The New “Super Heroes” Are Band Directors!

By Victor Lopez

Due to the significant changes in public school instruction system in America, it has become extremely challenging for a band director to have an outstanding band program. The changes mean students will have more customized options tailored to their particular needs and interests.

The amount of challenges affecting the band program is overwhelming. Let us consider some of the most recent ones: Academic achievement was set as a priority in public education with stricter attendance rules; adoption of a no-pass, no-play rule prohibiting students who were failing courses from participating in sports and other extracurricular activities for a six-week period; and national norm-referenced testing throughout all grades to assure parents of individual schools’ performance through a common frame of reference; school choice programs; grade level configurations; and, the push to increase the number of students enrolled in advanced placement courses. Additionally, many band directors work in high poverty area schools where they experience the following: high student mobility rate; diminished pool of talented students; lack of equipment; limited feeder programs; declined attendance at performances; and, the shift of program funding from the school to other sources, just to name a few.

These challenges, one way or another, have been in existence for several decades and many band directors continue to face them on a daily basis. It does not take long to realize that it is a tug-of-war between the band program and the rest of the school, not to mention the personal life of students. However, year after year, these new ‘Super Heroes” manage to have quality programs despite the hurdles they face. Above all, they have a passion for music and the band program, provide musical direction, find scholarships for the students, accommodate special needs students, implement differentiated instructional techniques, support district mandates for raising student achievement and closing achievement gaps, are responsible for fund raising activities and yes, in many cases have become community leaders.

Overcoming all of these challenges is certainly not an easy task. We must continue to be strong advocates fighting to keep music alive in our schools.  We must continue to promote music and communicate to policymakers the value of what music education can do for a child — whether it’s academic, whether it’s social, whether it’s emotional — so that they understand the benefits of music education.”

To our Super Heroes, I say … keep the music playing!!!!!

Are there ways that you are advocating to keep music alive in schools that would be helpful to share with others reading this?

Turning Student Performers Into Student Creators

By Thomas J. West

Over the past two years, I have endeavored to add more opportunities for students to create their own music, both in improvisation and in written composition. It is definitely a slow process, taking a long time to build into my program, but that’s why I know it is going to be very impactful over the next several years. I am finishing my fourth year teaching in my current school setting, and as in any newer setting, it takes time for the youngest students you have who have received only your instruction matriculate up through to graduation. My current group of eighth and ninth graders are my lead group, having been with me since fifth grade, and the results of this training are most obvious there.

The overall structure of my program looks something like this:

Year 1: wind instrumentalists learn and become proficient at concert Bb, Eb, Ab, F, and C major scales and tonic triad arpeggios by rote with letter names. String instrumentalists do the same with the C, G, D, A, F, and Bb scales. In the third marking period, they improvise using their most proficient scale over a class ostinato using primary chords (I, IV, V, I). In the fourth marking period, they compose their own original melody written for their primary instrument with chordal accompaniment on piano.

Year 2: Students learn the remaining major scales and arpeggios in the circle of fifths (which involves side key and chromatic fingerings for the woodwinds and shifting to 2nd and 3rd position for the violins and violas). They do some more improvisation in marking period 1 and compose another solo melody piece in marking period 2. Marking period 3 is mostly concert preparation, and marking period 4 is their first exposure to writing two part inventions for their primary instrument without accompaniment.

Year 3: Students begin to learn and perform natural minor scales and dorian and mixolydian modes. They begin improvising over more complex chord progressions, including simple jazz standards and show tunes. They make their first attempts at writing three-part and four-part pieces for their primary instrument.

Year 4: Students continue studies from Year 3, venturing into writing projects with mixed instrumentation, including electronic music and online distribution systems.

Sound ambitious? That’s because there are only a handful of music programs in the US that are doing something similar, as far as I have been able to determine. There are, of course, students who need longer than 2 years to learn the beginning content as well, especially string players.

How can there possibly be time to do all that and still have public concerts? Simple: public performance is not the solitary focus of the program. Public concert repertoire is kept in the grade 2 and grade 3 range, focusing on quality music-making with mastery and expressiveness as the goal rather than complexity that the average musician struggles to understand and become technically proficient in performing.

So how are the students reacting at the end of year two? There are a few who do the composition begrudgingly, just as there are always those who do the improvisation and solo and small group performing begrudgingly. The majority of the students, however, relish the opportunity to be musically creative and in many cases expand their study beyond the scope of the outline above. I have second year composition students who are already writing for instruments beyond their primary one, students who are writing for full ensembles, a student who is a Frank Zappa acolyte writing in 11/8 time, and students who have already written over 30 scores.

As an instrumental music teacher in a unique public cyber school setting, all of my students have access to the internet at home, so after starting their compositions initially on manuscript paper, we are making full use of Noteflight Classroom. Students can work on scores from any computer. Several of them asked me if they would have access to their accounts over the summer and plan to do some recreational writing of their own. To quote Hannibal from The A Team, “I love it when a plan comes together.”

Eventually, the plan is for our public concerts to be primarily featuring student compositions performed by the students themselves, with students able to write, perform, edit, mix, master, and distribute their own creations via the internet. In this brave new world of technology and communication, music students have fantastic opportunities their predecessors never had. Teaching the internet generation to create and share their own music not only will enrich their lives, but will validate and legitimize public school music education for the 21st century.

Thanks goes to Thomas J. West Music for letting us use his blog!

Thomas J. West is an active music educator, composer, adjudicator, clinician, and award-winning blogger.
http://thomasjwestmusic.com

How much does this differ from the long term plan you have for your students? Do you use any unique techniques to get your students to start composing?

musIc or mUSic?

By Richard Meyer

“What is the number one reason that you make music?”

How would your students respond to this question? When I asked my students three years ago, I wasn’t surprised when over 90 percent of them centered their answers around themselves:

“It makes me relaxed.”
“It gives me a chance to express myself.”
“It’s fun (for me).”

Only a handful mentioned the audience in their answer, “I make music to entertain people and to make people happy.”

From that point on, the music program at my school changed. I implemented a program, called Giving Bach, designed to make my students more aware of how their music has an impact on their audience. I chose as our “target audience” special-needs students, and sought out opportunities for my orchestra to perform for groups of young people that many of them had never encountered.

But just performing for special needs students was not enough, and I knew that to truly understand their audience, my students had to do more than just play a traditional concert. As a result, we developed interactive concerts, which start like every other concert, but end up quite differently – with the musicians and the audience sitting side by side. After performing in a traditional setting, each of my students is paired up with an audience member. They introduce themselves, and explain to their “buddy” about their instrument. They teach them how to care for it and hold it, and how to produce a tone. Finally, we end every Giving Bach concert with the D String Blues, performed by audience members, assisted by one of our students.

I use two of my compositions from this year’s release as part of our Giving Bach repertoire – Q&A and Can Can Basses. Our concerts also include sections features from some of my other compositions – The Billy Tell Overture, Serendipity Suite, Cello Squadron, and Viva Violas! And we like to program Guest Soloist, too. It’s a fun way to feature a single audience member, and kind of “break the ice” with the audience.

As I watch my own students take part in this program, I have seen them become much more confident, empathetic and compassionate citizens, with a better understanding of the power that they have to affect the world with their music.

In the past three years, we have performed for (and with) children from the Down Syndrome Association of Los Angeles, the Starlight Children’s Foundation, the Junior Blind of America, several therapeutic schools, and for foster children and students in inner-city schools.

I encourage all directors to explore the power of interactive concerts with their own students. For further explanation of the Giving Bach program and ideas for implementing it at your own school, visit givingbach.org.

We’d love to hear from you and share more ideas. How do you make your students more aware of how their music has an impact on their audience?

Cool Tips

By Vince Gassi

 

You’ve made it. You’ve reached the end of another busy, productive school year and it feels good to be on a well-deserved break. As you wind down during the summer months, you may find yourself occasionally thinking ahead to next year. It’s ok…just breathe. However, the ideas that occur to you are worth remembering, so be sure to keep a mobile device close by so you can record them immediately. It’s good to think back over the past year and assess: what worked well, what needs improvement, etc.? Are there any initiatives you need to implement or things you want to include next year? Your projects don’t need to be epic; they just need to be worth the time to implement. This article is meant to offer two ideas that you may wish to consider. Perhaps you’ve got the engine running smoothly and are ready to try just one new idea to up your game.

 

Cool Tip #1 – The Long and Short Game

Choose your performance repertoire by asking yourself all the usual questions regarding the number and types of performances (festival, holiday, etc.)? Then, for the long game, choose one piece that will be an all-year project. A few years ago, in September, I introduced a piece to my young band that was just a step beyond their ability. In fact, at the time, I was afraid it might have been too difficult. I certainly didn’t want to discourage them but at the same time, I didn’t want them to become too complacent. To reassure them, I told them that we were just trying an experiment and that we weren’t necessarily going to perform this “challenge” piece. It was just to see how much progress we could make on it by the end the year.

Each week we would just play through sections of it that I thought were “attainable”. Since we weren’t really going to perform it, there was no pressure. After two months, I began to notice that much of it was sounding fairly good, but it still wasn’t ready for performance. Besides, we had other repertoire that was definitely going to be performed. Their progress by December was amazing and, to my utter astonishment, we performed it at our Christmas concert. I’m not one hundred percent sure why they took so well to this challenge. Perhaps it was the non-threatening way in which I introduced or it was simply fun to play; whatever the reason, I was grateful. We performed it again at a festival in March at an even higher level. Even if my band had never performed that piece, they still benefitted from all the hard work.

Now for the short game. Consider selecting a number of pieces from your music library that your students haven’t seen before. Any style will do, in fact, the more variation the better. Introduce only one new piece each week. You are only going to play it once. Keep forcing your ensemble to read new material. Their sight-reading will improve greatly and they won’t be bored. Your rehearsals can consist of a warm-up, then once through the “new piece”, and then finally the remainder of the rehearsal could be spent on rehearsing the music you’ll actually perform (of course if you are playing “the long game” you can run through the challenge piece as you see fit). The rule should be that, as an ensemble, they have to play the sight-reading piece from beginning to end without stopping, NO MATTER WHAT!! Even if some or most (or even all) students get lost, keep conducting and count every bar aloud as if they were still in the right spot. It may not seem productive initially, but if you do this every week your students’ musical awareness will improve greatly. Eventually your students will be able to sight read all the way through a new piece with fewer mistakes. At the end of the term, your music folders will be really thick but your students will have far better sight-reading “chops”. As a bonus, you may actually move some of those pieces from the sight-reading column to the performance column. But that’s all cool stuff for next year. Now go have a great summer, rest up, and see you in September.

Stay Tuned for…

Cool Tip #2 – The Mini Road Trip

Encourage Students: Scale to New Heights

By: Chris M. Bernotas Why do we place so much emphasis on scales as band directors?  Well, that’s a silly question – to help prepare students for the challenges that arise in their music!  Specifically, we help our students learn their scales to help prepare them for technical passages and to help them attain the muscle memory skills necessary for performing music.  Scales aren’t just for learning fast music, but that could be a whole other article topic. I could continue to list the wonderful benefits of learning scales; they are so exciting and fun! Well, they are fun once you have them mastered.  There is one thing that does bother me about scales though.  You know the scale pattern we are all familiar with?  Think about it; sing it in your head.  It goes like this:

If you are really fancy you can double the speed, or triple it to show off at parties.  I love this scale rhythm; it is nice, neat and fits in a box.  It is such a great rhythm for teaching the skills associated with learning scales.  What, then, is my problem?  Glad you asked.  My experience with students has been that once they learn and memorize their scales with this pattern, they have trouble deviating from it.  Ask students to play a scale from the top note down and then back up, in a dotted eighth and sixteenth pattern.  Can they do it?  How about a pattern like this for some variety:

Or what about a “non” pattern, just to keep things interesting:

One of the beautiful things about music, both in performance and in composition, is that it is limitless.  There are an infinite number of possibilities of what can be written or how a single piece can be performed.  Learning scales is simply a gateway for opening up the creative and interpretive power in music. Practicing scales in a common pattern is a fantastic idea; it provides stability for the learner and a common vocabulary for teachers. I will continue to use this well established pattern with my students as well as incorporate different and innovative patterns to challenge them. I believe it is not only important for us to encourage students to accept the wisdom that mastering scales can provide, but to also encourage them to try new things with their new scale friends.  Play them backwards, start in the middle and go up then down, swing them!  Most of all encourage students to have fun!

Twitter for Bands and Public Relations

The following is the presentation from Joe Pisano’s TI:ME/JEN clinic on Saturday, January 7th, 2012 held at the Galt House in Lousiville, KY. The presentation was titled Twitter for Bands and Public Relations.

Twitter for Bands and Public Relations

View more PowerPoint from Joseph Pisano

Thanks to Joseph M. Pisano, Ph.D and http://mustech.net for letting us reference his presentation! Follow him @PisanoJM!

Also, follow Alfred at @BandOrch!

Thoughts on Composing for the Young Concert Band

By Ralph Ford

Over the past year, I have presented a clinic at state, district, and university conferences discussing my thoughts about the process of creating music for beginning and developing players. It has been invaluable to receive feedback from teachers in discussions about music that engages the young musician, especially those at the beginning stages of musical ability. It is through discussions such as these that I’m able to better meet the needs of the ensembles with varying abilities around the world. As a composer of music for any medium, I truly enjoy my attempts at creating works at this level for orchestra, concert band, and jazz ensemble. Those people who know me personally understand that I often think (and sometimes act) like a child. As a father of two young musicians, I examine what keeps them drawn to music. Additionally, I feel a responsibility to find a musical balance for the ʻteacher/musician/conductorʼ: to provide the best musical experience for the director as well as the students (and the audience!). When setting out to compose (or arrange) a piece for young or beginning players, I strongly consider each of the following points:

1. Individual parts strive to be linear: As though each individual part were a solo line, I strive to make everyone’s part flow musically and logically.
2. Everyone gets the melody, or at least a motif: This is extremely important for the developing musician. Years ago this advice was given to me by one of the best middle school directors I’ve ever known and I have tried to stick to this principle on every piece.
3. Cross curricular opportunities are examined carefully: Finding ways to integrate music into other school curricula is a positive way to encourage connections with other academic subjects.
4. Provide a musical ʻhookʼ to excite the players: Especially with beginners. Strong unison lines that establish a piece and re-occur during the performance seem to engage even the shyest of students.
5. Create a piece that provides materials for concept reinforcements, i.e. the ʻreal worldʼ application of concepts from the method book(s).
6. Create a piece that is fun to play: music that motivates practice and continued involvement in music.

The esteemed conductor and educator, Ray Cramer, once made a list that attempts to answer the question, “What comprises music of artistic merit?”Although this list has been quoted many times, I feel it is appropriate to revisit it for this discussion. DOES THE MUSIC POSSESS/CONTAIN:

1. A well conceived formal structure?
2. Creative melodies and counter-lines?
3. Harmonic imagination?
4. Rhythmic vitality?
5. Contrast in all musical elements?
6. Scoring which best represents the full potential for beautiful tone and timbre?
7. An emotional impact?

Well stated, in my opinion. For the record, I keep a copy of this list in my studio to review before I embark on a new project. During my college band director days, I also kept this list at my desk as I reviewed music for performance with my wind ensemble. It continues to serve me well.

Warm up? Or Worn out!

By Chris Bernotas
Alfred Author

What is the purpose of a warm up in the band (or any) classroom?  Students come into our classrooms from a variety of places, both physically and mentally.  Maybe they are coming from lunch, or a science lab, or home.  The fact is, not every student comes into the music room with the sole focus of creating and communicating through music.

I believe that the first ten (or even twenty) minutes of class are far more important than even the literature.  Is that a crazy thought?  Maybe it is, but I have always had the belief that if students are prepared properly, physically and mentally, they will absorb the literature more easily and with more meaning.

In preparation for each of our ensemble rehearsals we do much more than a single scale for a warm up, but let’s take a second and analyze one role of using a scale as part of your warm up.

“Here we go, Bb scale, whole notes.  Ready? Go!”  I admit it; I have been guilty of using this scale warm up method and honestly, is starting with a scale in whole notes a bad thing? No, it isn’t.  Is a routine that students can expect when they come into the room a bad thing? Nope.  What is so bad about it then?  Answer: Performing a scale in whole notes without purpose.

It isn’t that the teacher doesn’t know the purpose, but often we forget to share our secrets with our students.  It is called assumed knowledge – we sometimes assume students know the reason for performing each exercise.

Quite often they do not know and will obediently perform as you ask without knowing why it is important.  For a student, warming up might simply mean heating up their instrument.  Really! Ask them! They will tell you.

The Bb scale will take on a whole new meaning if you share with students that in addition to getting their bodies prepared (by paying attention to their breathing and posture) and their facial muscles prepared (by focusing on proper embouchure), they are also warming up their minds.

We are all well aware of critical thinking and problem solving – going beyond surface learning and understanding.  Are students aware that they do this everyday in music? And every time they are making a sound?

When you share the secret with students that when they play long tones in the Bb scale they should be listening to and analyzing the following:

1. Quality of the sound – is it a good characteristic sound? If not, change it!  This is the problem solving part.  Students need to experiment to change their sound, as a teacher, try to learn to trust their judgment.
2. Balance within their section – Are you blending well with the performers on either side of you? With the section? With the band overall? Have you, as the teacher, shared with your students how you would like them to play in balance?  What exactly does playing in balance mean?  Maybe you know what you are looking for, but do your students?
3. Tuning – is your sound in tune?  Do your students know what “in tune” is?  Do they think it is just something that a machine tells them?  Do they know that you need to tune every note? And that each instrument and each person plays differently and they need to be aware of tuning 100% of the time they are making a sound?  Tuning to one note is merely a reference.  We know that, but do our students? Adjusting pitch is problem solving.
4. Articulation – How does each note begin? Is it an accent? Are notes slurred from note to note? Be sure to let them know!
5. Phrasing – If the scale is in whole notes, where should they breathe?  Is it staggered breathing?
6. Dynamics – Is the scale going to be one dynamic? That’s fine, but tell them!

There are many ways to warm up in the band classroom and the Bb scale (or any other, try Concert C for a whole new opportunity to work on critical thinking and problem solving!) is just one of them.

The important thing is to share the why with our students.  Too often we take for granted that our students already know the why and in reality it is our responsibility to be sure that they know the purpose of what we ask them to do.

If students understand the reason for the exercise, they will perform it with more meaning and the end result will be far more beneficial to your rehearsal and to their success.

The Word: Teaching Composition Using Little or No Theory

By Vince Gassi

Creating music is fun. Creating music that others enjoy is even more fun. The Word is a very simple project that students at any level can have fun with today. It doesn’t require any theory and you don’t have to be a composer to introduce them to the wonderful world of creating music.

Assign a descriptive word, such as evolution, time, or plasma, to each student. Be creative. Choose words that are evocative. The clearer the concept, the easier it will be for students to generate ideas. The mission, should your young composers decide to accept it, is to create a one to two minute piece based on their word. The only rule is to have fun being creative. Encourage them to push beyond the limits of their imagination. By thinking beyond the obvious, to imagine options they had not previously considered, they will be taking the first steps to developing a critical skill that will serve them in everything they do.

They can use MIDI software or real instruments. Either way, they will be creating a soundscape. Anyone can quickly learn how to load an instrumental sound in applications such as Cubase or Logic. With a few simple instructions, and a little experimentation, your students will be editing and combining sounds in a jiffy.

It is critical that you thoroughly convince your students that there are no wrong answers. I cannot over-emphasize this enough. Students are often inhibited by the desire to give their teacher the “right” answer. They are afraid of being wrong and may be thinking “I’m not a composer” or “I don’t know what to do”. This fear shuts off pathways in the brain that lead to the generation of creative ideas. Be patient. They’ll need lots of encouragement to not give up. Their first efforts may not seem like much, but you must see them as potential gems, so be effusive in your praise. Assure them that high marks are guaranteed before they start.

Outline the following steps in the creative process: conceptualization (what’s the story or main idea; a written description may help as the concept will evolve as students continue through this process), brainstorming (generation of ideas often through improvisation), experimentation (playing with or modifying your ideas), refining and polishing (repeated listening, clipping and pruning). (By the way, Brainstorm is a great word to use!!)

No computers? No problem! At my middle school, I arranged the percussion instruments in a circle. We didn’t have much, just a bass drum, snare drum, cymbal, and bells. After teaching the proper grip for sticks and mallets, I demonstrated how a group of students could construct a soundscape. Soft hits on the bass drum (two seconds apart) establish an ostinato. A cymbal roll (soft mallets) begins quietly and gradually gets louder. Bells strike Bb and F at regular intervals like a clock chiming. Other instruments, such as rattles, shakers, and tambourines are added gradually. The possibilities are limitless. Stress that composition is essentially organizing sound to create a dramatic effect. Don’t be afraid to add winds, brass, strings, and voices. All groups should include one of each. Sustained clusters,random pitches, spoken words, repeated syllables, whispers, finger snaps, and tongue clicks can all be effective. Remember, this process can last one period or one week. It’s up to you.

Demonstrate how to create a graphic score. Draw a timeline from left to right across the top of the page (landscape) and list the instruments down the left hand side. Sustained notes can be indicated with a horizontal line, shorter notes with X’s at the desired timecode. Let the notation be whatever is needed to clearly indicate the composer’s intent. Each group could even have a conductor.

Use the opportunity to discuss instrument choices and the use of musical elements such as tempo, rhythm, volume, etc. A culminating activity could include performances for other classes. Call it “Two-Dollar Tuesdays” and raise funds for your growing MIDI lab (which will become popular as The Word literally gets out about the cool things happening in your course). My senior students invited the English class from across the hall. The English students welcomed the diversion and completed an evaluation rubric which included comments on the how well the music depicted the word. All comments must be positive. Peers must find something that worked to share with their composer colleagues. Positive feedback definitely builds confidence. One more thing; it never hurts to invite your principal.

As your students feel up to the challenge of engaging in more ambitious projects, you can introduce more theory. Learning theory as needed is much easier than trying to digest books full of it with no concrete end in mind. As you develop other great projects, your students, by repeatedly going through the creative process, will mature and begin to think of themselves as composers.

Teaching Music Students How To Rehearse

In the traditional American public school band, chorus, or orchestra program, 90 to 95% of available class time is spent preparing the large ensemble for the next public performance. This in and of itself is a noble pursuit that is a valued experience for the majority of the students involved. In my instrumental music program, however, we spend most of the first marking period building basic independent musicianship skills and addressing basic concepts in tone production, rote technique work, basic music theory, and solo repertoire study. Marking period 1 concludes with a series of in-class clinics focused on performing major scales and excerpts from their solo pieces.

In marking period 2, we begin preparations for the winter concert, which occurs just before winter break. This program is abbreviated – only about an hour’s worth of material, and it features both chamber ensemble and combined class performances. The repertoire performed is technically less demanding. My classes are “leveled” somewhat in middle school, with my more experienced 7th and 8th graders getting their own class period. My other middle school classes contain a wide mix of experience levels from raw beginners to students who have been playing their instrument for four years.

Because there are beginners involved, I have to teach the basics of ensemble performance and rehearsal. I give demonstrations in basic conducting patterns, introduce concepts like balance, blend, and ensemble intonation, and provide students with strategies for playing with rhythmic integrity and finding their place if they get lost during a performance.

I also teach the basics of rehearsing as an ensemble. Efficient, effective use of time is paramount, especially since we have less time to prepare the repertoire in class. Ensemble rehearsing concepts that the student must follow are:

•     Performing assigned excerpts as instructed – stopping at the end of the assigned section without going on
•     Understanding directions for repetitions the first time they are given, including which instruments will be playing this time, where they start, where they end, and what the goal or emphasis for that repetition is
•     Simply performing excerpts for successful repetitions multiple times with little or no feedback given
•     Practicing fingerings while the director is rehearsing another section, or critically listening to the rehearsing section and offering constructive criticism when called for
•     Developing the mindset of improving some aspect of performance with every rep, or building consistency

All of these concepts are addressed verbally and reinforced by the teacher experientially. Rehearsing efficiently becomes the standard operating procedure that makes it possible to produce a quality public performance in a shorter amount of class time. As middle school students matriculate up to the high school, they bring with them foundational knowledge basic to intermediate tone production, rote technique, scale and chord theory, ear training concepts, basic melodic compositional skills, and effective, disciplined individual and ensemble practice methods.

Thanks goes to Thomas J. West Music for letting us use his blog!

Thomas J. West is an active music educator, composer, adjudicator, clinician, and award-winning blogger.
http://thomasjwestmusic.com