Artistic Quality and Bow Technique

By Kirk D. Moss, Ph.D.

String performers and teachers regard Ivan Galamian as one of the greatest violin pedagogues in history. Galamian’s system seemed to work regardless of how much or how little natural talent a student possessed, prompting the former first violinist of the Tokyo Quartet to famously joke that Galamian could make a violinist out of a table. In terms of specific exercises, the collé bow stroke was the staple of the Galamian world. Galamian students would warm up every day with collé. Playing it slowly was more important than fast, and Galamian had students play it in all parts of the bow with every possible bow direction combination: all ups, all downs, then back and forth.

Following in the Galamian tradition, the new Sound Innovations: Sound Development for Intermediate String Orchestra, Level 2: Sound Bowings introduces the collé bow stroke. Using collé to develop your students’ right-hand finger flexibility can make a noticeable difference on every bow change and in every attack stroke. Listen for clarity in hooked-staccato bowings and articulate martelé to hear the click at the beginning of each stroke. Refine the height of the spiccato bounce as well as the placement of the spiccato stroke. By paying more attention to these details, your students can share in the Galamian lineage of sound-driven technique. Remember: Artistic quality has no limits.

Teaching Tone With Sound Innovations: Sound Development for Intermediate String Orchestra, Level 1: Sound Tone

Kirk D. Moss, Ph.D.

Without sound, there would be no music; and without the right hand, a string player makes no sound. A string player’s right hand shares similarities with the voice of a singer. Many string teachers compare the bow to the singer’s breath. Just as a singer vocalizes, a string player needs to “tonalize” or produce sound by a planned design. Designing a signature sound requires more than simply playing a warm-up scale, and that’s why I’m excited to tell you about Level 1: Sound Tone within the new Sound Innovations: Sound Development for Intermediate String Orchestra.

 Level 1 offers a systematic approach to developing right-hand technique through teaching sequences that refine the most important variables of sound: bowing lanes, bow weight, and bow speed. Teach your students to change bowing lanes for added dynamic contrast, release bow weight to feel the natural spring of the bow stick, save and spend bow length by varying bow speed, and use different sections of the bow by dividing the bow into thirds. Imagine how refined your students will sound when they vary these variables to produce a more characteristic beautiful tone in their repertoire. Remember: Students can do anything; we just have to teach them how.

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.

Mastering Bow Techniques with Sound Innovations: Sound Development

By Bob Phillips

There are many factors in creating a beautiful sound on a string instrument. My personal belief is that the right hand is key for tone, ensemble playing and even influences intonation– really everything that we want to develop in string players. The foundation for teaching these important skills begins the first day of string instruction and is present in Sound Innovations Books 1 and 2. As students reach middle school, or an intermediate level, the skills can be refined a bit further and that’s when it’s really fun to work on these skills. I am very excited to be able to tell you about the third level of Sound Innovations and announce that the focus is sound, hence the title: Sound Development.

I am really excited about this because I feel so strongly about the importance of investing time in the class or the private lesson in building right hand skills. Some of the most important skills to develop are bow placement, bow speed and bow weight and so that’s where SI: Sound Development for Intermediate Strings begins. Sequential instruction will lead the students to success. Later units focus on additional intermediate skills including new bowings and shifting and we’ll talk more about that in future posts.

Bob Phillips is well known in the music education community as a successful teacher, composer, teacher-trainer and conductor. He is the Director of String Publications for Alfred Music Publishing and the President-elect of the American String Teachers Association.

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

Four Fingers: Three Tendons and a Thumb

By William Dick
Alfred Author

Tendons are the manipulators that allow our fingers to flex.  They are also the part of our arms that most often become inflamed or injured: tendonitis.  I am not a physiologist but I would like to offer some opinions about how to best use our bow arm.

First, let’s do a physical demonstration:  Place the heels of both hands together in front of you with the palm and pads of your thumb and fingers touching (a praying gesture).  Next, tuck your second fingers into the palm of both hands so that the middle knuckles firmly touch each other (your palms will open but the heel of your hands and the pads of the other fingers and thumb will still be touching).  Now, tap-tap your first finger pads; no problem, tap-tap your thumb pads; no problem, tap-tap your pinkie pads; no problem, but when you try to tap-tap your third (ring) finger pads you will discover that you can’t.  Indeed no human can if they keep the middle knuckles firmly touching.

This manipulation shows a very important fact about the way our arms and hands are made.  The thumb has its own tendon.  First finger and pinkie each has a separate tendon.  However, our two middle fingers (two and three on a stringed instrument) share a tendon.  If you look at the back of your hand you can see and trace the tendons for the thumb, first and fourth fingers.  With a bit of investigation you will see and feel that second and third fingers start with separate tendons, but that the two tendons merge at a spot in the middle of the back of your hand.

This spot becomes a center of gravity or balance point of finger motion.  The thumb works in opposition to our fingers and allows us to grip through prehensile motions and offers counterbalance to our fingers.

In applying this information to the bow arm of shoulder string instruments let’s consider the following ideas:

The  thumb is to the bow hold as the spine is to the body

• The spine is located in the center of the body and creates the center of gravity for the body.  The arms and legs are then free appendages operating from this center.
• The body of the bow hold is the two middle fingers.  The thumb, acting as the spine, is located opposite this mass to create a center of gravity for the bow hold.
• The first finger and the pinkie, acting as free agents, serve as stabilizers and “influencers”.

The thumb is the only part of the bow hold that has a specific place that it has to be

• The thumb must touch both the frog and the stick
• The thumb nail approaches the stick/frog at a near 45-degree angle
• A view of the thumb under the fingers of the bow hold should reveal the thumb nail only

Placement of the two middle fingers

• The two middle fingers establish the center of gravity for the bow hold by forming an opposable pivot point with the thumb
• The two middle fingers touch both the stick and the frog

The first finger and the pinkie

• The first finger touches the stick at the first (fingernail) joint of the finger
• The pinkie touches the stick above the frog.  It must not be behind the frog extended to touch the tightening screw.

Front and back control

• The thumb and the little finger control the backside of the bow
• The two middle fingers and the first finger control the front of the bow

Axis of pivot*

• The middle fingers and the thumb establish the pivot point or fulcrum
• The first finger and the pinkie work in opposition
• The tip of the bow and the frog of the bow must be able to move in opposition

In penmanship the pencil moves around inside your hand, guided by your thumb and fingers to express your thoughts and feelings.  In playing a stringed instrument the bow moves around inside you hand, guided by your thumb and fingers to express your thoughts and feelings and the beauty and joy of music.

*For more details and exercises about these ideas please see the bow games in Mastery for Strings, Level One by Mr. Dick and Dr. Laurie Scott, distributed by Alfred Publishing.

Mr. Dick and Dr. Scott with Winifred Crock are the authors of the Alfred Publication:  Learning Together: Sequential Repertoire for Solo Strings or the String Ensemble.

Making the most of holiday performing opportunities!

Tim McCarrick
Alfred Author

I’m going to have the audacity to suggest that you add at least one more performance to your already busy schedule! Hear me out.

Every time your group performs they have the opportunity to become better musicians. There’s something about playing in front of people that cannot be reproduced in rehearsal. And, there is much more than the music; there is the shared experience. It can be the subject of discussion for years: ‘Do you remember the red bow-ties?”; “How about that bus ride?” and so on. The group can buiild a shared history, common stories, more successes, more friendship, and better musicianship.

If you’ve come along this far, you may be thinking, “This idea isn’t that crazy.” In that case, here are just a few suggestions to fuel your imagination. First, check the school calendar for events already planned that are that are close to your performance. For instance: The PTO meets 2 nights before your concert? Then hold an open dress rehearsal an hour earlier and invite them to come in and hear your rehearsal. Have a string quartet offering songs as the PTO enters the building. How about playing in the cafeteria during lunch, where the students get to play for their peers? Or play on the morning announcements. Shopping malls regularly schedule school performing groups, and retirement homes would never turn down a free concert! Have a middle school group perform for the elementary group. Have the high school orchestra play for the middle school.

Well, at this point, I hope your imagination has taken off and you are at least considering the possibilities of getting a couple extra performances in this holiday season. Good luck and have fun teaching and playing music!

Designing a Great Instrumental Music Curriculum

By Bob Phillips

I am often asked what the factors of success for instrumental music programs are. There are a variety of things to consider such as starting age, time on task, facilities, equipment, scheduling and many others. One of the most important resources for any instrumental teacher is a well thought out curriculum. A comprehensive curriculum paired with great supporting materials allows educators to teach with efficiency and success.

It was Lewis Carroll that said “If you don’t know where you are going, any road will get you there”. The best instrumental curriculums pair national/state standards and best practices with local situations and traditions. Teachers tend to be more successful when they have input into the curriculum and the strategies for implementation. There are many great resources for music curriculum design such as the Music Educators National Conference and the American String Teachers Association. Professional organizations such as these offer many ideas and resources online and through their member services departments. Local teachers can then use these resources to help them design curriculums that meet the needs of their individual students and communities.

The exit outcomes for each grade level or age must be determined. Knowing what we want our students to be able to do is the first step in creating a great program. The second step is assessment, so we can monitor students’ progress toward those outcomes as well as our own growth as teachers. Assessment is a key component of any curriculum and is what makes it a living, breathing document that will be used and revised.

Another important part of any curriculum is method books. Instrumental teachers have a wide variety of books to choose from. Ideally any materials chosen should be flexible enough to meet the needs of the curriculum. The best materials take into account the teacher’s teaching style and the learning styles of the students, schools, and community. Alfred Music Publishing’s new methods, Sound Innovations for Concert Band and Sound Innovations for String Orchestra allow teachers to create a Directors Choice edition. Teachers are able to make pedagogical decisions as well as select some of the music in the method. The customizable version allows teachers to choose tunes from a wide variety of genres include Christian, Jewish, Latino, African-American, American Folk and Patriotic and many others.

In a recent national poll over 93% of Americans thought that music should be taught to all students and was an important part of the curriculum. If music is to play an important role in the school curriculum then music curricula should be written that allow all of our students to be successful and participate in our instrumental ensembles.

Bob Phillips is well known in the music education community as a successful teacher, composer, teacher-trainer and conductor. He is the Director of String Publications for Alfred Music Publishing and the President-elect of the American String Teachers Association.

Learning Together: Sequential Repertoire for Solo Strings or String Ensembles

By Laurie Scott, Winifred Crock, and William Dick

Recognized string educators Winifred Crock, William Dick, and Laurie Scott have collaborated to produce this new volume for beginning string players. The book is available for each individual instrument and in a piano/conductor score format. Each of the twenty main selections can be performed in a variety of ways: as a solo with piano accompaniment, as a three-part mixed ensemble, or as a trio of like instruments.

The student volume format includes:

* Unison sequenced repertoire for all instruments
* Bass line accompaniments
* Harmony parts
* Additional repertoire including songs to learn by ear, songs to introduce 6/8 meter, and simple canons to introduce part playing.
* Rhythm and meter training including early introduction of triple meter

The repertoire in the Learning Together books offers many opportunities for multi-layered instruction to students and teachers. The materials can be used to:

* Develop sequential technique
* Foster ear training
* Foster ensemble skills
* Develop music literacy and note reading skills

Additionally, the book features a live CD recording of all repertoire, including individual string solos with piano accompaniment, mixed string trio ensembles and piano accompaniments alone. These books reflect the belief that the first stages of study are the most important and set the tone and limits of further development. This volume can be used in the private string studio, in string classes and in university string methods courses in a variety of ways.

Alfred is proud to offer a free download of Rocky Mountain from Learning Together. Please click below for the melody, harmony, bass, and score.

  Score/Piano | Melody & Bass | Harmony

The Next Level: Breaking Young Musicians Through The Intermediate Ceiling

In a successful performing music curriculum at an American public school, students move successfully from their first experiences in singing, instrument mechanics, tone production, ensemble techniques, and so on and upon graduation have acquired a skill set for performance in the intermediate to lower advanced range. Their exiting proficiency depends on many factors: their aptitude level, the music learning environments K-12, the goals of the secondary music program and so on. It is common for many graduating seniors to reach upper intermediate proficiency in actual music performance, but lower proficiency in areas such as rhythm reading, and advanced basic in areas such as music theory, ear training, improvisation, and composition.

There are many teaching philosophies that come into play here. What is the goal for every student of a K-12 public music program? In so many places, the goal is to produce the highest quality high school performing ensemble possible, thereby enriching the lives of the participants in multiple ways and if nothing else making them intellectually aware of quality music-making as they enter the work force. This is an admirable goal and certainly has its place. It is my belief, however, that all music curricula, regardless of its mode of learning (band, chorus, orchestra, theory, electronic music, etc.) should be providing students with enough training in all aspects of music-making with the goal of nurturing them into adults who can create their own art rather than producing a musical “has-been” that has a dust-collecting instrument case in their attic.

For music performance, students need enough training in sight-reading, theory, scale study, and improvisation to be able to know and understand “the next level” of musicianship – the one that requires complete proficiency in all twelve major and natural minor scales on their primary instrument. It’s the level that allows singers to successfully sight-read vocal music without having to have the part played for them first. It’s the level where students understand the rehearsal process and what it means to move their performance into the mastery stage, where spontaneous sub-conscious recall has been drilled into place.

For non-traditional music students taking electronic music, music theory, or composition classes, they need to develop proficiency on a primary instrument of some kind, whether that instrument is their voice, a guitar, a piano, or the computer itself. To create music, they need a medium that can be transferable, which is either traditional music notation, music sequencing, or both.

The goal is to give them the skills to be life-long participants in music, whether that means performing in community groups, writing and sharing their own music, or at the very least supporting quality music-making that advances our collective culture rather than devalues it. That means giving them the training to get them out of the beginner level into the intermediate level in all aspects of music making, not just music performance.

So, as the title of this article applies, is “breaking through the intermediate ceiling” into advanced levels of performance, improvisation, and composition even a valid pursuit for public school programs? The answer is a qualified “yes.”

The next generation of music teachers, performers, and composers comes from within the ranks of our performing ensembles and electronic music classes. In many states, opportunities for further enrichment in performance music exist in the form of honors ensembles, all-state ensembles, and state adjudications. But where are the opportunities for composition? NAfME sponsors programs for student music composition as well as electronic music, as do some states, but it is a slowly developing field.

Our culture suffers from the delusion that to compose music, you have to be a genius like Mozart, an innovator like Beethoven or Paul McCartney, or a trend-setter like John Williams. It is certainly true that composition requires the composer to have a depth of knowledge in more than just performance, however, which is why the traditional performance-centric public school program doesn’t give students the skills necessary to compose at even the most basic levels.

We as a music education profession have bought into the notion the commercial music is a bunch of fluff and we are “fighting the good fight” to keep our band in the stands on Friday night, our orchestras attempting to play Tchaik 5, and our choral programs singing whatever Eric Whitacre writes next. There are commercial musicians who come from a traditional background, such as Cake and Ben Folds, but until we as a profession begin to embrace the idea that there is more to learning music than having the most professional high school performing ensemble possible, the music industry will continue to be populated by a small pool of “the selected” who do all the creating in the name of profit with little connection to the depth and aesthetic beauty of our cultural musical roots. That, quite simply, is why commercial music is rife with quarter-inch deep content, why 80% of our students can’t relate to our music programs, and we are constantly fighting to maintain our legitimacy and our jobs.

To read more ideas, check out Thomas J. West Music’s blog: The Next Level: Breaking Young Musicians Through The Intermediate Ceiling

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