May 2013 Archives - The Instrumentalist

Musical Intelligence

theinstrumenta — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 19:26:27 +0000

    Does learning to play an instrument make children smarter? Music educators certainly would like to think so, but the truth is, no one has a clear answer to this complicated question yet.
It is obvious that learning to play an instrument is beneficial. Music students learn that there is a connection between the practicing they do and the results they obtain. In other words, they learn that actions have consequences: Work harder, play better; practice less, play less well. Success depends largely on effort. Raw talent is important, but talent isn’t everything. This is a good lesson to learn when starting out in life.
    Music students also gain experience working with others. A musical ensemble is a team, and members of the group work together to achieve common goals. Many people, not just those in the arts, work in teams throughout their lives. It is a good thing to acquire teamwork skills early in life.
    Music students develop self-confidence from performing in public. Whether they sit in the middle of a section or stand front and center playing a solo, young musicians learn how to present themselves. Surely this experience, and the self-confidence it produces, will come in handy later in life when former students are called upon to make a sales presentation, argue a legal case, or give a speech.
    It is clear that music students benefit from their studies in important ways, but does studying music actually increase a young person’s intelligence? Two decades ago Gordon Shaw and Frances Rauscher conducted experiments to ascertain whether students who listened to music before taking academic tests performed differently than students who took the exams without listening to music. The students who listened to music by Mozart before taking the tests performed better than the students in the control group, which did not listen to music.
    A French otolaryngologist named Alfred Tomatis believed that many patients’ health problems were due to an inability to hear or listen well. Tomatis had patients with serious illnesses including ear, speech, and other problems listen to music of Mozart. His prescription for these patients varied depending on the situation but included listening to Mozart for some period of time each day. His patients improved. Tomatis coined the term “Mozart Effect” to describe this healing phenomenon. Don Campbell subsequently compiled the results of Tomatis’s and others’ research showing the wide range of impact that music, and particularly the music of Mozart, could have in the areas of health, education, and brain development. Campbell trademarked the “Mozart Effect” term and popularized the concept through lectures and a series of books.
    An old adage asserts that “music hath charms to soothe the savage beast.” Perhaps music’s beneficial effects are due to its calming and relaxing properties. It might have a psychological effect that could equally well be achieved through meditation or another relaxation technique. Could listening to music have a physical effect on the brain that can be measured, or is there just something special about Mozart?
    In an article on a 1998 meeting of the Society for Neuroscience, Los Angeles Times science writer Robert Lee Hotz reported, “Researchers [have] discovered direct evidence that music stimulates specific regions of the brain responsible for memory, motor control, timing and language.” Hotz quoted McGill University neuroscientist Anne Blood as saying that the brain responds directly to harmony. According to Blood, McGill researchers using a PET scanner to monitor changes in neural activity discovered that different parts of the brain involved in emotion are activated depending on whether music is consonant or dissonant.
    Thus, there is evidence that listening to music can have beneficial effects, and it even appears that different types of music affect our brains in different ways. Perhaps there is something special about Mozart, but learning to play an instrument apparently has effects on the brain as well.
    Scientists have observed that the brain grows in response to musical training the way a muscle responds to exercise. Researchers at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston discovered that classically trained male musicians had significantly larger brains than men who did not have extensive musical training. (The study only included men.) The cerebellum, which contains about 70% of the brain’s neurons, was about 5% larger in expert male musicians who were studied than in non-musicians. Gottfried Schlaug, an assistant professor of neurology at Harvard Medical School who conducted the research, says that musicians are not just born with these differences. He asserts that the cerebellum grows because of frequent practice of the virtuoso motor skills needed to play an instrument. These findings are significant, but they still do not really show that studying music makes people smarter.
    Shaw and Rauscher, who conducted the original Mozart listening experiments, have released research findings showing that preschoolers who took music lessons had statistically significant gains in spatial reasoning ability, that is, the ability to perceive the visual world accurately, to form mental images of physical objects, and to recognize variations in objects. These are the kind of higher brain functions needed to perform complex mathematics. In fact, preschoolers with only eight months of keyboard or music lessons showed a 46% boost in spatial IQ compared to the baseline improvement of 6% in the control group. Learning to play an instrument clearly has effects on children’s brains, and these effects do relate to what most people would describe as intelligence.
    Gottfried Schlaug in Boston has expanded on his earlier research. He studied 41 eight- to eleven-year-old boys and girls who took private lessons in piano or a string instrument for three years or more. Schlaug and his colleague Ellen Winne compared the music students to a group of 18 children who had no instrumental training. (Both groups took general music classes in their schools.) The results, published in 2008, showed that in addition to scoring better on skills related directly to their musical training (auditory discrimination and finger dexterity), the young musicians also scored higher in two important skills that appear to be unrelated to music: verbal ability (as measured by a vocabulary IQ test) and visual pattern completion (as measured by the Raven’s Progressive Matrices). The longer the students studied their instruments, they better they scored on these tests.
    Scientists at Northwestern University reported in 2012 on a study that showed music training may enhance communication skills needed for speaking and reading. The study, which involved measuring electrical activity in the brainstem, the pathway that processes both music and speech, suggests that musical training could help children develop literacy skills and combat literacy disorders. Nina Kraus, director of Northwestern’s Auditory Neuroscience Laboratory, where the work was performed, told a reporter that “audiovisual processing was much enhanced in musicians’ brains compared to non-musician counterparts, and musicians also were more sensitive to subtle changes in both speech and music sounds.”
    Some commentators believe that studying music contributes to a young person’s psychological development, quite apart from whether it has physical effects on the brain. Alexandra York says that the study of music “inspires the moral imagination” and helps young people develop emotionally. Writing in the June 1998 issue of Imprimis, she said:

[M]usic is indispensable for guiding psychological development because it speaks directly to the sentient consciousness. One might say that music is emotion, because feelings are its primary themes. The instrument chosen to channel music’s emotional flow, whether it be piano, clarinet, violin, or voice, is not important. Learning to master the instrument is. The discipline of serious music is exact and exacting, teaching the precision of mathematics in a poetic realm as well as the exhilarating balance and the exalted integration of “reasoned harmony” (music’s form) and emotions (music’s content). It is not often in our culture that children are taught to unite reason and emotion. Tonal and melodic classical music does this for all of us. So the competence to hear it and to appreciate it as a practitioner can be a rare source of indescribable pleasure and a safe emotional release.

Research on the brain continues, and as neurologists, psychologists, and others learn more about how the brain works, they will discover more about how music affects us. There is little doubt at this point, however, that studying music and listening to music can be rewarding to people throughout their lives. That’s why it is so important to introduce children to music at an early age.
Bruce D. Perry, formerly chief of psychiatry for Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston and now an adjunct professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the Feinberg School of Medicine of Northwestern University, summed this up: “Even a prodigy like Mozart could not have composed had he never heard music in the first years of life…. Once developed—once organized—the brain is hard to modify. Childhood experiences, therefore, create the person. These organizing childhood experiences should be consistent, nurturing, structured, and enriched, resulting in flexible, responsible, empathic, and creative adults.”
Students benefit in many ways from studying music. They develop good work habits and gain self-confidence. They learn to unite reason and emotion. Their brains grow, and perhaps they even become smarter. Every child can benefit, and every child deserves a chance to benefit from consistent, nurturing, structured, and enriching musical experiences.

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Cheers

theinstrumenta — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 19:21:23 +0000

    It is never too soon to start thinking about football season. As you begin considering music for next year, also think about how you can build school spirit. Maybe these ideas will help.
Long gone are the days when football cheers were mini-masterpieces of poetry recited during the maelstrom of athletic mayhem. Whatever happened to the classic “Two, four, six, eight, who do we appreciate? Go-o-o-o-o Raiders!” Or how about the aerobic “Lean to the left! Lean to the right! Raiders! Raiders! Fight! Fight! Fight!”
    Cheers of yesteryear were not politically correct or for those of great sensitivity; they were certainly not particularly kind to the other team. Today rivals often hug each other after a hard-fought contest. Whatever happened to the truly competitive, take-no-prisoners approach from players and fans alike? Old cheers used to add insult to injury and stir competitive fire:
    “Big dog, little dog, floppy-eared pup,
    Come on Comets, let’s beat them up!”

“Hit ‘em in the upper lip! Hit ‘em in the jaw!”
Put ‘em in the hospital! Rah! Rah! Rah!”

“Arizona desert, Texas cactus,
We play your team just for practice!”

“Pork chop, pork chop, greasy, greasy,
We’ll beat your team easy, easy!”

“Blood makes the grass grow, Kill! Kill!” (Repeat ad nauseum.)

“Stomp ‘em! Stomp ‘em! Whadduya think those cleats are for?! (Repeat ad nauseum.)

Some early cheers would make a Mensa member proud. My high school band director once related how a very intelligent high school friend of his would yell:

“Pursue them! Pursue them!
Make them relinquish the ball!”

To which I subsequently made up the equivalent:

“Eradicate them, eradicate them!
Make them transfer the brown, spherical object!”

Cheers from the old days even expressed moral values:

    “Rootie Toot Toot, Rootie Toot Toot,
    We’re the girls from the Institute.
    We don’t smoke. We don’t chew.
    We don’t go with boys who do.
    (long pause; then, said to the tune of “nanny nanny boo-boo”)
    We ain’t got no boyfriends!”

However, some cheers of yesteryear crossed the line. I remember going to Auburn University games in the 1970s and not being able to cheer along with all of them. One of them ended with “Give ‘em @#$%^ you War $%^&# Eagle!” I had never heard that many people swear at one time. Whenever we lost (and that was often), I thought it might have some sort of moral retribution. Firing the coach might not have been the answer; maybe they just needed to sanitize the cheers.

Then we had cheers that were not cheers:

“Gimme a ‘B’! Gimme another ‘B’! (Repeat four more times) Whaduyuh get?!” To answer, we would rapidly move our index fingers between our lower and upper lips.

Some cheers would even address the other fans:

“We got spirit yes we do, we got spirit how about you?” If the other side did not respond or were the first to quit repeating it, we won. One creative riposte we learned was “Two, four, six, eight, we got more than you can take!”

I’m surprised that the latest educational trends have not seeped into our cheers, mandated by overzealous administrators:

“Block that schedule! Block that schedule!”

“Score a touchdown, mighty team!
Every point boosts our self-esteem!”

“Spread the ball, please be kind,
We want no player left behind!”

Then there are the cheers we would like use (but can’t) when the team is having a dismal season, suffering game after game of futility:

    “That’s all right, that’s okay,
    We’re gonna lose it anyway!”
    “Fumble, interception, muff, and gaff!
    The real action starts when we play at half!”

“Lassie, Benji, Rin Tin Tin!
The score’s so bad, put the trombones in!”

“Run the clock! Run the clock! Tick, tick, tick!
Finish the dumb game before we get sick!”

    (To the other team.) “Chicken leg, chicken leg, boneless wing,
    Come on Bears, use the second string!”
    “Coyote, fox, wildcat, jackal!
    Come on Wildcats, let’s make a tackle!”

“Don’t fret, fans, when the Tiger team chokes.
The team may lose, but the band still stokes!”

You may try interjecting some of these cheers at next year’s football games to bide the time until halftime, when there is really something to cheer about.

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What I Learned From the Clarinet

theinstrumenta — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 19:17:56 +0000

    I have always been fascinated with the playing techniques of other instruments and how they might relate to the flute and piccolo. During my 53-year orchestral career (6 years with the Rochester Philharmonic and 47 years with the Chicago Symphony), I was the perennial next-door neighbor to either the second violins or cellos, and thus developed an abiding respect for the string family sonority. My December 2000 Flute Talk article, “Learning from the Violins” (the original title was “A Bow to the Strings”, but my polite pun was editorially vetoed), was a salute to the strings in their role as the foundation for the orchestral sound. In that article I wrote about bowing techniques, highlighting many of their similarities to our breathing and articulation approaches.
    My seating position as the “tight end,” so to speak, of the woodwind section also allowed me to bask in the beautiful sounds of the oboes, bassoons and clarinets. I was especially grateful for having had the opportunity to study those instruments as a graduate student at Eastman in 1948-50, when I was privileged to take private lessons with the principal players of the Rochester Philharmonic on oboe, bassoon and clarinet. I studied each instrument for one semester, oboe with Robert Sprenkle, bassoon with Vincent Pezzi, and clarinet with William Osseck.
    Of those three instruments it was the clarinet that held the most interest for me, partly because of its extended fingering system with its alternating use of the little finger of either hand to manage an extended scale and overblowing at a twelfth rather than an octave (as with the other woodwinds). More than anything else, however, it was clarinet tonguing technique that gave me a fresh perspective for refining my flute articulation.
    Included in the pedagogical materials that I acquired during my clarinet semester was a mini-sized book by Daniel Bonade, Clarinetist’s Compendium. I was a big fan of Bonade, having heard many of his recordings as principal clarinet of the Philadelphia and Cleveland orchestras. I particularly admired his articulation style, so when I came upon Chapter 3, “Method of Staccato,” it was like an epiphany. The still prevalent myth, “never stop the note with your tongue,” was thoroughly demolished by Bonade’s logical explanation on page 8:
    The principle of staccato is not to hit the reed with the tongue but to have the tip of the tongue on the reed and move it backward and forward intermittently at different speeds as needed. Consider staccato as an interruption of legato. This will be discovered in the first exercises.
    I repeat, in making staccato, the tongue moves back and forth, with the pressure of the wind always the same, as though playing legato. The faster the interruption, the faster the staccato.
Of course Bonade took it for granted that the return of the tongue to the reed should be quick but not forceful. A distractingly noisy slap-tongue release should be avoided, unless specifically requested by a composer as a special effect.
    In my April 1995 Flute Talk article, “A New Perspective on Note Releases (Introducing the T-U-D Factor)”, I cited Bonade’s Clarinetist’s Compen-dium, and designed a few exercises patterned after his “Method of Staccato” with special emphasis on their critical relevance to the piccolo. Unfortun-ately, Bonade’s book was out-of-print at that time, but it is now available again for purchase online at music dealers such as Hickey’s Music Online, Van Cott Information Services, and others. I highly recommend its purchase, not only for his “Method of Staccato” chapter, but also for his excellent advice about tone, breathing, articulation and phrasing. (You may, however, happily skip the final chapter, “The Art of Adjusting Reeds”.)
    Here are the relevant sections reprinted from my 1995 article, including the brief Bonade-style exercises at the end.

A New Perspective On Note Releases

When tonguing sixteenth-note passages at speeds from q = 88 and faster, one of the main goals of a wind player is to maintain clarity and precision with the recurring, tongue strokes. If all the elements of articulation – tongue tension and evenness, breath pressure, embouchure position, and finger-tongue synchronization – are working optimally, a player need not be overly conscious of note “releases” since these occur automatically due to the tonguing momentum. That is, fast tempos make it necessary for the tongue to return to its starting position quickly in order to attack the next note on time. Thus the cessation of one note and the initiation of the ensuing note are virtually simultaneous.
Assuming that the breath pressure remains constant, a legato style of tonguing could be transcribed syllabically as in Example A. A more staccato style could be depicted as in Example B, and an extreme, hard staccato style would be more like that shown in Example C. The tempos of these three examples would be q = 88 to about q = 126.

A: first line, B: 2nd line, C: 3rd line

When performing detached notes at slower speeds, flutists and piccoloists have six additional techniques available to them for making note releases (some of these are applicable to other wind instruments):

1. Stopping the air flow internally by quickly suspending the abdominal pressure. This suspension of abdominal pressure immediately reduces the velocity of the air remaining in the respiratory “pipeline,” causing the end of the tone to go flat or fall into the lower octave or fifth (in the case of all notes above Eb5). This technique is not recommended unless carefully coordinated with methods 3 or 5.

2. Stopping the air flow internally by closing the glottis (the opening between the vocal cords). This is almost identical to the glottal sensations one experiences when laughing or doing staccato whistling sounds. The “pipeline” here is much shorter than in No. 1, so there is little likelihood of suffering the pitch and octave control problems of No. 1. If used too emphatically, however, as for example when applying glottal releases in conjunction with abdominal pulses and soft tongue strokes (sometimes erroneously referred to as “diaphragm staccato”), this can cause excessive throat tension. From a musical point of view, also, this method tends to give the tone a diffused quality, lacking in definition.

3. Stopping the air flow internally (as in No. 1), but at the same time adjusting the embouchure as if making a very quick diminuendo. If one is skilled at making artistically rapid diminuendos without loss of pitch or quality, this can be a musically effective method. It works best with detached semi-staccato eighth-notes at tempos under q = 66.

4. Stopping the air flow externally by sealing the lips. This is often an unintended result of overdoing the previous method and is unreliable for regular use, particularly in the first octave and a half.

5. Dissipating the air flow externally by a sudden and dramatic opening of the mouth by a quick lifting of the maxilla while the jaw (mandible) remains in place. Combined with technique No. 1, this seems to be the instinctive method of choice for many flutists and piccoloists because the sudden enlargement of the embouchure opening causes the air flow to dissipate before the pitch has a chance to go flat. The deftness of the upper lip lift (once it has been mastered) is of course preferable to the relative clumsiness and inefficiency of the upper jaw lift. Even though this quick air dissipation effectively prevents flatness, if it is not done with precise timing and skill there still remains the risk involving the notes above G2 falling to the lower octave or fifth. The piccolo is especially vulnerable to this risk, and has a frus-tratingly low tolerance level for this technique. In fact, this unforgiveness constitutes one of the most important differences between the two instruments. It is also interesting to note that of all the woodwind and brass instruments, the flute and piccolo are the only ones that do not require the upper lip to be in contact with the mouthpiece or reed while performing. Although this apparent freedom can be advantageous, it can also be easily negated by carelessness (see my article in the October, 1993 Flute Talk, page 27: “Flutists’ Common Mistakes” – The Opening Hiccup Breath).

6. Dissipating the air flow externally by quickly taking the instrument off the lower lip. As absurd as this may seem at first glance, this technique can have an occasional place in one’s ploys-of-showmanship bag. Akin to the string player’s custom of dramatically whipping the bow off the string at the end of a very intense note, this method is actually an emphatic extension of method No. 5 and could be used in terminating a sustained forte final note of a movement or piece, such as the Bb6 that ends the Hindemith Sonata. At the very least, it can be applied during practice as a psychological tool to counteract the widespread tendency for making sagging diminuendos on what should be strong note endings. I sometimes whimsically refer to this technique as the “whiplash release.”

    Having pointed out in method No. 5 the special dangers inherent in slower speed detached notes on the piccolo, what can be done to ameliorate this octave-grace-note-spillover syndrome? The solution is really very simple, and resides innocently (and invitingly) in the midst of the syllabification pattern of the rapid sixteenth note sequence illustrated earlier in Example B.
    If the tud articulation of Example B works so perfectly and naturally in fast passages, why not take advantage of this tee-you-dee approach (as I refer to it in my teaching) in slower staccato passages? The reason seems to be that too many of us have fallen prey to the prevalent myth that “one should never stop a note with the tongue.”
    The fact that we have six different ways (admittedly, not all of them viable) of stopping a note without using the tongue has perhaps deluded us into believing that we should never use the tongue to end a note. Yet, we blithely overlook the successful use of tongued releases exemplified by Example B.
    Aside from its impressive functions as a taste sensor and masticating aid the tongue is one of the most remarkable organs of our body in its enormous repertoire of movements in speech communication. Go back for a moment to the phrase above with the bold-face letters. These letters represent the sounds directly controlled by the tongue. Pronounce the words of that phrase aloud very slowly, and you will appreciate anew the wonderful sensitivity and agility of the tongue. It has direct responsibility for articulating the following consonants th, t, n, g, s, r, k, I, d, ch, z. The tongue’s ability to move in many directions quickly or slowly, strongly or delicately, with almost infinite gradations, makes it a truly virtuoso performer, and thus deserving of wider recognition as a reliable choice in our toolbox of release techniques for slower detached notes.
    One of the unrecognized advantages in using the tud stroke in detached staccato phrases is that during the split second while the tongue rebounds to its starting position, the size of the air flow escape-channel quickly shrinks, causing the air speed to increase somewhat. This is a crucial factor in preventing flatness or the octave-grace-note-spillover at the moment of release, especially in soft passages.
    In learning to apply the tee-you-dee technique to detached notes, try the following two exercises, and continue into all notes within the range of the piccolo and flute.¹ In the first exercise avoid the normal diminuendo taper at the end of the opening long note. While keeping the air pressure steady, stop the note with a gentle but quick return of the tongue to its starting position. Another challenge is keeping the air pressure steady behind the tongue during the ensuing dotted-eighth rest, at the same time maintaining your normal embouchure position as if you were still playing. Then tongue the next three short notes as indicated with the tud syllables, again keeping the air pressure steady behind the tongue during the rests. Take a breath only when necessary which should not be very often.² Your reward for being so disciplined and patient is that at the end of the exercise you may taper the final note without using the tongue to assist the release.
    Exercise No. 2 begins with normally fast single-tongued sixteenth notes, then gradually slows down by virtue of the rhythmic changes. Maintain the tud sequence throughout, and avoid the temptation of opening your mouth during the rests in measure three. Practice both exercises at different dynamic levels, but since the softer dynamics are somewhat more difficult to control, they should be practiced more.

Practice this exercise on all pitches and varied dynamics.

Keep steady air pressure and embouchure throughout.

Notes:
¹ These are similar to the exercises prescribed by the celebrated clarinetist Daniel Bonade in his self-published pamphlet, Method of Staccato (1949), a work that 1 have admired and referred to often over the years. It has long been out of print, but for those who are interested, it might still be found circulating within the clarinet fraternity.

² Lest there be any misunderstanding, 1 hasten to add that keeping the air pressure and embouchure intact during such relatively long rests should not be considered a normal procedure. I only advocate it here as a disciplinary strategy for improving awareness and control, and as a preliminary set-up for the upcoming faster rhythms.

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Ten Tips for Working with Young Children

theinstrumenta — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 19:07:59 +0000

Sometimes you have to think like a child in order to reach one. Teachers who understand the mindsets of students can develop better teaching strategies. Here are some helpful ideas to encourage success in instrumental music.

1. Instrumental music is an elective; students don’t have to be there.
You can quit band and orchestra, but you can’t quit math. It can be difficult to walk the line between music education and music edu-tainment. Strive to straddle the line as best you are able.
It absolutely has to be fun for students, because there are many other fun things they can do outside of school. Be witty. Tell a joke. Sing in opera style. Imitate the principal (one of our favorites). Speak in a bad accent. Act like a cartoon character. Pretend to be a villain. While doing all of this, trick them into learning.
Here’s an example. With improvised melody sung in falsetto operatic soprano style, “In Italian, in Italian, in Italian, mezzo means middle. So mezzo, so mezzo, so mezzo means ____.” (Use body motions to encourage students to fill in the blank). Proceed with this technique to teach mezzo forte and mezzo piano. That is much more interesting and memorable for young students than simply stating, mezzoforte means medium strong.

2. Few students learn music the same way you do.
For music teachers music likely has always been easier for you than for the general population. John Gardner, who wrote Frames of Mind: The Theory of Multiple Intelligences, might suggest that musicians and music teachers have heightened musical intelligence. Some students in music classes may also, but many do not. Keep this in mind when students play F natural instead of F sharp for the seventh consecutive time. They just may not see, hear, or understand that they are playing an incorrect pitch. It could be poor focus, but some students may be trying so hard but lack a fundamental understanding of what keys to press, why the F is sharp and not natural, and so on. Be patient, because at some point along your path, a music teacher was probably very patient with you.

3. Children are smart and able to absorb lots of information
Children are, as the saying goes, like sponges. It is easier for most people to learn a world language as children than as an adult, and music is in many ways another language. Often students don’t realize just how much they can learn. We like to share as much information as possible in a thirty minute lesson. It is unreasonable to expect students to remember every concept from every lesson, but they learn more than they realize. It is important and encouraging to remind them of their progress.

4. Accommodate student needs and attention spans.
Recently we were discussing teaching strategies with a non-music teacher in a neighboring school district. This teacher described how students have changed in recent years. Several years ago 3% of this neighboring school district’s incoming kindergarten students required Individualized Education Plans (I.E.P.s) That number this year is 22%. What a staggering increase.
Many of the students today are different, more needy, and less prepared, than those of only a few years ago. If a student has difficulty reading his ABCs, how likely is it that he will be able to decode musical indications on a staff-lined paper? It is perfectly acceptable to be creative in marking notes and symbols for students who need them. Another option is to chunk information into smaller bite-sized pieces or take breaks to stand up and stretch to help students with short attention spans. The alternative is that students become frustrated and quit.

5. Guilt is often more effective than criticism.
    Think about that grandmotherly teacher on your faculty who can coerce you into volunteering to man the Saturday bake sale table, or the minister who, before you know it, has somehow convinced you to take an elderly shut-in to a doctor’s appointment. Used properly, guilt can be a spectacular motivator.
    Which teacher would you be more likely to respond to?
    Teacher A, huffily barking, “For the eighth time, trumpet players, F sharp is second valve!”
    Teacher B, slumped body posture, sleepy dog eyes, hushed tone: “Trumpet players, I’m so sad that you can’t seem to remember that F sharp is second valve. I thought for sure you were better than that.”

6. Imagine each student as the superintendent or school board president twenty years from now. Even better: imagine each student as your child.
We are professionals. Sometimes, though, there are just those few students we can’t seem to reach. It would be very easy to give up on them, to let them just quit without much of an argument. If you knew, however, that the student holding that violin, sounding unearthly, were to someday be your boss or was your own child, you would want that student to succeed and would do everything in your power to help him.
It sounds cliche, but think back to the overly dramatic scene near the end of Mr. Holland’s Opus when a former clarinet student reappears years later. We should all try to be a bit like Mr. Holland. No, “play the sunset” will not usually suffice, but putting forth the effort to create the extra scale exercises, find the right recordings, or adapting the music so that it is playable is what we would want our own childrens’ teachers to do.

7. Many young students are pleasers.
So many subjects in school require the right answer. Fortunately in music, we don’t have to have every right answer until the performance. Try to create a classroom environment that encourages students to feel comfortable with making mistakes. There is one student we share, an outstanding violinist and clarinetist, who comes to class each week with exciting news about how much she practiced. She often travels with her instruments on visits to see grandparents so she can play concerts for them. The most important part of her excitement is that she always has an intelligent question to ask that really shows that she is interested in the music we give her. A comment to the effect of “Wow, what a great question!” goes a long way to encourage more in the future.

8. Students want things to be easy
While waiting for young musicians to mature and realize that hard work is important, disguise the challenges. Most string students do not learn F natural in their first year. We teach it by Thanksgiving that year, using a song they know well, “Hot Cross Buns.” We discuss major and minor modalities and then tell them that to play “Cold Cross Buns,” they will use an F natural. By tone and words, we make major and minor sound like the easiest, most normal thing on the planet. Search for new ways to teach difficult techniques and concepts. That being said, young instrumentalists do need to learn that if they want to excel at their instrument, there is no substitute for many hours of practice.

9. Some students are not intrinsically motivated.
Some students need that sticker, prize, incentive, or extra reward to keep going. For first-year instrumentalists, we have a Practicing Hall of Fame. Before the first lesson, we post a list of everyone’s names, with twenty columns to the right of them. At each lesson, students can add stickers next to their names if they have practiced on four different days and bring in a practice sheet signed by a parent. We give small prizes for the first sticker. Prizes are given at increments of five stickers, and get more interesting as students progress. Lunch with the teacher (and a friend) is always a big hit. Quite often, students will bring friends who don’t play in our ensembles, so we have increased opportunities for recruiting.

10. It’s fun to work together.
Students will play with almost anyone at recess, or at the very least, can easily be encouraged to include others. In band and orchestra classes, students enjoy teaching other students. This gives them a sense of pride and accomplishment that is irreplaceable, and it reinforces what they already know. When one student returns from being absent at the previous lesson, another student is put in charge of catching them up. This can be a highly effective motivator at any grade level. The student who has just returned from missing school is equally attentive when learning from another student as from a teacher. We always guide the teaching students to make sure they include all important material. Working together toward a common goal is also at the foundation of musical performance.
Teaching beginning instrumentalists is challenging, but fulfilling. Thinking like a young student has been useful in creating success with these aspiring musicians. Whether you are in your first year of teaching or have been teaching since the dinosaurs, it can be valuable to step back and assess how well your methods reach the young dynamos of energy that fill your classrooms. Be sure to mimic that energy and mirror that enthusiasm, and chances are your students will continue to excel.

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The Evolution of the Chicago Symphony Brass Sound

theinstrumenta — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 19:02:54 +0000

Bud Herseth, legendary principal trumpet of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra for 53 years, died at age 91 on April 13, 2013. During Herseth’s tenure with orchestra, the Chicago brass sound became renowned throughout the world. As a tribute to his inspirational career, we reprint this 1989 conversation with Herseth, Arnold Jacobs, and Philip Farkas. Herseth joined the symphony in 1948 and held the principal trumpet position longer than any other player in a major orchestra. Jacobs, one of the world’s greatest brass teachers, played tuba in the orchestra from 1944 until 1989. Philip Farkas was a member of the symphony in 1936-41 and 1946-1960.

How did the Chicago Brass sound begin?
Philip Farkas: I was here in 1936, and I assure you there was no Chicago sound then. The orchestra was a motley assortment of good players. I remember being told I would play all the horn solos including the second and third horn solos; the first horn parts probably still have the solos pasted in. The trombones were a mixed bag. We were not the most homogeneous brass section; we were just capable of playing a decent symphony concert without any problems. I don’t think it was until Bud Herseth and Arnold Jacobs joined the symphony that we had a Chicago sound.
Even though I left in 1960, I was aware that we had achieved a consolidated sound and that it was a great sound. I would hear other orchestras and say, “Why do they blare?” or, “Why are they so weak?” That was never the case with Reiner. When Reiner wanted it big, you’d give it to him, but he often cautioned us not to play too big. He used to say, “I visualize the orchestra under a bubble,” and “I just heard one of the trumpet players burst the bubble; that sound went right out through the bubble and spoiled the picture; don’t burst the bubble!” That was the only cautionary remark he ever made to the brass. He would occasionally say the trombones were dragging, but every conductor says that to every trombone section.
Little by little it got to be a sound that was unique. I attribute it to the two newcomers; then we had a brass section with the soundest foundation in the tuba and the greatest soprano in the world in the first trumpet. It was as though you were on a foggy highway and had a white line down the left side, the tuba, and a white line down the right side, the trumpet. Those of us in the middle fit in naturally. It was impossible not to fit in when you had both ends so solidly grounded. The rest of us filled in the middle part of the chords almost automatically. How could I go wrong with these two men on both ends; how could I play out of tune?
You would have to be tone deaf to be out of tune with these two men guiding you. The middle of the orchestra got better because of the two ends. Not only that but as the section improved, better people were eager to join the orchestra. Every time there was a replacement, we got a better player than the one he was replacing, to the point where I don’t think there was a brass section like it.

Arnold Jacobs: There’s more to it than that, Phil. I used to sit behind Farkas, and it was such a joy. When Bud and Phil play an aria, it’s like hearing a great singer. We are in a musical organization; we all love music and we listen to great music around us. You can’t play with indifference and medocrity when you love music and you hear it all around you and have a group of colleagues who are intense, sophisticated musicians.
    I remember that when I was with the Pittsburgh Symphony and Fritz Reiner, we had a good brass section. Reiner didn’t have bad brass sections; with Fritz Reiner they didn’t survive. That was part of survival: don’t make any mistakes, don’t hit any clinkers. We hosted the Chicago Symphony for one concert. They played the Tannhauser Overture and it was a fine concert. Their brasses weren’t as good as in more recent years: it was a great section up to a point, but their trumpets were a little on the weak side. The next day Reiner beat us on the head, wanting us to play like the trombones of the Chicago Symphony. He gave a lecture on how to sound, using the Chicago Symphony performance as a criterion.
    When I joined the Chicago orchestra in 1944, the trombone section was excellent, and the French horn section was good. There was no unified sound, but the music was being played without disasters. The trumpets at that time were in trouble; you couldn’t play a concert without something happening — little mishaps. It was that way until they brought Bud in.
    Bud joined us at Ravinia, and the first thing he played with us was Ein Heldenleben. Reiner had been my conductor at the Curtis Institute of Music for seven years and five years in the Pittsburgh Symphony, so when he came here, I knew him quite well. He came up after the rehearsal of Ein Heldenleben and said to me, “Where did you find that jewel?” I knew he studied in Boston, but that was about all.
    Bud embarrasses you because he never does anything wrong. I once started to note when there was a mishap of any kind; it was about once every three years: perfection all the time; nothing ever happened. When you talk about the Chicago sound, you’re talking about group excellence, but you’re also talking about our soloists. They set the patterns and the rest of us go along with that.

Herseth: That sound was there for a long time before any of us were in the orchestra. They had some good players in this orchestra over the years, and it’s not only a matter of individual concepts of playing but an overall concept that has grown over the years.

Farkas: Bud, I have to disagree with you. That sound that’s so famous wasn’t always there; it was spotty. Yes, there were some great players then, but there were some people who were so unqualified that they took the average down.

Herseth: You’re leading me right up to my next point, which is that a good sound in any section or any orchestra depends on everybody holding up his end. One person can spoil it.

Does the choice of equipment affect the sound?
Jacobs: I think the individuals and their conceptual thoughts are the prime aspect of the sound. We used the equipment to get the sounds we wanted. Of course, it’s a different balance than you might find in the Vienna Philharmonic. They have fine brass, but I think ours met more criteria. I think there was more versatility in the Chicago Symphony that in most orchestras.
If we played French music, we’d move in the direction of French conceptions and sounds. Bud would change, sometimes I would change, and musical ideas would change among the individuals. If we moved to the Russian school or the Germanic school, there was always a change in interpretation from the members of the orchestra. We were challenged by conductors from various parts of Europe, and we did what they asked. We weren’t locked into one style.

Farkas: Everyone plays something different, yet we sound like a section. To get an even tone, you have to have different instruments.

Herseth: What you hear is the player’s concept. If I were to play a passage on a Bb trumpet and the same passage on a C trumpet, you might hear a little difference at first, but the longer I played, the more it would sound like me, not that instrument. It’s the matter of adjusting the player’s concept rather than the equipment. I remember when Kubelik first came to Chicago, he was upset that the bassoons weren’t the same color.

Farkas: The CDs have come out on the Reiner recordings; during the time I was in Chicago, I played three different horns. I listen and unless I see what date the recordings were made, it sounds like me.

Herseth: We tape all the time now. I look on that as a chance to occasionally try a different combination of trumpet and mouthpiece. Very often I say, “I don’t have to write that down, I’ll remember it.” When it comes out six months later, I can’t tell. That’s basically what I’m trying to figure out. It’s an object lesson for me. Even now when I write it down I’ll sometimes say, “I used this horn and that mouthpiece on a particular piece because I wanted a certain effect.” Certain equipment will sometimes make it easier to cope with a passage. When I listen to the tapes it all just sounds the same. Doc Severinsen said the same thing: “You don’t hear the horn, you hear the player.”

Jacobs: I think the equipment enables you to express yourself, but the ideas come from the player. I have a whole bag of mouthpieces. There are three variables in tone production: the player, the mouthpiece, and the instrument. Bud frequently would walk up with three trumpets. Occasionally, I would walk up the stairs at the hall with two tubas, but usually with one tuba and different mouthpieces. If we were playing something light, I’d use the adjustable cup, a shallow bowl-shaped cup that would suppress the fundamental tuba sound and emphasize the overtones. If you analyzed it, you’d find much stronger overtones and much weaker fundamentals. For a light effect, Berlioz and things like that, I had the choice of changing the tuba or changing the mouthpiece. Well, it’s cheaper to have one tuba and many mouthpieces than one mouthpiece and many tubas.
Bud would change frequently, according to his interpretation. He would come up with three horns, and he’d see me with many mouthpieces; we joked about it because if I ever felt I was getting bored, I would change equipment to wake me up.

Farkas: Why did this basically Germanic orchestra have the ability to play French music or Russian music? One reason is that we had many guest conductors. We had Italians, Englishmen every year who demanded certain things that we learned to give them. The horns rarely changed equipment, but we had this wonderful ability to move our hand in the horn bell.
I remember Munch, the conductor of the Boston Symphony, came to Chicago as a guest conductor. We knew the Handel Water Music, and I said to the horn section, “Let’s give him that French treatment. We all know what the French sound is like.” So we came to the opening of the Water Music and had agreed to hold our horn bells up and open our hands, tuning accordingly. We thought it sounded awful because it was so bright. Munch said to the orchestra, “Horns, stand up. I have been conducting all over the United States, and when we play the Water Music it sounds like baritone horns.”

Herseth: The point you’re addressing is the ability and willingness to cope with the great variety of music that goes by on this assembly line. The programs go by each week and you grab what you can before the next batch comes along. Versatility comes from a motivation and a love of music. We all know players who say, “This is my part, and this is the way I play it.” You have to be motivated to want to get that music to sound the best that it can. Part of motivation is keeping an open mind about musical styles, so you adapt your own personal style.
When you have conductors coming from all over the world you learn very quickly that you don’t play for this guy the way you did for that French guy two weeks ago. The motivation and the love of music to want to do the best you can, not just play your part. Play it the same way whether it’s Debussy or Wagner? That’s trash.

Farkas: When a magazine says, “There’s no sound like the Chicago Symphony,” you’re going to try to maintain that reputation.

Herseth: If you’re wondering why I was late today, it was my practice routine. I’m still missing the last hour. People say: “You get a day off like any businessman. You get Sunday off, don’t you?” I say, “Well, on Sunday maybe I don’t have a concert, but I’d better practice, because on Monday, we might be going to Milwaukee.” When you’re working full-time you cannot practice every day as you would like. We had four concerts this weekend. We’re basically over-performed and under-rehearsed. You have to find time to practice the fundamentals.

Farkas: If you want to be a master of your instrument, first you have to be a slave.

Herseth: If I’m playing with the first horn, I always have an instinct to adjust to the other player.

Farkas: We’d be playing a passage, and I’d say, “Oh my gosh, I’m playing my notes a little longer than theirs.” By the time I’d shortened mine, they’d have lengthened theirs. We met halfway. It happened so fast the audience didn’t even hear it. In one or two notes, we adjusted to the same length, whether we believed in it or not.

Herseth: . . . even with little discrepancies of pitch and balance. A good friend of mine, an American who lived and worked in Europe for a long time, came to hear a concert some years back — I think it was with Leinsdorf. He had never heard a big-time American orchestra play a big-time tune. Of course they played great, but he said, “The thing I really noticed was how fast adjustments took place: balance, pitch, rhythm, everything. Even matching articulations.” He said he couldn’t believe how quickly those little adjustments were made.

What influence did conductors have on the development of the Chicago sound?
Farkas: Frederick Stock was relatively unknown in those days because recordings were poor. In Chicago he had a great reputation, but nobody outside of Chicago knew him. He had a big repertoire, and in a single year he would program everything of Strauss, the nine Beethoven symphonies, four Brahms.

Herseth: The records show that he did more new music than the so-called champions of new music. Of course some of his new music is now old music.

Farkas: He influenced the sound in a fatherly way. He got mad at one trumpet player, but the worst thing I ever heard him say was, “This isn’t the conservatory.”

Herseth: I’ve been trying to avoid such a line ever since I heard it.

Farkas: Then came Kubelik. I don’t think Kubelik contributed to the brass sound; he was a string player. For the brass the best thing to do was to keep in the background. He didn’t develop the brass section except for our pianissimo.
When Reiner came along, he demanded a dynamic contrast we don’t hear from students today. I accuse my students of having two dynamic levels: a soft mezzo-forte and a loud mezzo-forte. Reiner didn’t say much about intonation; he didn’t have to. With you two guys on the ends and us in the middle, we couldn’t help but find our niches.

Jacobs: The principals in the brass set the amount of dynamic flow and the style of phrase. In the brass there has to be someone who sets the pattern, and we go based on what we hear. This Chicago Sound is based primarily on the guidance from our principals.

What concerts do you particularly remember?
Farkas: I remember once in Boston we played a Berlioz overture, Corsair, then the Brahms Third, and finally Ein Heldenleben. Everything went perfectly on the first half. Then in Heldenleben, things were still going well. Pretty soon it went through the orchestra like a wave: “We’ve got a no-hitter going. God help the guy who misses anything.” Reiner’s eyes were getting bigger. I sweated through those last 10 measures.
We got through it; it was about as close to a flawless concert as I’ve ever seen. Reiner would always conduct a concert, take his bows, and go to his dressing room. That night when we came off the stage, there was Reiner, tears running down his cheeks, shaking hands with the orchestra members. He said, “All my life I have dreamed of a perfect concert; tonight we had one.”

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Improving High Notes on the Saxophone

theinstrumenta — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 22:08:21 +0000

The high range of the saxophone can frequently cause difficulties for both saxophonists and music educators. These problems include voicing, finger coordination, and intonation. Educating saxophonists on the acoustic aspects of each of these high tones will allow students to make more informed decisions when performing and lead to a more firm control over their sound quality.

Palm Keys
    The first task that must be accomplished when approaching these pitches is finger coordination. All too often, students are unaware of the correct fingerings for high D, Eb, E, and F. This knowledge can be efficiently instilled upon students through the use of full-range major scales. These scales will force the students to perform these pitches in every key, by ascending to the highest possible note of each key. Make sure students are aware that ascending means opening more keys and descending means closing or taking off keys. This logical pattern of ascending and descending can help solidify the physical muscle memory required for the performance of these tones.
    Students may have trouble getting these palm key notes to sound at first. Often times, an undertone will accidently sound. The primary causes for this hindrance are embouchure and voicing. In the high register the reed must vibrate faster, thus any hindrance on its ability to vibrate will be magnified in this range. If students have too much lower lip present on the reed, they will muffle the reed’s potential to vibrate and disallow any high notes from existing. This muffled reed is usually a product of the lower lip being rolled too far inward. A slight amount of the pink-colored skin of the lower lip should be visible while playing. Others have described this ideal balance as the ability to form the embouchure and bite your teeth together without the teeth coming in contact with the lip.
    Voicing can sometimes also cause a problem. Students may unknowingly be doing something with the tongue that is counterproductive to the high notes sounding. Have students experiment with raising the back of the tongue as though making a hee sound, which is needed in this register. In some cases it may be more effective to have a student work on singing or humming the desired pitch and then trying to replicate it on the saxophone, with the body making the necessary voicing adjustments.
    Once students are proficient in performing at this range of the saxophone, noticeable pitch problems frequently will arise. Usually students will be extremely sharp on the highest notes. In this particular register there exists a wide range of flexibility, and students can develop the skills to be able to go to the correct throat position for numerous notes. In some cases, the dynamic is too soft or goes by too quickly for such an adjustment. In these situations keys can be left off of some notes in order to produce more accurate pitch. In these instances, the key that sounds a pitch one half step lower than the desired sound can be left closed to lower the sound of the written high tone. For example, high Eb can be fingered with only the second left-hand side key, leaving the high D key closed. The high D key can also be left closed to lower the pitch when playing high E. Saxophonists must investigate how fingering changes affect the timbre and pitch at various dynamic levels to understand when such options are the best choice.
    Knowledge of the acoustics of the palm keys can also help students create a working knowledge of valuable alternate fingerings. Because the palm keys are used only to produce high tones, few saxophonists realize that they also produce a fundamental pitch when used without the octave key. On the alto saxophone, these fundamentals are roughly one half step flat and can be advantageous in passages where cross fingering may slow down technique. For example, an alternate D on the staff can be achieved by pressing only the Eb palm key. This works because the fundamental pitch of the Eb palm key is one half step flat creating a sounding D. An E can be played with the third left side key, and an F with the high F# key. The pitch discrepancy on these fingerings will vary among instruments, so each saxophonist must investigate the pitch before using them in performance. These alternate fingerings produce a slightly different timbre that may be undesirable, particularly if using these fingerings in loud passages.

Altissimo
Sharp overtones have allowed saxophonists to develop a system of fingerings to produce the notes of the altissimo register. Eugene Rousseau identifies three acoustical fingering systems for sounding these pitches in his text Saxophone High Tones. In what he has identified as Mode A fingerings, altissimo notes are created by manipulating the second overtone, which is very sharp. In this fingering system the second overtone should be a fifth higher, but this overtone is so naturally sharp that it produces a tone one half step higher. The saxophonist then vents the pitch using left side key 3 operated by the front F key, and the high tone is produced. For example, the second overtone of an A should be E, but it is a half step sharp. By fingering an A but using the index finger to operate front F, rather than the normal first finger pearl, a F above the staff will be sounded. This concept can be extrapolated up half steps until altissimo notes are produced.
Another method of utilizing overtones to the advantage of high tone fingerings is what Eugene Rousseau identifies as Mode B fingerings. Like Mode A, they are based on second overtones, but they differ because the overtone is so sharp the sound produced is a whole step too sharp. This occurs because in Mode B fingerings the tone is vented with the high F# key, rather than the front F key of the Mode A fingerings. An example of a Mode B fingering for altissimo G would be left-hand first finger, right-hand first finger, the top right-hand side key, and the high F# key. It can sometimes be difficult to over blow these fingerings and produce the high tones, so to make things easier, the middle and ring fingers are frequently left off for additional venting. Lastly, Rousseau identifies Mode C Fingerings as not relying on imperfect overtones, but simply as third overtones.

The acoustics of the saxophone are complex. Study of the saxophone’s acoustics will help saxophonists understand why specific fingerings work and also impart students with the knowledge needed to determine what fingering combinations will produce altissimo tones.

The post Improving High Notes on the Saxophone appeared first on The Instrumentalist.

Woody Herman’s Musical Journey A Lifetime on the Road Began 100 Years Ago

theinstrumenta — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 22:03:22 +0000

    Woody Herman was one of the giants and leaders in the Big Band era. He started playing clarinet and saxophone in local Milwaukee bands while still in high school. He eventually landed a job with the famous Isham Jones, and shortly after took over the band when Jones retired. Woody was known as a suave gentleman by his peers and the road father and coach to his musicians.
    Woodrow Charles Thomas Herman was born on the Northeast side of Milwaukee on May 16, 1913. He was an only child, and his father had a great record collection which he sang and taught to young Woody. As far back as Woody could remember, his father had always wanted to be in show business but spent his entire life working as a shoemaker for in Milwaukee. Shortly after Woody could walk, his father began to coach him in dancing.
    When Woody was eight, his father thought it was time for him to launch his show business career. He took him to an audition for a kiddie revue run by an older woman who had been an actress. He won the part with about six or seven other kids and his career began.
    They travelled to Northern Wisconsin and Upper Michigan, always staying within a few hundred miles of Milwaukee. These tours took place during the summer months. About this time, his father encouraged Woody to learn an instrument. He tried piano and violin with little success, so with the money he earned during the summer he bought an alto saxophone and began taking lessons. His teacher then told him he should also begin on clarinet because it was more difficult than saxophone. Dance lessons continued. Sports were also very important to Woody.
    Woody toured with the kiddie revue for a few more years but when he returned to school in the fall, school administrators and juvenile court gave his parents a great deal of trouble for letting him work in show business. At that time, young Woody had heard of a school where the administrators and teachers were more interested in the individual students. So while both parents were at work, ten-year-old Woody managed to transfer to St. John Cathedral School in downtown Milwaukee.
    After he left the kiddie revue, he began playing one-nighters as a singer, dancer, and saxophone player in Vaudeville shows in and around Milwaukee and Chicago, booked as “The Boy Wonder.” It was at this time that he changed the spelling of his name from Herrmann to Herman. He thought this spelling would take less room and look better in lights. The more he worked in vaudeville, the more he became interested in jazz. He began taking lessons from a jazz-oriented music teacher who taught and wrote out jazz riffs for him. While a freshman at Cathedral High School he decided he wanted to be a jazz player.
    During his freshman year he earned his first steady job in a band with some older guys playing in and around Milwaukee, usually until three or four in the morning. One of the guys would pick him up and take him home. Woody had boundless energy and always reached school on time, but his occasional dozing in class did not go over well with the nun who was his teacher. As a result he often saw the inside of the principal’s office. Enter Sister Fabian Reilly.
    During his second semester, she was his science teacher and believed that being a musician was a good thing. She became a guardian angel for him, keeping him in school, for which Woody was always indebted to her. He stayed in touch with Sr. Fabian throughout her life and always tried to see her when he was in town. He also brought his band to Milwaukee annually to play benefit concerts for Cathedral High School.
    His love for jazz only increased. His friend Erwin Sherman would come over after school and crank up the old Victrola and listen to the great jazz players of the day like Jimmy Dorsey, Pee Wee Erwin, and Glenn Miller, but the playing of Coleman Hawkins and Frankie Trumbauer really caught Woody’s ear. He worked diligently to learn their jazz riffs and solos. Woody played with Joey Lichter, a local Milwaukee band, through his high school years, and Sister Fabian saved him from being expelled from school. In the middle of his last semester in 1931, Tom Gerun, whose band was playing at the Schroeder Hotel in Milwaukee, offered him a job. He accepted and did not finish high school. His career as a jazz musician had begun.

On the Road as a Sideman
Woody met the Gerun Band in Chicago. As Woody’s jazz playing was influenced by Coleman Hawkins and Frankie Trumbauer, his singing was influenced by Russ Colombo, Lee Wiley, and songwriter Harold Arlen. While playing with the band in San Francisco he met a beautiful dancer with flaming red hair named Charlotte Neste, who later became his wife after a long distance romance.
After a time with the Gerun Orchestra, he worked with the orchestras of Harry Sosnick and Gus Arnheim before landing a job with the popular Isham Jones Orchestra. Jones was also extremely famous for his compositions that included, I’ll See You in My Dreams, It Had to Be You, and On the Alamo. These songs and many others made Jones quite wealthy, leading him to retire. When Jones did retire, Woody and a few members formed a cooperative band with each member as a stockholder. They voted for Woody as the leader. This was 1936 and Woody was directing his first band, The Band That Plays the Blues. He also married Charlotte that same year.

Woody Herman in the Isham Jones band, circa 1934-35, at the left end of the saxophone section. It was in 1936 that Woods became the leader of this band upon Isham’s retirement.

The Leader
    When this new cooperative band was formed, the members included fine arrangers and players like Joe Bishop, and Nick Harper, who Woody knew from Milwaukee. The band tried to live up to its name, because the players knew blues the best.
    The band rehearsed for a few weeks, then opened at the Roseland Ballroom in Brooklyn on Election Night 1936 with less than ten arrangements in the book. The rest of the tunes they played were head charts, those made up by the band members on the job. One of those was a blues riff that eventually developed into Woodchopper’s Ball.
This gig lasted seven months, and during this time, Woody signed a management contract with General Artists Corporation, but nothing really came of it. In fact, when the engagement was over, GAC dropped them, telling Woody that they couldn’t really help book them. The band continued to stay true to the blues and recorded several sides for Decca Records, each having Blue in the title. Woody changed the theme of the band from Blue Prelude to Blue Flame shortly after playing a date at Milwaukee’s Schroeder Hotel. (Some say Woody picked Blue Flame as the title as a reference to the large flame atop the Gas Company building on East Wisconsin Avenue in downtown Milwaukee.)
    The band thrived musically but struggled financially. In 1938 the band was playing in Boston. During his free time, bassist Walt Yoder went to a sports show and saw a number of woodsmen competing against the clock for prizes, hence the title Woodchopper’s Ball. Woody recorded Joe Bishop’s new hot arrangement of the tune for Decca in 1938 and over the years it sold over five million copies. At this time, the band could not get very far without some financial backing.
    Herman was advised to contact the Schribmann brothers, Charles and Si. These men did not provide monetary support, but owned hotels and ballrooms where new bands could play. They could also arrange for air time and radio shows, which proved invaluable. The Schribmanns were honest and saved many bands, including those of Artie Shaw and Glenn Miller.
    By the end of 1939, the band received some top bookings for good money. Woody began looking for a female vocalist and auditioned quite a few, including Dinah Shore, but settled on Mary Ann McCall. Billie Rogers, a female trumpet player and vocalist joined the band at this time.
    In 1941 the band recorded Blues in the Night with Woody doing the vocals. It was the second big hit for the group. A second big event that year was the birth of his daughter, Ingrid, in September. With WWII starting, many musicians were entering the service, including some from the co-op band. Woody began to pick up their stock, making him the band,s sole owner. He also tried to enlist but was rejected.
    By 1943, The Band That Plays the Blues about to disband. Herman was always impressed with Duke Ellington and his Orchestra, and he wanted to make changes to his next group. Woody moved to the west coast and hired new writers, including Dizzy Gillespie, to write for the band. During this turbulent time many young musicians who later on became very famous, passed through the band. Some were there for only a week. Even so, the band did very well, with recordings and appearances in movies with the Andrews Sisters and ice skating star Sonja Henie. The word was out that Herman was an excellent leader and employer.

1944-1946: The First Herd
    On a summer night in Connecticut in 1944, jazz historian, expert and author George T. Simon heard this new Herman Band and said, “This band gave me one of the biggest thrills of my life.” The instrumentation still had five saxes (two altos, two tenors and one bari) but had four trumpets, three trombones, and five rhythm players (piano, bass, drums, guitar, and vibist Margie Hyams). He went on to name the band the Herman Herd in the September 1944 issue of Metronome. Woody’s band will now and forever be known as the Herd.
    Woody loved this new band, not only for its musicality, but because it excited the audience. It had a spirit and enthusiasm, and as a result, the band starred on two radio series, the Old Gold program, and then the Wildroot Adventure series, The recordings continued to sell very well; Woody and the band were on top of the world.
    Igor Stravinsky was a true fan of the band. When Woody suggested to Stravinsky that he write a piece for the band he agreed. After the piece was completed, the band had trouble learning it. Most of the musicians had no classical training and had learned new charts from each other. The rehearsals were just as difficult for Stravinsky, as he had to rewrite the concerto in 44 time because that was what the jazz musicians knew best. Despite these obstacles, the Ebony Concerto was performed at Carnegie Hall in March of 1946 to mixed reviews. The idea to blend classic and jazz music was a great one, and similar works were created in later years.
    In August Woody purchased the home of Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall in the Hollywood Hills. By the end of 1946 the band had won the Downbeat, Metronome, and Esquire polls as the leading big band, and several of the players won first place on their instruments in these same polls. Financially the band did extremely well, but Woody broke up the group in December of 1946 and returned to his wife and young daughter in California. He had saved money for them to live on, but unfortunately, he discovered that someone in his office had not paid the IRS some due taxes. Woody’s nest egg went to pay this debt, which meant he would have to go on the road again.

1947-1948: The Second Herd: The “Four Brothers” Band
When Woody came back after his short vacation, he wanted to do something new and exciting. By the middle of 1947, the big band business was declining. His decided to follow the bebop direction of Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie. Jimmy Giuffre heard Herman might be organizing a new band again and suggested a novel saxophone section with three tenors and one bari.
The original sax section was Stan Getz, Zoot Sims, and Herbie Steward (later replaced by Al Cohn) on tenor saxes, and Serge Chaloff on baritone sax. This section of young stars was selected by Woody in his tradition of bringing fresh new and young talent to the band. Each of these players became stars in their own right later. This new band, according to many of its members, was the best. However there were drawbacks. People were not used to bebop, and many wanted to hear the old Herman standards or the pop tunes of the day. Woody admitted the band was an albatross, including some members who used drugs. By the end of 1949 Woody took an all-star group to Havana, Cuba for four weeks. Musically the group was fine, but the people were not familiar with Woody and his new music. Upon their return he disbanded again.

1950-1955: The Third Herd
Following this the Third Herd was born. In early October, 1951, Woody returned to Milwaukee at the request of his friend and mentor, Sister Fabian Reilly, to play for a fundraising event for the building of a new gymnasium at St. John’s Cathedral. The 1950s were a difficult time for big bands. In the fall of 1953, Woody and the band started playing high school and college jazz festivals and concerts.

1956-1967: The Fourth Herd (The New Third Herd)
1960-1967: The Swinging Herd
The Herds continued to work playing one-nighters, recording, and facing the typical ups and downs of changing musical tastes. A highlight of early 1959 was a tour of the British Isles and participation in the 1959 Monterey Jazz Festival. During the early 1960s, the band was rediscovered by the younger generation. In 1960 Herman and the band performed at President John F. Kennedy’s Inaugural Ball. This was a hard charging Herman band composed of vibrant, young, exciting jazz players. Around this time, Woody learned of problems with the IRS. His manager and close friend, Abe Turchen, had not paid Herman’s taxes for several years, and he now owed the IRS more than a million dollars. It seems that Turchen secretly held back money from Woody and gambled it away. In 1968 Woody fired Turchen and hired Hermie Dresel. (right: Woody Herman and his band in Milwaukee at the Tunnel Inn, 1961.)

1968-1979: The Fusion Era
Woody, the consummate adventurous band leader, decided to once again change the attitude and complexion of the band. He added such electronic instruments as bass guitar and electric piano and a moderate rock beat but maintained the driving, hard charging horn section. The charts were written by hip, young arrangers. This band had a grooving jazz-rock rhythm section and a hard-swinging horn section. I thought this band was truly special; it seemed to thrill young and old fans alike.
A great event for Woody was his 40th Anniversary Concert at Carnegie Hall, a truly nostalgic event. The music ran the gamut from Woodchopper’s Ball to Fanfare for the Common Man. In 1971, Woody and the band started doing university and high school jazz concerts and clinics with the first of these held in May at Northern Illinois University. April 1974, he returned to Milwaukee and St. John Cathedral High School to start a music scholarship fund for high school students in the name of Sister Fabian Reilly

1980: Until the End
Woody kept working on and off forming new bands and small groups. He toured overseas and was constantly plagued by the IRS. In 1980, he and the
band performed at President Reagan’s Inaugural Ball. Woody celebrated his 50th Anniversary as a band leader on July 16, 1986 at the Hollywood Bowl with a huge concert. Two bands were present, one composed of Herman alums, the other the current Young Thundering Herd led by Woody. Woody began having health problems and passed away at home on October 27, 1987.

The Legacy
Woody Herman was one of the most beloved big band leaders of them all. He was a gentleman who sought out the best young players and gave them the opportunity to express themselves musically and vocally. He listened about who to hire as players and he let his writers be creative. He had a great sense of humor that everyone appreciated. He was loyal, to his wife and family, Sister Fabian Reilly and his school, the greater Milwaukee community, the Sherman Brothers, his musicians, and his friends. He knew how to get the best out of musicians. It was because of him that the great jazz stars of the 60s, 70s and 80s became known.
The legacy of Woody Herman lives on through the concerts and clinics he established in high schools and universities and in Milwaukee through the scholarship committee Woody created. Woody may be gone, but the Young Thundering Herd led by Frank Tiberi continues on, as does the Milwaukee scholarship committee with members Don Huenefeld, Jim Sewrey, Terry Treuden, and me. As Woody would say, “Keep on, keeping on.”

Bibliography
Clancy, William D. with Kenton, Audree Coke; Woody Herman Chronicles of the Herds; Schirmer Books, New York; 1995.
Corenthal, Michael G.; The Illustrated History of Wisconsin Music 1840-1990; MGC Publications, Milwaukee; 1991.
Kloss, Jerry; “A New Twist to the Old Story About a Star and His Friend”; The Milwaukee Journal Green Sheet, April 7, 1981.
Simon, George T.; The Big Bands; Macmillan Publishing Co. Inc.; New York; 1974.
Herman, Woody and Troup, Stuart; The Woodchopper’s Ball; Limelight Editions; New York; 1994.
Walker, Leo; The Big Band Almanac; Da Capo Press; Hollywood; 1989.

The post Woody Herman’s Musical Journey A Lifetime on the Road Began 100 Years Ago appeared first on The Instrumentalist.

Views from the Press Box, Lessons and Advice from Marching Adjudicators

theinstrumenta — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 21:44:43 +0000

As the spring semester comes to an end, many high school band directors are already preparing for the coming marching season. A marching show has many hours of preparation and planning invested before the first student walks onto the football field ready to learn drill and music. For some programs, additional performances besides playing for football games take place at festivals, competitions, and trips. In many of these experiences, a panel of adjudicators will assess the marching band’s performance. Recently, I interviewed several marching band directors from around the country with extensive experience in adjudicating marching bands. Their insights and experiences shed light on how to produce the best possible marching experience for your program and students.

What are the benefits of competitive marching band competitions vs. a festival where only comments are given?
Heidi Sarver, University of Delaware: Benefits exist in both settings. In the purest sense both experiences provide band directors and students with necessary feedback on how to improve their programs. Com-petitive events take it a few steps further by analyzing each band’s achievements against a scale provided by the competition circuit to place each band in order of success. A festival is strictly feedback to the bands regarding how well they did and suggestions for improvement.
Many believe that competition provides more motivation for improvement. Other people feel that competitions place too much pressure upon students and too much emphasis on coming in first. If handled properly both settings provide the necessary motivation for students to pursue improvement.
I prefer festivals where only comments are given simply because I enjoy providing the performers with as much information as possible that will be of benefit to them in the future. I do the same in the competitive setting, but I must then also make comparisons to other groups, taking my focus off of each band’s endeavors.

Gary Westbrook, Tarleton State University: The major benefit of either is the same: a performance for students. Any time you can provide good constructive advice to students on their performance is a good thing. Competitions allow students to compare themselves to themselves and others, while festivals let students compare themselves against a standard. The key to making either a good experience is having the director prepare the students appropriately.

Debra Traficante, University of Oklahoma: The benefits of competitive events are plentiful, with the administrative and community support, financial resources, and staff to back this activity. The benefits (developing teamwork, overcoming challenges, learning leadership skills, and focusing for extended periods of time) largely fall before the event occurs. One the largest benefits of a competitive event is that it motivates students while learning music and marching in great detail. However, if a band is in an area with limited support and resources, a festival of comments only might be exactly what students need to be motivated. The same benefits may be earned from comments-only festivals if the director leads the students to that end. The benefit for students should be the primary consideration for marching. All things considered, both activities should be monitored for the best outcome for the students in the marching band.

Donald Linn, Kansas State University: A festival where only comments are given has advantages over a competitive format, but ultimately the differences aren’t that significant for me as an adjudicator. In both scenarios I use a rubric to keep me honest in my evaluation and to make sure I am looking at all the areas in which the band would need praise, help, and improvement. I feel more freedom in the festival format where I can focus primarily on helping the band in front of me instead of worrying about accurate numbers or comparisons to other bands. Judges should always evaluate honestly the performance in front of them and do whatever possible to aid the band director and staff in the evaluation, development, and education of their ensemble.

As an adjudicator, what are the most common comments you make on marching technique?
Gavin Smith, Vanderbilt University: Concerning marching technique, I stress the importance of uniformity and consistency. I do not have a preference for what type of technique is on the field, I only want to observe uniformity in all sections and consistency in all stages of the show. There are techniques in marching band movements that lend ease in cleaning and uniformity. As for consistency, many ensembles rush to put the finishing pages on the field, and technique suffers. I also comment on the consistent use of intervals. Intervals can be used in many design effects, but ensembles need to maintain interval consistency throughout.
There have been so many influences in the world of marching band from groups adding visuals to the design. I often see ensembles work so hard to execute these visuals that they hinder the music performance and are rarely executed uniformly. These visuals create a high level of excitement but rarely make a better production. I support visuals, but want to see uniform execution that does not hinder the performance.

Debra Traficante: The most common comments address uniformity across the ensemble and clarity of transitions. For uniformity, sometimes there are differences of posture, horn carriage, and mark time styles across the band and even within same sections. Occasionally, I see drum lines using a different mark time than the rest of the band – that does not bother me so much, because I understand why they might do this. However, when a color guard does not march at all or lacks a uniform style within their section or in relation to the band, that creates a lack of cohesiveness across the ensemble that does not make musical or visual sense. On transitions, the errors I see are usually related to technique for making a transition happen. As an example, some students place their toe while some roll through with their heel first to move from forward motion to a slide. This clarity concern creates a difference in height level and the straightness of the leg, as well as the hip position (and therefore core) of members standing next to each other. This tiny detail affects the whole look of a set and the look of the next set.

Jonathan Alvis, University of South Dakota: I comment most often about consistency of style and the presence, or lack thereof, within the ensemble. Per-formers must have space that belongs to them. This requires that every player stays aware and tries to look great all the time while doing everything possible to help the others around them look great, too.

Heidi Sarver: Most often I comment on starts and stops as well as direction changes. When I look closely I see many programs take shortcuts on marching basics. Directors and staff are not taking enough time to teach fundamental marching techniques and how to apply these in performance. Basic body carriage and posture suffer,s and this is apparent when the band performs. In recent years the emphasis on body moves (dance and visuals) has taken precedence over developing strong marching basics. Spending more time on fundamentals will lead to a band with stronger performance capabilities and a solid foundation upon which to build a strong body visual program.

Donald Linn: I make many comments on pulse and quality of the step for transitions in the drill and step-offs. I focus on the size of the step as the band makes the transition out of one set and into another. This shows how well the band understands using all the counts evenly to get from one set to the next and if students understand the initiation of tempo and space for the next move. Just like in the music, marching tends to suffer at the end of a phrase. Lately, I have been making a lot of comments about instrument facing and hip shifts and slides. Great bands will have consistent presentation.

As an adjudicator, what are some of the most common comments you make regarding music performance?
Jonathan Alvis: Every note must have energy and direction. When students only think about one note at a time rather than in phrases, there is no direction, especially on the long notes. It does not matter what part a student plays; everything must have life, energy, and direction.

Gary Westbrook: I make more comments about balance than anything else. The comments discuss balancing the percussion section to everyone else or balancing and blending the lead players with the rest of the section. I find that directors often forget what they would do with a concert ensemble when movement is involved. Phrasing is a common musical element that disappears.

Heidi Sarver: Directors and students who listen to my commentaries hear one word: air. Once again I return to shortcuts taken, in this case with musical warmups and technique. Band members frequently do not understand how to use their air and therefore the sound is thin. This affects the overall balance and blend of an ensemble and limits musical ability. It also explains why so many bands run out of gas in the middle of their performances. The musicians lack endurance because they are not spending an appropriate amount of time learning how to use their air.
Basic musical and visual fundamentals are critical for a marching band program. Students need to be taught certain skills and know how to apply them in performance. Directors cannot assume students will make the connections. Additionally most programs have limited rehearsal time. Directors need to encourage their students to practice all the techniques they learn in rehearsal when they are at home. This, of course, is neither new nor revolutionary. Successful programs usually have students with strong practice habits.

Gavin Smith: Too often, I have observed that the visuals prevented a successful music performance. Make the execution of music a priority when designing a show. When we perform music off the field, in arcs or in the bandroom, staging is not a concern, but on the field, there are major difficulties created by drill design. Adjudicators are normally in the press box, far from the performers. The drill should accommodate this log-istical problem by stag-ing performers properly. This begins in the planning stages. Ensure the drill writer has scores and uses the score as a design tool to stage the instrumentalists.

Debra Traficante: Typically, smaller bands have a unique mix of instrumentation; I know I did when I had a small band. This creates melody and accompaniment problems that can be helped by strategic staging. As much as possible, listening to the band from where the judges will sit will assist with cleaning this aspect. For the larger bands, a common problem is dynamic range. When the groups have the horses to play with a big, full sound, it is important to remember that this is most effective when there is contrast to that sound. Use of the woodwind color at the forefront, when possible, makes for a great change in timbre, color, and dynamic. It is a welcome change to the marching show and allows for the bigger hits to have immense effect.

Donald Linn: Everything in marching band must serve the music, and the band itself should be treated as a high-quality musical ensemble. I focus on are tone quality and intonation. These must be mature before you start making music. Without a strong musical foundation, the show will not be effective no matter how great the marching and drill may be. I also find myself making many comments about bands that do not complete phrases or play notes with full value and specific articulations. Pay attention to how you finish with the same focus you place on the beginnings.

What are some of the pitfalls you have noticed in regards to the use of color guard and flags?
Heidi Sarver: Far too often I see color guard members trying to do too much. In my second year of teaching high school I received a tape from George Zingali. Although I had heard what his comments in many settings, it finally made a lasting impression when I heard it about my program: “Sometimes less is better.” The guard was trying to perform far too much body motion and dance underneath their flag work and could not spin together. Removing much of the extra bells and whistles allowed the guard to perform with more confidence.
Another common situation is that a show designer does not know how to write for the color guard. Putting the guard in an arc behind the band is a young designer’s mistake; the guard is not a backdrop. Color guards provide the visual representation of the music and need to be coordinated with the music and integrated with the musicians to assist in presenting the mood, character, and theme of the show.

Gavin Smith: Guard is a large portion of the visual package in a design. On the drill side, guards are too often not incorporated in the drill design. This statement frequently means the guard is completely separate from the winds and percussion, an arc in the back or block on opposite side. The best way to avoid this is to open your drill design and move the guard in the space you created. When incorporating the guard, the next level of success is designing for equipment changes. I see too many guards run on and off the field to get new equipment. Prevent this by designing the drill to take the guard to the new equipment. This ease will allow for a flowing design.

Debra Traficante: Some pitfalls that I have seen with the auxiliary groups include inappropriate staging, inappropriate use of weapons, choreography that does not match the music, and poor technique. The auxiliary groups are a tremendous benefit to the overall visual aspect of the marching band. However, if you do not have a staff member who can spend some time on the creative side of this group, it will fall to you or a talented volunteer. When I was teaching high school, I could not afford an instructor for the season but did hire someone to create a routine. I hired a color guard instructor and judge from Florida to write all my choreography, videotaped her performing it and breaking it down, and then had it for the guard to learn and clean from during the season. I could clean the group and figure out what was not together or was too hard for them, but I was not able to create the routine. Do as much as you can, but know your weaknesses. This group is a great source of visual excitement, group morale, and overall energy for the band. Please do not leave them as an afterthought – it will come through in a performance.

Donald Linn: Guard is an important part of the presentation of the music and show. Guard should focus on big moves that compliment the music and that are appropriate to the visual interpretation. Great choreography should highlight the peaks of the music and emotion of the show. I would be more impressed with clean, simple work that is a great interpretation of the music than difficult work that is frantic and sloppy. Directors should also select drill writers who know how to integrate the guard into forms, know when to frame, know when to highlight, and know how to stage to change equipment. When cleaning the guard work, pay attention to lower body movement, angles on catches, planes, and hand position during tosses.

Jonathan Alvis: I view the color guard as the storytellers of the music. They communicate through motion what cannot be communicated by the winds and percussion. An effective color guard makes the band sparkle. Likewise, an ineffective color guard that is not together or does not buy into the story can ruin a show.

What are your opinions on using alternates versus using everyone in the show?
Heidi Sarver: Band is a place for everyone. This has always been my approach with all of my programs. This means that my bands will have holes from time to time. I chose this a long time ago because I personally do not wish to see members of my program stand on the sideline or sit in the stands while their peers perform. I realize this opinion will not fit every program’s philosophy. I struggle with band members who do not get to perform because their skills are not as strong. They are expected to be at every rehearsal and give as much effort as their peers, but they do not get the reward.
Some students would never get through school if it had not been for band. Band was their safe place. Band was their home. Band made everything else tolerable. I look at my current band, and I know there are members in it who succeeded in academics because band got them through the tough times. I look at my alumni and know they are successful in careers and families because of the life lessons learned in band. This is more important to me than having a show without holes.

Gavin Smith: This is a philosophical decision for the director. My adjudicating is not affected by either approach. If alternates are used, ensure like instruments fill holes to assist in the music side of the performance. For example, if a trumpet is used to fill an alto saxophone position, their parts are usually going to be different, causing staging concerns. If the entire band is used for a performance, there is a chance a member will be unable to perform a show. When this occurs, and a hole exists in the show, I need to be able to see the hole and marchers need to be consistent and maintain this hole throughout the entire show. When the size left for the hole fluctuates, I begin to question if there is a hole or merely inconsistent marching intervals.

Jonathan Alvis: I think alternates should only be used in special circumstances. I think every child who wishes to perform in band should have that opportunity. You never know when a potential alternate will end the season being your best asset.

Gary Westbrook: I would not like being an alternate. The use of alternates is mostly used to eliminate holes in the show, and I can understand that. Nothing is more frustrating than a hole in the show. I have taught in a system that used alternates. Conversely, there is a bit of frustration amongst students who are classified as alternates. I try hard not to have alternates, but I cannot think of one performance I have had on the college level that has not had at least one hole in the show.

Debra Traficante: If you use an alternate system, you are probably participating in a competitive event at some point. This system helps students who are struggling to march an entire competitive-style show have some success and contribute to the best of their abilities. It also allows students to contribute to big flags that provide impact at the end of shows, where they might otherwise be standing at attention on the sideline. Alternates are also helpful is when you have ineligible students. Where you might have holes on the field without alternates, given enough time and student ability, you might be able to have a hole filled by an alternate. The pros of having everyone on the field are evident – everyone is contributing and participating all the time.
For a community that has never had alternates, changing to a system where not everyone marches will lead to a question: “Why is my student standing on the sideline? We paid our fees, we attend class and rehearsal every day, I attend every band parent meeting, I work in the concessions stand every Friday night. I don’t understand.” Band in many communities is not seen in the same light as sports are – not every student on the football team plays football every Friday night, and parents understand that. Whatever you choose to do, it will need to fit the community and the school.

Donald Linn: As an adjudicator, I would prefer not to see holes on the field but understand if there are one or two. I also do not like to see a significant group of students standing on the sidelines. As an educator I advocate using as many people as you can for the show. If you use an alternate system just because you have terrible marchers, reevaluate your system. If some of your students aren’t the best marchers or players, roll up your sleeves and teach. Student leaders can give weaker marchers extra help. As a director you may even need to go back and examine your system for teaching basics, make sure basic marching fundamentals are covered at every rehearsal, and even examine your rehearsal pacing and discipline. If discipline, expectations, and communication are of high quality you probably will not have to use as many alternates or fill as many holes. If you do have alternates, make sure they stay involved in your rehearsal and even create drill for them to march during rehearsals and football games if they are not filling in spots or shadowing.

In drill design and execution, how much is too much?
Heidi Sarver: A band that cannot play well is most likely doing too much. For me it all comes down to whether I like what I hear. If I do I will watch. If I don’t like the way a band sounds I cannot watch their show. It tells me that far too many short cuts are being taken in an effort to be as cutting edge as possible. As a spectator I can easily sit and think, “Wow, you did really impressive body visuals. Too bad you couldn’t make a clean attack or play in tune.” As an adjudicator I cannot be as blunt. As an adjudicator I must watch and listen. I analyze what it is a group is doing and offer suggestions on how to improve their performance. From time to time I will suggest that programs scale back on certain aspects of their shows. The music might be too difficult for the musicians. Perhaps the drill has the band members literally running. If so, they cannot be expected to play well. Write some drill changes and sacrifice the really cool move so that the musicians can play the music. Again, sometimes less is better.

Gavin Smith: Drill design is a difficult task. I base my judgments on the execution of music. If the drill expectations or the amount of drill exhaust a performer and prevent the proper performance of music, then there is too much drill on the field. I will make comments and usually let the scoring sheets take care of the results. Most sheets have a weighted scoring for each category. Because music is affected, this score will be significantly lower.

Gary Westbrook: For me it depends on how much time is available for drill instruction and cleaning. Write appropriate to the time you have. I wrote significantly more drill for my high school bands than I do for my college bands. This is simply because the college band performs more shows with less rehearsal time per show. I would suggest that directors design what is challenging and can be achieved within the time frame given for both rehearsals and performances.

Donald Linn: The primary function of drill design is to serve the music. Great drill is a cohesive visual interpretation of the music that makes sense in the show from beginning to end. Great drill should also serve the music in a way that supports great instrumentation, proper technique, balance, and staging. Many directors out there who feel they have to cram in as many sets as possible into a show and that somehow this equates to excellence. I have never gone to a competition and seen a judge tally up how many sets of drill they thought a band used. March the drill that serves the music and the educational development of the band. Adjudicators are only impressed with difficult drill when it is marched cleanly. I am more impressed with a band that had great execution of drill that served the music than a band that marched twenty more sets in their show poorly. Music and drill should fit together seamlessly.

Jonathan Alvis: The drill should highlight the music, and vice versa. Don’t move just to move. Just as in music, we need moments of visual silence so the music can be heard. Draw the attention away from the band standing still with dance in the guard. Points are not awarded for most movement but for the most effective execution. Too often, I feel shows focus too much on the total number of sets. As an adjudicator, I want to know if you can keep my attention without motion or through subtle motion to match the music. The drill and music should be used to tell the story and highlight certain aspects of the show.

Final Thoughts
Heidi Sarver: Consider the talent and commitment of your band members. Choose music and write a show that challenges the students but does not go beyond their ability to achieve it. Make the time for musical warmups that develop the individual musician. Make the time for marching fundamentals to help develop the performers muscle memory. Think carefully about the amount of time you have to teach everything. Your program does not rehearse as much as a DCI Drum and Bugle Corps, so conceive a show that allows students to succeed.

Gavin Smith: Adjudicators have mental struggles about whether they are judging students or the design. Some score sheets do a good job in resolving this struggle. Many contests separate adjudicators into different captions, but there are still obstacles.
We are evaluating the execution and presentation from the performers on the field. Students are more successful when their expectations are realistic. With this stated, it is difficult to perform poorly written drill and music. It is very essential to select marching music the same way you select great music for a concert ensemble. When writing or hiring a drill writer, begin with the basics and ensure the success of the ensemble. Consider tempos, staging, and step sizes, just to name a few considerations. The success on the field begins with the selection and design of the show.

Jonathan Alvis: Be original. Take risks but also listen to your students and audience. A good show is a good show. A poorly designed show, no matter how well executed, is still a poor show. But I think the most important aspect of all is to have fun. Have elements of the show that allow you to teach concepts. Remember, we are there to teach.

Gary Westbrook: The key word in marching band is the word band. Remember the group should play well and play musically. Rehearse as you would a concert group, just remember the transitions are musical and visual.

Debra Traficante: It is easy to get caught up in ratings and scores in marching band. I hope educators everywhere remember who the activity impacts. Adjudicators see only see a small snapshot of your band. If sports teams had only one performance to be rated on for the entire year, coaches would be in an uproar. Keep everything in perspective. If after a competition or comments only event, your band performed the best they ever have and still did not get the highest rating possible at the event, remind them that musical and personal growth is the most important reward. Are they better people now than they were in August? Are they better musicians than they were in August? Do they have a better understanding of how they impact others – in every facet of the word? If they can answer yes to the hard questions, then they have already earned the highest score possible.

Donald Linn: You have no control over the adjudicators but do have control your band. Take care of students and the goals of the band first. Put on a polished, entertaining, and musical show that both the audience and the adjudicators can appreciate. Review your system of teaching and discipline to get the best possible performance. Make sure you have a solid show from beginning based on a foundation of strong fundamentals. I cannot stress enough the importance of fundamentals and basics. Don’t live and die by scores and placements – judges are human. Instead, use comments as another tool to aid in your band’s development.

The post Views from the Press Box, Lessons and Advice from Marching Adjudicators appeared first on The Instrumentalist.