October 2013 Archives - The Instrumentalist

Sharing Favorites

theinstrumenta — Wed, 09 Oct 2013 21:29:27 +0000

The beginning of autumn marks a new season in the community band in which I play. Because I am also in a chamber ensemble with the conductor, I got a sneak peek at what was scheduled for fall. Our upcoming concerts will include Holst’s Second Suite, Shostakovich’s Festive Overture, and a title I hadn’t seen in a long time, Florentiner March by Julius Fucík.

After quartet rehearsal, I rushed home and listened to the march on YouTube. Although I could remember the beginning trumpet and piccolo solos easily, I had forgotten just how beautiful the trio was. Although I’m a sucker for a well-placed augmented chord, the haunting melody is difficult to let go of. This bit of nostalgia led to a night of revisiting some other favorite marches.

I haven’t played March of the Belgian Paratroopers by Pierre Leemans since eighth grade, when I was first-chair tuba in the Illinois Music Educators Association District Eight band, but I can still sing both the melody and the fun bass line. Oddly enough, one feeling I associate with this piece is sheer terror. If memory serves, the tune modulates from F to F# for eight measures, during which the tuba part is marked “one player only.” I definitely remember the girl sitting next to me saying, “You know you have to play that hard part, right?” To my great relief, the conductor told us to cross out those eight measures before we started rehearsing. It seems silly to be afraid of sharp keys or accidentals now, but things look differently in junior high.

Another favorite march is National Emblem by Edwin Eugene Bagley. Called “as perfect a march as a march can be” by Frederick Fennell and perhaps Sousa’s favorite march that he didn’t write, my first exposure to this piece had nothing to do with the march itself. The beginning of the Trio is borrowed for the TubaChristmas arrangement of “Jingle Bells.” I don’t remember where I first actually played National Emblem, but I am sure I must have thought, “So that’s where that came from!” I was probably also thinking, as some tuba players are wont to do, that it would be fun to take that first Ab in the Trio down an octave.

Valdres by Johannes Hanssen popped to mind as I was exploring old favorites. I am fairly certain I last played this in the 1990s, and it was not one that I could sing from memory at first, but everything came rushing back as I heard it. Much like Florentiner, it has a wonderful Trio melody, although this one feels more soothing and folksy than haunting, even as it builds in volume and intensity. I have actually been considering making part of this section into a ringtone for my cell phone.

I tend to seek comfort and practicality over adventure and style; I think this mentality is what also makes it so easy for me enjoy returning to favorite compositions. This is not to say that I avoid new music, even if it isn’t necessarily something I would be able to hum on the way home. I have met people who, whether the subject is food or an activity or music, refuse to deviate even slightly from what is familiar and comfortable, and I have met others who refuse to return to something once they have tried it and I do not understand either extreme. Clinging only to the familiar is the surest way to stagnate, and discarding everything old means never being able to share the joy of a favorite with others. In a witty webcomic called xkcd, the artist once hypothesized that for each thing that supposedly everybody knows, each day roughly 10,000 lucky people learn about it for the first time.

This, I think, is one of the wonderful qualities about musicians. I have never met one who falls into either of the extremes mentioned above. We all have favorites, as well as an innate eagerness to hear something new, and each day the opportunity exists to either be one of the lucky ones to hear something for the first time or to do the same for someone else. Revisit an old (or new) favorite and play it for your students – or share it with us by posting it on our Facebook page. It might be something I’ve never heard, and I am eager to give it a listen.

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Juiced

theinstrumenta — Wed, 09 Oct 2013 21:25:29 +0000

In yet another blow to the reputation of professional musicians everywhere, famed orchestral conductor Alexander Sachsdriguez (A-Sax) of the Generica Symphonia de New York and six other conductors were suspended for the 2014-15 concert season by the North American Orchestral Association for using performance enhancing drugs (PEDs). Rumors have circulated for months that conductors with connections to Musiogenesis, a shady biotech firm in Singapore, could receive landmark suspensions. While it is indeed one of the most shocking scandals in the history of the classical music world, the revelation simply confirmed suspicions many have whispered about for years and was what many musical observers have considered the proverbial “elephant in the orchestra.”

“It was rather obvious that something has been going on,” says Juliani Panerabread, music critic for New York Beacon. “There has been a recent surge in the number of conductors capable of conducting Wagner’s ‘Ring Cycle.’ A look at orchestral programming over the last several years reveals the greater length of programs, an average of twenty minutes more per performance. Also, there have been many conductors with little reputation who are coming out of nowhere to conduct Mahler’s Third Symphony without even breaking a sweat.”

Many orchestral members agree, but for different reasons. Dre Martini, principal trumpet under A-Sax, says he’s not one to judge, but he felt like while A-Sax’s endurance was indeed suspicious, his conducting of accents became “more like sforzandos” over the last several years. “PEDs would explain that,” he says. Principal flutist Joann Fipple, speaking on the condition of anonymity, says that A-Sax “seemed to be buying a new tuxedo every other week” and it was “obviously to make room for more muscles.” She does admit, however, that he began to look rather buff in his turtleneck shirts.

Principal tubist Sam Podiafram says that PEDs could explain why A-Sax’s tempos were consistently getting faster over the last few years. “He kept saying I was dragging, but frankly I’d never played some of those pieces so fast. Even his adagios were basically a sprint to the finish.” Other members say A-Sax became enraged more often than usual, leading many to believe he had some type of Toscanini complex. Now the more plausible reason is some type of “roid” rage. “He went ballistic once and threw his baton with such velocity it stuck into the mute I had in my trombone. That mute saved my life,” says principal trombonist Jacques Teagardeniere.

Luigi Parmeson, conductor of the Royale Conservatore de Padua in Hoboken, says he conducts clean and believes that the steroid revelations will have many dire long-term consequences. “I’m sure it will affect programming. Conductors will avoid longer works to avoid suspicion. It’s not worth it. Things have gotten to the point where if I conduct a work like Mahler’s Third, everyone says I’m juicing. On the positive side, minimalism might make a comeback.”

“It’s a shame that we have the Renaissance, Baroque, Classical and Romantic eras and such, but ours will probably be labeled the Steroid era,” says Heimlich Selich, former maestro and current president of the ROID Institute, administrators of the one-year-old drug-testing program for the NAOA. “Many of the recordings of this era should come with footnotes on the cover.”

As for concertgoers, many season ticket holders are disillusioned and unsure of what the future holds. “It just won’t be the same,” says long-time season ticket holder Monique Flask. “No matter how beautiful the music, there will be the sense that it is being enhanced chemically. A kind of Anton-Bruckner-on-Steroids kind of thing.”

As for A-Sax, in his first public statement given through his publicist, he linked failed drug tests to vitamin supplements he purchased from his daughter’s school choir during their spring fundraiser. However, leaked documents from Musiogenesis revealed a much more disturbing and extensive use by A-Sax and other conductors than was previously believed. Faced with news of their disclosure, A-Sax has been more forthcoming. Flanked by his make-up-smudged wife of five years, mezzo-soprano Carmelita Locostaco, a tearful A-Sax responded at his hastily arranged press conference:

“I would like to apologize to all of my fans if I have disappointed them with my lack of judgment. If it is any consolation it was my love of music that led to this poor decision. I only wanted to give the end of the greatest masterpieces the same passion and energy that I was able to give at the beginning. Also, I was still feeling the effects of an old cello concerto injury and wanted to recover more quickly.” A-Sax did not take any questions from the reporter that was present.

A-Sax’s future is still murky at this point, but many believe he can come back. He will have one year left on his contract with Generica Symphonia after the suspensions are lifted, and the orchestral community can be forgiving, particularly if he can “hit a homerun” with a stellar performance of a major work on his first concert back.

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Opportunities for Growth in Small Schools

theinstrumenta — Wed, 09 Oct 2013 21:21:36 +0000

I graduated from a small, rural Wisconsin high school in 1988. The band program was not a top notch band, but it was an appreciated part of the district. When we marched halftime shows, the football players marched right along with us. Teaching methods, budgets and community attitudes have changed in small school districts over the years, however. As an adult I have taught music in the Cochrane-Fountain City School district for the past 16 years.

Unlike directors in large districts with multiple band and choir directors, I teach half of the elementary music classes as well as the entire band program, including beginning, junior high, senior high, and pep band. Last year I even taught a bluegrass band. Most students do not have a private teacher because it requires a 30-minute trip to a nearby town and an extra $15-$25 per lesson.

This is a small district with 342 students in grades K-6, and 297 students in grades 7-12. The typical grade size is 50 students. My three children attend school in this district, and I am proud of it. All students have opportunities to make sports teams or be cast in the yearly musical. They do not have to audition to make the top band.

The Problems

There is a big difference between teaching in large and small schools. There sometimes almost seems to be animosity between these teachers when they meet at state conventions and contests. When I have spoken with adjudicators at solo and ensemble contests, they describe the success of students from large schools, while those from small schools struggle with less difficult solos.

Often small districts faced with economic difficulties will resort to teacher cut backs. The remaining music teachers simply do not have the time and resources to work with individual students. In many districts you will find one teacher handling the teaching load for the entire district.

I have also found that the number of band students has decreased over the past few years for various reasons. Scheduling problems sometimes pit programs against each other. If students want to take the FFA field trip their senior year, for example, they must be enrolled in agriculture classes each year, and this conflicts with band. Other problems come from such required courses as foreign language and PE. We tried to solve this by scheduling band and choir at the same time. This hour was supposed to be reserved for music with no big courses offered then. Unfortunately that proved impossible, and we still lost students. We also found that there were students who wanted to participate in both programs and had to alternate between them. This hurts us, because the full band meets only about half the time. Students miss out on important information and are frustrated. In many cases they make the sad decision to choose one music course over the other.

Another problem is RTI (Response to Intervention) class time which takes place during 8th hour. Students who are having difficulties report to the class in which they have the worst grade. While 95% of the band students have at least a B+ average, top students can take AP courses during this period. This involves all of my students. I cannot take them out of class for lessons when they are in AP calculus. This has been a big change in recent years. In the 1980s, it was expected that students would leave class for private music lessons. Today, according to our board of education, lessons are reserved for beginners and are only given to groups of students. Any other lessons are supposed to be taught by private teachers outside the district. If I tried to teach private lessons, they would cut into my preparation time and would have to take place before or after school.

Solutions

Despite these difficulties, I have implemented some useful changes with the help of the school administration. Pep band attendance was often a problem as many music students are also involved with sports. My solution was to open pep band to junior high musicians. I select easier charts and fill seats. I also cannot grade students on attending pep band. According to our district that would mean we would have to send a bus to pick up students who do not have a ride to school. Instead I play the role of cheerleader and find or write music students want to rehearse. We came up with a great drum cadence a few years back that still makes the community sway and rock. For younger students who cannot handle the notes (flutes especially), I simplify the scores and fill in melodic gaps with simplified lines with as few notes and accidentals as possible. This takes more time, but students literally grow into the original, more challenging parts. Pep band improves their playing skills, and as I remind them, it gets them into the games with the bonus of a free hot dog and soda.

It is always a challenge to recruit band students as they move from general music to band or choir in fifth grade. This past year the superintendent, principal and I met to brainstorm ways to keep numbers up in pep and concert bands. Our superintendent, well aware of the economical challenges facing local parents, knew that to make this work the school would have to buy or rent instruments for these beginning band students. Every child would receive reeds, books, and music supplied by the district.

It was an amazing success. We had 55 students in beginning band last year, a big boost from previous years when parents had to rent instruments and purchase books and reeds. Recorder has been moved back to grades 3 and 4 to prepare students to move into band and choir in 5th and 6th grade. My beginning students feel an amazing sense of pride in their accomplishments. I started a new tradition at the end of each class. We play Taps and then all yell, “Band dismissed!” These children would otherwise not have been able to afford an instrument.

The administration is making another helpful change to require 7th grade students to participate in either band or choir. Next year they hope to expand the program to make 8th grade band or choir mandatory. Junior high is a key time when students often choose sports over music. Built-in music classes show students that they can enjoy band and choir as well as sports.

I have an undying faith that with the current change of course, the music programs in our district are growing, prospering, and filled with pride. It is a rebirth I am passionate about furthering. If that means altering scores for particular students or even composing music, I will do what it takes. Band is not just about learning an instrument, it creates pride for your school – as small as it is. Students from small schools are not blind. They see what the larger schools surrounding them can do and are intimidated far too often. They need to feel pride in their own achievements.

Music teachers in small districts should first communicate with school administrators and staff. Ask to meet to brainstorm about ways to make things work better. We took two general music classes (about 200 minutes per week) and converted them into a band/choir program. When we placed instruments into the hands of students, they took note reading lessons they had previously gotten only from books and put them to real use. So much can be accomplished when teachers and administrators come together rather than grumbling about a situation that seems unsalvageable.

Get in touch with parents and the community to understand their views of music education. Perhaps they see school music only in terms of a pep band or marching. When you know what they want, you will have a better grasp on what it may take to attain success.

Many teachers are so concerned about proving their merits to avoid the chopping block that they expend energy in unproductive ways and exhaust themselves. Spread the word about students’ achievements in the paper, school newsletters, and on stage. Make it clear that good things are happening in your department. Recognize your worth and make people aware of it.

Assess your situation and make time for yourself. If you do not have time to eat lunch – a situation I was in a few years back – it is your own fault. I had to take action to carve out time somehow. I spoke up to the administration and even to school board members. They are not your enemy and must be your allies.

Be good to yourself. Wear a smile as much as you can. Connect with others, and remember that you chose teaching as your passion. Renew that passion by making the changes needed to upgrade your small school’s music department.

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Using Students as Teachers

theinstrumenta — Wed, 09 Oct 2013 21:13:04 +0000

Private lessons are a core component of any successful middle or high school music program. Often these lessons are taught by local professionals or college music students, but many school districts are located in rural areas with few, if any local professionals or college students to be found. Other districts in low-income areas likely have financial constraints that prevent families from affording lessons. A parent’s financial concerns or lack of private instructors should never stand in the way of a student receiving private instruction. One solution is to create a mentoring program. The learning and social collaborations between two students in a music mentor program can be invaluable to a music program and create lasting impressions for both mentors and their students.

Purpose

A music mentor program consists of the top students of a high school music program giving private instrument instruction to middle school music students as well as high school freshmen and sophomores. Students are often eager to participate because they enjoy making a difference for younger musicians, demonstrating leadership experience and other skills to prospective colleges, and fulfilling community service requirements towards graduation. Peer teaching, a privilege for the mentors, develops the skills of both students and encourages them to develop a peer relationship.

Recruiting Mentors

Prospective student mentors should demonstrate academic and musical achievement, extracurricular involvement, good communication skills, well-developed friendships with other students, confidence, independence, and the ability to manage their own transportation. When students who would make capable mentors have been identified, enlist the support of their parents for having their child be a mentor, so that the path is clear for them to participate if they are interested in doing so. Invite these students to an informal meeting about the mentoring program. The heart of the meeting is inspiring them with a sense of importance in the work they’ll be doing, which is investing in the future of the band or orchestra. Share with prospective mentors the opportunity to develop their leadership and communication skills, which will be attractive to colleges. Create a vision for them of the fulfillment of helping a younger peer to achieve their musical dreams.

Developing Mentors

There should be several training meetings for mentors, to ensure that they approach lessons with an appropriate sense of responsibility and are prepared for the teaching experience. These meetings should be mandatory for new and returning mentors alike, both to develop students’ teaching skills and to create a culture of excellence in the program. I held these meetings during the first month of school, while the middle school students were enrolling into the music program.

In the first mentor training meeting, teach several mini-lessons with a mentor student in front of the group. Follow each mini-lesson with a group discussion of the teaching strategies you used, and discuss other strategies that might also be effective. These discussions will help the mentors begin to develop a model of the private teaching relationship and the skills involved. During the next two meetings, give each mentor an opportunity to teach a fellow mentor in front of the group for several minutes on a short, easy piece. Follow each mock lesson with a group discussion of the teaching strategies used and feedback on the student’s skills and professionalism.

When set up as an encouraging session in which everyone is learning and improving, this training is a powerful experience for the mentor students. The feedback sessions are an additional opportunity to coach students on communication skills and the importance of giving constructive, positive comments. Meanwhile, the mock lessons will give directors insight into each mentor’s teaching skills and alert you to areas that may require additional training and supervision.

Mentors should be given basic instruction for choosing materials and structuring lessons. Give them an opportunity to see a few instructional books on their chosen instrument, as well as etude books and solo literature. Ideally, each mentor should teach two students, giving them an opportunity to observe different learning styles and develop flexibility as a teacher, as well as increasing the odds that at least one of the relationships will be a great fit.

Provide a list of what should be covered in a typical lesson – scales, exercises, solo literature or audition material, band or orchestra music, and etudes. Also, give mentors a standardized assignment sheet, which will be filled out for their students each lesson.

This mentoring relationship has specifically musical goals; mentors should be trained in setting appropriate boundaries should family or personal difficulties arise with a student. Students should have clear instructions on how they would handle these situations, seeking to maintain the integrity of the relationship and taking care to avoid stepping into a parental or counseling role.

Recruiting Lesson Students

Include information about the program in the initial meeting with new band or orchestra parents at the beginning of the year. Let them know the benefits of student instructors, and emphasize the importance of enrolling each student in lessons. Give the parents a sense that their children are participating in something special. Mentors should also attend the initial parent meeting and be introduced in front of the group.

In addition, I give all entering music students an informational packet at the beginning of the year to take home and read over with their parents. The last page should be a form that states the parent and the student have read through the material together and either will or will not be participating in the mentor program. Once the forms are returned, the middle and high school directors will set up mentor lessons with interested families.

Be sure to follow up one-on-one with parents of students who did not sign their child up for a mentor. Support the parents in making the right decision for their family, but do not be shy about advocating the tremendous opportunity of private lessons. Often families who initially reject the idea begin to reconsider as the semester unfolds and they see participating students performing at a higher level.

Beginning band or orchestra students are the future of both the middle and high school music programs. When these students succeed on their instrument, have fun, and receive recognition from family and friends, the music program is strengthened tremendously.

Location and Supervision

Lessons should take place before or after school, at the middle school if possible, because high school students are more likely to be able to transport themselves. If the middle school does not have a sufficient practice rooms to accommodate the lessons, directors should collaborate with classroom teachers for additional space. All lessons should be assigned to a specific location before lessons begin for the semester. Mentor students should set up the room for the lesson before the student arrives and return the room to its original state afterward.

While lessons take place, there should be a teacher to check in on students and handle any problems that arise. The supervisor should keep a current schedule of all students and room assignments and be responsible for locking and unlocking the rooms as needed. Checking in regularly on students is an opportunity to observe mentor teachers’ effectiveness and ensure that both teacher and student are engaged and focused.

Meet with mentors once a month and share how the lessons are going. Use this opportunity to offer ideas for teaching strategies and helpful perspectives, acknowledge them for their commitment and successes, and use role reversal to help them practice using new skills. Let the mentors know it is okay not to have all the answers; teaching is a skill that develops over time, and each student is different. In the rare event that a mentor-mentee relationship is a poor fit, arrangements should be made to find a better placement for both students.

Parent Involvement

The mentor program should be set up to minimize any additional burden on parents, whose lives are already quite full with work and family responsibilities. The parents’ role in their child’s music lessons should be welcomed and encouraged. Ask parents to meet briefly with the mentor during the last ten minutes of the first lesson, so that parents and mentors have a face-to-face relationship and can share goals and expectations.

Resource Library

An organized and well-supplied music library is essential for the mentor program. The library should include instrumental methods, etudes, and graded solo literature for all of the instruments taught in the mentoring program, so that the participating families only have to purchase the materials that will provide the most benefit. The library should also include a listening station with an extensive collection of music in many different genres. This gives students an opportunity to educate themselves in various composers and musical styles as well as to study the pieces they are playing or teaching.

Local businesses are often motivated to increase their presence in the community through their support of worthy causes. A mentoring program provides just this kind of community service by creating student leadership, enriching art and culture in the community, and providing opportunities to economically disadvantaged students. Businesses in your community can donate money to underwrite the cost of the creating the music library, purchase instruments for low-income students, or contribute toward a collection of pre-professional instruments for talented students to borrow when taking a college audition. Develop an informational brochure to solicit business donations, and make the most of these valuable links to the wider community.

Building a Strong Tradition

As months and years pass, the skill level of the mentors will rise as the mentor program becomes part of the culture and students develop their teaching styles. Once the program has been in place for two to three years, the first students to be mentored will be entering high school. These students now have a great relationship not only with at least one current member of the band, but also with the program itself, and they will be entering the high school band or orchestra well-prepared and excited. They will begin to enjoy friendships with the students who were formerly their teachers, while still looking to them for leadership and guidance.

As they gain musical proficiency and maturity, these rising leaders are motivated to mentor younger students, passing on the attention they received to the next generation. The result is a musical community that demonstrates the best qualities of maturity, leadership, friendship, and fine musicianship.

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Grainger Conducts Grainger

theinstrumenta — Wed, 09 Oct 2013 21:06:37 +0000

Over the past months I revisited a musical favorite of mine, the band classic Irish Tune from County Derry, by listening repeatedly to a rare recording I have of Grainger conducting this piece with the University of Texas Symphonic Band in a 1948 concert at Austin.

Listening to this tape was like meeting an old friend after many years’ absence and discovering fresh insights into his personality. Percy Grainger had an exceptional musical mind, and his interpretation has unparalleled authority. Listening to Grainger conduct Grainger is a wonderful opportunity to go back to the original source and gain new knowledge about his interpretation, and it inspired me to restudy this magnificent score again with fresh eyes and ears.

To give a convincing interpretation of this classic, Grainger teaches that the conductor should be an artistic monitor of sound and feeling, not a time beater. To conduct well means going beyond the notes and formulate in his mind, heart, and body appropriate approaches to tempo, balance, rubato, phrasing, dynamic contrasts, polydynamics, articulation, harmonic foundation and movement. Finally, a conductor must possess technique that will communicate these concepts in a clear and musical flow without distorting the musical lines. However, what was most revealing about the Grainger interpretation was that a conductor should also be aware of the beautiful instrumental colors inherent in this score.

While listening to Grainger’s interpretation of Irish Tune I was fascinated with his ability to mix and match the many colors found in the score. Grainger once stated that he preferred the band’s instrumentation to the orchestra’s because he had more colors from which to choose. Like a great painter, Grainger thought of the band as a palette of colors possessing a variety of timbral considerations, and he had an outstanding imagination, giving us music replete with rich and varied shades of the spectrum. It is the challenge of conductors to bring out each color with vivid textural clarity.

At the beginning, the melody is in the alto clarinet, baritone saxophone, first and second trombones, and euphonium; a decision must be made about which of these instruments should be prominent. Today, most wind conductors want the euphonium to be dominant. Having the rest of the melodic instruments be shadow tones to the euphonium will produce a dark, mellow timbre that is pleasing to the ear. A good trick to getting the students playing the other melody instruments to blend well is to have them think of putting their sounds inside the bell of the euphonium. However, on this tape, it is obvious that Percy Grainger thought blending to the euphonium would make for a color that is too dark. Instead, he had the melodic instruments blend to the trombones for a lighter color and a bit more projection than the euphonium.

The difficulty with the beginning of Irish Tune is that Grainger has the melody in the bass clef – one of the earliest examples of band literature with the melody in the bass clef – sandwiched between the brighter cornets and horns and the low woodwinds and tuba so that the melody is too often covered. The volume in the accompanying instruments should be reduced so that the melody stands out as clear and vivid as Mt. Rushmore. Ignoring the softer dynamics, especially pianissimo, leads to a deficiency in color causing these first measures to sound bland and ordinary.

Remembering Wagner’s quote that “the one and only form of music is melody; no music is conceivable without melody, and both are absolutely inseparable,” it is best to reduce the volume in the accompanying instruments. This is especially true in the first cornet part in measures one through eight. When the cornet timbre was cast aside in the late 1960s for the trumpet color in American bands, a unique color was lost that is perfect for the tonal quality and blending needed for the music of Percy Grainger, and the more brilliant trumpet sound often covers the melody. Grainger uses the cornets exclusively throughout the composition and the mellow timbres blend perfectly with the other instruments. If the trumpet must be used here, have the musician play into the stand and blend with the other voices at the indicated dynamic of pp. Grainger does not let this part come out until the second beat of measure thirteen.

Another color tint that is often overlooked by conductors but is brought out in Grainger’s conducting occurs in measures six, ten, and twenty-six.

In measure six this accented half note is in the bass clarinet, tenor sax, and third horn, and it is the horn color that is dominant in the recording. In measures ten and twenty-six this same rhythm occurs only in the second alto sax and second horn. On all three occasions Grainger prefers the horn color over the others.

These subtle color changes occur throughout the composition, and each time Grainger brings them out for good effect. We hardly ever hear these changes strongly enough, or if we do they are articulated too much with the tongue and the tone is distorted. I teach this accent on the second note of the beat with a fast push of the air and a gentle stroke of the tongue that lifts the note much like a fast down-bow on a string instrument.

Much of the time Grainger’s crescendos and decrescendos follow the natural rise and fall of the musical phrase but sometimes for a different color effect he has one group crescendo and another group decrescendo at the same time. This Grainger innovation of simultaneous crescendo and decrescendo brings about a color change of going from dark to light and light to dark is one of the early examples of polydynamics in wind literature.

Measure six contains a good example of polydynamics. The second and third cornets crescendo while the rest of the band decrescendos. This is often overlooked but is heard very clearly on the recording. The reason this color effect is rarely heard is because the rest of the band simply is unaware of it. To remedy this fault in rehearsal have the cornet players slowly rise out of their seats so that the rest of the band can visibly see the crescendo and adjust their volume so that the cornet color can be heard.

The expansion of musical color through different instrumental combinations also occurs at the cadences. For example, measure 16 ends on a tonic chord with twelve instrumental parts playing F while bass clarinet, tenor saxophone, and fourth horns play the fifth. Only the third horn has the third of the chord. The way to balance the chord is have all those playing the tonic put their sound inside the tuba, then add the fifth, with the bass clarinet the dominant color, and last add the lonely horn on the third. Remind students that the chord is thinly scored, so it is important to listen for the third in the horn.

In measure 23 Grainger projects the euphonium on the ascending line over the complete band starting on the first beat. This instrument is seldom heard because the cornets and horns cover it up, but by bringing out the euphonium color and keeping the other voices at a lower volume it sounds like a concerto for euphonium with band obbligato. It is a wonderful effect that makes this section sound like an entirely new composition.

Another color nuance often overlooked occurs on the third beat in measure 28 when the band must do a p < mf > p to lift and taper the end of the phrase.

The decrescendo is usually done too quickly; it must be a mirror image of the crescendo to give a feeling of completion. One teaching technique that I use in rehearsals is to have the band members rise slowly out of their seats and then sit down again in the same speed to physically feel the rate of the crescendo and decrescendo.

Measures 33-48 are a masterclass in tone painting. In measure 36 Grainger brings out the oboe color on the C5 with a slight crescendo but inserts a decrescendo in the oboe past measure 37 as the horn and tenor sax come in on the second beat. Measure 38 he brings out the written B5 on the third beat in the first clarinet part. In measure 40 on the second beat the first clarinet has to enter on an E6 above the staff marked pp. The clarinet tone usually explodes here because it is an extremely difficult entrance to control. Grainger brings out the F natural in the oboe to take the edge off the clarinet sound, and it will also help if the clarinetist hears the minor seventh interval from F#5to E6 in that measure. Thinking of “Somewhere” from West Side Story or another song starting on that interval may help stabilize the pitch. Another solution I learned from Robert Marcellus is for the clarinetist to turn the top lip in just a bit to control the tone on high notes and balance with the oboe entrance.

Conductors should think of each measure from 41-48 becoming darker and have each instrument blend so the wonderful color changes can be heard. For example, in measure 41 the horn entrance is sometimes shaky and nervous. The first horn player may be unaware that his tone should be the most important color and that the same line occurs in the flutes and second alto sax. This knowledge can help the horn pitch, especially on that treacherous written A5, which is usually pinched sharp.

Another color that Grainger brings out is the cornet solo starting on the second beat in measure 46. This line is usually heard well enough but what is not heard as often is the second cornet solo starting on the third beat of measure 47. The second cornets should crescendo more than the firsts here to bring out the crescendo to the written B natural.

Also in the F major chord in measure 48 is another good example of polydynamics. The chord is intended to be well supported but not brilliant, as the band plays forte except the cornets, which are only mezzo forte. The third of the chord is hidden away in the third clarinet and second cornet parts and the fifth is only in the first cornet, with all other parts of the band resting on the tonic. On the tape the horns are the dominant color on the tonic.

From measures 49-52 the first cornet is the dominant color in the melodic line, but in measure 53 Grainger has the first horns and trombones balance to the euphonium on the three accented quarter notes.

In measure 56 the third clarinet, first and second horns, first trombone, and euphonium space and lift the accented quarters with a ^ accent instead of >, with the trombones having the primary color. The third clarinet timbre is usually lost in this section and would benefit from encouragement.

Also in measure 56 the suspended cymbal makes its initial entrance as a new sound color, starting with dynamic of pp. The cymbal’s crescendo does not reach a climax until beat three of measure 58, at which point it should decrescendo. This is probably the most misplayed cymbal roll in all band literature because percussionists assigned to this part usually crescendo too much too soon and drown out the rest of the band. A good rule to follow is that in a crescendo the cymbal should stay under the band in volume and not reach its climax until the very last second on beat three, and then decrescendo more than the winds. The dominant color in measure 58 should be the horns and second alto saxophone.

Starting on the fourth beat of measure 59, Grainger brings out the accent on the fourth and second beats above the rest of the band, similar to lifted bell tones. Again, the horns should be the dominant color. In measure 59 the horns have four slurred quarter notes, but on the recording the fourth beat is tongued to match the articulation of the second alto saxophone, third cornet, and euphonium.

In measure 63, the next to last measure of the composition, the second beat is another example of polydynamics, which is often overlooked by conductors. Here, the first and third horns have a balance problem sustaining a written G5 on the second and third beats; the horns stick out too much here. Grainger solves this problem by having the second alto saxophone and first trombone play stronger here because they also have a concert C. Once the horns are aware of this fact the balance difficulties are usually solved.

Also in measure 63 there is a wonderful color change that is seldom heard because many bands ignore Grainger’s polydynamics. The first, second, and third cornets must decrescendo as the fourth cornet crescendos from a written A3 over the other cornets to a D5. When this is heard it gives a most poignant and expressive preparation for the final cadence.

In the last measure the entire band decrescendos to ppp on the fermata except for the first and third horns and first trombones, which sustain the third of the chord at mp.

By using such varied colors Grainger creates a wonderful tonal palette to reinforce the emotional impact of the Irish Tune from County Derry. Conductors should always be aware of blending and combining the band’s rich and inherent color spectrum to achieve a more poignant and expressive interpretation according to Grainger’s intent.

Tempo and Rubato in Irish Tune from County Derry

The first page of the score published by Carl Fisher has Grainger’s tempo marking of quarter note = about 80 and his English directive “flowingly,” which to Grainger meant slowly and wayward (rubato) in time but certainly not dragged. We know this because Grainger wrote on the piano setting of the Irish Tune completed in 1911 “with a tempo span of quarter note = 84-104.” He also wrote the instructions in Italian: Rubato il tempo, e non troppo lento (Tempo rubato and not too slow). Grainger’s choice of tempo is similar to that of Chopin, who defined rubato as “gently blowing against the flame of a candle without putting it out.”

On the recording, Grainger begins the piece at quarter note = 76 but changes to quarter note = 78 from measures two to five. On the second beat of measure five the tempo is back to quarter note = 76 but goes back to quarter note = 78 in measures six through eight. These opening measures show that it is unnecessary to distort the tempo with an exaggerated rubato to make the music beautiful and are also a stark reminder of a cardinal rule of interpretation: One cannot have rubato until the fundamental pulse has been established, as Grainger did, staying between quarter note = 76-78 for the first eight measures. This should be a warning to conductors who tend to put fermatas on the first three notes; such opening long tones were not Grainger’s intention.

Tempo fluctuations inserted into a musical phrase depend upon starting from a fundamental pulse and then going away from that pulse without distorting the musical line before returning to the fundamental tempo in a manner that enhances the expressive qualities of the music. The subtle timing needed for a true rubato requires musical maturity and sensitivity on the part of the conductor, but the expressive rewards are great for those who master this art.

In measure eight, Grainger slackens the tempo to quarter note = 72 to enhance the crescendo and decrescendo but returns to quarter note = 76 in measure nine. The first major tempo fluctuation begins on the fourth beat of measure ten, where the tempo accelerates from quarter note = 78 to quarter note = 90 over the next three measures and remains there through measure 16.

The first three notes of measure 17 are at quarter note = 72, but the tempo accelerates to quarter note = 90 and stays there from the fourth beat of measure 18 through the first beat of measure 21. The pattern begins again here, as the three quarter-note pick-ups in this measure are back to quarter note = 72 before returning to quarter note = 90. The same is true for the pick-up notes in measure 25, but after these, Grainger only comes back to the original tempo through the first beat of measure 29. The second beat of measure 29 starts at quarter note = 76 but slows quite a bit; the last two quarter notes in measure 31 are equivalent to the speed of the previous half notes.

In measure 32 the tempo returns to quarter note = 72, and this is the tempo for the beautiful woodwind entrances at measures 33-36. From measure 37 through the first beat of 49 the tempo accelerates from quarter note = 78 to quarter note = 90. Measures 49-55 follow a similar pattern to measures 17-25, where phrases at measures 49 and 53 start at quarter note = 72 and then accelerate to quarter note = 90.

At measure 56 Grainger slows slightly, quarter note = 80 at measure 57, quarter note = 76 at the climax in measure 58, and quarter note = 60 in measure 60. The second beat of measure 61 starts at quarter note = 54, with the final tempo at quarter note = 46. Grainger broadens and lifts the two fermatas before the final chord, with the fermata on the fourth beat receiving the longer hold.

The post Grainger Conducts Grainger appeared first on The Instrumentalist.

A History of Jazz Styles

theinstrumenta — Wed, 09 Oct 2013 20:49:34 +0000

Many music educators lack formal jazz training. This is unfortunate because the study of jazz is fascinating and integral to one’s understanding of the American 20th century. From a more practical point of view, many music educators are asked to run a jazz ensemble despite their lack of experience with the music at all. My hope is that all universities will require music education majors to participate in jazz ensemble and take jazz pedagogy and history courses. In the meantime, here is a crash course on the basics of jazz history.

Jazz history and style are inextricably linked; the music’s brightest voices have always had their own distinctive styles, some of which spawned movements on their own and changed how mainstream jazz of the day was played. Some people think of jazz history as a continuum; that music has gone through phases or periods. This implies that certain styles are fleeting and are given up by everyone when the hot new style comes along. This is over-simplistic and just not the case. Think of jazz history more as a tree, as shown below. Older styles continue even when new ones emerge. For example, there are people today who play in an early jazz style, although many other movements have emerged since.

Early Jazz: Morton, Armstrong, and Beiderbecke

The earliest recording of jazz dates from 1917, and the way musicians played remained largely unchanged throughout the next decade. Musical characteristics of this period involve a general staccato or vertical feeling to the music: horn players tongued almost every note, the rhythmic emphasis was on all four beats of the measure, phrasing was almost ahead of the beat, and the quarter note was king. The groups were rather small, usually from five to nine musicians: two or three horns (including clarinet, an instrument indicative of this period), percussion, a bass instrument (tuba, string bass, or bass saxophone), and one or two chordal instruments, such as piano or banjo.

In the 1920s, musicians agreed where the beat was to be placed and clearly outlined it. The groups played intricate arrangements with limited solos; the emphasis was on the ensemble. Solos were frequently overlaid on each other, resulting in complex collective improvisation with the trumpet taking the melodic lead. One of the first people to arrange the music in a complex way was pianist Ferdinand LaMothe, known professionally as Jelly Roll Morton. His groups built the foundation for what became big band jazz in the following decade. In the early 1920s his ensembles adhered to the group dynamic; solos always served the arrangement and were not the focus of the music.

In the mid to late 1920s, emphasis shifted from the group to the soloist. Undoubtedly the figure who accomplished this was Louis Armstrong, the first true innovator of the music. Armstrong was a natural jazz musician who couldn’t help but reinvent the sounds he heard. A primary stylistic innovation of Armstrong was that he played with less articulation; he heard the mostly staccato music of the day a little more legato than everyone else. This innovation is overshadowed by his virtuosic playing. He made the solo into the primary focus of jazz.

Armstrong’s counterpart was a young man named Bix Beiderbecke, the understated antithesis to Armstrong’s outspokenness. The Oxford Companion to Jazz says that Beiderbecke invited you to listen while Armstrong commanded it. Like Armstrong, Bix heard the music in a slightly more legato way, and helped pave the way for the 1930s Swing style.

Swing Style: Basie and Ellington

Jazz became the popular music of the 1930s, and people needed larger, louder bands to accompany dancing. The led to the birth of the big band, although in a smaller form than we now think of it today. There are three main differences between Early Jazz style and Swing Style: groups increased in size, improvised solos become more important within arrangements, and in general, the music became slightly more legato.

As big bands of 15-16 players became more popular, naturally more and more emerged to fill the growing demand. Without question, however, the bands of Count Basie and Duke Ellington were the stylistic leaders of the 1930s and early 40s. Basie and Ellington are essential for many reasons beyond their popularity at the time. These two bands represented slightly different trajectories within the musical tradition, and consistently churned out innovative and influential music. Like Armstrong and Beiderbecke during the previous decade, the two bands were able to highlight their unique skills within the prevailing style of the day.

Like any sports team, the big bands had their stars, and these two groups were no exception. Count Basie’s tenor saxophonist Lester Young was the most important among a slew of excellent soloists, while Ellington’s leading man Ben Webster provided the gruff alternative. These two soloists are kinds of microcosms of each band; Young favored a legato, smooth phrasing style while Webster was grittier and, in a way, based his sound more on the prior decade. Young was a radical glimpse of the future while Webster used the past more to his advantage. Overall, big bands emphasized a group sound, but with soloists gaining more freedom within arrangements as collective improvisation vanished. In addition, while downbeats remained important, soloists used eighth-note lines more.

When it came to orchestration, Ellington’s sonic palette was infinite. He created sounds never heard before and each piece had its own texture. He used clarinet quite a bit in the saxophone section, did not use guitar, and often incorporated specific talents of his band members into his arrangements (Ray Nance played violin as well as trumpet and even sang). Ellington’s orchestra was as much a reflection of his voice as his piano was. The music was more gestural and less straightforward, and in a way used sounds of early jazz styles to further his goal. Basie’s primary goal was groove. The orchestration did not change much from one piece to the next, but all pieces had a natural swing feel to them. With Basie, the band played in the Swing style better than anyone. His band pioneered a specific rhythm section sound, always using guitar to play quarter notes and enhance the groove.

Basie’s group of the 1930s and early 40s laid the groundwork for straight-ahead big band styles of the future. The Basie band charts translated well to most any other ensemble, and the rhythms, voicings, and aesthetic were influential and palatable. Ellington created a vocabulary and trajectory that stands alone because what he wrote was so unique to his specific band. The music is more difficult to replicate, more stylistically specific, and generally more abstract. That aesthetic has influenced left-of-center composers such as Gil Evans and Maria Schneider. Certainly the work of Wynton Marsalis borrows heavily from Ellington, but he was one of the few figures able to find something truly unique.

Bebop Style: Charlie Parker

The 1930s and early 1940s was a boom time for jazz musicians. They got to play all the time for audiences that were enamored with the music. A naturally curious bunch, jazz musicians began to search for more complexity in the music as they got more and more sophisticated. However, stretching out creatively did not appeal to dancing audiences, so after hours, some of the more improvisation-minded players would get to together and play. During these jam sessions, musicians could solo for as long as they wanted, experiment with new techniques, and abandon the restrictions placed on them by tightly written big band arrangements.

Charlie Parker, who led the next major stylistic shift in jazz, was originally a sideman with trumpet great Dizzy Gillespie, who basically (along with several others) invented Bebop stylistic traits along with Parker. Eventually however, Parker (“Bird”) became the epitome of Bebop and earned the credit for much of the innovations himself. This new style formulated in the early 1940s and by 1945, it had coalesced into a true movement.

Because the Bebop style was reactionary in nature, removing any shackle felt by members of larger bands, many of the traits of this kind of music are polar opposites of Swing style. Tempos became faster, complex and virtuosic solos are the focus of the songs, articulations became even smoother, with the tongue used mostly for accenting, groups become much smaller (four or five players), vibrato lessens and becomes terminal, and, most importantly, the rhythmic emphasis is freed from the downbeat. This means that musicians prior to Charlie Parker used the downbeats of measures to guide their rhythms, while musicians who adopt the new style lock their rhythm to whatever part of the measure they want – downbeats or upbeats. The chart below shows how reactionary the Bebop style truly is. The soloist is now the focal point as opposed to the arrangement.

Bebop articulation, phrasing, and form have arguably been the most influential of all jazz movements. In a fundamental sense, most jazz musicians today play the way that Charlie Parker did in terms of which notes in a phrase are tongued and accented. This is particularly true in the use of the form; melody-extended solos-melody is the template for the majority of jazz performances today, especially in informal settings. In the examples below, not only are the lines longer and less tongue is used in Bebop, but different alterations are chosen over the V7 chord to accommodate for scalar motion. The accents are all over the measure in Bebop, particularly on the upbeats within a given line. Lastly, the sound of the Major seventh chord is preferred over the Major sixth on the arrival.

Cool Style: Miles Davis and Birth of the Cool

Even though Miles Davis cut his teeth in Charlie Parker’s groups, he never really fit the bebop mold. His playing was less precise than true adherents to that style; there was a vulnerability in his playing that always made him a little out of place in those fast tempos and flurries of notes. As Miles gained popularity toward the late 1940s, he began exploring his first in a series of major stylistic innovations over the coming decades. The important thing to remember, though, is that from an articulation and phrasing standpoint, Miles basically always played the same, regardless of what was happening behind him. He surrounded himself with many different creative environments, but his style was more or less established in the late 1940s with the album Birth of the Cool.

This landmark album was released in 1949 and, like Bebop, was reactionary. It used nine musicians and limited solo space for improvisors; the arrangement was the focus again. If Bebop styles are overtly masculine and aggressive, Cool styles are vulnerable and understated. Miles and his cohorts invented the Cool style, influenced heavily by Lester Young, and then Miles promptly moved on to other things while the movement itself was carried on by other musicians. The stylistic considerations of Cool jazz were the basis of the Third Stream movement that combined classical/orchestral music and jazz. This may be because the Cool style de-emphasizes the rhythmic fireworks of Bebop and further smooths out articulation and swing feel. Miles led pioneering groups in subsequent movements and can be attributed with creating the defining sounds in Hard Bop, Modality, and 1960s Avant-Garde.

From this point forward in the history of jazz styles, we begin to see more of an individualistic approach. That is, as we see in jazz today, each musician or group comes up with their unique sound which can fit into a general popular concern, but ultimately is more interested in itself than adhering to a movement of any kind. Musicians are more concerned with finding their own way than necessarily taking cues from others. In a fundamental way, we are all still playing using the Bebop style – that’s how revolutionary Charlie Parker was. The difference between the following sections and earlier changes in jazz style, like Bebop or Swing, is that while those were changes to fundamental aspects of playing, the following movements are changes to superficial ones (a general mood, song construction).

Hard Bop

Charlie Parker was such a tremendous innovator and influence that when he died in 1955, there was a gaping hole in the jazz world. The question of how to deal with Bird’s legacy was on everyone’s mind. The style he created was the most influential and revolutionary since Louis Armstrong, and luckily, the jazz scene of the 1950s was one of the most productive and creative in all its history. Many musicians were creating music based on Bebop styles and form, but with more emphasis on the blues. The mainstream sound that emerged in the mid-1950s into the 1960s is generally known as Hard Bop or Post-Bebop, and can be seen as a melding of Bebop style, Cool style, and the blues. Note that this, like all subsequent points touched on here, is not really a style as much as it is a movement. The official beginning occurred in 1955 when Charlie Parker died and Miles Davis formed his first classic quintet featuring saxophonist John Coltrane.

Miles Davis’s group is basically a re-imagining of Charlie Parker’s style. Ultimately though, this group has a sound of its own, as do most other groups from this period. Some other groups of the late-1950’s that fit this mold include: Clifford Brown/Max Roach, Horace Silver, Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers, and Benny Golson/Art Farmer. These groups all use the Bebop style and form as their basis, but are not necessarily influenced by a contemporary leader of any kind (Miles Davis’s group comes the closest).

Modality: Miles Davis and John Coltrane into the 1960s

In 1959, Miles Davis continued to experiment with his seminal album Kind of Blue. This is the quintessential modal jazz album, perhaps inadvertently creating a new group sound which has become part of every ensemble to emerge since. Elements of Jazz Modality include a style of improvising using modes instead of scales and a general mood or feeling that varies from player to player and ranges from introverted to tumultuous. The style of composing uses modes, chords that eschew tonality, and chords that last longer than in the past. This was an influential movement within jazz history, and even if today’s jazz musicians are not consciously influenced by modality, it has still become a part of most jazz since its development.

Davis continued to explore music without tonality with increasing freedom as the 1960s progressed. He was perhaps the strongest judge of musical potential to ever live, and hired promising young musicians over and over again, but John Coltrane is the standout.

John Coltrane is an interesting example of a personal style that paved its own way. Arguably the most influential tenor saxophonist ever, Coltrane began his career playing very much in the style of Parker himself, a kind of reimagining of Parker’s style with Coltrane’s own twist on it. He was an important part of 1959’s Kind of Blue, but that same year, he released an album on his own called Giant Steps which introduced the Coltrane chord substitution pattern, a technique he invented. In the years leading up to Giant Steps, Coltrane became increasingly interested in implying chord substitutions while playing, cramming in as many additional implied chords as he could within a song. However as the 1960s progressed, his own groups began to play songs with fewer and fewer chords (a technique likely influenced by the Modal movement), so much so that, by Coltrane’s death in 1967, his songs did not have any real harmonic structure whatsoever. This is reminiscent of the music pioneered by Ornette Coleman.

Ornette Coleman and the Avant-Garde

In the late 1950s, alto saxophonist Ornette Coleman presented a style to the world with his album The Shape of Jazz to Come, which was another reaction to Charlie Parker’s music. An obvious admirer of Bird’s style, Coleman produced music that fought back against the harmonic complexity of the Bebop style and raised melody up to be the music’s highest priority. This is, purposely or inadvertently, a throwback to jazz styles that originated before Bird, where improvisors placed the creation of melodies at the top of their priority list. Coleman chose not to use any chordal instruments (such as piano and guitar), allowing players even more freedom as they improvised. Coleman’s innovations and Coltrane’s later music inspired a huge movement deemed the New Thing, Free Jazz, or the Avant-Garde, where structure either did not exist, or was implied very freely. Much of the time, music produced in the wake of this movement tends to be aggressive, harsh, and more concerned with the creation of textures and sounds.

Fusion: Miles Davis into the 1970s

Davis was relentless in his pursuit of new sounds and ideas, and pioneered an ethereal blending of rock rhythms and jazz sensibilities of the late 1960’s called Fusion (implying the fusion of jazz and rock). Early Fusion in the late 1960s was an extension of the openness of Modality and the freedom of Free Jazz, and most definitely leaned more in the direction of experimental jazz than rock. As the 1970s progressed, more groups involved in this movement began to use electronic instruments like electric bass, Fender Rhodes keyboard, or other electronic keyboards.

The aesthetic of mainstream jazz during the 1970’s began to change so that even musicians not adhering directly to the Fusion movement favored sounds popular in rock and pop music of the day. Double bassists used amplifiers that increased the treble end of the spectrum, and in studio recordings, many bassists used the direct input method, which compresses the bass sound and decreases its acoustic characteristics. Drummers used larger drum sets with large, deeper-pitched toms and bass drums and less resonant sounds. Pianists favored brighter-sounding instruments or even electronic keyboard sounds, and wind players, especially saxophonists, favored brighter, more compressed sounds.

The Acoustic Renaissance: Wynton Marsalis

In the early 1980s, it had become time for another reactionary movement. The rock-based aesthetic of the 1970s had run its course, and the stage was set for someone to take hold of the jazz scene. The person that filled this void was one of the most prodigious, talented, and ultimately controversial jazz musicians to ever emerge: trumpeter Wynton Marsalis (and, to a lesser extent, his brother Branford). As the 80s began, young Wynton expressed disillusionment with what he saw as a surface-level approach to jazz performance as some musicians embraced pop-music trends of the day and, to some, began to dilute jazz and remove its artistry.

Marsalis championed a return to earlier jazz forms that were not influenced by the Fusion movement; he felt that jazz had been corrupted as it attempted to become more inclusive of pop and rock techniques. As his career progressed, Marsalis championed more and more early movements and musicians whom he felt were examples of how to play jazz appropriately. He believed that jazz musicians should be knowledgeable about as much jazz history as possible, and strive to incorporate influence from all eras of the music.

Perhaps one of Marsalis’s most influential contributions has been the sea change for almost all modern jazz to return to its acoustic roots. For example, he believed that jazz should be as natural and acoustic-sounding as possible, eschewing the use of bass amplifiers and overtly artificial sounds. This aesthetic did not really take hold through the 1980s as most recordings we hear use the treble-centric, compressed, and bright sounds adopted in the 1970s. As the 1990s approached, however, Marsalis’s acoustic aesthetic began to take hold in the jazz mainstream, and by 1995, most jazz musicians were on the acoustic bandwagon. We now see the majority of jazz recordings striving to use sounds which are as acoustic and natural as possible.

Jazz Today

There is no prevailing movement that encompasses today’s jazz musicians. Because of the wide availability of recordings from any era in jazz, and for that matter, jazz musicians’ growing eclectic tastes in all kinds of music, there is a holistic approach to jazz style now. Musicians are basically a stylistic mishmash of everything that has come before (but predominantly, phrasing used before Charlie Parker is not used in the mainstream). We basically pick and choose which styles to focus on and make our own. This approach to jazz began after Charlie Parker’s death and continues to this day. However, the acoustic or natural instrument sound pioneered by the Marsalises in the early 1980s has remained the preferred quality.

The case could be made that every major movement within jazz’s progression has served to emphasize the legato aspects of the music and deemphasize the staccato ones. The tongue is used less, eighth notes become less swung and more straight, and time feel is not delineated as clearly. So whenever we play jazz, it’s very important to realize what style the music is coming from and give appropriate articulations. This one aspect alone can make the difference between a mediocre performance and one that jumps off the page.

The post A History of Jazz Styles appeared first on The Instrumentalist.

Musical Adventures at Catalina Foothills: An Interview with Renee Shane-Boyd

theinstrumenta — Wed, 09 Oct 2013 20:27:02 +0000

Renee Shane-Boyd has been director of bands at Catalina Foothills High School in Tucson, Arizona since it opened in 1992, although she has been a teacher in the Catalina Hills District for a decade longer. “Catalina Foothills High School was a brand new high school in 1992 and the first high school in our district, which had previously been K-8. When I started, I taught at a middle school and two elementaries. Then we added an elementary in the district, and another middle school a year before the high school opened. The growth of the district meant that there have always been new opportunities here, and I have stayed for my entire career, which is now in its 31st year overall and 21st at the high school.

“Although I wanted to be a high school director in college, starting in elementary and middle schools was a good thing because it taught me about teaching and working with children. I learned quickly that you needed to enjoy that you were working with children, not just that you were teaching music. The program will not fade away the next day if a beginning clarinetist is momentarily unable to cross the break. Once I was able to relax and learn that, it gave me a whole new perspective on what I was doing.”
Shane-Boyd is also the president of the Arizona Music Educators Association this year, which marks the organization’s 75th anniversary. In addition to planning the state music conference and celebration, she is working on ways to help young teachers in the state. “A recently retired teacher is going to start a state-wide mentorship network to work with new teachers. We are also trying to work on communication with young population of teachers. We recently changed our newsletter to an online version and are also going to develop a blog site linked to the news letter and the AMEA web site. Ultimately, the best way for a new teacher to benefit from a state organization is to attend these conference festivals, meet people, and learn from experienced teachers.”

How do you use technology in your classes?

Technology has changed the way I teach, and it was exciting to cross the cusp from where we used very little technology to what we do now. It can reach students in a different way than teachers can, and we have seen better retention of both visual and musical concepts, especially with younger students.

We do quite a bit of video and audio recording. Four years ago I bought a digital recorder for $400 and I use it frequently. We also use cell phones and tablets to make videos on the spot. Our district just instituted a bring-your-own-device policy, and under certain guidelines, students can use their devices in the classroom to assist in instruction. We will sometimes record video of students from the symphonic band demonstrating marching techniques and put it on YouTube for me to show to the concert band in the next class period.

We use drill-writing software with an interactive feature that allows students go online and watch their dot in the drill. I can play it back for them in class and isolate it by moves. I will have students count through and play with it. Visual learners are especially able to get a much better understanding of what we are asking them to do on the field through watching this.

A band parent with a high-quality video camera records our performances at marching competitions, and over the weekend he will dub the judges’ comments over the film. We post this video on a private YouTube link so students and parents can watch the comments that same weekend. It opened the eyes of a lot of parents about marching competitions and the feedback we receive.

The other thing I like technology for is communication. I never friend students on Facebook, but we have a private Facebook group we use for communication. Students have to sign a form before they are allowed to join. I also have a Twitter account for similar purposes; students can follow me on Twitter, but there is rarely any interaction there.

YouTube has changed my life in terms of how I teach, especially jazz combos; we use it frequently in jazz classes. When I only taught concert band, I never felt I should play the music for students because I did not want them to learn it by rote. I have students in all ensembles listen to and evaluate their playing when we record it and will also have them compare it to professional-level players. I especially do that with jazz. In fact, teaching jazz taught me that students have to listen, and that is why I transitioned to using it in non-jazz classes so much. I saw Willie Hill give a workshop on jazz articulation at one of our conferences. He espoused using recordings so students could really hear the articulation before they tried to make any sense of playing a tune. I still never teach by rote, but now I better understand the value of learning styles through listening, and in the combo class, we never learn a tune without listening to it first.

Finding jazz recordings was difficult before online video; to let students see who Count Basie was and watch him play, you had to order the VHS tape and wait for it to be delivered. Now if we are working on a piece and I decide students just aren’t getting it, we can find it on YouTube, often with video of the performance. Sometimes we just listen without too much guidance from me, especially with advanced combos, where we just listen so students can learn about the solo style or what kind of licks they play, but with less experienced combos I offer much more guidance. I have the drummer listen to what the drummer is doing and have the bassist listen to what type of time is kept and the pianist listen for how much comping is happening so they don’t feel like they have to have a wall of sound going all the time.

What is the key to building a strong instrumental music program?

Avoid getting so wrapped up in what festival you want to attend or what music you want students to play that you forget the real goal ought to be making students into independent musicians who will choose to continue playing music the rest of their lives. The auxiliary things, such as travel, will come if students get an experience that means something to them and get to the point where they can play at a level where they can really enjoy it.

Part of getting students to a high level is asking them questions rather than just giving them the information back after they play. Since moving to high school, the most important thing I have learned is the importance of teaching students to listen. I was a good direct teacher. I could hear a band, give them information, and move quickly through a rehearsal, but what I have learned through watching other directors is that if students are forced to listen, give good feedback, and make decisions about what they are doing, they pick up things much quicker, retain the information, and are able to transfer it to other areas.

There is much talk about critical thinking in schools these days, but few people realize how much critical thinking musicians have to do when playing in a high-level ensemble. Besides the theory and the skills needed to produce a correct tone and understand music reading, students have to learn to listen, make good decisions, and ask themselves the right questions as they are playing.

What is the best way to get and keep the largest number of students in instrumental music?

It is important to offer a music program where students feel comfortable. It took me a few years to learn that it was probably unwise to force a diehard jazz musician to be in the marching band. Offer a broad range of programs so the most possible students will be involved and find a place they can be comfortable.

We have three concert bands, and placement in each is mostly based on ability. The wind ensemble consists of the most advanced musicians. The symphonic band is the second group; students can automatically move into this group when they become juniors. The concert band is primarily freshmen and sophomores. Auditions usually consist one of the Arizona All-State etudes, scales, and sightreading. The three concert bands combine with a drumline, color guard, and pom line to form the largest marching band in the state. After graduating 82 seniors last year we are marching 232, although we average around 250. Participation in marching band is required for everybody enrolled in one of the concert bands, but students can enroll in other ensembles without being in concert and marching band.

We have both jazz band and jazz combo classes. The jazz combo class developed because there were usually too many saxophone players for one jazz band and rarely enough trombonists for a second one. Our jazz band is requires an audition, and we try to keep standard instrumentation so students can have a good jazz experience. We have more students interested in jazz than spots in the band, so we also have a combo class. This year we have four combos in one class and a fifth combo that meets during the small ensemble period. The combo class works as a good feeder for the jazz band, although there are some students who prefer it and do not go on to jazz band. It also provides a way to involve additional bass players, guitarists, pianists, and drummers in the program. When we go to festivals, the clinicians are always excited to see the combos because that is the way much of the jazz music is made in the adult world, and they are glad students have that opportunity.

Our small ensemble class was initially student generated; the first group we had was a woodwind quintet. When the full-time ensembles first started, they were registered in one of the band classes but would meet separately in a practice room while we rotated in coaching them. As the program grew, we were able to justify having it as a separate class, and we have always had at least a couple ensembles in that class. This year, in addition to the one jazz combo, the small ensemble class has a flute choir and clarinet choir. There is also a saxophone quartet that works on its own; students are not enrolled in the class. The chamber groups in the small ensemble class change from year to year depending on student interest.

The small ensemble class has also become home to several students who wanted to continue on their instruments but were involved in athletics and could not meet the time commitments necessary for one of the concert bands. We wanted to always have an option for them to continue playing. Our high school has always had more than a standard six-period day. It is usually seven, but some years it has been eight periods; this is helpful to all elective programs. Because we have more time in the day and more classes to fill, it made sense to add a specialized class like this one.

Why did you start a steel band program?

We started a steel band a couple years after opening the high school. I began the program to broaden the musical offerings so we had more students in the school involved in instrumental music. Another high school in town, Tucson High School, had a successful steel band program, and the University of Arizona had a strong steel program as well, so I talked with both those directors about their programs and the logistics of starting one. Getting the instruments tuned is difficult, so we went with the same pan maker that the University of Arizona used, Cliff Alexis at Northern Illinois University.

I led the group for four or five years, but our program could not grow because there was only room for a couple of classes during the day. We hired an assistant who was a percussionist, and she has expanded the program to include beginning, intermediate, and advanced steel bands.

The steel band is open to anyone. Many of the students in the intermediate and advanced groups are in another musical ensemble as well, and having students with those skills allows us to have intermediate and advanced steel bands. Some of the students in the beginning band have never played an instrument before and do not even read music before joining the class. Tina Walton, our percussion teacher, does a lot of work with basic note-reading skills with the beginning steel band.

Do not be afraid to try new things to get students involved. I love teaching concert band, but offering other opportunities for students, whether it is guitar or steel band, is not going to make your program weaker. I think people are afraid of that. Many guitarists come in to the combo class just reading tabs. The biggest part of the audition process for them to get into that class is indicating whether there is a willingness to learn how to read music or an understanding of what the chord symbols mean. One student came in as a freshman and wanted to play guitar but couldn’t read music. I gave him a method book and said, “Go.” By his senior year he was the bass player in the all-state jazz band. It is great to have a place for students like that to fit in. If you plan effectively, it will only make your program stronger, so look for ways to involve as many students as possible.

What are the best ways to build student enthusiasm in the program?

Students can be given responsibilities and even do some of the teaching. One of the things that I enjoy, especially at the high school level, is working with student leaders and talking with them about group dynamics. Often there are a wide variety of motivations within a group, and students learn how exciting it is to motivate a large group of people to work toward a common goal. The students in the program really look forward to becoming leaders so they have the opportunity to teach.

Student leaders receive training in spring and summer, and then they teach all of the basic marching skills at band camp. We tell student leaders that the most important thing we want from them on the field is to be good role models of the behavior we want from everyone, but they also have time during marching practice to make corrections and help other students. The most difficult thing about teaching marching band is always getting new students up to speed. With a large group it is difficult to give individual attention so this is a good opportunity to use peers to teach.

The post Musical Adventures at Catalina Foothills: An Interview with Renee Shane-Boyd appeared first on The Instrumentalist.

2013 Directory of Music Schools and Colleges

theinstrumenta — Fri, 04 Oct 2013 00:32:35 +0000

2013 Directory of Music Schools and Colleges

The post 2013 Directory of Music Schools and Colleges appeared first on The Instrumentalist.