June 2017 Archives - The Instrumentalist

Improvement in a Month

theinstrumenta — Thu, 01 Jun 2017 22:10:57 +0000

We all have a wish list of things to do to improve our flute practice and performance. The mistake that most of us make is in trying to fix everything at once. Trying to fix too many things at once is overpowering and may lead to frustration. This guide of 30 tips should calm you down and also act as a springboard to discovering other tips to help you achieve your goals.

1. Keep a journal. A simple spiral notebook or word document on your computer is a good way to start. Be honest. This journal is only for you. If you are studying with a teacher, you may want to share the information, but that is your choice.
Start by noting your long term goals. A long term goal might be taking an audition or entering a competition that is six months away. Or, it might be memorizing the Ibert Concerto. Note short term goals. A good short term goal might be to learn two new etudes this week or to fix your hand position.

2. Plan your practice. Each day write your practice plan in your journal. A good practice plan will encompass stretching, warm-ups (including scales, arpeggios, tone work etc.) etudes, solos, chamber works, and orchestral works. If you have an exceptionally good practice day, note it in your journal, and later when you reread your entries, you may discover why you were more successful one day than another.

3. Treat yourself to a COA. This stands for a clean, oil, and adjust on your flute. Many of us put checkups off until a few days before a performance and then realize that some of the problems that we have practiced so hard to eliminate were actually caused by a poorly adjusted flute. Most professional flutists treat their instrument to a COA every six months.

4. Audio or video record your practice. Many of my college students share good practice days with a practice buddy by sending the recording as an attachment in an email. If you are having difficulties solving a problem, a practice partner may have the answer for you. Most of the time you are your own best teacher and you will be able to figure out what you should do once you view or listen to your practice.

5. Stand as if serving in tennis or volleyball. The flute should be parallel to the music stand (or the end even slightly a bit more forward). This means that your body is turned 45 degrees to the right and your left foot is in front and your right foot in back.

6. Hang your arms and hang your jaw.

7. Spend more time on just the headjoint. Be creative. How many things can you practice with just the headjoint? (Hint: articulation, vibrato, dynamics, embouchure flexibility)

8. Try to keep the embouchure hole level or parallel to the floor and ceiling. This is difficult for many flutists because the embouchure is not fully developed. At first you will sound airy, but with work, your tone will be fuller and you will have fewer intonation problems.

9. Practice some counted vibrato. Vibrato generally spins in uneven numbers (5) per pulse in simple time. To develop a fluid vibrato, practice counted vibrato, keeping the pulses high in the vocal folds. Try HAH, HAH, HAH, rest played staccato and then repeat letting the HAHs slur together. Keep it simple. Remember that vibrato speed has a lot to do with the internal rhythm of the music you are playing.

10. The left hand thumb should be straight and pointed to the ceiling. The bottom of the thumb key should touch the left hand thumb at about the first knuckle.

11. All finger movements (except that of the left index finger) should come from the third knuckle back from the nail. Keep the right hand third knuckles at the same level as the key pad.

12. Think separate your vocal folds, rather than thinking open your throat.

13. Think of tonguing as being a horizontal stroke rather than a vertical one. The tongue should move through the teeth, touching on the top lip.

14. Place the aperture on the left of center if you have a tear drop embouchure. Remember to tongue in the center of the aperture no matter whether your aperture is centered or off-centered.

15. Practice playing your best sounding note with the tongue positioned in the following ways: long A, short A, long O, short O, long U and, short u. You may find a position of the tongue that gives you a sound that you prefer.

16. Do not practice when you are exhausted.

17. A regularly set practice time each day will help you remember to practice.

18. Buy new editions of the Bach Sonatas and Mozart Concerti because the latest scholarship will be reflected in them. Be informed. Keep up to date.

19. My favorite book on style: Franz Vester On the Playing of Mozart for Woodwind Instruments.

20. When playing a three-octave chromatic scale (required for many auditions), most flutists naturally move forward onto the left front foot when beginning the scale. Try moving back to the right foot. Then your body and your pinky will be moving in the same direction and your slur will be smoother with no jerking or bumps.

21. Counting is not just feeling the pulse. Counting is counting: 1 e + ah, 2 e + ah. When you count well, you have a great sense of power because you know where you are.

22. Intonation is not optional. Neither are dynamics.

23. Subdivision (counting the internal parts of a beat) is necessary for accuracy.

24. A metronome and a tuner are your best companions.

25. Buy a music stand that allows you to have good alignment. Many stands do not go low or high enough.

26. Reading about music, studying theory and history, listening to music, and attending concerts should be catalogued under the heading of Practice.

27. Chunking (playing in one inch segments with a rest in between each segment) is the greatest advance in practice techniques in the last 25 years.

28. Practice for 25 minutes, then rest for at least five or ten minutes. During the rest, perform some stretching exercises.

29. Practice what you cannot do, rather than playing what you can.

30. Read Flute Talk for the many great playing and teaching tips.

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Wait! Wait!

theinstrumenta — Wed, 31 May 2017 22:06:30 +0000

    I have put off finishing this article long enough. During the two hours that this unfinished column languished on my computer desktop I watched an episode of the Andy Griffith show, went to the kitchen three separate times to snack on pecans or cherry tomatoes, surfed Facebook, put all my freshly washed clothes in drawers or on hangers, jotted down some ideas for next year’s marching show, and did some writing on other topics. I did get quite a bit done, just not what needed to be done the most.
    Unfortunately, my tendency to procrastinate extends into other areas of my work life. I sometimes have a hard time sitting down and studying my scores for rehearsal. Even as I type this, I only have to look six inches in front of me to see the scores I must study before I return to school tomorrow. Marking pens and highlighters have been sitting on them the whole weekend, gathering a microscopic layer of dust.
    It is comforting to know that I am not alone. In fact, I have some brilliant company. Mozart wrote the overture for Don Giovanni in a single night – the night before the opera’s debut. Apparently Mozart could compose entire symphonies in his mind, often while playing billiards, and at times he didn’t put pen to paper until he had completed the entire piece in his head. At Don Giovanni’s premiere, the ink on the overture’s sheet music was still wet from last-minute copying, and there was no time for rehearsal.
    I’m not sure what to do about my tendency to procrastinate, but I’ve considered doing something about it for a long time. Some say that Victor Hugo, the great French novelist of Les Miserables would strip naked in his study and give his clothes to his valet and tell him not to return until the appointed hour. That might work, but it gets awfully cold here in Arkansas.

In some ways, I’m not sure I need to do anything about it at all. In fact, there is good reason to embrace it. Some professions thrive on being procrastinators. General contractors and subcontractors have it down to an art form. We have a new fine arts facility being built right now, and if I structured my week like theirs, it would look like this:

Monday: Go to my office and lay out all of my work. Leave.
Tuesday: Go to my office and make sure nothing has moved. Maybe stick a little flag in pencil holder. Leave.
Wednesday: If it rains, I’m staying home.
Thursday: Rearrange papers on my desk. Leave.
Friday: Work a little. Leave early because it’s Friday.

Now that I think about it, procrastinating can really have many advantages. It can save you from wasting your time. A couple of years ago, my assistant director and I were a part of a newly-revised state mentoring program. We were asked to jump through dozens of convoluted and time-consuming educational hoops with a website harder to navigate than the Everglades. Because we were in the middle of marching season, we put it off, and it was a good thing we did. There were so many complaints from other mentors and mentees across the state that the requirements were greatly reduced by the time we got around to doing it in April.

    Procrastination can really come in handy when a new educational fad is implemented in your district. If you time it just right, the fad may be over before you do anything. Several years ago, portfolios were all the rage. Basically, we were expected to keep a folio on each of our students, a task I found ridiculous for a band program our size. I suspected the faculty member put in charge of accountability on this dreadful project was not one who could handle the task. However, my younger assistant very diligently tried to put something together for all of his students while I did nothing. As I suspected, the whole portfolio idea died without so much as a whimper sometime before the year was out. What would I have done if the portfolio rage had survived? I’m not sure; that was a bridge I never had to cross. As it was, I felt the thrill of being a wise rebel.
    You can also learn from the mistakes of eager beavers. This works particularly well with technology. While others spend hours clicking and cursing while trying to figure out some new software program, I wait until all the problems have been solved before beginning my work. You are letting others more suited for the task accomplish it. They feel good. You feel good. Everybody wins.
    Admittedly, procrastination can cause a lot of stress as a deadline nears, but look at the big picture. Procrastination crams all the unpleasantness of a task into a smaller time frame and allows you to enjoy a large chunk of your time. Putting things off lets your subconscious work, allowing a better idea to be born and grow. The idea, coming at the last minute, is fresh. In today’s fast-moving world, great ideas can be outdated almost as soon as they are presented; one might as well wait.
    Procrastination can lead to peak performances from the realization that much is at stake and matters must be taken care of immediately. It forces you to keep things efficient and simple, but with increased creativity required by the situation. It is comparable to the thrill of a quarterback leading his team to victory in a precisely played two-minute drill with a trick play added for kicks. Procrastination adds a refreshing air of spontaneity to your life. Your significant other may even find this spontaneity romantic. (My wife loves spontaneity, but she’s inconsistent. She’s thrilled with a last-minute picnic, but not when I decide to mow foot-high grass in the dark.)
    Despite the virtues of procrastination, there is a time when a task, no how disagreeable, must be done. Because I am a musician, maybe I can find a music playlist online that will get me pumped up and ready to accomplish any task. I think I’ll google some things and see what I can find – tomorrow.

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Recruiting for Small College Athletic Band Programs

theinstrumenta — Wed, 31 May 2017 21:13:55 +0000

    It may seem that small colleges face a recruiting disadvantage for band students when compared to large universities. The giant stadiums, large marching bands, and media presence certainly lure students away from liberal arts colleges or smaller regional universities. However, for every student who dreams of attending a state flagship university and marching in a huge collegiate marching band, there is another student who prefers a more personal collegiate environment and would gladly participate in a small but high-quality marching or basketball band. With the right approach, a small college can capitalize on its strengths and develop a comprehensive athletic band program.
    For the past two years, I have been Director of Athletic Bands at North Central College, a small, liberal arts institution in Illinois with an enrollment of 2,700 undergraduates. I have discovered that given the sheer number of students who participate in high school marching or basketball bands, the potential exists to build athletic band programs at many small institutions. In 2016 alone, over 400 North Central applicants indicated an interest in band. We have successfully implemented recruiting programs that have nearly doubled the size of our athletic band program in one year.

Taking Advantage of Admissions Department Programs
    A key first step in recruiting is to establish a relationship with the Admissions office, and this begins with participating in annual recruiting events. Most admissions departments regularly operate student visit days that include open houses or activity fairs. By participating in these events, you can reach many students at once, and meeting in person makes it easier for students to imagine themselves in your program. These activity fairs also offer a prime opportunity to develop a short list of the prospective band students most likely to attend your school. Before each activity fair, print out a contact form for prospects; alternatively, having a laptop computer or tablet at the fair can cut down on time spent deciphering questionable handwriting.
    When students visit an admissions event, present your program as a model of organization and professionalism. Because time with students and parents is limited, prepare a short list of talking points about the program and then provide them with eye-catching literature to take home. With most of the work done for you, admissions events are especially beneficial for part-time or adjunct directors who are on campus for a limited amount of time each week.
    With prospective students who visit outside of pre-planned events, you have time to answer questions, learn about the student’s background and interests, and explain the structure and philosophy of your program. Parents, in particular, are particularly appreciative of directors who thoroughly answer all of their questions (often about scholarships, fees, and course credits) because they frequently help to pay tuition. To manage an individual student visit effectively, you should communicate regularly with the Office of Admissions. Each term, I inform our admissions representative of my teaching schedule to make it easy to schedule a one-on-one meeting between the student and me. This streamlined process strengthens the perception of our institution as a well-oiled machine.

Implementing Band-Centered Recruiting Activities
    Beyond admissions events and student visits, there are many opportunities to develop recruiting activities that can provide prospective students with a more complete understanding of your athletic band program. In 2012, while considering doctoral wind conducting programs, I visited several schools with large and highly visible athletic bands. The University of Oklahoma put together an itinerary that included shadowing the band staff throughout an entire game day. After a full day with the faculty and students and considerable exposure to the culture of the university, I arrived at home excited and determined, and returned one month later to complete my formal audition. No other campus visit matched the insight I gained or camaraderie I developed. I was sold.
    I initiated a similar Marching Band Game Day Guest program at North Central College in 2016. The day begins with a meeting in my office to introduce myself and answer initial questions that students or parents might have. We then proceed to the band’s pre-game staging and warm-up area, where the visiting students meet the members of their sections. When preparing to march to the stadium, the student guests are placed into the parade block next to their respective section leaders, who then teach them their section’s horn flashes, chants, and cheers. While the band marches, I escort the parents and answer their questions. Once in the stands, the prospective students sit with band members, where they have the option of playing along with the stand tunes. Some students are eager to play, but others feel insecure about their ability and prefer to watch.
    While the band performs at halftime, I invite the visiting students to stand on the sideline with the staff. Our band holds a meaningful ceremony after each game that includes singing the alma mater, speeches by the drum majors, and a traditional song that we play to honor our seniors. Upon its conclusion, I thank visiting students for their participation and emphasize my willingness to answer any questions throughout their application process. The guest program has been very successful and word-of-mouth has spread throughout the year, resulting in increased participation at each game. Current band members have also marketed the event by sharing the registration website with their high school band directors and friends.
    For colleges without a marching band, there are many opportunities during basketball season for similar recruitment activities. Each winter, we reach out to area high school band directors and arrange for North Central students to play with high school pep bands at their basketball games. In return, we invite the high school band members to come to North Central and play at our home games. This exchange program is remarkably easy to organize and execute, but the impact cannot be understated. After we initiated this program, enrollment by band students from participating high schools increased, sometimes dramatically. We provide this opportunity for individual prospective students as well. This is especially useful for students who participate in competitive high school marching bands and cannot attend a football game due to busy Saturday schedules. By playing with the basketball band, they can still experience the culture of the college and band program. As you develop your own recruiting events, keep the admissions office informed at every step.

Student Follow-Up
Follow up with prospects in an unobtrusive manner. For all prospective students who take part in a recruiting event, a short post-visit email is a polite way to bring their on-campus experience to a final cadence. Before sending the email, determine if the student has completed their application. This will probably come to light throughout your interactions with the student and parents at the visit, but if not, ask the admissions office. If the student has not completed the process, a gentle reminder of application deadlines shows that you are interested in their success. Check periodically with admissions to determine who has committed to your institution. When a student commits, send another message congratulating them on their decision and including the important dates and deadlines for the summer and fall term.
Remember that at this point in the academic year, recruits are juggling high school responsibilities along with college visits and auditions. Don’t be pushy or overwhelm them with detail. Specifics about the upcoming season can wait. Just make sure that they understand the structure of the season so they (and their parents) can plan their summer vacations and work schedules and know when they will move into residence halls for band camp.

Databases and Phone Banks
    Despite the best efforts of the admissions office, some prospects will slip through the cracks. Most college applications include questions on areas of interest, which typically include band. Gaining access to this data is the first step in finding elusive potential band students. Many institutions use a program such as Entrinsik Informer, which allows this information to be shared. By requesting access to information concerning students interested in band, you can create a calling list. At small colleges such as North Central, there are often between 400 and 600 applicants interested in band annually. By focusing first on those who have committed to your college, and then on those who have completed applications and have been accepted, and finally on those with pending or incomplete applications, you can set priorities and maximize results.
    Do not attempt this task alone. If you have a leadership team, identify two or three evenings over a week or two to call potential band students. Ask current band members to help with these phone bank sessions. Before the first calls are made, you should compose a script for callers. Allow them to practice on each other and offer guidance as questions arise. Be sure to write a script for voicemail messages that includes the phone number you would like prospective students or parents to call. Some calls might be rocky but parents and prospective students typically look past any awkwardness and appreciate the effort.
    You will gain considerable information from the phone calls. Some applicants will say that they are no longer considering your institution, and others will ask questions that only admissions representatives can answer. Instruct your callers how to respond to each of these scenarios and have them record this information in a call log. Provide a copy of all logs to your admissions office. Calling up to 600 students is a tremendous but rewarding effort. At North Central, we typically add twenty to thirty students through the phone bank.

Recruiting for an athletic band program at a small college can be challenging, but by increasing your visibility by building relationships in the schools and community, there is tremendous potential to build successful and vibrant program marching and basketball band programs. The most important factor for students interested in small colleges is the professional, interpersonal relationship with their mentors and classmates. Developing a recruiting program gives students a sense of camaraderie and the knowledge that they are joining an organized and professional program, you will set your students and your program up for long-term success.

North Central College Athletic Band Recruiting Calendar

July through October

1. Participate in All Admissions Department Visit Days and Activity Fairs
The foundation of your recruiting efforts should be participation in the large-scale events organized by the admissions department. Participate in all such initiatives, as they bring together large numbers of prospective students and the bulk of the work is done for you.

2. Reach Out to Civic Band/Music Leaders in the Community
Reach out to area high school band directors, community or civic band conductors, and music store managers. Request to give a beginning-of-marching-season greeting at local high school band camps.

3. Implement Marching Band Game Day Guest Program
I recommend establishing this program no earlier than the director’s second year in a position. In the first year, it is imperative to focus on getting to know students and colleagues.

4. Offer to Serve as a Clinician to Area High Schools
Many high school band directors would love outside help, especially before competitions and major performances. Start by reaching out to any alumni band directors in the area and then branch out geographically. Established colleges with strong programs will have easier access.

5. Invite a High School Marching Band to Share Halftime
If your season permits, invite a local high school band to split halftime with your band or participate in a combined show. Since most small colleges do not have marching bands and even fewer have bands that travel to away games, there is typically ample time at halftime for such an event. For split halftimes, be sure to communicate the per-band performance time to the visiting director so that they can rehearse the cuts to their show. Similarly, be sure to shorten your show to fit within the given time frame. Some conferences—especially in NCAA Division III—also require time at the end of halftime for football player warm ups, so make sure to troubleshoot your itinerary with the athletic director. A combined performance would require more preparation and a rehearsal with both bands earlier in the game day, but it might make the timeline more manageable and the product effective.

6. Participate in Music Department Early Audition Day
Most institutions offer an early audition day, typically in November. This permits prospective students who are ready to commit to audition for acceptance and scholarships.

November-February

1. Request Admissions Database Access
It is important to have access to the database the admissions office uses to track applicants with band and color guard interest. If your admissions office currently does not track band/color guard interest, ask that a field or question be added to the application.

2. Continue to Participate in All Admissions Department Visit Days and Activity Fairs
With the peak of the recruiting and admissions season falling in February and March, it is important to maintain high visibility throughout the year. Your interaction with a student might be the deciding factor in picking your school.

3. First Round of Phone Calls: Early Admission Deadline
Most institutions have an early application deadline that typically offers a waived application fee, and sometimes includes access to additional scholarships or financial aid opportunities. Just after the early admissions deadline, check the admissions database. For each student who has committed to your institution and has indicated an interest in band, make a congratulatory phone call and inform them of your program offerings. If students are interested, you can often add them to your roster or add them to your recruiting “short list.”

4. Game Day Guest Program- Basketball
In the same vein as marching guest program, the goal of the basketball guest program is to immerse students in the game day experience. Basketball games involve far fewer logistical considerations, making this activity an easy addition to a recruitment program.

5. Music Department Audition Days
Participate in every music department audition day. Students will be nervous, and therefore a smile and a kind word from the athletic band director can make them feel appreciated.

6. Host Special Events
If you have the ability to host large-scale events, you can easily create opportunities for outreach among these visiting students and their families. Such events might include honor bands and concert or jazz band festivals. By involving current band students as volunteers, you can establish a rapport between the visiting and current students, making them feel more welcomed and comfortable.

7. Invite a Local High School Band to Participate in an Invitational Concert
Especially if you have a strong concert band program or impressive performance facilities, this is an effective way to get a large number of prospective band students on campus. Ask the admissions office to organize tours, dinner in the dining facilities before the concert, and a bag for each student with brochures and souvenirs.

March-June

1. Offer to Serve as a Clinician for Local High School Concert Bands Before Festivals and Assessments
Offer your services to music education associations or school districts that run adjudicated events, festivals, or clinics. For college band directors, a clinician role is preferred, as it allows time to demonstrate knowledge and build rapport with students and directors.

2. Second Round of Phone Calls: Large-Scale Phone Bank
Roughly three weeks before the regular application deadline, assemble a group of students to call each applicant who has indicated an interest in band. This process might involve several hundred applicants, so be sure to sort the information in a manner that makes the best use of your time, such as starting with committed students, then accepted-but-uncommitted students, and finally, pending applicants. Remember to include transfer students in this list. Filter out applicants who have attended other recruiting events or who have already met or spoken with you individually.

3. Late Music Department Audition Day and Individual Auditions
For myriad reasons, some students take longer to decide or get off to a late start on their applications. Nevertheless, it is important to offer them the same time and expertise as other prospects.

4. Final Round of Phone Calls: Late Applicants
New students will appear on the band interest database throughout the spring. Be sure to check the list for new names or students who have moved from accepted to committed.

5. Determine a Deadline for Marching Band Enrollment
If your band marches, you must consider the timeline of your drill writer. If you write your own drill, you can be more flexible.

6. Final Outreach
Contact, either via email or telephone, any student still on the fence or that you have not reached.

The post Recruiting for Small College Athletic Band Programs appeared first on The Instrumentalist.

Five Ways to Improve Timpani Sound

theinstrumenta — Wed, 31 May 2017 20:45:12 +0000

Timpani are one of the most commonly used percussion instruments in school ensembles. Many notated parts for timpani look rather simple, consisting of relatively basic rhythms on predictable chord roots within the key of the piece. Percussionists may be able to play the pitches and rhythms of those parts fairly easily, but the resultant sound of the drums is what matters most. These five steps can make a noticeable difference in any timpanist’s playing.

Clear the heads and practice tuning.
    My visits over the years to school rehearsal rooms suggest that percussionists and their directors often let the drums go out of tune, meaning that the tension at each of the lugs may not be producing the exact same pitch as all of the other lugs. If a given drum sounds out of tune, you can diagnose this yourself. Before beginning, make sure there is no visible damage to the head; if there is, replace it. Assuming a healthy head that is simply out of tune, a single stroke in the normal playing spot will produce beats in the sound just like two flutes that are slightly out of tune with each other. Tapping gently near each lug will usually highlight the culprit or culprits quickly. All lugs then need to be matched up precisely to clear the head.
    First, make sure the drum is generally tightened to the appropriate lowest pitch when the pedal is all the way back (heel to the floor). If in doubt, check with the manufacturer or with a local percussion specialist to confirm the lowest pitches that your particular drums should match. Once set at the appropriate pitch, raise the pedal to the middle of the range and use a dependable pitch source to begin clearing the head.
    Place a small piece of felt or other heavy fabric right in the center of the drum to isolate the sound of each lug from the others. Tap each of the lugs to discover which are sharp or flat and adjust them to the desired pitch. Some timpanists like to use a tuner for this process, placing it right next to each lug to gauge the number of cents of sharpness or flatness. Be sure to check the lugs in pairs across from each other on the drum, because adjusting one lug can affect its opposite. When the head is clear, it should maintain a pure pitch as it sustains, with no bending upward or downward after the initial attack.
    Assuming the heads are clear, students should practice pedal tuning frequently. They should plan to spend some of their practice time without any mallets, just tuning various pitches using a pitch source and their internal relative pitch. I encourage timpani students to sing a lot; they should practice matching pitches they hear in daily life, such as car horns, elevator tones, or microwave beeps, until they can do so quickly and effortlessly.
    When tuning the drums, make sure students always start below the pitch and tune up toward it, to ensure there is no slack left in the head. They should sing or hum the desired pitch, keep it in memory, and gently tap the drum as they raise the pedal until it matches. They can then check their tuning by humming the pitch directly into the drum from an inch or two above the playing spot. It should sing right back to them; if it sings back a bit flat or sharp, it is tuned slightly low or high, respectively. Quietly humming close to the drum is a great way to check pitch accuracy during a performance.

Use plenty of upstroke.
Compared to fundamental technique on the snare drum, timpani playing requires substantially more upstroke (i.e., pulling the mallets up on the rebound) for two reasons: the drums do not produce as much natural rebound and most timpani mallets are covered with felt. Players must provide additional upstroke to return the sticks to their ready position and avoid excess contact between the mallet felt and drumhead. Playing with additional upstroke also facilitates quick shifting among drums.
Students should experiment with the French grip when playing timpani. In the French grip, the standard matched grip for snare drum is turned 90 degrees, so that the thumbnails are facing up. This grip, commonly used by professionals, can offer expanded range of motion upward since the bulk of the hand is no longer on top of the mallet. Since timpanists rarely use any buzz or double-stroke rolls, the snare drum grip is not necessary. It should be noted, however, that German grip, which is essentially the same as matched grip on snare drum, is also used effectively by many timpanists. Both grips should be tried thoroughly so that students recognize the particular benefits of each. In any case, getting the felt mallets off the drums briskly on the rebound is crucial for general playing.

Practice the single-stroke roll thoroughly.
To sustain notes, timpanists generally use a single-stroke roll. While this is perhaps one of the first and simplest rudiments most percussionists learn, it requires specific attention when applied to timpani. The overarching goal for a good single-stroke roll is precise matching of the hands in rhythm and dynamics at various tempi. This becomes more challenging on the timpani, because the sizes of the drumheads produce relatively large vibration patterns. Students will find that a highly consistent single-stroke roll developed on a snare drum or practice pad may suddenly become somewhat erratic when applied to the timpani. The vibration patterns of the drums are a bit like the rolling sea, so any given stroke may be met by an unpredictable wave, gently surprising the students’ kinesthetic sense and making sensitivity to rebound especially important. Players must spend focused practice time on the drums establishing this sensitivity.
Several factors determine how fast timpanists should play a roll. Generally speaking, a roll on the lowest drum will be slower than on the highest drum, essentially matching the vibration pattern of each drum. This tip can easily be understood by rolling comfortably on the lowest drum and translating that roll speed directly to the highest drum; an unsatisfactory, “slow” rhythmic feeling will result. Even on a single drum the roll speed should change according to the same relationship; as the pitch is tuned up or down the roll speed will generally need to increase or decrease, respectively. Finally, roll speed may be determined by musical effect. A soft, low final bass note might be played rather slowly and calmly, while a tense moment at a musical climax might be played quickly and aggressively. In summary, timpanists should practice their single-stroke roll throughout the entire pitch range of all four drums, at a variety of dynamic levels according to musical effect.

Monitor playing spots.
To produce a full, resonant sound, timpanists must confine their playing spots to a relatively small area of the head. Rather than stating an estimated distance from the center or rim of each drum, I encourage students to use their ears to systematically find the best sound. They can play repeated strokes with one hand as they gradually move from the rim to the center of the drum and back. Playing at the rim will produce a thin, tinny sound and playing in the center will produce a sharp, dead sound. Neither of these is desirable unless specifically indicated by the composer. Students should recognize that the best playing spots will differ slightly depending on the size of the drum, but that the relationships are proportional. Once they have found the best spots, the drums should be positioned appropriately distant from their stool so that they will naturally target them accurately. When shifting among drums, timpanists need to be especially cognizant of their targets to get a full, even sound across the range of the instrument.
Students also must pay close attention to the matching of playing spots between their two mallets. It is essentially impossible to play with both mallets in exactly the same spot, so they need to choose symmetrical spots within the playing area. Think of this playing area as a concentric circular band of head surface and make sure the mallets are aligned equally within that band. When sustained rolls sound poor, for example, this is one of the first things to check. To discover and maintain properly matching playing spots, students can move the mallets gradually in and out of alignment to sharpen their perception of discrepancies and efficiency of correction.

Expand mallet selection and choose them appropriately.
Assuming that players have attended carefully to all prior suggestions, a final contribution to improved timpani sound is mallet choice. Many factors may combine to necessitate a particular mallet in a given musical situation, including the size of the drum, the pitch to which it is tuned, dynamics and articulations indicated, style and character of the passage, and overall orchestration. Students should have a wide variety of mallets differing in weight, balance, diameter of shaft, diameter and size of head, and material covering the head available in rehearsals.
Again, experimentation is the best way to discover which mallets work best in any given situation. Typically, soft heavy mallets work better for low dark rolls while thin hard mallets help to articulate faster rhythmic passages. However, quite often a particular pair of mallets can be surprisingly appropriate, in a way contrary to what one might generally suspect. Trying several pairs of mallets in rehearsal can help players and directors choose what will work best for performance. As with all tips presented here, there is no substitute for focused personal discovery of how these choices can improve timpani sound.

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Precise Entrances and Releases

theinstrumenta — Wed, 31 May 2017 20:36:11 +0000

Frederick Fennell once opened a clinic session I attended by repeating the old musician’s adage “If you can get a group to start together and end together you have accomplished the two most important things.” Although conductors may believe this is true, so many ensembles seem to lack the necessary precision in these two crucial performance areas. As conductors, we must put the blame on ourselves as we may not be providing the proper training or attention to detail required for accuracy in beginning and ending our musical selections.
“Watch me” or “Watch better” are phrases commonly used by conductors in rehearsals, but musicians need to be taught exactly what to watch for. They also need clear and meaningful gestures and should learn not only the visual but also the non-visual aspects of precise entrances and releases. The following strategies will help to improve precision in these important performance areas.

Entrances
Accurate and precise entrances begin with a clear and easily understandable preparatory beat. The preparatory beat should communicate everything the musicians need to know to start the piece together with the correct tempo, volume, and style. Because so much information must be relayed to the ensemble in the preparatory beat, it is the most important gesture a conductor will use.
Preparatory beats should begin with an ictus that serves as a reference point. This reference point informs the ensemble when to breathe to enter accurately after the rebound, which dictates the tempo and style indicators for the beginning of the piece. Care must be taken on the rebound to ensure that the gesture used matches the character of the music. For example, large gestures will work poorly with a fast tempo as there is too much distance for the arms to move in a short amount of time. In addition, large gestures are a poor choice for entrances that require softer volumes, just as small gestures are less than ideal for more powerful entrances. The preparatory beat (rebound included) is where the conductor sets the character of the entrance.

    Following the rebound, the conducting gesture for the first beat should return to the original ictus reference point so the beginning and end of the prep beat are on the same vertical plane. This consistency gives the musicians confidence about the ictus as they begin to play because they know where it is located. Preparatory beat gestures that have starting and ending points on different vertical planes confuse the musicians, as they cannot gauge the amount of time in the beat and when to begin playing. This leads to ragged and imprecise entrances and frustration on the part of the ensemble members.
    Pieces that begin on count one are usually the easiest on which to get accurate entrances. Ictus, rebound, and return to ictus point is the most natural of conducting gestures for ensemble entrances and count one entrances provide this. Entrances on counts two, three, and four are less natural and can lead to precision problems because the rebound of the prep beat moves more along the horizontal plane than the vertical. Regardless of the count of the entrance or the direction of the rebound, if the conductor provides an ictus reference point to begin the prep, then returns to it following the rebound, it will provide a clear starting point for the ensemble. Music that begins on the beat normally requires a preparatory beat of one count, while some conductors may choose a two-beat prep for extremely fast selections. For music that begins off the beat, I have had more success with a two beat prep, as it seems to offer better tempo and rhythmic stability for the musicians, particularly in younger ensembles.
    While the visual aspect of accurate entrances is important, there are three other factors that if not addressed will lead to lack of precision: impulse of will, breathing, and listening. The conductor must portray an impulse of will, meaning he must show confidence and intent in gestures, to lead the ensemble. Gestures that are timid or lack energy will cause confusion and erode the musicians’ confidence in the conductor. Prepared conductors must embrace a musical approach to a piece and communicate that interpretation to the ensemble to help alleviate uncertainty.
    The breath is the lifeblood of our music making, and breathing together is vital for accurate entrances. The conductor’s responsibility is to provide a preparatory beat showing the ensemble how to breathe for the entrance. This is accomplished during the rebound, which indicates the tempo, style and, volume of the music. When the conductor breathes with the ensemble, the probability of an accurate entrance is greatly increased.
    Several years ago I watched Eugene Corporon rehearse a high school all-state band. His gestures were quite clear, but this ensemble of fine musicians was struggling to come in together. The students were in their first rehearsal with a new conductor, getting used to him and each other, and concerned about playing the printed music correctly. Corporon stopped and asked students to memorize their note for a specific chord in the music. He then asked the ensemble members to close their eyes and listen. After a few seconds of silence, he took a breath. The students heard this, breathed with him, and came in perfectly together – all without any visual stimulus from the conductor. This emphasized the fact that visual clarity, while important, will not ensure accurate entrances if breathing and listening are not an integral part of the entrance process. Since witnessing this exercise, I have used it with numerous ensembles of all ages, and it works every time. Sometimes, as conductors, we need to get out of our own way.
    Entrances that are together with the correct style and tempo are the result of a combination of factors and skills from both the conductor’s and the ensemble’s perspective. The conductor should give a clear and easily readable preparatory beat that contains a beginning ictus reference point, a rebound that conveys the character of the music and when and how to breathe, and a return to the ictus to begin the music. Ensemble members must watch the conductor, breathe at the right time and speed, and listen carefully. All must be present for ensemble entrances to be their best.

Releases
    The ensemble release at the end of a piece should also receive attention. The release must be together and in the correct tempo and character of the piece to bring the performance to a successful conclusion. Numerous gestures can be used to communicate the release to the musicians. Conductors are encouraged to continue to add gestures to their repertoire to capture the numerous styles of music available. One way to do this is to experiment with different gestures in rehearsals and individual practice, working to become comfortable and effective with them. However, it is still best to rely on tried and true gestural repertoire in performances.
    Because of its versatility, an ictus release obtained by using the downbeat or other beat in the conducting pattern as the release point is one of the best ways to cut off an ensemble. The ictus release can be used in music of any tempo, volume, or character. In addition, it can be used for music that should be released in tempo or for sustained notes. The key to this release is for the conductor to provide a clear ictus point that signals the end of the piece. The ending character of the music is another consideration when using this release, as it is easy to over-conduct, especially in energetic works. The conducting gesture should provide the ensemble with the character required of the final note.
    Circular cutoffs or the closing of the fingers of the left hand to end the music can be excellent gestures to gain a desired musical release, the important factor being a clear point of cessation of the music. The most effective circular cut-offs are a clockwise motion with the left hand (counterclockwise with the right hand) which begins and ends at 6:00, or the bottom of the circle. This provides a consistent starting and stopping point that will be easy for the musicians to decipher. As with the circular cut-offs, closing the fingers of the left hand for the release gesture must include either a slight ictus or point where the music ends. Such unconventional release gestures as a head nod or closing the mouth can be used in rehearsals with enjoyable results, but should only be used in performances if the conductor and the ensemble are confident it will yield the intended result.

Entrances and releases are among the most important considerations in ensemble performance. As conductors and educators we cannot expect success by leaving these areas to chance. We must expose our musicians to the various factors affecting entrances and releases, and, if necessary, spend additional rehearsal time perfecting them. The end product will be worth the effort.

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An Interview with John Paynter

theinstrumenta — Wed, 31 May 2017 20:00:12 +0000

This gem from our archives originally ran in the July 1979 issue.

 John Paynter became a university band director at the age of 21, hand-picked for the prestigious Northwestern University position, by Glenn Cliffe Bainum, who was the director of bands for the 27 years between 1926 and 1953. Paynter remained at Northwestern until his passing in 1996, and his influence had been felt around the world through personal appearances as adjudicator, clinician, and guest conductor; as the composer or arranger of over 400 works; as the president of professional associations; and as the former contributing editor for the new music review section of this magazine.

Do you remember the day you first walked into Northwestern and met Bainum?
Oh yes, I can remember that vividly. I played an audition for him in old Music Hall that we abandoned only two years ago. He opened a sight-reading book, one I still use, and asked me to play. I think the audition lasted all of a minute and a half. He told me I was a "marvelous" clarinet player, and that I was in the band. (1 knew at the time he was just being awfully nice, and as years went by I knew it even better.) But the most important thing I remember was that before I left the room he asked me if I knew how to operate a mimeograph machine. I said yes (even though I never had seen one) because I knew from the look on his face that he wanted a mimeograph operator, and he wanted me to say yes. With that he handed me a stencil, one of his intricate marching band maneuvers, and asked me if I would run it. He went back to more auditions, and I suddenly had a job on the band staff. 1 went to the machine, put the stencil on upside down, and very nearly ruined it completely. The secretary and 1 spent the rest of the day trying to figure out how to get it cleaned up and make it useful. I don’t think he ever found out about the problem.

What did you learn from him?
Oh, my goodness, that would be a book. More than anything else I would have to say musicianship. He was such a marvelous musician, so much better than most people knew that it amazes me even today how much musicality he showed in his writing and in his conducting and in talking about music. The things that he said just off hand about music have become such giant precepts in my own thinking. I don’t recall ever hearing him talk about pitch, or saying "flat" or "sharp." I rarely ever heard him say "loud" or "soft"; he talked about shading and flexibility and warmth and nuance. These were words he used over and over again, and I think he achieved all the rest through that device. When his bands played in tune – and they did – and when they played with the right balance, it was all done on the basis of musicianship. He was also a great baton technician, with one of the most unusual and effective batons ever. And from him I learned a great deal about organization, efficiency, integrity, and preparation. I’m not nearly as good at it as he was, but I would have been a lot worse if it were not for him.

How about his human qualities, his personal relationships?
With people he knew well his personality had the normal ups and downs; but he was especially good with the person he knew only as a member of the band, or in an all-state group, or as a student in his class. He had the ability to make these casual acquaintances feel immediately that he knew them more intimately, making them feel needed and treating them in just the right way.

Who else influenced you?
    I grew up in a very small town, Mineral Point, Wisconsin; and a gentleman named John Alderson lived there. He was sort of the Mr. Everything in music: he played cornet and was director of the town band, played violin in the Sunday school orchestra, and was the organist at the church I attended. Every Sunday afternoon he gave me free organ lessons. I’d go to the church and sit for two or three hours with him; he would teach by example, just playing more than anything else. He was also a good composer and an incredible man. In fact when he was in his 70s he slipped on the ice and broke his left wrist and couldn’t bend it enough to play the violin any more, so he re-strung the instrument the opposite way and learned to play all over again, left-handed.
    Adeline Paulsrud and Ruth Wilhelmsen (who became Ruth Paynter when she married a shirt-tail cousin of mine) were both St. Olaf graduates and conducted the school choirs in the St. Olaf tradition. With them I learned sight-singing and the ability to express myself with my voice. They just did not believe in pop music or rinky-dink materials of any kind, so we sang very
good things.
    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. (There were plenty of restrictions on behavior and I view that also as a plus.) If a young person wanted to take part in athletics, music, drama, boy scouts, and church, it wasn’t an exception, it was almost the rule. Everyone was able to do everything.

Can you remember your first contact with music?
From the earliest days I can remember I was interested in music. No one ever forced me; it was just a part of what was good in life. There was a piano in the house and the occasional evening when we all sat around and either sang or played or did both. There were three girls and me in the family, and all four children took piano lessons as early as we could. It might have been first or second grade when I started piano, and there were the usual periods of dropping out and coming back to it. We never had a lot of money (my dad was a plumber long before plumbers made much money), but there was always money for music.
My dad played clarinet in the city band, and my mother played the piano quite well. I can remember wanting to play an instrument and my dad bringing me one of his clarinets to try. Very shortly after that he bought me a new clarinet.

Did you play in a school band?
Oh yes, I started in the 5th grade. An advantage of the small town was that you played in the high school band when you were ready; I think I probably got in when I was in the 6th or 7th grade, and played all through school. I also played sports and never marched in a football band before Northwestern because I was on the high school football team.

Why didn’t you pursue the sports side at Northwestern?
Because I was so bad. I was successful in high school sports more because of being a little smart than being a gifted athlete. I ended up being the quarterback on the football team and the playmaker guard on the basketball team because I could remember the plays. I couldn’t even begin to match the caliber of players at the college level, but I loved sports.

Well you’ve certainly been successful as a band director. What advice do you have for younger people who are seeking that kind of success?
    I’ve had an awful lot of good luck and nice breaks. There is one thing about myself that seems different from some of the people I’ve associated with; I seem to change emphasis every four or five years, whereas some people in this profession have had a particular goal in mind from as long ago as I can remember them, and they have pretty much stayed on that track.
    I’ve worn a lot of different hats in the short time I’ve been working. For example, the year Mr. Bainum retired I went through a period of real excitement arranging for the band and turned out a number of rather large pieces. Now only in recent months I’m picking it up again because some things are starting to be published from that group that was done so long ago – the Bach, the transcription of Night on Bald Mountain, and a number of others.
    Also, I was not the person who pioneered the idea of the wind ensemble but I was one of the very first to devote major interest to it and make it a part of a major university program. In 1956 we started an ensemble group at Northwestern that was separate from the rest of the band. With the wind ensemble I went through a period of time when I spent a great deal of energy and effort uncovering and promoting new band music. We premiered a number of things, in a sense we commissioned them, without funds, by asking composers to write a piece for us in return for our copying the parts for them.
    There was a period of time when the marching band had to be foremost in my mind. I was excited about it, worked extremely hard, and was determined to accomplish certain things. Once that goal was achieved, I must say that we have not been terribly innovative since – the formula has continued to work for us very successfully. Oh, maybe we’re innovative, but we’re not pioneering anymore.
    Then there’s the time I’ve been so involved with the Northshore Band and the whole community band movement. There was another period when I did small ensembles: octets, nonets, double quintets.
I don’t know, maybe I just can’t keep my mind on one thing for long.

When you add these new things you don’t necessarily give up the others do you?
No, no, I think we just put the emphasis in one direction and take the others along. There’s never been a period of any longer than a year where I went without arranging something, for instance. So to get back to your question, "What should a young person do?" I’d suggest that he should stay flexible.

To have this good luck you say you’ve had, doesn’t one need a large reservoir of talent? Otherwise you may get the lucky break, but you’re going to flop.
Well sure, but I think the talent is something that just an awful lot of people have. I think there are as many truly talented musicians who are not involved in music-making as there are who are busy in music. I think the thing that sets apart leaders in our field are things that are, strictly speaking, not musical at all. Most of the people who succeed in band or orchestra conducting have qualities that would make them reasonably successful in business, or in the sciences, or in the trades.

What are those qualities?
Salesmanship, selling yourself is very important – selling your ideas, speaking well in public. Self confidence, being convinced that what you’re saying on the podium or in the classroom is right – even when you make the mistakes that everyone does who is human – and being able to convince others that you believe what you say. Just sheer energy is important. I’m 50 years old and I’m watching people fall away, changing professions, or going into semi-retirement. My wife and others often ask how long I can continue at the present pace; but I don’t feel that it’s a particularly fast pace. It’s just the way I do things, and it’s the way everybody does who is really excited about the band business. They carry a lot of activities at one time and seem to have the energy to bring it off. So energy, good health, and enthusiasm are all important.

Is there any way to keep from burning out? Maybe that’s why you keep shifting from one enthusiasm to the other. Is that part of what keeps you going?
Well, I don’t know. I think there’s some kind of fresh pasture there all the time. I’m the same way with hobbies. I go into each one with such enthusiastic interest and it lasts such a short time that it’s almost discouraging sometimes; and yet I will come back with renewed interest. My wife and I do many of those things together. We were avid stamp collectors for about five years, and now it’s sort of a dormant hobby. There is always something that has occupied our interest – picture matting, painting, woodworking – and as a consequence neither one of us has ever been bored. If you weren’t here tonight I would be busy at something, either as my vocation or avocation, because every night has to be filled with something.

Do you think life is long enough to satisfy all these interests?
I’m sure it isn’t. I see so many things I want to do. Maybe that’s good. Maybe that’s what’s nice about the job I have. I don’t feel I’m anywhere near finished. There’s plenty to do.

When you work with other groups, what problems do you see repeatedly?
Each teacher and each conductor is really an individual personality, and it’s within that personality that the band has either its successes or its problems. Two things often do stand out as general weaknesses. The first is musical – the failure to recognize the things that don’t sound like music. A good conductor must be able to hear what is going on, while it is going on, and suggest what to do to change it. So many of our people are well-trained to read the score, and well-trained to lead with a baton; but they are not really well-trained to hear what’s going on and change it. As a consequence some basically unmusical, inflexible, and unnuanced (here I come back to Mr. Bainum’s theories) things continue to happen. The other thing is personal. A lot of potentially wonderful teachers aren’t doing a very good job because they are too frustrated by all of the mechanical and personal things that can get in the way. A band director must enjoy what he’s doing, be head-over-heels in love with it, so he can work around the technical problems and push through to the job of having fun and making music.

What do you look for when reviewing new music?
    Certainly the elements of good music as we’ve all had them described to us: correctness of approach to writing harmony, counterpoint that makes sense, contrast of textures and varieties of keys and rhythms – that sort of thing. But you can get shot down on that too. I always think of The Joy of Music, in which Leonard Bernstein wrote how a Beethoven symphony fails to qualify on all these "rules of good music." I like to see something that allows the solo instruments of the band to be heard and helps to develop the interest of the particularly talented players. Until one has a lot of experience with music, I suspect you look mostly for people you know, the good arrangers who present a consistent challenge. If they say with the first ten measures that a work is grade III, it’s grade III in the last ten measures too. And they also make things happen musically, with phrases, and form, and style.

After these many years of looking, how much really good music do you expect to find? Is it a surprise when a good piece comes along?
    I don’t think it’s as big a surprise as it was 10 or 15 years ago. There are more good things all the time, even though there still aren’t nearly enough. If I look back on how I have spent my time and look forward to how I’m going to spend it in the future, I think almost everything has to do with the search for good things to perform. And that isn’t a pessimistic view at all; it is very optimistic in that we have a much larger repertoire now to choose from than we had a while ago. We started late with the band, and have a lot of ground to make up. Before we have a large and reliable body of wonderful things to play we’re going to have to go through things that aren’t as good to play in order to find them. Those interested in the band have done a good job of encouraging talented people to write original compositions and arrangements for band. At the university we now have an immense library of music for the band, and I would think that fully 5% of it is substantial music. The difference is that today it’s 5% of a much larger body than it was a few years ago. So we’re on our way.

You’ve done a lot of composing and arranging yourself.
     I’m a far better arranger than I am a composer. I majored in composition at Northwestern, with both a bachelor’s and a master’s degree, and it taught me that I shouldn’t compose. I’ve written down a lot of notes, but I don’t feel I’ve composed much that’s of lasting value. However, out of it I’ve become a better analyst of other composers, and maybe a little better score reader, and somewhat skilled as an arranger. I often specify an exact number of players on a part, one of the ways I reflect my background as a composer and conductor. I may have a little more intimate knowledge of what a clarinet section sounds like with two on a stand and one on a stand and four on a stand than the person who is writing but not conducting at the same time. I think you can get a great deal of color contrast by varying the number of players. I also like to include the color instruments, even though I realize that this puts some of the things I arrange out of reach for some bands. Even in a simple little arrangement like Sarabande and Polka, I call for soprano sax, English horn, and muted cornet, all playing at the same time. It’s quite possible that the first school band we see won’t have any of those instruments, but nevertheless I think those are colors we need if we’re going to rise above a certain level of performance and expression.
     I’m not through writing; it just is going to take a little rearranging of my schedule to do it on a more regular basis again. With the children grown up, married, and gone, it is more fun to be sitting at the table again writing arrangements.

Weren’t you and your wife childhood sweethearts?
Yes, Marietta and I were baptized together. We were born and raised in the same town and went to the same church, the same school. We’ve always been a close family and we get along very well – we like each other. One of the turning points was the year we lived together in Europe when I was on leave. I saw more of the family in that year than I might have on evenings and weekends for a whole lifetime.

Usually musicians are asked if their children play. I’m sure you get a lot of that, as well as questions about how much parents should push their kids.
I don’t know if you should push or you should pull. I think you should influence. Both of our children took piano lessons in the prep piano department at Northwestern, but neither one of them has continued to play the piano. Bruce played oboe, marched sousaphone, and was a member of my band staff at Northwestern. He’s now a lawyer in Chicago, and has said many times that learning pride in his work and attention to detail as a member of the band staff was one of the best life preparations he had. Megan teaches first grade in Prospect Heights and plays horn with the Northshore Band.
To say that children should do what they want to do is a great percentage of the problem of society today. To think that the child will naturally take to music any more than he would naturally take to Sunday school or to physical exercise I think is naive. At least those who do take to it naturally are far outnumbered by those who don’t because music takes discipline and no child is ready for that. I’m glad my mother and dad kept pushing me.

How did they do it without turning you against music?
I don’t know, except that they were able to convince me of everything they wanted me to do. I had enough trust and faith in them that music was just another thing to be done the same way. That might be the answer, maybe the problem is that when it comes to music, parents try to be different, not the same kind of disciplinarians as when they run everything else that affects the child.

One of the things that’s taken you away from home and the family has been the all-state bands, and you’ve done a tremendous number of them through the years. How should an all-state conductor be treated?
Carefully. I don’t believe an all-state conductor is any different from any other kind of guest conductor. A conductor is an artist, and I don’t mean that in a snobbish way at all. A person who has spent time perfecting what he does and has presumably spent many hours studying the scores, determining the program, and getting ready psychologically, should be greeted with the same sort of enthusiasm and preparation. And I must say that in more than nine out of ten cases that’s exactly what happens. There is someone who greets you at the airport, gets you to your hotel room, takes you to dinner, and makes sure you get to the first meeting. It is only occasionally when the local hosts are perhaps too busy with the details of organizing the event, that they forget the conductor is a special person. "Special" only in the sense that he controls the destiny of the musicians for the next 48 hours, and that if he is not rested or happy or given the tools with which to work he cannot produce the expected result. I suppose the hidden discourtesy, one that happens more often than it should, is the failure to prepare the students – either to prepare them psychologically to be under the discipline of a gifted conductor or to prepare them on the parts they’re going to play. It is sad that from time to time there really is no purpose in the visit of a guest conductor because the parts have not been prepared and there is little or nothing the conductor can do. Although that doesn’t happen very often, it happens far too often.

With the New Mexico All-State Band, one thing you did was to put lyrics to one of the phrases to show them what was going on in the music, assigning characters to the antecedent and the consequent of the phrase. They understood that it was a conversation, and that the melody was being passed around the band. And in the concert the next day, it was coming through, they were making music. How many of those kinds of things do you have?
Well, that’s just what they are — they’re tricks, they’re gimmicks to make the teaching come across a little easier. Oh, there are hundreds of them I am sure. Not just mine, but hundreds that others are using. I think one of the best short cuts we have is verbalizing or vocalizing, singing the line, using non-sense syllables, or rhythmic sight-singing or the verbalization that you heard me do. Some of the old master teachers used to pick up their cornet or their violin and play it for the students; when I’m on the podium I use my voice to replace the instrument and do the same thing. You can lose them in that process if you stop every third bar and sing something for them. Pretty soon they don’t want to hear you sing any more. You have to find as many ways to make a point as you can. I don’t think there is anything less interesting than saying the same thing the same way over and over again. A common rehearsal technique is to stop and correct, stop and go down the line and have the next person play and the next person. Although I’ve done my share of that, I always dislike myself in the morning after I’ve done it because there are so many better ways to teach. I like to teach by example, by singing or saying or playing what I want.

Do you recall any particular things that have worked especially well for you?
I think the most effective single thing I’ve used in recent years has been my insistence that we tune up and warm up in a particular, structured way. I start with the pitch F (because that’s the nastiest of all tones to tune) and then work around it diatonically. The merit of it has not been so much the warm-up and the tune-up that everybody in the room seems to hear, but the fact that it brings the ensemble under total control. Sometimes after over two hours of rehearsing when the band has had a break for 20 minutes and they come back and start dealing with the warm-up and tune-up again, I’ve had some of the conductors come in and say, "My goodness, aren’t they warm enough by now?" They don’t understand that the whole purpose of using it again after the break is to get the break to end in the student’s minds and get their attention back to the discipline of the music. If we can get players to listen to each other, to relate their role with the role of everyone else in the room, we can cancel out a lot of the problems that we would normally have to stop and rehearse.
I think sometimes it’s good for the conductor to imagine he has an adjudicator’s form in front of him with the various categories like tone, intonation, balance. He might spend consecutive rehearsals working on those fundamentals: one day nearly all of the time is devoted to the matter of balance, and another you don’t think of anything but tone quality. All the other fundamentals will improve at the same time, but one of the objectives is to get the young people to think of the fundamentals. Every note they play on a given day is subject to scrutiny as to its pitch, the next day as to the beauty of its quality, the next day as to its nuance or shading. Sometimes it’s too much to ask for them to remember all of that in one sitting, but you can stress one thing at a time. I’ve seen conductors work with a two-hour period divided into four quarters, like a football game. One quarter they talk about pitch, another about balance. And there are many conductors who talk about many things at one time, without any special emphasis. Of all the things I’ve used, the warm-up/tune-up has been the most effective because it teaches that we should listen and watch and shows how we relate to those around us.
Is this printed or do you just describe it as you go? I have it printed out. It’s just a little exercise out of the Arban’s book with some adjustments that have developed over the years. But the students don’t have to read the music and that’s very important. Their minds are concentrating completely on the sounds they’re producing, the attack they’re playing, the pitch they’re involved with, the volume they have, the blend they’re making. And they can look right straight at you the moment they’re doing it. I find some of the most expressive results coming out of those warm-ups because when they are playing a piece later they see my same gesture meaning the same thing in a new role.

When you’re rehearsing how do you figure out what to repair and what to leave alone? Are there priorities?
     There are rehearsals when I feel like I’ve spent the whole time chipping away at things that don’t matter. There’s no magic formula. To be efficient, the most important thing is to know your people. Obviously you rehearse a group like the Northshore Band that meets once a week for two hours much differently than you would rehearse a university band that meets four hours a week, or a high school band that meets 40 minutes every day. You asked the key question – what do you try to get done and what do you let go? I know the personnel of the Northshore Band so well now that I know that just by uncovering the mistake, the mistake will be corrected. There’s no need to go back and prove that you can do it if you’ve had the opportunity to scowl at somebody when they did it wrong. With a group you don’t know as well there has to be a period of time in which you make sure they will make the corrections once you have pointed them out.
     But correcting is really not the most efficient way to rehearse. It is best to have in your head the sounds you want and to conduct those sounds right from the start, guiding the performer so the mistake is never made in the first place. That’s idealistic, but it certainly is more efficient.
     Of course, the most efficient "rehearsal technique" is the score study that precedes the rehearsal. This nit-picking rehearsing you and I have seen is the result of the conductor really not knowing the score. The conductor will spend time pecking away at something he knows is safe because he doesn’t know what else to rehearse.

Let’s talk about score study. What technique do you use?
     My first look at a score is just flipping through, like picking a magazine off the rack to see if you want to buy it. It’s the look-through that tells you if you’re interested in looking any further. The second time around is where I try to see something of the shape of the piece – the forms, the architecture, the overall design, not the bricks and the screws and the hinges. It’s at this point that I need to know something about the instrumentation and its demands – whether it’s suitable or worthwhile or perhaps too difficult or too easy. I might also stop long enough to see something of the ingredients, at least the harmonic language or the contrapuntal complexities, but I would not analyze it carefully. Then the next time through I’m starting to look section by section. That’s when I do my sightsinging of the score. I really believe that to study a score thoroughly you have to sing every line. I’m not the first one to say this by any means, and I was not taught it at Northwestern, mind you. I just came to it by teaching and by talking with people I think read scores well. It is during this third stage that I do any detailed marking that is necessary. I believe in marking as much as you have to, or as little as you can get by with. The last look is when I do a performance sitting at my desk. Of course I may come back many times after that. I think some of the nicest moments the conductor has is when he digs out a score he thinks he knows and finds out there are many new things to know about it. I think that’s fun.

How long does this process take?
It’s very gratifying and rewarding, but it is not something you can do quickly. Most young conductors delude themselves if they think there are people who can sight sing a score at tempo the first time and hear all the parts. It’s mostly hard work and careful study.

Let’s assume you’ve selected a score or you know you ‘re going to perform a work sometime, how long before the first rehearsal do you really get serious about the architecture stage, the sight-singing stage, the conducting-at-the-desk stage?
Well, there have been times and there will be times again when that serious moment is 20 minutes before the rehearsal. That’s one of the realities of the college teacher’s life. There are times when we simply don’t have adequate score preparation time. If we had our druthers, we would start studying a year ahead of a performance and accelerate in the last month.
It’s more fun for me to sit and read a score in the evening than it is to read a novel or a magazine, or certainly more fun than to watch a television show. I don’t do it nearly as much as I would like, but right now I am studying some scores with no performance date in mind, with at least one all marked and virtually committed to memory. But that’s a rarity.

Does score study apply to a grade III piece as much as a grade VI piece?
     I think that’s terribly important. The person who believes he shouldn’t study as much because the music is easier is not really being fair to the level of the player he controls. Many dull band rehearsals are the result of the director not having studied the score and not knowing what to say to the youngsters about the music. I feel strongly about this. Last December at the Mid-West Clinic I gave a lecture to the Marine band directors and was talking about how important it is to prepare a score. One young officer raised his hand and said, "Well, obviously you have never had to play just reviews over and over again where all you play is a march and all you have is a cornet copy." I really admonished him on this, and said, "If that were my situation and I had all of the labor that you have available, I’d have those marches copied out in full score so I could study them and know what’s going on, so I could teach the band to play that march properly." I think there is no excuse for asking the band members to tell you what they have written in their part.

Let’s talk about the future. You came into this Northwestern job a long time ago. Many of your colleagues who have held their jobs for 29 years are now retiring at 65, and you’re 50 and not even close. Where do you go from here?
     Next Fall I’m going to be much more involved with teaching music education. This is something I haven’t done. I don’t have a music education degree, and I’ve never taught in the public schools; but I’ve had so many experiences with school age children at festivals and contests that I have many ideas I think are worth hearing. It will be another new challenge for me. I am also looking forward to having more time to write, some in words and some in notes. I’d like to try to figure out what it is I’m trying to say and get it said in both areas. Publication is important for me right now, not just financially because it doesn’t amount to that much, but it’s really gratifying to see these pieces I’ve been using in manuscript begin to come out in print so others can have them. Once you see the first one it’s like popcorn, you can’t stop. Just today I found myself saying, "I ought to rearrange the Bach." It is 25 years old and there are a lot of things I can improve. I thought today as I was playing it how sure I was in 1953 that nobody could do it better than I could and how I had it exactly the way it ought to be, but every year since I’ve found things I want to change.

What else have you learned about yourself in this past quarter century?
     Not enough, I’m afraid. I’m still as pompous as I was when I was 23 years old. You learn your limitations and you also learn that you are very good at certain things. I guess I’ve learned that many people have been awfully nice to me at the University and in the community band too. The Northshore Band has added a separate dimension to my life. It’s taken me places I couldn’t have gone otherwise; it’s given me opportunities to do music I couldn’t do otherwise; and we’ve reached people through the band that we couldn’t reach other ways. It really is a blessing – I don’t know how I could express it in any other form. I think that particular community band – the combination of personalities and friendships that have been in it – is better than any kind of a social club or church involvement or any other kind of activity that I might have had to replace it with. It has been a wonderful thing.

Does the band director who is teaching in a school owe anything to the community?
I think he has a moral obligation to uphold standards of music in the community. The odds are that the band director is one of the three best musicians in town, and he may even be the best. To simply say that he has no responsibility beyond his six or eight hours in the classroom is terribly unfortunate. If he has a special gift that others haven’t had bestowed on them he ought to share that, move it into the community, uplift their standards, and lead the way. I get peeved with young band directors who tell me about their town being a "cultural desert" as though they didn’t have anything to do with it. I want to say, "Why don’t you get a hose in your hand and start to run some water and bring something to fruition there?" I think there is a very definite obligation. It may be in adult education, community music making, a wider involvement in their churches or service clubs, or just in seeing that cultural events come to town.

Well, you certainly seem to enjoy everything you do, but I suspect you’ll always be involved somehow in conducting a group.
Yes, I really do enjoy it. You know I’ve conducted the Waa-Mu show [a student Broadway-type musical production] all these years. Not too long ago one of our students was conducting the show chorus and being a bit of a cynic, saying he was glad to take the money for doing it but he wasn’t happy in his job. Just as I was standing on the steps ready to go into the pit, he said, "Mr. Paynter, why in the world do you do something as corny as this show when you have so much to do? Why do you want to do it?" And I had to think before I answered, to tell him how much I loved what I was doing; how much fun it was to control a show from the pit, to run the show just as standing on the tower you run the marching band, and standing on the podium you run the concert band. I suppose it’s a little bit of an ego trip but it’s just such great fun. I love it.

The post An Interview with John Paynter appeared first on The Instrumentalist.

An Interview with United Sound’s Julie Duty

theinstrumenta — Wed, 31 May 2017 19:19:59 +0000

Julie Duty is the founder and executive director of United Sound, an organization that offers peer mentoring and musical involvement to special needs students at the high school and college levels. “Our mission is to provide musical performance experiences for students with special needs through peer mentorship. In my experience as a music educator, the music room is the best thing on any high school campus, and this program is designed to add to what is already good, without detracting from what exists. United Sound grew out of my experiences as an educator, my attempts to integrate special needs students into my band, and the need I perceived to develop specific tools and materials to help these students.”

What tools or training do you provide to schools that participate, and particularly the student mentors who work directly with the special needs students?
    At the heart of United Sound is the relationship between the peer mentors and the special needs students. In fact, this relationship is the primary focus of the program, and in that respect, it is like a club. To get started, it requires both a music teacher and a special education teacher. The special education teacher trains the peer mentors to be teachers, and the music teacher is in charge of the new musicians. Both the band director and the cooperating special education teacher receive a few hours of training, held in part via video and in part over Skype.
    There are two training sessions for peer mentors, led by the special education teacher. The first session addresses how to be a mentor. It talks about patience, praise, that not all days will be good days, and how to be a good friend. The emphasis for the peer mentors is to be encouraging to the new musicians. We use phrases like “Any effort is a good effort,” because we believe that applies to all musicians. A huge goal of our program is never to use the word no. In the training sessions, we train the mentors to say “Good job, now let’s try this.” Praise the effort and redirect. I had a band director whose students had completed the training sessions and then went to band camp, which was after school. This director called me to say that the mentors were using their United Sound training with the freshmen, and it built morale quickly.
    The second session addresses how to use our curriculum. The first book only has four rhythms, and they are represented by foods. Cake is a quarter note, soup (spelled souuup) is a half note, do-nut (the hyphen is intentional) represents two eighth notes, which in our method book always occur together. We also use quarter rests, for which students say “rest.” We also use colors. For string players, strings are labeled orange, yellow, green, and purple. Three green cakes would mean three quarter notes on the D string. Wind players learn three notes. Clarinet and saxophone players learn concert D, C, and B-flat; flutes and brasses learn concert B-flat, A, and G. We pick these notes because they can be played with either hand.

What is a typical meeting like?
    We think of the program as a club that meets once per week for 45 minutes. Most high school programs meet after school and our universities all meet in the evening. There are only two rules: the mentors teach, and everyone performs at least once each semester; the students perform one piece on a given concert. Most new musicians do not play all the notes.
    The mentors arrive a little early to get the room set up the room. The best thing to do is remove any extra chairs and stands that could make things confusing. These students then welcome the new musicians into the room. Peer mentors are paired at a ratio of 3:1 with new musicians, so both groups have ample support.
    At the beginning of the semester, when all the students are getting to know each other, we provide games and activities; after the first couple weeks, it is rarely necessary. In the first week, we play a game called “Find Someone Who,” where each four-person group has a list of questions and has to talk to other groups to find out who has a certain trait, such as liking Harry Potter movies or being older than 18. The law allows students to stay in high school until age 22, so this question is an especially good way to meet some of the new musicians. Students quickly bond over shared tastes and similarities. We also encourage each group to make a poster about what the members have in common; this is another opportunity for students to connect before anyone plays a note.
    Our general timeline is for the new musicians to begin to learn to play their instrument by working out of our method book for nine weeks, then halfway through the semester, the mentors create a modified part from the score, specific to the skills of the new musician, using United Sound notation.
    Students start at the beginning of the method book each week, covering exercises that are easy and that everyone can play well, so the day always starts off with success. How much time is spent on beginning exercises is up to the mentor students. At the start of the semester, the new musicians are learning new skills, so 80% of the rehearsal time might be skills out of the method book and 20% of the time with the music teacher in the center of the room leading the group in an activity. At the end of the semester, it is the opposite – 80% with the music teacher guiding rehearsal, 20% with the student mentors. During work with the mentors, the music and special education teachers work the room, helping everyone to become a better teacher.
    We encourage teachers and mentors to spend a minimum of 15 minutes of each 45-minute meeting intentionally off task. This is at its core a relationship-building program, but music students can be so focused – because that is how rehearsals are usually run – that we have to help them build in that down time. If it is safe and appropriate to step in the hallway to get a drink and talk about how everyone’s day went, that is an option. Such socialization is a big part of the high school experience that not everyone gets to have. The special education teacher helps everyone decide what is best.
    Choice is important. Nobody likes to be told what to do, so mentors are taught to give choices. Which line do you want to play? Do you want me to play with you or do you want to play by yourself? Do you want me to track the music with my finger?
    At each school, one of the mentors is selected as a Club President, receiving monthly training from United Sound and help in planning lessons. Individual clubs should be student led. The goal of these collaborations is never independent performance by the new musicians, but collaborative performance that also provides social connection. Training the mentors is just as important as training the new musicians.

From where do the performance parts come?
    The mentors write the parts because they work closely with their musicians. If a student has only learned B-flat, the mentor writes a part that only has B-flats at just the right time. The difference between having a manageable part custom written and making noise while the band plays is critical, and something that the parents of new musicians have noticed and appreciated. The students know their part is important and are motivated to count correctly.
Even though the mentors are inexperienced at reading and transposing conductor scores, new musicians only learn one to four notes, so most of what the mentors do is search the score for times when it would be best to play those notes.

When did United Sound start? How much has it grown since then?
    We started testing the materials we developed for the program in early 2014 at Desert Vista High School in Arizona. We learned that kids were successful at the instruments they wanted to play the most, just like everyone else. So, from that point forward, the new musicians participate in an instrument trial night, just like any other student starting band or orchestra. People talk about me as an advocate for special needs students, but I consider myself an advocate for music education. I want everyone to be in band, and right now we are missing out on the 13% of public school students who receive services for special education.
    At a trial night I attended, a non-verbal student gestured toward a euphonium, but his mother said he couldn’t play it because he didn’t have the muscles in his face to talk. I promised we would switch him to percussion if it didn’t work out, but insisted there was no harm in letting him try. Not only could he play the euphonium, he blew through our materials and quickly moved to a typical method book. This student could not talk, but he could play well. He marched in the Rose Parade with us. We rarely think to invite such students to join band, but this student thrived.
    In 2014, I targeted four schools in Arizona, plus Carmel High School in Indiana. I purposefully chose three high-profile schools that would get people’s attention and two Title I schools; one each from an urban and a rural area. I wanted to show that United Sound could work everywhere. When Carmel played at the Midwest Clinic in 2014, the United Sound students played a piece on that concert. This year we will have United Sound chapters in more than 50 schools from 15 states..We have several collegiate chapters as well, including Western Carolina University, Ball State University, and Arizona State University.

Where have United Sound students performed?
    The recent performance of United Sound students at the Rose Bowl Parade with the Honor Band of America from Music for All was a big deal. The band included 250 students from 40 states, among which were five new musicians from United Sound and eight peer mentors. The theme of the Rose Bowl Parade was “Echoes of Success” and emphasized mentorship.
    In the fall of 2016, United Sound students played alongside the Ohio State marching band at the Music for All Grand National Championships in Indianapolis, Indiana. They performed in front of 30,000 people who attended the semifinals award ceremony. As always, the United Sound students played modified parts created by their peer mentors.
    In March of 2016 and 2017, students from United Sound performed at the Music for All National Concert Band Festival. Every year we have a new piece commissioned for the United Sound students.

What does it cost to start a United Sound program?
There is no cost, thanks to the support of our corporate donors, but we do ask mentors to host a fundraiser at their respective schools to pay it forward to start a program on the next school.

What difficulties should the teachers watch for?
The biggest difficulty is convincing the special education department to do this with you. These teachers have experienced a lifetime of things that looked good. but never work out. By their late teenage years, some of these students have been told no many times or been in mentoring programs where the mentors stopped showing up after a couple weeks. It can take some work to convince special education teachers and parents that this time will be different. Fortunately, band and orchestra students are different.
The music and special education teachers are usually the two busiest people in the building, so scheduling one more hour into the week for both teachers can be difficult. Once the program is going, it should take no more than one hour a week: the 15 minutes it takes to get ready and the 45 minutes each meeting lasts. Spending more time than that is doing it wrong. Sometimes teachers call me to talk about the wonderful ideas they are trying to implement. If they have a good idea we offer to complete it for them so the other schools with United Sound programs can try it as well. Other times, we recommend against their ideas for the reason that if it isn’t simple, it isn’t sustainable. My only goal is for the teachers involved to get to the end of the year, realize how easy it was, and agree to do it again next year. It is better to go slowly and have a program that sustains itself for 20 years than make a big to-do about it and burn out.

To learn more about United Sound, visit . Click on the teacher registration form on the home page to get started.

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