Bernstein on Conducting, from Omnibus

Greetings!

When I began studying conducting, one of the first things I did was hop on YouTube to try to find good videos to watch. It can really help to get inspired by the greats. Originally I only found an excerpt of this show, but lucky for all of us it is now available in full. On this Omnibus show, Leonard Bernstein, for a national audience, discusses the role of the conductor by explaining the technical knowledge and abilities a conductor must posses, as well as the process one goes through when studying a score.

No doubt for most of you it won't be anything new, but I think you'll find many interesting or inspiring things in this video even if you don't learn a whole lot. After all, this show was produced for laymen. Of course, I just find it inspiring to see Bernstein talk about conducting, and to see him at work, educating the public and helping them to understand and develop a love for classical music. We should all aspire to be that good at it.

One other quick note. I don't know if anyone else has this problem with YouTube videos, but for me they occasionally stop part way through. Simply reload the page, then drag the time indicator over to where you left off. I hope you enjoy the video, and if you do, I encourage you to check out the other Omnibus videos on YouTube, where you'll no doubt learn much more.











Musically yours,
Mr. Cooper

How to Conduct Expressively With Young Students

Hello again!

One of the great debates going on is with regard to expressive conducting, and whether or not it can work with younger students.

In conducting class, my teacher gave us a basic system we could use to conduct anything we came across. It makes sense. It's somewhat based on "The Art of Conducting" textbook, except that each beat is placed on the same horizontal plane (with 4 slightly raised). It's easy to understand, and pretty easy to pick up, both from the conductor and player stand point.

And it's boring.

Why? Because it's based on conducting inside of a square or box. Literally - your beat pattern is supposed to be as tall as it is wide at all times. This leads to various sized boxes for different dynamics, and so forth. 

That's fine, but I've found that as a player I was much less responsive to that style of conducting, and much more responsive to this guy:

That's Dr. Reginald Houze with the ASU Wind Ensemble in 2008. Notice there was almost always a beat to follow. He may not have used an ictus on every beat, but there was always a beat. That said, he was conducting the music more so than the beat. Some people say this doesn't work, but I say that was the best year our Wind Ensemble has had while I was in it (although they're as good or better this year, keep up the great work!). This style of conducting was foreign to all of us West/Central Texas folks, but it was also very engaging, and we caught on quickly.

But we were college students, of course. So...

Can it Work With Younger Students?

Many successful directors will say, "No." One of the teachers I'm working with in my student teaching is a former TMEA Honor Band Director, and the first time he watched me he commented that my conducting was too complicated, and advised me to conduct, "Floor, wall, wall, ceiling, floor wall, wall, ceiling." So we can agree that it's not necessary for success.

On a side note, I don't think that feedback was based on what he heard. It's just not what he did, so he knew they weren't used to it, and watching it probably threw him off a little. I'm sure it threw the students off a little at first, too, but they had no problem keeping a beat with my conducting. I haven't changed it, and we still get a lot done when I have the opportunity to work with them.

But anyway, yes, it can work.

Most of my music teacher friends are directors at small schools, and most small schools play music that is between Grade 1 - 3 (Beginning Band up to Sub-Non Varsity at a large school system). If you were at a large school, would you expect students at those skill levels to be able to follow conducting expressively?

Two of my friends were successful with it, and loved doing it. Among other reasons for this, their students loved it.

One said friend has always believed in the power of expressive conducting. As I watched him with his band on the concert contest stage, it was obvious that his conducting was a cut above the other directors I watched that day. The band was also one of the most musical. He and the band were communicating. Every phrase was shaped and musical. It was really cool to see as well as hear. 

Another friend had some initial trouble with expressive conducting with his band, and so he abandoned the practice. When we were discussing conducting at TMEA we argued opposite sides of the coin, with him having more experience to back his opinion. I offered some advice which he experimented with a few weeks later. 

That night I got a call, "Coop, you were right about expressive conducting! I tried it today, and we had the best rehearsal we've had all semester!"

When to Use Expressive Conducting

If your group isn't used to expressive conducting, then you may want to wait until a certain point in the program's development to start implementing it. This was the key to my friend's success in rehearsal that day. 

The advice I offered him at TMEA was simply this, "A lot of people focus strictly on conducting a beat and giving entrances. But students can keep the beat for themselves. That's why most of them don't look up very often." After some more discussion I offered, "When you're still learning the notes and rhythms, it's probably good to stick to beat patterns. But after they've played the song so many times, they'll be able to play on auto pilot. You don't have to conduct anything except for tempo changes. That's when you can switch to expressive conducting." Another friend in the room, the first one I mentioned, seemed to agree with this.

And so it was a few weeks later that he went off the strict beat pattern and into the brave world of expression. 

He told me that night that at first it threw some of the students off. He reassured them, reminded them that keeping the beat was their responsibility, and after a couple more tries they were getting the hang of it. Instead of conducting a march in 4, for example, he conducted in 2. He told me that the character of the music changed completely, emerged, as the students felt more free to play expressively. Suddenly the music was coming out, and when the students experienced this musical moment, they were elated. 

What We Can Learn From This

I was so ecstatic for my friend that he went out on a limb and tried this, and I was so happy that it was successful, both for him and his students (whom I have worked with and seen in concert). I think we can learn some valuable lessons from his experimentation:

1. Expressive conducting does work, even with a young band.

Expressive conducting is really about communication. Even the beginners I work with every day crescendo when I show it to them, and forget when I don't. My belief based on what I've read and learned at clinics I've attended is that you have to sensitize them to your conducting by teaching it to them as if you were teaching them to read a new type of body language, or language in general. More on that in a second.

2. Students can be made accountable for keeping the beat.

I've mentioned Susan Finger on this blog before. She is the most impressive middle school instructor I've had the pleasure of watching work. One of the big things she did was place isles through the band set up so that she could walk around and in between sections, correcting horn angles, fingerings, and giving individual feedback as she went, and while the band was playing. That also meant she wasn't on the podium conducting. 

But wait, these were all 2nd and 3rd year band kids! How could they have been mature enough to keep the beat all by themselves? 

Because they can do it. Beginners can, too. =^)  Oh, and also, this was at a week long band camp, which means they had not played through the music hundreds of times like the might have in preparation for concert contest. But by moving around and simply counting them off, she was forcing them to listen and develop a sense of ensemble pulse. Once that is in place, you can free yourself up to address other things in your conducting.

3. Introduce expressiveness when the moment is right.

My friend's band had played that music enough times to get through it without falling apart, which also meant they had a good sense of ensemble pulse. At this point, it was safe for him to take off with expressive conducting. 

However, even once students understand you're no longer spoon feeding them the beat/time, and that they need to watch you for style and other musical things, they may not understand what you're trying to get out of them. Here is my best educated guess, having read and researched this topic in my own pursuits...

"Express" More as the Program Develops

When we prepare a band for a concert, we do it in stages. We start with right notes and right rhythms as a basis (Stage 1?). Next we look for things like phrasing, intonation, dynamics and articulation/style (Stage 2?). Some bands just get to this point, while others venture into the world of phrase shaping and nuance. 

I'm not going to offer a strict structure of stages (I'm actually still looking into this topic). But you understand what I mean by this. We start with applying previous knowledge to new music, and gradually move them towards the most musical performance possible in the time we have.

So with that in mind, I recommend progressing your conducting through stages as well, especially if the group is not used to relying on you for more than a tempo and what beat you're on. Start with the beat pattern, tempo changes, and entrance cues. 

When you get to shaping, dynamics, and style/articulation, gradually add those things to your conducting based on what you're working on that day. Helping them recognize your visual cues, according to John Whitwell's TMEA clinic last year, can be as easy as saying, "Trombones, less like this (show them) and more like this (show them)." For extra reinforcement, you could do that while also singing the style or articulation. 

Most great directors I know work on showing dynamics and dynamic changes during the warm up chorale or with slow scales performed in groups (like a round). 

When you get to shaping, sing the shaping for them while showing it to them. Don't settle until they play it up to your standard, so that their shaping is associated with however you showed it to them. 

The visual reminders should trigger those appropriate responses, which will also increase their retention of the work you did on it. 

Also, it doesn't matter so much how you show it to them, as long as you're consistent. Over time they will understand your conducting vocabulary and respond with more sensitivity to your communication on later programs. On the next program you can try to show it to them before you explain it to them. The longer they've been with you, the more accurate their responses will be. 

I hear this eventually saves rehearsal time. Imagine a situation, let's say after a few years, where your veterans pick up on what you're telling them non-verbally, and then tell the younger members of their section what to do once you've stopped. I communicated like that with my section mates in high school, both from the standpoint of section leader and last chair member (being told). 

It can happen! A couple more thoughts about this - not only do students love this (after all, how many orchestral conductors have they seen go all out, as well as cartoon chariactures of conductors), but audience members do, too. And it's still pragmatic. I would argue it's more pragmatic, because you communicate so much more.

If the band doesn't get it at first, don't get discouraged. As long as they're able to keep a beat with a count off, they can do it. Like my friend, keep going. And if all else fails, take it one step at a time. Gradually expand their non-verbal vocabulary knowledge. 

And of course, if you don't, that's okay, too. Many teachers don't do this and are still highly successful. But with my final argument I'll say this - 

The baton is our instrument. I think that when we conduct with musical expressiveness (and effectively, mind you, having set them up for success in understanding), we are good role models and can better challenge them to play with musical expression.

And isn't that what our business is all about?

Thank you, as always, for reading. Until next time, take care!

Musically yours,

Mr. Cooper

"Estancia" by Ginastera

Greetings!

Please enjoy "Estancia" by Ginastera, performed by the Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra with Gustavo Dudamel at the 2007 BBC Proms. The 2nd and 4th movements are my personal favorites.

By the way, did you know there is an arrangement of this for band? It's not on the Texas Prescribed Music List, but I'd love to play it with a band some day. I only know of it because I found a recording of the Marine Band playing it on iTunes. Well, that's it! Thanks for watching, and until next time, take care!

Musically yours,

Mr. Cooper

Intonation for Beginners 2 - Daily Ensemble Training

Greetings!

Last time I discussed how I introduced intonation to 6th graders. It was based on the idea of teaching them what to listen for, and how to react to it, and also based on the premise that they must learn to make this important musical decision for themselves ("Am I in tune? Here's what I need to do to get in tune"). It was mostly based on the work of Ed Lisk, with some visual aids thrown in. It took most of the class period to do after our warm up/technique building and scales work. But it was worth it. After that, what we chose to do was not so different, in many respects, from what you would do with a more advanced band. We incorporated tuning into our daily routine.

The Daily Routine

We chose to wait to tune until after our warm up and scales routine. This is similar to what the two directors do with their bands, except that we of course spend much more time with the beginners on technique building, sound building, and scale work. A daily routine might look something like this:

Warm Up from the Method Book

Scales (However many they knew at the time, which I had them play in the circle of 4ths one after another)

Chorale (Run it once)

Tune

Chorale (For Real)

Music

I'll get to the split chorale thing in just a second. First let's talk about the tuning exercise.

Reinforcing the Steps to Play in Tune

The tuning exercise itself was nothing spectacular, but I'll go ahead and run it down. The one I use is different from what the teachers I work with use. It's based on one of Ed Lisk's models. Essentially, we want to teach them who to listen for in addition to how to respond to waves in the sound. Two of the classes have multiple instrument groups in the same period, and when I worked with all the groups at once I would use a two phase tuning procedures.


In the first phase, only section leaders tune, starting with the lowest voice and working gradually to the highest voice. Once all the section leaders are in tune, then you cut off and start over with the lowest voice, but this time you bring in the rest of the section members, one at a time, and add one section at a time, until everyone is in.


Throughout the process you are reinforcing the steps to tuning discussed in the previous post to help them think their way through the process, particularly if you notice they're not making changes within the first few seconds of holding the note. This is important for section leaders and members.

The reason this works is because it teaches each student not only what to do when they hear waves, but also who they are responsible for listening to. Principal players must listen down to the lowest voice, while all other members must listen and match the principal player in their section.

It also provides a great model for the group when the section leaders are in tune, because then you can note that if the entire group is perfectly in tune, they will sound just as good, but with more volume.

The down side is that it takes time, especially when they're first learning the procedure. The first day we worked on intonation, it took most of the class period. The second day we reviewed the steps to tuning while also introducing this new procedure. It took a good chunk of time, but not as long as the first day. They were simply applying the skill in a different context.

I was worried that the tuning procedure I chose to use was too time consuming, but I stuck with it, and within a week we were zipping right through it. And boy was it worth it! Their listening skills improved quite a bit, and though they were not in tune on every note when they played their concert music, it was still much better than what they were doing previously. That also means that now when they're out of tune, it's painfully obvious to everyone, not just the teachers.

Using a Chorale

It's pretty common practice in bands with good intonation to use a chorale and to work on it every day as if it were a concert piece. Essential Elements 2000 incorporates chorales into its daily warm up sections. We didn't start using a chorale until about the time we introduced their contest music, and when we did it was not from the Essential Elements book. 

We're using one of the Davenport Chorales, written by Mike Davenport. The big pedagogical feature is that everyone can see every part (the score, in other words) so they can learn who is important at different times. The chorales are also sequenced so that you can give them progressively more complex chorales to learn from. The one they're using is short and simple, both rhythmically and harmonically.

This allows us to more easily address balance and blend. With our low brass class we can balance the tuba, euphonium, and trombone sections. In woodwind class it's the saxophones (which we now have baritone, tenor, and three altos), clarinets and flutes. Then we have our high brass class. Horns were started later in the year, and are often on their own. When they're there I ask them to balance the trumpets, but when it's just the trumpets I take the opportunity to address how parts are balanced (with the higher numbers fitting their sound into the lower numbers). 

The other thing I'll do on a regular basis is to have them play the chorale one time before we tune. I'll ask them to listen and remember what that sounds like. After we tune (regardless of what the tuning procedure is) we'll go back and play it again to see how much it has improved. My hope is that if they hear the difference it will motivate them intrinsically to want to play in tune all the time.

Advanced Intonation Skills?

For at least a few weeks now I have started and continued working with one percussionist in each class, so I know the tuning procedures have changed for the students (and the procedure depends on which of the teachers is running the class). But as we have continued to address this concept and reinforce the skills with them, they have continued to improve. The head director, my cooperating teacher, noted that their intonation is really good for beginning 6th graders. I'm proud that I introduced this musical skill to two of the three classes, and that the methods of both introducing it and reinforcing it have worked out as well as they have. 

Don't get me wrong, they're not perfect at it, but they're pretty good and are still improving. 

Of course there are other things that players must learn to do to play their parts in tune with the band aside from just getting in tune at the beginning. These students are also matching pitch better in their concert music, but we haven't necessarily taught them the skills to make adjustments as they play.

By adjustments, I mean "lipping up/down", "rolling in/out", "more/less mouthpiece" etc. etc. Eventually students must know the pitch tendencies for their instrument and know how to compensate for that without changing the length of their instrument. 

But I'm not sure when you do that. It seems strange to me that you would ask beginners to monkey with things like their embouchure that early on, even for this purpose. I asked the teachers I am under about this, and when you introduce those skills, and they explained that they choose not to discuss that with their students at all. 

I know that I knew a little about that as a high school student. My brass teachers would tell students what small adjustments to make when it wasn't a matter of the instrument's length. But the band I'm student teaching with is also very successful and has a very good ensemble sound without necessarily doing those things. 

Regardless of your opinion on it, I know it can be done. At least with high school students. I suppose it's a decision you have to make in terms of whether or not to go there with students and at what point do you start introducing those skills, and how to do you teach them, etc. 

But do you discuss these advanced intonation skills with beginners? I don't know, to be honest. I don't think you do, but I could be wrong.

What pedagogy have you used or seen used to teach students about intonation? I'd love to dialog about it in the comment section. Thank you again for reading, and until next time, take care!

Musically yours,

Mr. Cooper

Ben Zander on Music and Passion

Hello again! 

On weekends I occasionally like to pass the time by surfing for cool, music related videos. Some are simply of great performances, while others are more inspirational. I've gathered quite a collection of them, and while I've always eagerly shared them with my friends over facebook, I wasn't quite thoughtful enough to share them on the blog, which after all is also a journal for my musical thoughts and ideas. My friend, John Benton over at Music Dreams does something like this, except that he posts mostly education and music related videos that he finds on TED.com.As a reader of his, I appreciate him finding those for me. I don't know why it took me so long to wise up and do this at my blog as well.

Anyway, speaking of TED, this first video is from their website. It is of one of my personal heroes, Benjamin Zander. In less than 20 minutes he explains the basics of understanding Classical Music to an audience full of non-musicians, and spreads his passion for Classical Music. I love this video, and if you haven't watched it, I can assure you that you'll love it, too. Enjoy!

Musically yours,

Mr. Cooper

How Do You Teach Intonation to Beginners? - Individual Training in the Classroom

Greetings!

Well, it's been a while since I've posted anything. I'll explain why in the "P.S." section. Business first!

I'd like to start by saying that I've had an incredible student teaching experience so far. I've been able to work with students and run classes on a daily basis, and my skill level has dramatically improved. I wish I could stick around for another semester to learn about the details of marching season from the two teachers I work with, but what are you going to do?

Anyway, how do you teach intonation? I was lucky to have a tremendous high school band education as part of one of the top 10 concert bands in the state, and a couple of years with one of the top collegiate bands in the state. The intonation in both of these ensembles was top notch. The expectation is that you would play perfectly in tune, at all times. And we did... more or less. But we were also taught how to do it independently.

As we all know, playing in tune is the
difference between this...

...and this.

Different Schools of Thought

Band teachers typically use one of two tactics. Some will listen to a student and tell them what to do to get in tune, while telling them to listen and match the section leader. It works, and I've seen it work. And there are some really successful teachers that do this.

Other teachers tell students what to listen for, and how to react to what they hear, so that the decision making is no longer on the teacher, but rather on the student. My personal belief is that this is a better music education. I want my students to go on with the skills and knowledge to be an independent musician, in whatever capacity that might be. This requires that I don't just tell them what to do. Instead, I have to train their thinking.

It is possible to tell them what to do ("You're sharp, pull out."), and for them to develop the ability on their own. If the student is motivated, and smart, then they will eventually figure it out on their own. It happens all the time. What I'm about to share was developed by a leading educator and I believe it's a much faster route to the end of independent musicianship.

A couple of authors (at least) talk about this idea of teaching students how to think. In a clinic with John Whitwell, he recalled Elizabeth Green telling a room of graduate students, "You band guys are so good at teaching the lips and the fingers. When are you going to start teaching the brain?" Ed Lisk has several books (which I love, by the way) in which all of his tactics are based on teaching students how to think and make musical decisions.

I wouldn't have known to teach beginners about intonation unless one of my mentors at the school I'm student teaching at had told me to do it. He's a past Honor Band Director, so I take his advice as being solid. One day I noticed he was teaching the bulk of the woodwind class about intonation, at which point I said, "Well, I guess it's time," and set myself to teaching the other two beginning classes (low brass and high brass) how to do it. That night I reviewed some books and the next day I put it into practice.

The results have been very good! When you teach beginners what to listen for, almost all of them will hear it right away. For a few, it has taken some time to recognize the difference between in and out of tune sounds. But I'd say it's a very small percentage. For everyone else, when they heard waves in the sound for the first time, their eyes lit up, and they could identify it, and in varying degrees (fast waves, slow waves), every time afterwards.

Fast forward some weeks, now that the beginning band has met as a full group a few times and played through all of their festival tunes. They are playing with pretty good intonation and blend for 6th graders, and I can't wait to see how much better it gets in the 4 weeks until they perform for the public.

The Procedure

So what was the procedure I used? It's basically the procedure outlined in Ed Lisk's "Alternative Rehearsal Techniques" series, but with a couple of small changes. It's also the same method, I realized, that I was taught to use in high school.

I used a white board to draw a few images as I gave an explanation. I started by explaining that it is possible for two people to play the same note, but that it won't be quite the same. One person might sound slightly higher or lower than the other person, and that we call that sharp or flat. When that happens, you hear waves in the sound. "Waaa-waaa-waaa-waaa." It would look something like this (and I did the wave sound again as I drew the waves):

I continued, if the players are really far off from each other, you'll hear fast waves, kind of like this:

"Wa-wa-wa-wa-wa-wa"

If the two players are really close to being in tune, the waves will sound slower:

"Waaaaaaa-waaaaaa-waaaaaa"

But waves just don't sound good to us or to the audience. What we want is what we call, "Straight line tuning", which is a sound without waves:

"Dooooooooooooooooooe"

I also related it to a heart rate monitor and what it sound like when it flat lines. They thought that sounded like a bad thing, but I assured them that when you play in a band, that straight line sound is exactly what you want. Perhaps I should've stayed away from that analogy. =^)

So we dug into it. I explained the activity. The section leader would play and hold a concert F (which is what this program uses to tune to), and I would point to the next person to play and hold. I instructed all students to listen carefully for the waves, and see if they were fast or slow. I pointed to the section leader, and said, "Do you hear how her sound is a steady, straight line?" Then I pointed to the next student.

Waa-waa-waa-waa-waa!

Eyes lit up and several students said excitedly, "I hear the waves!"

I cut the two off and continued an explanation. We always assume that the section leader is in tune. The section leader's job is to tune to the lower instruments, and everyone else's job is to tune to the section leader. If you hear waves, you're out of tune and you need to make an adjustment...

First, make sure you are playing with a good quality of sound. Ideally you want to match the sound of the section leader. This might mean pushing more air, checking your posture, or adjusting your embouchure. 

(This student was playing with a good sound, so I explained that I didn't think it was that, and went ahead and continued to the next part. If his sound were weaker at the moment, I would've encouraged him to make an adjustment and try again before going to the next step.)

If you're playing with a good sound and you still hear waves, you must check to make sure you're playing the same volume as the section leader and the people on either side of you. If you can't hear your neighbors, you're playing too loud. If you can't hear yourself, you may be too soft. Match the volume of the people next to you. Make sure you still have a good sound quality.

"Now try again and this time match her volume."

Waa-waa-waa-waa-waa.

(To the students) Are there still waves?

Students, "Yes!" and they started showing me the waves with their hands and so forth. I cut them off.

If you made those two adjustments and you still hear waves, then the instrument is out of tune and you need to make an adjustment. (Make the instrument longer or shorter), then play again. 

Did the waves get faster or slower? If they got faster, you went in the wrong direction and need to go in the opposite direction. Did the waves get slower? Then you're going in the right direction, and you need to keep going. Does it sound like a straight line? Then you're perfectly in tune and it can't get any better. Memorize what that feels like and try to do it all the time.

"So make an adjustment and let's try again." 

Wa-wa-wa-wa-wa-wa-wa.

Cut off, then to the student playing, "Were the waves faster or slower?" He wasn't sure. Other students answered, and I agreed with their answer, so I reminded him to adjust in the opposite direction and try again. We kept going until he was perfectly in tune with the section leader. When he got there, the students recognized it. I cut them off and said, "That was perfect! Good job!" 

So then I had both of them playing and holding while the next person tried. We went through the same basic procedure, except that with me repeating the same things (again, telling them what to listen for and what to think/how to react to it), the process got faster with each student. When the class started getting waves in the sound before the student had a chance to tune to the group, I explained that air speed affects the tuning. Slower air makes pitch go down, faster air makes it go up, and that they have to keep a steady air speed and keep the embouchure in exactly the same place to keep the pitch steady. This advice was strictly based on my own experience. Eventually chops started to tire, so I had the section leader play and hold while everyone else listened. There were a couple of students we just couldn't get in tune. Cases like these were due to underdeveloped sound, or stuck tuning slides. In the case of the former I was gentle but honest in explaining that the sound quality was the likely culprit, but that it would improve with time (in other words, I was encouraging), and in the other case I explained to the student and the class the importance of maintaining equipment, and that it would be impossible to play in tune with a stuck tuning slide. After class we got it taken care of.

Reflections

One class had 14 students, and the other had 12-13 students, and it was an interactive but time consuming process. I initially didn't plan for it to take as long as it did, but considering they were beginner classes I should have. Ultimately it was worth losing most of the periods to cover this skill. After all, as one of my mentors said when I asked him how you teach this to beginners, he simply said, "Ear training." After a while it got a little boring for some of them. That's understandable. They're 11 year olds. But for the most part it was engaging until we got to the last 3rd or 4th of the class and we'd been at it for some time. But again, it was worth it. They could all now recognize when they were playing in tune, and they had some training on what to do to get in tune. 

So how do you get through this in a larger class? I understand that many beginning classes, depending on the school size and situation, can be much larger. This is obviously best done in smaller groups to begin with. It probably wouldn't be smart to attempt this in a beginning class, for example, where you have all beginning band students in one class, and there are 50-60 of them. But we have to figure something out. After all, students need the chance to experiment and succeed, and they can't do that by themselves. Have you tried tuning to an electronic sound? It's not as easy to hear, unless you have something that is loud and in your range (which I never did). Students need to be trained how to think and react to make independent musical decisions, and the only way to give them that training is to give them the time and opportunity to experiment, fail, and go through the whole process until they achieve success (so they can memorize and hear the right way). You can show them the strobe, but this doesn't teach them to listen. And you can tell them what to do, which will get them more in tune with the other players, but it will make them dependent on you to tell them when they're out of tune and what to do when they're out of tune. Only certain students will achieve independence this way.

So we have to teach them what to listen for and how to react to make musical decisions, and then we have to give them the time to develop the listening and performance skills. It takes time. 

When I implemented this strategy, and in the following days as we continued to review the concept, I was worried that it was taking too much time. We hardly covered any music the day I introduced this, which I was worried was a very bad thing. But now, several weeks later, I can see that it wasn't such a bad thing after all. They're still at the end of their book in addition to having learned four grade 1 band tunes, a short chorale, 7 scales, and a few other things. With a month to go (we're about to break out solo and ensemble materials for them), and with them playing with pretty good intonation skills for 6th graders, I'd say that time investment was well worth it. 

Lately I've been working with percussionists in a different room from the main groups, but the other day I had a minute to listen to the low brass, and what I heard was very surprising. As they oompah'd their way through their quarter and half note accompaniment part, most of what they were playing was with straight line tuning. I only heard waves on occasional notes. It made me smile!

Anyway, the initial presentation is what I wanted to cover here. Of course there is more to it than this, but as far as introducing it to the group, that seemed to work out pretty well. I think in the next post I'll reflect on what happened afterwards to help them practice the new skills and build them up. 

Ed Lisk has two other parts to his procedure. Once they're in tune he asks students to analyze whether they're pinching the tones, or loosening the embouchure, to get the note in tune. If so, he notes that the instrument is too long or short, respectively, and they need to make the proper length adjustment and return to their regular, relaxed embouchure. When they are in tune with their regular embouchure, then they're in tune. I didn't cover that with these guys. I've mentioned it once, I think, so I don't know if it's made any difference, or how it would've worked out had I mentioned it consistently. I would have, but honestly, I just forgot to include it. Drawing the straight line and varying speeds of waves as I modeled the waves with my voice as something I added on the fly, and it seemed to work pretty well. I like catering to visual learners.

Well, it was fun to look back on this. I spent a lot of time looking for ways to present it, and eventually settled on what you read above, and I'm happy with the results. As always, thank you very much for reading! Until next time, take care!

Musically yours,

Mr. Cooper

P.S. So why the long delay in blogs? A lot of that is that I'm carefully considering the parameters of this blog, and boundaries for how I should write. I'm pretty sure I've followed the Texas Educator's Code of Ethics, but it seems that even if one does that, you can still cause discomfort when someone knows who you are and that you're talking about their student, or students. That's certainly not what I want. I want this to be a means to help myself improve, but I also want it to be a positive thing for others. I want it to be helpful, never hurtful, or even to cause anyone an ounce of stress. What I decided is that I want to continue to blog in a reflective manner that is open for everyone to read, so I'm working on figuring out how to do that with the above considerations. Don't be surprised if there are some changes to the blog once I decide how to procede in that regard. Thanks again for reading and take care!