obstacle in my first year. From planning fundraisers to dealing with upset parents, the first year provided many unfamiliar tasks. In most cases finding the right approaches to these non-musical tasks took considerable experimentation over a few years.

Experimentation

Experimentation can be helpful when determining how to enforce expectations and standards for your ensembles. No two groups are the same, and it helps to approach each situation with that in mind. Although many inexperienced directors adopt the methods of their high school band director, these approaches may not always work in certain situations. You may want to look at the successful techniques used by colleagues at neighboring schools.

While a certain amount of experimentation is helpful, do not vary your methods wildly day to day as students will quickly become confused. If you take off points for students who talk out of turn on one day and on another, simply try to ignore the talking, you will likely make little progress at solving the problem. When you find methods that work well, stick with it for a while and reflect on its effectiveness. Staying consistent over time helps students know what to expect. It can take time for students to get used to your techniques and some may even resist at first.

It is important to remember that directors provide an important model for student conduct in class. If you expect students to sit up straight but you stand with a slouched posture, students may follow your example. A dozen different methods for teaching good posture will not matter if you do not stand up straight on the podium.

Seeking Help

If you do not know how to solve a problem, ask for advice. The early years of teaching can be overwhelming, and veteran directors have a wealth of experience that can be adapted to other schools. After five years of teaching I still email professors and mentors with questions, though less often than in the beginning. One of my favorite questions is “what pieces do you recommend for my band?” As someone who had only played in the top ensembles in high school and college, my knowledge of intermediate band music was initially lacking, to say the least. I asked several people the same question, described the band’s strengths and weaknesses, and ended up with a long list of great pieces customized for my band. This proved much more productive than spending hours sifting through music catalogs and repertoire lists. Certainly directors should do their own research, but getting advice from experienced directors helps focus that research and introduces great pieces that are unfamiliar.

Colleagues can also give assistance with such tasks as initiating a private lesson program or convincing the administration not to cut your budget. You need not follow their suggestions exactly, but listening to this wisdom can help you avoid making uneducated decisions that you may regret later.

Problems with Parents

Young directors frequently are surprised by contentious dealings with parents, administrators, and coaches. Even those who have great relationships with these people have to put out a fire from time to time. A freshman who generally does fine during regular rehearsals may be receiving a C in band after performing poorly on playing tests and failing to turn in assignments. When conference time rolls around, the parents maybe be angry because their child always earned As in junior high band. They might blame you for the grade and threaten to pull the student out of band to protect his GPA.

You can feel insulted that they blame you for the student’s actions or you can take a deep breath and calmly explain the grade. After telling parents that the student can retake playing tests before the end of the term and earn an A with regular practice six days a week, you may find that parents become allies and leave feeling good about the conference. Of course, not all disagreements with parents resolve calmly but in many cases when parents are upset, they do not have all the information.

Classroom Management

This topic generally comes up for a few days in music education courses, and I can even remember reading a book that discussed how to address various discipline problems. Once I started teaching, I found plenty of opportunities to develop my management skills. It helps to think about such small matters as how students enter the room, how much background noise you will tolerate during rehearsals, and what percussionists should do when not playing. The best classroom management allows the director to engage students so fully in the music that there is no time to mess around during rehearsal. Realistically, this doesn’t always happen.

Once you have developed rules and procedures that work for rehearsals, stick to the plan. While some students and situations will require different approaches, the consequences for misbehavior should be as consistent as possible. If you decide to lower a student’s grade for causing a classroom disruption, the number of points taken off might vary depending on the situation. Two oboists whispering quietly might produce a one point reduction while trumpets causing a major disruption in the back row could lead to taking off multiple points and calls to parents. The general goal of an orderly classroom remains the same. Some directors might decide that lowering grades by the same amount for any type of infraction works best.

New teachers will want to work with school administrators to determine the appropriate punishment in various scenarios. If a student talks back, you might decide to keep him after class for a conversation. When the problem persists, you might call home or send the student to the dean. These situations should be thought out in advance; you do not want to act rashly in the heat of the moment. Administrators can help set consequences that match up with school policy. Over time behavior problems may decline simply because students understand expectations for their behavior and the consequences for stepping out of line.

Looking in the Mirror

A common saying in music education is “If you are not getting the results you want, look in the mirror.” There is a great deal of truth to this, but not every problem can be averted by your actions in class. If all I had to do was say “Stop talking, please” my band would be perfect. A good result involves cooperation from all parties.

Let’s consider two scenarios. Students need to raise $200 for a weekend trip to an out-of-state contest. About half of the families in your program can pay the money without fundraising but others need help. If you get so busy with everything that you neglect to provide ample fundraising opportunities, it is your fault when only half of the band can make the trip. The poor morale that results from having incomplete instrumentation at the contest stems directly from your lack of effort.

The wiser approach is to plan fundraisers a year in advance and make sure that students who participate in the activities can attend the trip. The administration might cover some of the transportation costs and reduce the amount owed by every student to $175. When the contest arrives, only a few students miss the trip and the contest is a big success. Those who failed to fundraise, even after you called parents to explain how easy it would be, can only blame themselves for missing the trip.

You will drive yourself crazy if you blame yourself every time something goes wrong with your program. However, you have control over more than you think and your skill will grow day by day. The rewards that come from sharing your passion for music help overcome the occasional frustrations of discipline problems and endless school paperwork. One of the greatest moments of my teaching career happened when a parent told me her son came to school because of my class. At the end of the day he couldn’t stop talking about what he was doing in our classroom. These moments make it all worthwhile.

The post The First Few Years appeared first on The Instrumentalist.

Remembering Himie Voxman

theinstrumenta — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 21:59:53 +0000

Legendary teacher, author, and administrator Himie Voxman died on November 22, 2011, in Iowa City, Iowa. He began his musical career at 13 as a clarinet student with William Gower, Sr. and Gustave Longenus. He earned a B.S. with high distinction in chemical engineering and an M.A. in the psychology of music at the University of Iowa. During his graduate study he taught woodwinds in nearby public schools and joined the University of Iowa faculty in 1939. He served as director of the school of music from 1954 to 1980 and published about 300 editions, articles, and compilations for wind instruments. The University of Iowa renamed its music building for Voxman in 1995. The Instrumentalist published several of his articles over the years. We reprint some of the best excerpts here as a tribute to his remarkable contributions to music education over the last century.

Starting in Music – June 1993

The young lady music supervisor in Centerville was a go-getter who each school year asked our grammar school teachers for a list of students who might be interested in beginning a musical instrument. In most instances the teachers chose students on the basis of academic rather than musical ability. The lists were given to Mr. Gower, who then contacted parents. My mother agreed to buy a used Albert-system clarinet for $35 and have me begin lessons.

Later, I played clarinet for the silent movies, but it was just for fun, and I didn’t get paid. If I had time after school, I went in the back door of the theatre, sat down, and played. We played for some wonderful early movies, but there was never time to look and watch the screen. Each week during these summers I travelled hundreds of miles playing concerts with Gower’s band.

At the end of my junior year in high school, Gower recommended me to the Scots Kiltie Band, which needed a temporary clarinet player for its performances at the Missouri State Fair. I stayed with the band all summer, earning $60 a week. This was a pile of money in days when you could get a room for $1.25 a night and meals for 25 cents. The director asked me to continue on in the fall, but I wanted to finish my senior year of high school. Despite assurances that I could rejoin the band the next summer, the director gave the work he had to people with families to support. It was the late 1920s and talkies had come, making movie house pit orchestras unnecessary. That ended my life as a professional bandsman, but who knows what I would have become if I stayed on that fall.

Woodwind Repertoire – June 1993

My teacher, William Gower, once took me to Jenkins Music Store in Kansas City, where I found Hohmann’s Method for Violin. Its excellent violin duets led me to explore the string literature for additional material. Much of it was far superior to what was available for clarinet. When I compiled my various ensemble collections, I was anxious to acquaint students with the names of the famous composers as well as arrangements of their works. For example, my first book of trios for three Bb clarinets has pieces by Mozart, Handel, Billings, Hummel, and Schubert, among others. I have found that such music appeals to young students, and I hope that teachers use the music as an opportunity to say a few words about the composers.

Gower wrote out the first 12 lessons for his students and then moved on to the standard clarinet literature. After I began teaching in Iowa in the mid-1930s, I suggested that we add enough to his lesson materials to provide for a school year. Eventually, we wrote an elementary method that Jenkins bought; the book had a remarkable first-year sale of 6,000 copies.

When we suggested a follow-up book to Jenkins, they did not express interest. Rubank had published the arrangement I had made of part of Weber’s Second Clarinet Concerto. When I showed them the Advanced Method we had prepared, they immediately agreed to publish it, and although Jenkins threatened to sue, Rubank was not intimidated. So began my relations with that firm. They later asked for other methods, solo and ensemble collections. (The Voxman Method, An Interview with Himie Voxman by Shirley Strohm Mullins, June 1993)

Tempo – December 1997

A few years ago I was criticized by an angry band director at a district woodwind contest after I had awarded two of his best woodwind contestants a less than top rating. His bassoon student had chosen the Allegro first movement of Mozart’s Bassoon Concerto in Bb and performed it quite well but at an andante pace, about q = 66. He had a nice tone and played accurately, but he had not really played Mozart’s Allegro. He had merely done an excellent

job of reading the notes.

The director listened to me impatiently and finally burst forth with “Tempo isn’t everything!” He cited an eminent cornetist and conductor at a festival who conducted a piece written in alle breve and beat it in four. I hastened to agree with him that tempo isn’t everything, and I could have added that tone isn’t everything, and technique isn’t everything. The ultimate equation is that nothing is everything, but I believe that everything is something.” (Tempo Isn’t Everything by Himie Voxman, December 1997)

Making Time for Music – August 1960

A much more serious and insidious attack has been the usurpation of curricular time that was acquired only after decades of intensive effort. Without great ado or debate, the high school (and in many instances the junior high) curriculum has been “enriched” partly at the expense of music. Many teachers must feel that the musical carcass has been attacked by long starving birds of prey. The implication of this unilateral action by administrators and school boards obviously implies that when the chips are down the music program cannot stand up with the other hard-core content areas such as science, mathematics, foreign language, and literature.

Evolving Band Repertoire – Aug. 1960

The most casual historian of the musical scene of the past 30 years is aware of the currently larger quantity of respectable literature in the pedagogical and concert fields. True, there are notable gaps. The most serious, perhaps, is in the band field. There are few numbers yet available that seem destined for more than a transient existence. The bulk of viable repertoire is still transcriptions. It is heartening to find an increasing interest on the part of the American composer in this dilemma. (The Music Men Live By by Himie Voxman, August 1960, the full article is )

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Clarinet Maintenance

theinstrumenta — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 21:53:09 +0000

To be able to improve as a clarinetist it takes a good instrument in good condition. However, it is not enough to simply buy the best instrument; it takes maintenance to keep a clarinet in good working order.

Bore oil kits help maintain the integrity of the wood. It is best to oil the instrument before playing, when the bore is dry. Frequency of oiling to prevent cracking depends on climate. A dry climate requires more frequent oiling, and in a humid climate it may be necessary only rarely, if at all. Avoid sudden extreme temperature changes; moving from heat to cold increases the risk of cracking the wood. If the inside of the upper joint feels somewhat grainy, it is a good time to oil the clarinet.

Use a soft cloth brush to oil the bore, carefully inserting it into the inside of each joint. Apply a light coat of oil, being careful not to get any excess on the pads. Allow the oil to penetrate the wood for 10-15 minutes. If the bore still feels dry, apply a second light coat. Using a clean swab, remove any remaining oil. Cigarette paper without glue may be used to blot under the pads.

Swabbing moisture out after each playing session is extremely important; leaving moisture in the instrument weathers the wood over time and leaves residue in the bore. For the best tone and response, the surface of the bore should be smooth.

Keys should be oiled periodically to remain in good working order. The nozzle on many oil bottles often lets too much oil out and may leak onto the pads, ruining them. Remove the nozzle of the bottle and dip a toothpick into the oil. Oil should be applied to the connecting rods where key action is visible. Check for oil that may have seeped into the tone holes; any excess should be carefully blotted away.

Check for key wear by trying to wiggle connecting rods; they will move back and forth easily when a key is worn. A qualified repairman can easily fix this.

If pads are brown, they no longer provide a good seal, and if the fish skin covering them is broken, there will be a buzzing sound on the affected key. Old pads are frequently replaced with new ones that are thicker, which may muffle the sound of the note; the tone holes require adequate venting to play a clear, even sound.

Keys should be adjusted to the same tension by a repairman. Watch for small movement in the throat tone A key before it connects with the G# key. If the adjustment screw on the A key is tightened so much that it removes this movement, the G# key may leak and cause occasional squeaking.

If there is looseness in the corks and tendons and the joint can be wiggled back and forth, it needs to be recorked. In an emergency, thread may be tightly wrapped on the tendon. Apply cork grease and the damaged or loose joint is temporarily tightened.

Mouthpiece care is extremely important. Investigate the mouthpiece facing, especially on the top and side rails, for chips and scratches; even small nicks significantly change the way a mouthpiece plays. After playing, use a soft cloth, similar to what might be used to dry the inside of a glass, to dry the mouthpiece. If residue is allowed to build up, it affects mouthpiece performance; rinse a mouthpiece with cool to lukewarm water as needed.

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Percussion Exercises for Beginning Brass

theinstrumenta — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 21:35:43 +0000

When teaching beginning band students, fundamentals are paramount. The initial work on posture, position, and holding the instrument affect everything that comes later in learning to play. Breathing, tone production, and music theory skills improve over time, but the first approach at instrumental mechanics should be perfect. Great musical habits start from the beginning.

Although I am an experienced percussionist, I also teach all of the beginning brass classes at my school. The first few months of learning to play percussion and brass have significant differences, but I have found some helpful ways to apply percussion pedagogy to playing wind instruments, particularly with muscle memory and instrument position. Young percussionists can develop early bad habits, which is why it is important to learn the fundamentals of making the initial strokes correctly. These skills come from careful repetition and exercises that develop muscle memory. Once the posture and stick grip have been taught, most percussion methods use a sequence of various stickings to develop stronger technique. Some percussion books use a simplified version of exercises in George Stone’s 1935 drum method called Stick Control, a book used by every percussionist at some point. With slight variations, the patterns usually look like this:

1. RRRR RRRR LLLL LLLL

2. RRRR LLLL RRRR LLLL

3. RRLL RRLL RRLL RRLL

4. RLRL RLRL RLRL RLRL

5. RLRR LRLL RLRR LRLL

The stickings start simply and gradually become more intricate. The exercises tackle the common combinations that will appear when students begin actual drum repertoire. This exercise is so effective because it focuses strictly on developing solid technique. All of the music-reading has been stripped away, allowing students to focus on consistent strokes from both hands. Later, students will learn note reading and integrate stickings with actual notation, but initially it is more effective to keep the information concise.

I began to think about the technical issues of my beginning brass players, particularly the trombonists. There is something so unique but awkward about a trombone slide in the hands of a 6th grader. Every student and instrument is different, so there is no way to identify the exact location of all seven positions on a trombone. Indeed, some teachers begin trombonists on euphonium to avoid this problem. Beginners learn the positions slowly with assistance of their teacher, but when students begin moving between positions, poor habits develop.

Play, Then Freeze

When working with percussion students, I have them play and then freeze in place, so I can evaluate their hand positions after upstrokes and downstrokes. The motion after a stroke is crucial. Freezing the strokes gives me a chance to make sure that their technique is perfect. Without proper instruction, students may develop poor hand position while playing. The act of freezing during rehearsal makes it possible to check stick technique in action.

This same approach also applies to the trombone. In a large class of beginners it is difficult to hear which student’s slide is out of position, but asking them to play and then freeze, you can hear each student individually after the whole class plays. This method allows specific instruction for all students and lets them feel the location of the correct position.

I will employ this technique by asking students to play a Bb major scale in half notes at q = 85. Students know in advance that they may have to freeze. The second note, sixth-position C, is frequently out of tune. While the note is still sounding, I call out “freeze.” Students freeze in position regardless of whether they are correct. Still in tempo with the metronome, I listen to the Cs individually and correct the ones that are wrong. Students who have already been corrected now remain frozen in the proper position. After all trombonists have been addressed, I ask students to play the Cs as a group and see if there is an improvement in the intonation. We then return to Bb and begin the exercise again.

Rehearsing this way can prove tedious in larger classes. Be careful to use this approach when you have the utmost attention from students. A metronome can also keep forward momentum through this activity and keep the director from talking too much. Correcting instrument positioning and mechanics takes time. By making it a priority early in instruction, students realized just how important it is as they monitor their progress.

Fundamentals Come First

The first few months of beginning band are a collision of foreign concepts. We ask students to read music, breathe in a new way, hold an instrument, finger the notes they learned days before, and connect all of these dots to make music. Percussionists have an easier time in the first few weeks because all of this information is broken into smaller segments and combined later. It is essential that wind players develop good instrumental mechanics from the start. I like to approach refinements of fingering and slide positions in a similar way to initial percussion stick combinations. With the clutter of notation and pitch taken away, wind players can focus entirely on their hands and arms.

Slide Position Grid

As shown previously the initial sticking grid for percussionists is a combination of commonly used passages between the right and left hand. A similar grid can be used by beginning trombone players once they have gained some skill at finding the slide positions. The teacher should turn on the metronome at a slow speed (starting at q = 85), and allowing one beat per slide position

This task may seen dull to students at first but the fun increases as the tempo does, just as in percussion class. The lines of the exercise are lettered so that certain lines can be used on certain days, or so that one line can be focused on individually. The length of this sequence allows the teacher to walk around the room and fix fundamentals. Students should move quickly and efficiently between the positions; the exercise only helps if every slide position is clean and correct. If there are repeated position problems, slow down the speed and use the play then freeze techniques again.

Trombone Slide Position Grid

A. 1111 1111 2222 2222

1111 1111 3333 3333

B. 1111 1111 4444 4444

1111 1111 5555 5555

C. 1111 1111 6666 6666

1111 1111 7777 7777

D. 1111 2222 1111 3333

1111 4444 1111 5555

E. 1111 6666 1111 7777

1111 2222 3333 4444

F. 1122 1133 1144 1155

1166 1177 1122 3344

G. 1213 1415 1617 1213

1415 1617 1111 2222

H. 1234 5677 1234 5677

1234 5677 1234 5677

I. 7654 3211 7654 3211

7654 3211 7654 3211

J. 1357 2464 1357 2464

1357 2464 1357 2464

If you have a heterogenous beginning brass class, a similar grid could be used with other brass students. It is a great way to teach quick valve motion and for students to learn not to lift up the valves between notes that share a common finger. Once the slide position grid becomes comfortable, students will be able to establish a muscle memory of the space between positions. Later, when students have become comfortable with tonguing and reading music, the slide position grid can be replaced with actual notation and playing.

Numbers Become Notation

Using this approach to improving mechanics and positioning in beginners does not mean that actual note-reading is pushed back. On our campus, students begin the first week of school with an extensive music theory curriculum that correlates to what they had already learned in elementary school. Muscle memory activities and the positioning grid are meant to be supplemental. By exposing students to all positions and valve combinations early, they learn the full capability of their instrument, not just “Hot Cross Buns” in the beginning band book. When students have outgrown the slide-positioning grid, I switch them over to a version of the same exercise that uses notation instead of numbers.

Notated Trombone Slide Position Grid

More Steps, Bigger Leaps

The application of percussion techniques to teaching beginning wind players is not all that different from the current way of doing things. It is simply a check that forces us to slow down and make sure students get off to a proper start. Without realizing it, teachers can go way too fast in the opening weeks of instruction. As teachers, getting students close to proper tone production usually satisfies us. By breaking down the initial steps and insisting on beautiful sounds from the start, students can avoid developing bad habits. For a young trombonist, slide positions can be extremely vague. When great air, a great buzz, and perfect positioning meet, students will produce a beautiful sound and make a strong start in music.

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The Path

theinstrumenta — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 20:39:34 +0000

When interviewing outstanding musicians for The Instrumentalist, I usually ask about the moment when they knew their path pointed to a life in music. For some the moment struck like a lightning bolt, as a memorable director or a remarkable performance changed their lives. More often, these future musical stars had no idea where small moments, a word of encouragement or an unexpected chance to conduct, would lead. I looked back at conversations we have had with some legendary figures in the band world. Their stories remind us that each day brings not just another rehearsal but the possibility of inspiring others to greatness.

Col. Arnald D. Gabriel: “I was working in the canning factory after coming back from World War II and had no idea that I could become a professional musician. You can imagine what three years in the infantry do to a young man’s mind. I was bitter, to be perfectly honest about it, and I thought at that time there was no way I could compete with those musicians who had played in the military bands, or those students who were graduating from high school and going directly on to college.

“My high school band director, Burton Stanley, said I really ought to go to college. I told him, No I’m working here at the canning factory, and I just can’t compete. I’ve not been on the books academically or on my horn musically. Well, he simply went to Ithaca, paid my matriculation fee, and talked to Walter Beeler, who agreed to accept me without audition. So when he did that, I practiced religiously. I even took my instrument along to the canning factory.” (October 1981)

Alfred Reed: “From a very early age I felt the desire, overwhelming at times, to communicate my ideas to other people….After seeing an instrument demonstration at school, I suppose it was only natural to tell my parents that I wanted to play the cornet. I was just 10 years old, and did not as yet have any bent towards writing. That came later, when I discovered I could write music easily and was better at it than I was at playing an instrument. From then on it was the pencil, rather than the horn, and the ideas began to come faster and faster. I always wanted people to listen to them. I wanted to share these ideas.” (October 1985)

John Paynter: “I think the turning point for me was when I was in the 9th grade and Bernard Stepner came to town as the band director. After just one year he was drafted, but in that short time he influenced a lot of us; and out of that small class we had nearly 20 people who did well in music. Being born and raised in a small town was very fortunate for me because it was the kind of setting where there was absolutely no restriction on opportunities.” (July 1979)

W. Francis McBeth: “As a junior high student in West Texas, I though something was wrong with me because I was the only human, I knew outside my family who like jazz and serious music. When a movie came out about the life of Schumann, it was the first time in my life I had heard symphonic music other than through the scratches of the old 78s at home. The scratches were often louder than the music. In the movie, with Robert Walker playing Schumann, Katharine Hepburn as Clara, and Van Heflen as Brahms, there was a good sound system and the music was played by a symphony orchestra. The orchestra played a lot, and I stayed through the film twice that day just to hear the orchestra. It was one of the greatest things that ever happened to me. (August 1998)

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Countdown to Contest

theinstrumenta — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 03:08:16 +0000

It is important that directors develop a firm rehearsal strategy for the final two weeks before a concert band contest or festival. Many such events requires each band to perform three selections (a march and two concert pieces) and sightread one selection. The strategy outlined here is based on having ten 45-minute rehearsals remaining before the performance, but this plan is easily adaptable to any musical requirements and time constraints.

Before the Last 10 Days

Students should have all the measures in their music numbered and the musical terms and dynamics highlighted or circled with a pencil. After checking for conflicts with the school calendar, schedule an emergency full-band rehearsal outside of school that can be used if regular rehearsal time is interrupted for any reason. (Last year we had a rehearsal cancelled at the last minute to watch a basketball player sign a letter of intent for college.)

Directors should schedule two graded lessons early in the preparation. Listen to students individually or in groups of two or three. Students should have their music almost fully prepared for the first lesson. I go easy on the first lesson, pointing out areas for improvement, but by the second lesson everything should be mastered. If students are extremely well-prepared for the first lesson, they do not have a second lesson. I keep a record of what every student and section needs to work on so I can address these problems in full-band rehearsals as well. I also bring in specialists for sections that need more help in mastering their music than others.

Listening to students individually and in small groups is helpful. Early in my career I had difficulty catching all the mistakes in a full band rehearsal, so I worked with students individually to make sure I was not missing anything. Even with more experience I have found that with younger or weaker ensembles it takes personal attention to correct all the mistakes and encourage musical playing. With more experienced and talented players, larger sectionals of various combinations may be enough. Whatever the case, it is best to have graded lessons completed six or seven rehearsals before contest.

If any music is only covered by one student, whether a solo or a complete part, have a back-up plan so that the part is covered in case of an emergency. If I only have one player on a first part, I will give a copy of that part to the second-chair player to learn along with the second part. It is also important to rewrite parts to minimize the effect poor instrumentation can have on balance.

Make sure to have a firm knowledge of the score before the final ten rehearsals. Your understanding and interpretation of the score must be in place before it is possible to cover increasingly minute details in rehearsal instructions. Bringing in a guest conductor during this time period can help with improving basic concepts and even approaches to the interpretation.

Things to Remember

Once the ten-day countdown begins, there are some overarching considerations to keep in mind. For instance, it is important to keep the group apprised of their progress. To help students monitor this, I hang a poster-sized version of the criteria that our state uses for the adjudication process in the front of the classroom. I will often refer to this throughout our preparation process, giving the band a realistic assessment of where I think we fall in the categories on that chart at any given point in time. The chart also helps me stay focused as the band moves steadily from concepts that usually come easily (articulation, rhythm, note accuracy, dynamics) to those that require more rehearsal time (tone, tempo, intonation, interpretation, style, balance, phrasing, and expression beyond the printed page).

I recommend many run-throughs for several reasons. Some directors focus so much on the details of a piece that the group rarely runs the work as a whole. This is particularly easy to do on lengthy, difficult pieces that take substantial rehearsal time just to play once. A run-through also livens up the rehearsal after the frequent stopping and starting required to fix problems. Also, without runthroughs the band may not develop the endurance to perform the whole program, and young players rarely understand how to pace themselves. Countless bands have ended programs poorly because of poor endurance.

It is beneficial to use an amplified metronome at various points during contest preparation. How often it is used will vary with how the music is progressing. Sometimes I will pull out the metronome early to show the ensemble the tempos we are aiming for on faster selections. The best time to establish final tempos and check for rhythmic stability is after the group is fairly comfortable technically. Once the group has proven its ability to maintain a tempo, put the metronome away – you will be the most popular teacher at school for the day.

It is almost as important to consider the psychological aspects of performance as it is the musical aspects. During the last ten rehearsals, group confidence should grow. Some of this will occur naturally as the music improves, but it is important for directors to balance comments so that the students know what work remains but feel good about their progress. This building of confidence will really pay off at the performance when students are free to play with all the emotions in the music. I tell my students that I would rather have aggressive, energetic playing with a few mistakes than a technically perfect performance that lacks passion and feels safe. To me, there is no better judge’s comment than to be told the band played with energy and excitement on the fast sections and deep emotion on the slower ones.

Do not forget your sense of humor during this time period. It seems that just before most contests something musically bizarre will happen, such as a major mistake the band has never made before. As gut-wrenching as these mistakes are, they are usually aberrations, and it is best to be thankful it did not happen during the contest performance. Usually I will quickly regain my composure and say something like, “You’re doing that just to scare me, aren’t you? Well, it worked. Now let’s go back and get it right.”

The Plan

For the purposes of this article I will assume that directors warm up and tune using chorales at the beginning of each rehearsal. I would suggest adding pitch-bending exercises to the warmup to develop students’ ability to adjust while playing.

10 Days to Go

Students may be rusty from the weekend off, so spend more time than usual on warm-ups and tuning. Because there will be a concert for the parents on the next day, practice critical sections of the music, but be sure to play relatively long stretches, and at least one of the three pieces, without stopping. Use an amplified metronome to check rhythmic stability at some point during the rehearsal.

If you have not already done so, make sure that all percussion parts are assigned and that all appropriate mallets and auxiliary instruments are being used. The percussion section leader should know that you want the same set-up for the concert and at the contest site. Inexperienced sections will sometimes arrive at a contest and just play the larger instruments where they were left by the previous band.

9 Days to Go (Concert for Family)

Because there is a performance for friends and family in the evening, rehearse the most problematic sections of each work during class but leave time to run through all three pieces.

As for the evening concert, there are two viable ways to approach it. Some directors prefer having their group perform in circumstances as much like contest as possible, bringing in colleagues who listen to the group and provide recorded comments on the performance. Even if you do not bring in anyone to critique the performance, record the concert for further study and invite a colleague for one of the remaining rehearsals. At this point it may be best to allow the fellow director to listen to the group as you conduct and then offer suggestions for improvement either to the group (the best case) or to you privately after the rehearsal.

During years when my band missed a lot of rehearsal time due to inclement weather, I found it helpful to have an open rehearsal where I encourage the parents to watch us rehearse and then listen as we run through the pieces at the end of the rehearsal. We will even sightread a selection in front of the parents.

8 Days to Go

You will probably be ready to dive right back into the music, but this would be a good time to review the performance from the night before. If you had colleagues record comments, listen to what they have to say.
You may choose to play all of the recordings for students that day or play them piecemeal during upcoming rehearsals. Letting students listen to recorded comments gives them a better chance to understand what you have been telling them in rehearsal, particularly when it comes to such musical aspects as intonation, balance, and blend. Perspective on balance can vary depending on where students sit. Hearing how it fits into the whole can make a world of difference.

7 Days to Go

Consider doing something unusual and allow selected players to stand in front of the group and listen. A good way to mix things up is to permit students to sit where they want and then play one of the pieces. This will help students gain more independence on their parts, and may add freshness to the rehearsal. Another option is to play a recording of some other ensemble performing your music and critique their performance and interpretation, comparing it to yours.

Although intonation should be a primary concern, by Day 7 the readiness of the music should be such that you are able to strongly shift the band’s attention to remaining passages that are consistently out of tune. Have students sing the passages in question or begin the passage with one player on a part and gradually add other players, encouraging them to listen and adjust.

6 Days to Go

Review the week and remind students of what they need to work on. If rhythmic stability is still a problem, pull out the amplified metronome during the rehearsal. Do whatever it takes to make sure that students who are still struggling with parts take their instruments home. I will even talk to specific students, telling them that I expect to see them picking up their instrument after school.

5 Days to Go

Work each piece from the end of each selection to the beginning. Sometimes the conclusions of pieces are short-changed and don’t get as many runs as the first part of the piece. Obviously, it is important to end strong, but so many bands fail to do this. It also adds just enough variety to make rehearsal interesting.

Refocus everyone’s attention on tone quality; even groups with consistently good tones will sometimes gradually begin to play with more tenseness than needed, particularly in loud brass passages. Examine the dynamics again; they have a tendency to creep up to louder levels over time, particularly on the trios of marches. Be determined to hear what is being played, not what you want to hear.

4 Days to Go

At the end of class, run through the strongest piece; this is a good beginning to the final phase of the confidence-building you want to increase until the day of the contest. This would also be a good day to have an extended afterschool rehearsal planned for the whole ensemble, just in case rehearsal time is lost to other factors or the music still has a lot of work remaining. However, if the music is progressing nicely, cancel the rehearsal or have a rehearsal for sections that need the most work.

3 Days to Go

Along with the regular rehearsal, sightread one selection that is likely to be more difficult than what the band will experience at contest.

2 Days to Go

Talk through each piece, asking students questions that test their knowledge of what needs to be done for a good performance. If students point out extra musical concepts, such as giving the melodic lines shape, then you have done your job well. Run through all three selections.

The Final Rehearsal

I have never believed the adage that if they don’t know it now, they never will, but it is important not to go into a last-minute information overload, whether it is during the last class rehearsal or the warmup at the contest site. If you have taught them thoroughly, the music has been marked accordingly, and they watch you, then they will be ready. Positive, gentle reminders with no inkling of panic are best as you run-through the pieces for the final time. There are certainly other approaches to contest preparation that can work just as well as this one. The important thing is that you formulate a plan that is musically sound, systematic, and flexible.

The post Countdown to Contest appeared first on The Instrumentalist.

Professionalism in School Bands

theinstrumenta — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 03:02:59 +0000

Jazz rehearsals can sometimes seem to have a less organized approach, and the music can be treated as less important than that of other types of ensembles. Often, the groups I have worked with are run in a more casual fashion than concert bands. Some of it is the nature of the music and the view that jazz is less academic, important, or sophisticated, perhaps because it is closer to popular music. Here are some ways to get a student jazz group sounding, looking, and acting like professionals.

Starting Silently

The less the director talks, the less the students will. Teach the band a routine for starting rehearsals on time. Richard Dunscomb suggests that each jazz ensemble rehearsal should begin with an exercise that engages the students musically and sets the tone of priorities for the rehearsal. When the rehearsal is scheduled to begin, play an A on the piano and cue the saxes to begin tuning. The bass and guitar may also want to use this pitch unless they are using electronic tuners independently with their quarter-inch cables. Quickly follow this by cueing the brass with a B-flat. Seconds later, start the warm-up piece. It takes only a few rehearsals for students to realize that if they are not ready to tune and play when you are, they are late.

The purpose of a warm-up chart is to get everybody focused on the rehearsal and get air moving through horns. The best warmup pieces are short-duration, medium-swing charts with easy ranges. Sammy Nestico’s arrangement of “Just in Time” (Stratford) works very well for this exercise because the chart has ample full-ensemble writing in the middle registers of the instruments.

After the warm-up piece tune again if needed, then briefly list a few specific objectives for the rehearsal. By eschewing an electronic tuner directors can not only save time, but also train students to use their ears and tune during the warm-up. A few short announcements might be better saved for the transitions between charts as a means of giving students a few minutes to rest their chops. It is even better to write all announcements on the board. Remember that players at all levels of development come to rehearsal to play, not listen to speeches.

Get People Dancing

Carefully designed rehearsals yield the best bands. The top musical priorities for a jazz ensemble should be style, rhythm, and time. In the past, when musicians were trying to keep gigs in their books and food on their tables, their first priority was to keep the audience dancing. Getting an audience to feel like dancing depends primarily on style, rhythm, and time. Elements such as intonation, harmony, phrasing, and dynamics are important but secondary. In the words of the great Duke Ellington, “It don’t mean a thing if it ain’t got that swing.”

Great bands and soloists who have had less-than-optimal pitch or tone have become definitive artists in the industry because of their superb style, rhythm, and time. Think of the famous solo Miles Davis played in “So What” on the Kind of Blue album. Many times I have heard a young student play all the correct notes in a transcription of this solo but still deliver a musically unsatisfying rendition. When a piece lacks the correct style, rhythm, and time there will be no emotional response to get anyone moving. The right notes at the wrong time are wrong notes.

Style Struggles

When teaching students how to swing, many times directors will focus on changing that eight-note rhythm to something loosely between a quarter-eighth note triplet and a dotted eighth-sixteenth note, depending on tempo. Too many directors focus on the rhythms but not on the articulations associated with good swing style. The result of this is a band that plays fairly accurate rhythms but sounds hokey because of stylistically wrong articulations. In Latin styles or some types of big-band music, such as an Ellington chart, a short note might be played much shorter and crisper than one with a similar marking but from the Count Basie Orchestra tradition. Articulations depend not only on the style but also on the composer and the practices of the time.

One common mistake in interpreting rhythms incorrectly is overinterpretation of the style. In a chart from the library of Sammy Nestico or Dave Wolpe, which are permutations of the Count Basie style, laying back on the beat, which can be described as a tug and pull between the wind players and the rhythm section, can be difficult to teach a band. The best way to learn to interpret rhythms is to listen to the recordings. I have often heard bands try to mimic the recording but pull back too much; this disrupts the time and style, and people no longer feel like dancing.

Elements of Improvisation

With young bands, I teach the rhythm section how to vamp over a dominant chord. This includes teaching the bass player how to play a simple walking bass line and teaching the piano player a five-note voicing with which he can experiment. I pick up my horn, play figures to the band, and have them play these back to me in a call and response. Many directors worry about what notes students should play and not what rhythms they are being taught to use, but to make an improvised solo work on a dance tune, which is almost anything in swing or Latin style, the solo has to fit rhythmically even if the lines are simple. Finding a few simple notes, such as the thirds, sevenths, and ninths, and then creating easy rhythms that students can play after hearing them are good exercises. This is akin to a simple transcription exercise. I use call and response frequently to give young soloists some initial encouragement and ideas to start improvising.

Stop Conducting

There is substantial debate about how much, if any, conducting is necessary during a jazz ensemble rehearsal or performance. The more advanced the band the less the director should do. Many of the top groups, such as the Airmen of Note, operate without a conductor. The drummer kicks off the chart and the lead alto gives a cutoff. They have someone who rehearses the band, but at concerts there is no director. In the Basie band, Basie was the piano player, and he would just stand up and direct when needed. What he was doing was more showmanship than directing.

Just as a concert band conductor might start a march in rehearsal and then walk around the room to correct problems as the group is playing, much of the jazz ensemble director’s time can be spent away from the front of the band. This forces students to focus on music, count independently, make correct entrances and releases, and listen to each other and especially to the rhythm section players.

As a director moves around the ensemble it is important to listen without looking at the score. Walk through and behind the rhythm section, and look over the piano player’s shoulders to check the voicings and rhythms he is using for comping. I might also walk way away from the ensemble just to remind them that they don’t need me. I should not have to remind them to come back in after a solo section or where a sax soli is.

One useful thing a director can do during rehearsals is move attention off of the soloist. A lot of times a director will focus on the soloist, which can cause unnecessary anxiety for a student still working on chord changes and developing ideas. During a sax solo I might talk to the trumpet players about the next entrance or something they just played. This is an opportunity to make adjustments without stopping the band.

If students have been well prepared, the jazz director need only make students feel comfortable at performances. Being in front of the band during full ensemble sections of playing is primarily to remind them of the large stylistic elements of the music, rarely the time.

Change Something

I have changed the lighting in my rehearsal room to alter the mood. With a college band I worked with over the last few years, I brought the jazz fronts and stand lights to dress rehearsal and turned off all the lights in the band room so students became accustomed to reading with the lights for the performance. This heightened the level of the dress rehearsal because everybody got psyched about something new.

Using a variety of rehearsal configurations is a simple strategy to keep things interesting for both students and director. I am always amazed to see the energy and excitement expressed on the faces of students when they enter the rehearsal room on a day I changed the seating configuration. I sometimes put a small seating diagram on the chalkboard to stave off confusion. This technique seems similar to changing your living room furniture around. Suddenly, you are once again excited about being there. In addition, changing rehearsal seating configurations is also a great technique to make students more aware of what other instruments are doing as they play. Here are some suggestions for changing the rehearsal set-up, the first two of which can also be used at concerts, where they will have much the same exciting effect on the audience as they did with the students.

Standard Block

The rhythm section should be set up to the left of the winds, with the bass player and ride cymbal of the drum set as close as possible to each other. For good nonverbal communication rhythm section players should be close to each other and easily able to make eye contact. The winds should be in three horizontal lines to the right of the rhythm section, with the trombone section lining up horizontally with the hi-hat cymbal of the drum set. The trumpets should be 3-5 feet behind the trombones, and the saxes should be 3-5 feet in front. Lead players in each section should be in the middle of their row and aligned vertically amongst the wind section. Vary this for rehearsal by having the saxes arched in front, the saxes facing the brass section, or even the trumpets sitting in front with the saxes standing in back.

V Formation

The rhythm section should be placed in the middle of the stage but configured as they are in the Standard Block. The trombone, trumpet, and sax section rows are placed to the left, behind, and to the right of the rhythm section respectively, with the trumpets on risers so they can be seen over the rhythm section. This configuration is reminiscent of old show bands like the Stan Kenton Orchestra.

Box Formation

Each of the four sections of the band creates one side of a large square facing inward, with each row maintaining the same configuration as in the Standard Block. Use this set-up in rehearsals, but not performances.

Spread Out

The rhythm section is placed in the center of the room, similar to the V set-up. Wind players should spread out randomly as much as possible, facing towards the rhythm section.

Look Professional

While getting the band to play well should be the first item on a director’s list of priorities, getting them to look good should not be far behind. Consider the way a concert band looks on stage when all the students are in similar black and white attire with rows of chairs and stands evenly spaced, or recall the polished look of a marching band as it enters and exits the field with nearly perfect intervallic distances between the members.

A jazz band should look equally sharp. All black is the easiest, least expensive, and quickest way to produce a clean, professional look. It is worth taking a few extra moments to straighten chairs, spacing them evenly on stage and keeping the set-up as symmetrical and balanced as possible from the audience’s perspective.

Students should consider themselves to be performing from the moment they enter the stage to the moment they exit. In many cases, the stage is more than the place where the music will be performed; it is the entire campus of any place the ensemble visits. Students should act professionally even in the hallways of buildings. Part of teaching students to act professionally includes discussing what types of warmups are appropriate. First impressions are everything, and taking a few extra steps to get students to look and act professionally will impress the audience.

Buy the jazz ensemble some fronts, traditional short music stands that contain the logo of the band or other artwork. Using fronts gives the band a traditional stage band look, keeps horn angles more uniform, and hides mutes, cables, and other eyesores. It will also make the band members feel distinct from other ensembles in the school and more professional. Directors with small budgets might ask a local business to buy them for the band in exchange for displaying a stick-on logo on the fronts for one or two concerts.

The low level of most fronts can lead students to play with poor upper body position if the director does not carefully address posture. Saxophonists who play with fronts can still play with good posture. I have students sit up straight, and when posture is set I have them bend at the waist without curving the spine.

Showmanship

I like to build stage entrances into a show. One idea I use is to have the rhythm section enter first and begin a vamp that can lead into a Basie chart. Horn players come out one by one, and I am the last one to walk on stage, at which point I immediately start the chart. The crowd loves this, and it prevents students from going out on the stage and showing off. I avoid tuning on stage because it shows the audience how out of tune an ensemble is before the performance even starts.

Soloists should stand up, and have all the saxes stand up during a soli. It is purposely flashy and reminds the audience to focus on that section. If the ensemble plays a Glenn Miller chart I will add choreography by having trombones extend their slides in a dramatic way at certain parts of a chart or having trumpet players turn to the left 20 degrees for a hit, just to add a visual effect. Ellington would sometimes conduct with a giant 22-inch baton, and it was just part of the act. Audiences love it, and it magically makes them think the band sounds better, too.

The younger the ensemble, the more the director is there as encouragement for the band. I try to direct the audience’s attention where they should be listening. During a saxophone section soli, I make sure I am not standing in front of them. I might stand next to the bari sax and just watch the sax section and bob my head a bit. It is important for a director to appear calm, cool, and collected. A tense director brings unnecessary attention to weaknesses in the band that the audience might not have otherwise noticed.

Put Students to Work

I love bands that start by having the drummer kick off a chart. I also like bands that give each member of the band a responsibility, such as booking tours, setting up sound equipment, organizing music, and handling advertising. Even with a high school group I will set up leadership within the band. Every time we rehearse, a student is responsible for coming in before class to make sure that the spacing between chairs is good and the trombones are lined up with the hi-hat in the rhythm section. The bass amp should be behind the drumset but with enough room between the piano player and the drumset for the bass player to fit an acoustic bass. The piano should be turned so the pianist can see the drummer and bass player without having to strain. With a good band all of these things are present, even if the audience never notices such details.

Jazz band rehearsals and performances ought to be as carefully conceived and structured as those for any other ensemble. The power of jazz ensembles of all ability levels to get people excited about music should never be underestimated, but realizing that potential depends on the planning and energy given to each rehearsal and performance.

The post Professionalism in School Bands appeared first on The Instrumentalist.

Consistency Is Key with Middle School Bands, An Interview with Douglas Akey

theinstrumenta — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 02:55:04 +0000

Douglas Akey teaches band and music technology at the Mesa Academy, a school for students in grades four through eight, and also composes band music, especially for middle level bands. He began composing after teaching for about six years. “I started preparing scores for my band because I had some experience with arranging and wanted to try my hand at composing. The Barnhouse works of the mid-1980s by Jim Swearingen and Dave Shaffer were what I was most familiar with, so I followed their example but in my own voice. One summer while studying up in Canada, I wrote a piece of music in my free time.” Akey has taught middle school band for over 30 years and has composed 50 band works. He received an undergraduate and a master’s degree in music at Arizona State University.

Of your own works, which is your favorite?

The best technical and musical piece that I ever wrote was A Tallis Prelude in part because the original had so much potential to develop. The form of the piece hangs together well, and the writing for the various instruments is both characteristic and interesting. I absolutely hated Peregrin: A Traveler’s Tale when I wrote it. When it was picked up on a number of concert and contest lists, I took another look at it. Much to my surprise, there was a lot more to it than I originally thought.

Why are so many of your works written for grades 2 and 3?

Although I pride myself on writing from beginners all the way through harder grade 4 pieces, I write quite a bit for the middle levels because I teach that level. In the beginning my writing was exclusively for my bands. Once I started writing commissions, people asked for works in other levels. I really enjoy writing beginning works but do not have time to do much of it yet. I usually do two commissions a year, three if I feel like burning the candle at both ends. I have two for this year and one for next year.

How do you balance your various roles as composer, teacher, and player?

I often don’t balance it well at all and become frazzled and close to the edge of burnout. This is one of those overly busy years, so I have a rule that I can only say yes to a new project if I stop something else. Learning to say no is an important career survival skill. If I write late at night when it is quiet, I make sure I do not work too late because of school the next day. I try to keep my life compartmentalized and do not take on more than I can do well.

Do you compose during the summer?

I do write in the summer a bit, but I find as I get older I need the summer as down time when I am not thinking about music. I find that the break actually makes me a better musician and teacher when I come back to it in the fall.

How do you build a program capable of performing at the Midwest Clinic or similar events?

Young conductors often ask that question. I advise them to not make a convention invitation the goal. Focus on creating a strong and musical program and do not worry about recognition. Young directors who aim for a high-visibility performance tend to focus on just a few pieces of music and neglect the general development of their students. The right motivation is to develop students who understand and love music. When that happens it shows in their playing, and outside recognition occurs naturally. For years people suggested that I send in a tape to Midwest, and I always said no. I was focused entirely on how musically my students could play.

What pieces have you put into your core repertoire?

I try not to get into a cycle but there are pieces that I play again. I always look for pieces to replace them, however, because I will not repeat them within four years. Although no student will play the same work again, I will eventually come back to them. I always enjoy pieces with depth. One is David Holsinger’s On a Hymnsong of Philip Bliss. It has so much musical expression. Robert Sheldon’s West Highland Sojourn is another great work. I could work on that piece every day for a year and not plumb everything in there. Another I often come back to is Liberty Spirit March by Patrick Wilson. Few people know it, but it is an interesting concert march. It has counterpoint and interesting rhythmic figures; all the independence is quite remarkable.

What are the ingredients of a successful middle school rehearsal?

Many people advise switching things up every day to keep rehearsals interesting. That may work for them, but I think middle school students need consistency. All of my rehearsals are structured identically. We start with the scale for that week and go on to rhythm studies and then a chorale. I focus on tone production, balance, and listening. We might go into a technique book next and deal with technical issues. The last half of the rehearsal is spent working on performance music. I sometimes change the balance of time we spend in each area, but that is the basic plan. If students have solid fundamentals – tuning, balance, rhythms – then you can spend less time rehearsing performance music. Students learn to solve problems on their own.

At this level the director should keep all of the students involved in the rehearsal at every moment. If I want to work on flute vibrato, I ask the other instruments to listen and assess how well the flutes are doing. If I work on a rhythm with the sax section, the other sections clap the beat or count subdivisions. When students are engaged and busy, they don’t have time to misbehave. A more important reason for doing this is that when they become involved in what other sections learn, they start to pay attention to the rest of the band. That bleeds over into their playing.

How do you approach discipline in your rehearsal room?

I do not have many discipline problems in rehearsals. If somebody acts out, the other students shoot them a look. I don’t have to say more than a word or two. I rarely turn my back on a section for more than a few seconds; they are always in my gaze. When I started teaching, my approach was similar to that of my band director growing up. He was a strict dictator in his approach to conducting. Over the years, partly because Arizona is a rather laid-back area, I have come to use more humor and outrageous analogies to explain how someone is playing and how they ought to be playing. Once students key into that, they find the rehearsals entertaining. My style is a personal choice, and any director has to do what works well for them. I tend towards sarcastic humor, which they told me in college had no place in the classroom but it fits with my personality. I have had student teachers who tried the same approach with my students and did not succeed. Everyone has to find their own way.

I keep my classroom very organized, and I know what I am going to do before I come in. I do my best not to get caught off guard. After three decades of teaching middle school, they can’t surprise me with much.

How do you motivate middle school students to practice and do their best?

I am a firm believer that intrinsic motivation is the best. I do not give my students candy if they practice 15 minutes a day. I do not offer pizza parties or trips to an amusement park, and I do not give students the day off after the concert. We are there to accomplish a goal. If I make the goal rewarding enough, performing excellent music at a high level, the music itself becomes the reward. I have never had a problem with motivation. If students want to play a piece of music really well, they will practice it.

How much sightreading do you do?

I never pass out a piece of performance music that we do not intend to play on a concert. On the other hand, my students are presented with something new every day. I have come up with a huge set of warm-up chorales based on Protestant hymns. They have various keys and rhythms and different types of phrasing and balances to figure out. We read a new chorale every day or two. I also have a sequence of rhythms that we practice. Every time we get to a new set of rhythms, that is sightreading. Although we do not play music to practice sightreading, the further we get into these chorales and rhythms, the more successful we are at sightreading. There is always a first time through with a piece of music. I also spend time looking at a new piece with students before we start to play. Students should have a mental checklist of things to see and imagine before they put the instrument up to play.

What are the basic principles you address in teaching rhythms?

When I was taught, we were instructed to show students how to count rhythms in the standard way, and then have them clap and play the rhythm. There is nothing wrong with that system, but it does not always work for every student. Just as in other subjects, music instruction should vary. I thought about how I read rhythms when playing. With some rhythms I count them, but on a jazz or rock chart, it was more a visual recognition of the rhythm. I see it and know how it is supposed to sound. I concluded that the most important part about reading a rhythm is how it aligns with the beat. If my students have trouble with a rhythm, they write a little hash mark over every beat in the measure. Then I put on the metronome or have half of the students clap as the others play this rhythm. I tell them that every time they come to a note or a rest under a hash mark, make sure that they are aligned with the beat. Ninety percent of the time that approach solves the problem.

Another element that I discuss is what students should do during rests. They are often very good at playing the notes, but rests become a formless, unidentified silence of undetermined length. I come up with something physical to fill the rest. For a short rest, for example, they might take a breath. I try to make what happens during the rests just as rhythmic as the notes. I do not have a complete solution for teaching rhythms, but as I add each of these elements, students reach greater levels of success. I try to have an arsenal of approaches that I can apply to any situation, until I find the approach that clicks.

How do you teach tone?

My number one priority is characteristic tone. I tell students that you could probably teach a bunch of chickens to cluck the 1812 Overture but nobody would think it was great music. When I teach beginners, I show them the fundamentals of how to produce a tone and then listen to what they do. If a student produces a good tone naturally, then I do not talk about it anymore. One of the worst things a teacher can do is work on something that students already do well. I do not want to have them think about something that they do well. I wait until I hear a problem.

I play the instruments for beginners all the time. I play along with them and show them how a tone should sound and then ask them to play. We will discuss how the two tones are different, which tone is better, what I am doing differently to produce my tone. I want them to evaluate sound right from the start. Next to the podium there might be eight instruments on a given day. Whenever I hear a poor tone, that is the instrument I pick up for demonstrations that day. I have seen too many beginning band teachers who do not demonstrate characteristic sound on the instruments and then wonder why students play the way they do.

How important is skill on secondary instruments?

It is absolutely critical. If you have a math teacher who says to a class, here is how you do long division but I can’t show you with a problem on the board, that teacher would be fired. A band teacher who cannot demonstrate a characteristic tone on clarinet is just as unprofessional. If you lack proficiency on the clarinet, do something about it. Sometimes a student will ask if I play all the instruments, and I answer, “of course, I teach them all.”

It may not be realistic to come out of college playing all of the instruments well, but new teachers should play several instruments, and in the first few years of teaching they should work over the summer on the others. I am a horn player, so woodwind instruments were a bit of a foreign language. The process of learning to play a clarinet or flute well makes me an infinitely better teacher because I understand what students are going through.

When I graduated from college, I thought I knew everything, and by the second day of teaching, I realized I knew very little. I always tell first-year teachers two things. First, promise you will not quit when the year is over, no matter how discouraged you get. The second year will be so much better, you won’t believe it. Second, don’t think for a moment that you have any idea how to do this job. What they taught you in college gave you some tools, but until you have to put it into practice in front of students, it is all a bunch of words. You can talk about surgery all you want, but the first time you pick up a scalpel is when you start to figure out how it really works.

How do you work on tuning and intonation?

Directors approach tuning in two ways. One is to tune the band the way a piano tuner tunes a piano. The band will sound in tune, initially, but the intonation begins to drift from the moment they finish tuning. On a concert the first piece might sound in tune, but as the instruments warm up, the intonation suffers. I use a different approach and teach students how to listen and adjust intonation as they play. I start with an initial tuning, but from that point students learn that they have a toolkit to correct tuning problems. Bands schooled in this approach start a concert in tune and play in tune throughout. The tuning may actually improve and get tighter as they go along because it relies on student perceptions of intonation and adjustment. I have a sheet that I hand out to students when they reach the appropriate level that explains how to adjust pitch with air, hand position, and embouchure. I explain that at any given moment they should find the best tools to solve a tuning problem.

To help students hear intonation problems, I ask a student to play a note as I play the pitch extremely flat and slowly slide up to the correct pitch. Students raise their hands when the intonation beats disappear. After some practice, students do this with their eyes closed so their perceptions are not influenced by others. Next I ask a pair of students to play a note and have one student make the adjustments I prescribe to eliminate the intonation beats as the other students raise their hands when the intonation is perfect. This is always a great lesson; students are astonished when they notice intonation beats for the first time.

I focus on teaching students to listen to each other. The least important thing I do is give the beat. I tell students that once the beat is started, that is no longer my job. My job is to make a correction if something goes awry with that beat. If the band starts to get off track, I make the beat smaller or even stop conducting. The solution is not to watch me but to listen to the other players. I take away the visual cues, so they are left with only the aural cues to fix the problem. When working with an unfamiliar band, they might stop playing when I stop conducting. I tell them that when I want them to stop, it will be obvious.

I don’t conduct that much in rehearsals. I might walk behind a section and talk to students while the band plays. Students should learn to use their ears and synch with the rest of the players. I want the focus to be on the music, so my conducting has gotten smaller and more discrete.

What is the curriculum you have developed for your music technology lab?

I teach in a school that is only five years old and was designed as an international baccalaureate school. As part of the IB curriculum all students take a music class each year. Students may play in an ensemble or take a music technology class. The first year is a one-semester class called notation and theory that starts at the beginning with the musical staff and whole notes. In this lab we have MIDI keyboards hooked up to iMac computers. Some students find the basics boring and cover material they already know, but it quickly becomes more advanced. I basically take a freshman college theory course and simplify it. The class includes the fundamentals of notation, major scales, chords, how meters work, and the characteristics of good melodic writing. By the end of the semester we have reached two- and three-part counterpoint.

Do the students compose?

Sometimes to apply theory lessons, they will write four and eight-measure compositions. The second-year class covers arranging and composition. They take pre-written music in SATB form and learn to orchestrate it for all band and orchestra instruments. That takes about nine weeks. For the other half of the semester, they work on composition assignments that start very simply and become increasingly open ended and complicated. Many band and orchestra students would love to take this class but the school schedule makes this impossible. I would like to see that change in the future.

What other advice do you have for new teachers?

Whatever budget you get from the school, be sure to spend every penny by the end of the first semester. If you ever leave any money, you are just asking to have your budget reduced. I also advise new directors that whenever you hear from an irate parent, respond as quickly as possible. The longer you wait, the angrier they become. If you call back within five minutes, you completely disarm them. If you avoid a difficult encounter, it will only become worse.

At rehearsals, students should play their instruments more than they listen to you talk. If you are talking, make your point in a sentence or two and then have students apply it. Lecturing is the best way to waste time in rehearsal.

What have you learned along the way that you wish you had known sooner?

It is possible to make everything in rehearsals about the music. My high school director was quite stern, and if he hurt your feelings, too bad. I started out that way, and it was not until 20 years into my career that I realized that I should be more interested in these young human beings in front of me. My mannerisms, words, and approach affect them as people, not just as musicians. When I changed my approach, so many things got better. The job became more meaningful, and students started responding better to suggestions. In the end the band played more musically because the rehearsal atmosphere encouraged them to take a more personal interest the music.

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