Students That Keep Us Teachers Going

By Robert Sheldon
Alfred Concert Band Editor

Jeremy was a very shy high school junior when I met him. Although he had no musical experience, he was aware of the band activities of some of his friends and really wanted to join the band. He chose tenor sax and signed up for marching band. The marching part came easily enough but he did not know how to read music. Once he learned a handful of notes, I wrote him his own part of half notes and whole notes which he played with great enthusiasm! By the following year he had improved enough that he was able to play the “real” music. It was always a joy to see how much he loved playing his sax and being part of the band family.

“Doctor” Jeremy is now a veterinarian and president of his twin daughter’s band booster organization. Music has no greater supporter. It’s students like Jeremy that keep us teachers going, and that’s why we know you do everything you can for your students – and that is why we are here to help!

Thanks for considering Alfred for the next concert band performance!

Listening Sideways (or the Art of Playing Together)

By Vince Gassi

Listening sideways is the second of three essential steps toward developing a more musical ensemble. As music educators, we attempt to teach our students how to practice properly so that 1) they are constantly improving their technique. The more control they begin to have over the instrument, the more they can 2) direct awareness outward and listen to what is happening around them. This leads to 3) the stage where your ensemble is ready to work on expressiveness.

Here is a simple but essential exercise to help develop the ability of your young musicians to ”listen sideways.”

1. Have your ensemble play a concert Bb scale (or insert key of your choice). They can play four quarter notes (all tenuto) on each pitch of the scale (ex. 4 Bbs, 4 Cs, etc.). Play the final note of the scale as a whole note.

2. Encourage all players to listen to each other. Actually use the phrase “listen sideways.” It will be your unique code for them to understand what you are expecting of them. This may be challenging but stick with it.

3. Now have only the first chair players from each section play. Direct them
to play the same scale together in quarter notes as before. Players must
listen to each other and match volume, tuning, note length, style, etc.

4. When the section leaders can do this, have the rest of the ensemble join in. The section players must “listen sideways” in an attempt to match their section leader exactly. If they cannot hear their leader, then they, or others, are playing too loudly and must adjust. This may take several attempts, so be patient.

5. Now have only section leaders play the same scale (or a different one if you choose) but this time, instruct them to play it in a staccato style; remember, 4 quarter notes on each pitch of the scale. Do this until the leaders can match each other. When playing staccato, students may often become impatient and start to rush ahead. Start over if you have to but keep them to the indicated tempo.

6. Now have the rest of the band join in with the instruction that they must once again listen to their leader and match them exactly. The goal is to have each section sound like one player.

7. And now for the real challenge. Have the whole band play the scale again, starting legato (4 Bbs, 4 Cs, etc.). Ask each section leader to switch at a time of his or her own choosing, from tenuto to staccato. Yes, you’ll have different sections playing different note lengths at the same time but, since this often occurs in your repertoire, it will be excellent practice. The section members may not switch at exactly the same point as their leader, but keep at it until they can. This is what the ensemble is working towards.

Keep at it each rehearsal until it happens, until the section players switch together with the leader. Even when they achieve this goal, keep doing this exercise at each rehearsal. It is a great way to reinforce this essential listening skill. This is the way athletes train. Baseball players work on the basics before each game of the season, taking ground balls, batting practice, etc., just to stay sharp. I’ve heard it said when the first player player makes a mistake, a well-trained section will make it with her.

8. Try having just one section do this. The other sections will learn much from hearing just the flutes or just the trumpets try this exercise a few times. They may be eager to prove that their section can do better. So let them!! A little healthy competition can be a good thing now and then.

Don’t give up after one or two attempts at this exercise. Keep at it until the ensemble really starts to hear what is going on. It will be at this point that you (and they) will start to notice how much cleaner the ensemble sounds.

You can also do this exercise using chorales. Through regular practice, your students will become conditioned to listen (and really hear) what’s going on around them. This is one definition of a good musician: someone who is aware of what is occurring musically and responds accordingly. Remember, your students don’t come to rehearsal to learn their part, they come to learn everyone else’s part. This is why developing awareness through directed listening is so important. If practiced regularly, you will notice your ensemble maturing as the weeks go by and expressive playing is the inevitable result.

Don’t forget – all this time, you, the conductor – need to be indicating style and tempo. Your students’ awareness should include responding to you as well. So try the same exercise but instruct them to change style when they see you indicate such. You are the ultimate section leader!

Listening sideways is an essential skill which, if practiced on a regular basis, will empower your musicians to mature. Eventually, your ensemble will begin to transform. Your students will become players who are aware of their musical surroundings and will respond appropriately. It is so much more fun for them when they play together. Similarly, it is so much more fun to conduct an ensemble that responds expressively in real time to each other, the hall, and, most importantly, you the conductor. Expressive performance is what all of our hard work is ultimately about. From this point on, the sky is the limit.

How Do I Tune Thee? Let Me Count the Ways

By Chris M. Bernotas

Playing in tune is one of the most important concepts of ensemble performance. It is also one of the most challenging to teach and accomplish. There are many ways to tune as an individual performer and as an ensemble member. Tuning presents a challenge because there are many variables that affect the performance. Some of those variables include the level of development of the student, the quality of the instrument, types of reeds and mouthpieces, the temperature of the hall, and even the harmonic voicing of the music.

Awareness. I find that the most valuable tool in teaching students to play in tune is to simply make them aware of the concept. I rarely, if ever, tell a student if they are sharp or flat.  If I tell them, how will they ever be able to figure it out on their own?  Simply telling students, or better yet, asking them, “Does that sound in tune to you?” or phrasing it differently, “Does your pitch sound the same as….” I also like to use other descriptors when bringing a student’s attention to tuning, “Does this sound clear or pure to you?” Coming up with words to describe what sounding in tune means is helpful for students.

Tuner. The electronic/digital tuner is a wonderful tool. Directors are fortunate to have tuning aids available at their fingertips with many tuning apps. They are terrific for finding a reference pitch or for having students use with their individual practice to find out their particular instrument’s tuning tendencies. As terrific as they are, I encourage students to look away from the tuner while they are playing a note and then look only after establishing their natural pitch.  If students are staring at the tuner immediately as they play, they often adjust to the visual element and aren’t developing their aural analysis. Once a student establishes a quality, natural sound they can then look at the visual meter and make adjustments to center the pitch.  In an ensemble setting, beyond the reference pitch, I rarely use a tuner. Encourage students to listen, analyze and adjust. Encourage them to listen to pitch horizontally (as in a melodic/intervallic way) as well as vertically (harmonically).

How? Often we tell students to “adjust the tuning” or “fix that note” and many times that student will empty their water key, push and pull slides, or look at their instrument like there is something wrong with it. Part of learning to play in tune is learning what to do when you are out of tune. I like to give students a partial list of options: for example, a brass player may need to speed up the air, or slow it down. Maybe a clarinetist or other reed player needs to use more mouthpiece, or less, etc. I find that the tuning slide should be adjusted from time to time, but that is not always the first course of action.  Giving students several options will again encourage them to take an active role in their tuning. Encourage students to individually experiment with their tuning adjustments. Let them try to figure it out–they are either sharp, flat or in-tune.  Sometimes the right adjustment is no adjustment.

Reinforcement. Constant reinforcement of the concept that tuning is an ongoing process is important. I have found that by maintaining a consistent focus on in tune playing, there is much less need for having a student play a note and having the ensemble then match as with the familiar tuning procedure. Ways of reinforcing tuning would include spot-checking unison/octave pitches by sections and instrument families, checking chord tuning, passing notes from section to section. I also vary the timing of tuning reinforcement, if we only talk about tuning at the beginning of the rehearsal students may think that after that part of rehearsal tuning is over.

Student awareness of tuning concepts, understanding appropriate ways to use an electronic/digital tuner, sharing the knowledge of how to fix tuning issues, and consistent reinforcement that tuning is a never-ending process will help your students be active participants in your ensemble that is performing at its best.

Mark Williams Tribute

Mark Williams was one of the premier composers for school bands and orchestras. Co-author of the Accent on Achievement band method, he had over 200 published works to his credit. As a clinician and guest conductor, he traveled to 34 states, 5 Canadian provinces, and Australia.

Mark was a warm, kind, generous, and brilliant human being and he will be greatly missed by all who knew him or experienced his great music.

Personally, I only met Mark Williams once at the Midwest Band & Orchestra Clinic in 2007. With that short time, I saw a hard-working man with a great sense of humor. He even helped tear down our booth Friday evening and joined us for our tradition of deep dish pizza that night. He opted to walk back to the hotel afterwards, which surprised me because it was freezing cold and we weren’t what I would consider walking distance from the hotel. I had no idea that had been my only chance to get to know Mark, as he passed away on January 3, 2008.

As we are preparing for Midwest 2012, I couldn’t help but think back on that night, so I asked a couple of folks who knew him to write a few words about him…

Victoria Meador
Marketing Project Manager
Product Line Specialist: Concert Band, Marching Band, & Sound Innovations
Alfred Music Publishing

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Mark Williams was more than a uniquely talented composer and teacher. After all, each of us aspire to be unique in our approach to teaching and composing. Rather, Mark created and thrived in his own league as a composer and teacher. His compositions helped every elementary and middle school level teacher to take their bands or orchestras to a higher level of performance and enjoyment. Every one of his clinics—and I attend ended many of them—inspired every band and orchestra director to discover the fun and educational value of letting their students play the music that they enjoyed playing, while learning important techniques that helped them to replicate the fun that they had playing his compositions and arrangements.

Mark rejoiced in the art of discovery! He had fun in discovering new ways to bring classical treasures to life. He truly enjoyed motivating experienced teachers to discover unique ways to energize their approach to teaching, and to truly enjoy that special feeling of discovery when their students really felt that they owned a new way of expressing their musicality.

I miss having the opportunity to experience Mark’s creative spirit on a regular basis. I rejoice in the many opportunities that I had to be a small part of his tremendous talents.

Danny Rocks
The Company Rocks
www.thecompanyrocks.com

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One of my proudest achievements during my 35 years as Alfred’s Editor-in-Chief was the discovery of Mark Williams. Mark’s first publication was “Greenwillow Portrait” which was an unsolicited manuscript just like the hundreds of others I received during those years. It was such a special piece, and I immediately picked up the phone to tell him we would publish it the following year. That was my first conversation with Mark and his enthusiasm and excitement about band music was immediately apparent.

From that day forward I always called Mark as soon as I received what was to become an amazing string of hits that made a major impact on the success of the Alfred Concert Band catalog. I was honored to have Mark as my co-author of Accent on Achievement. Some of my fondest memories are related to having Mark stay at my house for extended periods as we planned and ultimately wrote what we both felt was the most practical and creative band method ever written.

John O’Reilly
Co-Author of Accent on Achievement

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I was lucky to work with Mark Williams at Alfred for nearly 20 years. We attended many shows and enjoyed many laughs together. Mark was the closest thing to Mozart for school music that I could think of. He was such a genius at really understanding all the intricacies of each instrument and the challenges that beginners face. That’s why his music was so popular—he wrote it in a way that made every student successful when they performed with their band or orchestra. Luckily, we still have his body of music to share with the world for generations and generations. Mark was a kind, loving and generous human being and he will be deeply missed by all of us in the Alfred family.

Andrew Surmani
Senior Vice President
Managing Director, School & Church Publishing
Alfred Music Publishing

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What Should Graduating Seniors In a Performing Arts Program Be Able to Do?

By the time a student who is actively involved in a band, chorus, or orchestra program graduates high school, what skills should they have? How are music education programs designed for these self-motivated, team player individuals? What should their “exit interview” sound like?

For me as a music educator finishing his 13th year in the profession, the answers to these questions have changed several times. Honestly, my goal when I started teaching was to build the highest quality concert and marching band performance program I could, focusing on bringing the ensemble members a broad and deep exposure to great musical literature in search of that ever elusive “summit” moment when an ensemble plays something so excellent, so moving, that everyone witnessing it is affected by it.

While these are admirable sentiments, and certainly do leave long-lasting impressions on the students who have those kind of experiences, I realized that those “summit” moments really weren’t for the students – they were for me. “How great of a music teacher am I that I can open their eyes to such an aesthetic experience?” I got into music teaching because I wanted to keep having those “summit” experiences, and being a teacher allowed me to share those experiences with young people so that they too could have their lives shaped by music performance.

Do I still want them to have those summit moments? Of course, but it’s no longer the solitary focus of my performing ensemble programs. The pursuit of performance excellence has been redefined and altered in proportion to make room for the pursuit of musical creativity. The “buzz” of a great performance is only one way to experience what music has to offer the individual.

Giving Students The Tools to Be Life-Long Musicians

My goals as a music educator are much broader and long-term than just giving them a great high school experience. By the time seniors leave my program, they will:

Be able to play their primary instrument proficiently. This includes playing all twelve major scales and arpeggios, natural minor scales and arpeggios, and be able to sight-read music of a grade 3 level. They will understand the music theory behind all of those goals and will be able to handle transpositions for their instrument (if applicable). For vocalists, it means having full control of their instrument in all ranges, singing with pure vowel sounds, proper support and phrasing, and singing a wide variety of styles.

Be able to improvise melodies over simple chord changes on their primary instrument. This is not limited to jazz music. This includes the music theory behind common tonic, sub-dominant, dominant, tonic chord progressions, and the construction of melody lines.

Be able to write a quartet in four-part harmony for their primary instrument. This obviously includes skills obtained from all of the above skills, plus the music theory necessary to write effective voice leading. Along the way, the study of musical form is incorporated into performing repertoire, sight-reading, and improvisation, leading to the student making their own creative decisions about writing an original work with a logical form.

Be able to record, edit, mix, and master their own music. This is a new goal for me, and one that has not become a reality yet. My vision is to give every one of my students the ability to write their own music, record it, give it a basic editing and mixing job, and be able to upload it to SoundCloud or YouTube. By the time my current middle school students reach twelfth grade, this goal will be a reality.

A Culture of Creativity

One of the greatest things about America as a culture is that we allow innovation and individualized thinking to exist. It’s okay in our culture to speak your mind, chart your own course, create your own destiny. American culture and government makes it possible for creative ideas to grow and the originators of those ideas to be monetarily compensated. I could easily diverge at this point on how copyright law no longer benefits the artist directly, but that is another article. For the purposes of this writing, it is the pioneering spirit of America combined with today’s modern communication tools that make it more possible than ever for artists of all kinds to find an audience.

It is no longer enough, in my opinion, for high school graduates to simply play an instrument or sing in a large ensemble. With as much personal growth as they receive from being a member of a band, chorus, or orchestra, the average American high school ensemble member does one of three things after high school: perform in similar groups in college, then quit, find community groups to continue their hobby, or become a professional musician in some fashion. Of these three, the vast majority quit performing music after high school or after college. Why? Work and family, of course.

I believe that more graduating seniors would continue music making into adulthood if they were better equipped to make their own music. If all they can do upon graduation is play their part in a concert band piece, or sing an alto part with the help of a section leader feeding them their pitches, their chances of continuing to make music are slim. Imagine how much more art, music, dance, and theatre would be out there if high school graduates were better equipped with the skills to exercise their own creativity.

If music improvisation and composition is nurtured in primary and early secondary grades, students are less likely to develop inhibitions to creativity, becoming more expressive and communicative. More original intellectual property can do nothing but good for the individual, our economy, and our culture.

The future of our internet-powered society is in more individuals trading their talents and ideas, collaborating to produce amazing results such as Wikipedia, Whitacre’s Virtual Choir, and many more. Our music education programs in public schools, I believe, need to continue the strong traditions of our performing ensembles, but need to make room in their school year for the parts of the study of music that make student more capable of being individually creative.

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.
thomasjwestmusic.com

Keeping Your Eyes (and Ears) On the “Prize”

Around this time of year most high school programs are in the thick of their competitive marching season. Rehearsals during the week are intensifying and weekends only exist for Saturday rehearsals and competitions.You’ve spent months preparing for your band’s 12-minute time slot to perform your show for an audience and the judges. The band performs its best show of the year but does not earn the score that you think they deserve. What now?

This happens all too often in this sport called marching band. That’s right, I said it, marching band is a sport. Hours and hours of rehearsal time are spent practicing and perfecting a drill set or a musical run, all for everyone to end up disappointed at the competition. We have to remember why we do marching band or music at all for that matter. It’s not for the thrill of winning a trophy, or taking the top score. Music is fun. It’s fun to listen, dance, sing, and play. And not to mention march to!

Art is subjective
Unlike other sports, where you have more control over whether or not you earn enough points to win, marching band is a judged competition. You can tune every chord, align every form, nail every transition and still not get the score you were hoping for. Music is an art form. Art is not created to be judged and/or critiqued.That being said, I do believe unbiased feedback is essential in getting the best out of your students and staff to help them improve throughout the season. It’s ok not to win. Competition is a great way to motivate students to do their best and to encourage them to learn how to deal with the end results, no matter what the results may be. But the most important thing is: If you perform your best, you win!

Take pride in your work
In a high school setting, playing music for fun isn’t quite enough. We have to help the students take pride in the work they are putting in. Yes, music is fun, but you know what’s even better? Sounding and looking your very best. The hours and hours of rehearsal time should not be geared at winning the competition or beating the cross-town rival. The goal should be to perform the best show of the season every time the band steps on the field. One thing or another will most likely go wrong at a show, but if the band takes everything the staff has given them and plays and marches their very best, that is a successful show and season.

Most students will not remember what score they received, place they took, or what trophy they won (which will most likely be covered in dust on a shelf in the band room), but what they will remember are the times they spent learning, practicing, and performing music with their friends to the best of their ability. That is something to be proud of. So as you are starting to go to competitions this season, and with championships on the not so distant horizon, try to remember why we learn (and teach) music: It’s fun!

Do you have any “fun” ways to motivate your students? In what ways do you motivate younger musicians to do their best? Please share your thoughts and insights below!
Good luck and have a great season!

Danny Ursetti
Music Caption Head, Royal High School
composer/conductor/educator

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?

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!

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.