5 Ways to Keep Scales Interesting

Simple modifications to scales can
help your band grow by leaps and
bounds!

Good to see you today!

One of the things I like to do in rehearsal is experiment with the warm up time. A while back I blogged about  how to make your warm up time relevant for students, and today's post is closely related to that. There are plenty of ways to structure a good warm up, but I'm a believer that technique building should be included in there somewhere. I also believe scales are a fundamental building block for musicianship, not only for the music literacy and fluency, but for the technical aspects of playing. So we play scales every day. The problem with scales is that they can be very mundane. Fortunately, it can be remedied by adding in some variety. So, submitted for your consideration, here are a few ways to mix up your scales (both basic and advanced) to make them more interesting, fun (hopefully), and more relevant for students. 

Body Mapping for Conducting

Greetings!

I hope everyone's spring concerts and graduation ceremonies have gone well!

Thanks for joining me for this discussion, which I'm actually quite excited about. I considered breaking it into two parts as the video components take some time, but I figure you can always leave and come back as you wish. Keep in mind the best information is at the end, which is what everything else leads up to!

We're going to talk about the importance of body mapping in conducting. Your body map has a significant impact on your expressive ability, as well as how the motions impact your joints over the long haul.

But wait, what is Body Mapping?

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

Conducting: The Importance of Looking Up, Small Gestures, and Urgency

Greetings!

On my last conducting reflection I talked about some things that went well for me in my experiences. It's good to know that I have the basic tools and risk taking capacity to be an effective conductor. But I don't want to be an average conductor. I'd like to grow into one of those people who can communicate incredible amounts of information, whose conducting is at such a level that it elevates the abilities of the players in front of them. I expect that to take a while, of course, and a lot of practice. So, first on my list of things to improve on are as follows...

Don't Read the Score... Look Up!

This was by far the worst of my mistakes. I spent a lot of time practicing with the score, eventually listening to recordings and trying to conduct from memory. But there is just something that is still a little intimidating about conducting a live group. A fear of missing cues, partially, or of losing my place in the score. I want to be a conductor that leads proactively through impulse of will and communication. I don't want to react to a missed entrance with a reassuring nod and smile. But even with Grainger's "Irish Tune", which should be easy enough to keep your place in, I still felt the need to look at the score more than I was looking up. I did a good job of making eye contact when I gave cues, don't get me wrong. But with all that time I spent looking at the score, I would be foolish if I were to complain that the players weren't paying attention. Right?

I'm practically looking straight down! Would YOU be engaged?
You know, because you've probably experienced conductors
like this.

But a great thing happened when we played through "Shepherd's Hey". My worst fear came true - I got lost. We only had time to sight read, so there was no stopping. I flipped through a few pages while continuing to conduct a two pattern, but within a few seconds I decided there was no hope of finding where we were at, and I was wasting a precious opportunity to connect and make music.

So I looked up.

Not only did I start conducting from memory, but I experienced what Benjamin Zander calls going "Beyond the F*** It". In other words, I went all out.

I had practiced enough that I knew where we were, where we were going, and basically how we were going to get there, including some general style changes, a stop, an accelerando, and some other important details I wanted pulled out. When my wife watched the tape she noticed how much more I got into my conducting. Without me telling her what happened, her vocal reaction to the change was, "There you go, babe! Now you're getting into it!"

Not only did they hold together at close to performance tempo, but they actually did a pretty good job of style and dynamics. I totally missed a 3/2 bar, but they stuck with me.

It wasn't until the score was taken away that my true ability to communicate came out.

But this nemesis struck again when I worked with a public school band the next week. It was in the middle of finals week so I only had an hour and a half to study two scores, with recordings of neither one. I had a general idea of how each section sounded, but was not practiced enough to do it by memory, and as a result I spent a lot of time looking down. What a shame! We accomplished a lot through rehearsal, but I have to wonder how much more we might have accomplished through visual communication had I been looking up.

And then I recently came across something Peter Boonshaft wrote in his book, "Teaching Music with Passion: Conducting, Rehearsing, and Inspiring". He suggests that in the debate of conducting by memory or not, that we should have the best of both worlds. We should know the score well enough that we can conduct from memory, but admits that human memory is only so good, and we should glance at the score to recall previously learned information. The key word for me was, "glance".

In the future, I would like to be practiced enough that all I have to do is glance at the score to remember everything I need to know for that moment in time, and then spend the rest of the time looking around the room. It's tough. I'm sure it will get easier with practice. And certainly if I had 6-8 weeks of rehearsal as opposed to 15-36 minutes, that would also make all the difference.

Small Gestures

Not much needed here. One of my weaknesses has been a lack of small gestures, which hurts my dynamic contrast. My pattern during the softest sections of "Irish Tune" was probably a good mezzo-forte. They're playing wasn't too loud, though. The music is soft, but only because it is thinly scored. I don't believe 2-3 players need to play softly for the music to come across at the right dynamic. I think that's the approach I was taking. But generally speaking, I know small gestures are not something I do naturally.

The importance of having that range was reinstated when I recently attended Junction High School's Winter Concert. My friend Adrian Alonso, the director, did a fantastic job conducting them on Berlioz's "March to the Scaffold". At one point the full group was playing a soft volume, and Adrian's gestures were not much more than a twitching of the wrist for a measure, then an explosion of energy with the largest gestures he could make. The band's reaction was not disappointing, to say the least!

I've also been watching some great conductors to see how they convey soft dynamics in a variety of contexts. As eternal students of our craft, we are indeed fortunate to have YouTube, and videos of the world's greatest conductors within its database.

Time Flies, and You're Never as Good as You Wanted to Be

Pacing is something I'm getting better at, but it's still a weakness. I went into the Wind Ensemble rehearsal with a plan of how to use that 15 minutes. When I got on the podium I stuck to the plan. Roughly seven minutes on both "Irish Tune" and "Shepherd's Hey". By the time I got through the plan of action for "Irish Tune" I got a verbal cue from my teacher, "Three minutes." Wow! A plan for seven minutes turned into 12 minutes.

When I rehearsed the public school band the following week, it was much better. We lost some time at the start of class, ended up with 36 minutes to work with, and we used it pretty well. We fell short of getting through the entire second song by just several measures. Had we not lost that time at the start of class, we would've easily been able to run the work with its improvements and perhaps run through one of their other tunes, in addition to the time we spent working on legato playing during the warm up. Pretty productive.

Still, I wish I could have been better in both cases, and not just in terms of pacing, but everything. Even when I got to work with students at a school I observed at towards the end of the semester, I felt this way. I improved in a very short amount of time, and felt like I was certainly holding my own (except with the college group), but it seems it's never good enough.

But I think it also serves as good motivation for me. I know time is short, and I know time will fly by much faster than I think it will. Those are great motivators to be as prepared as I possibly can be. And while I'm improving all the time, I'll probably never be satisfied. Having a video tape of the Wind Ensemble rehearsal was painfully revealing (I really need a video camera for my first year). All of these experiences have continued to motivate me to search for answers and new techniques with a sense of urgency. No matter how much I discover, though, I never feel prepared, or good enough. I'm sure a lot of my music teacher friends out there can relate, though. I'm confident in myself, don't get me wrong, I just don't feel as prepared as I would like to be.

In the next couple of days I plan to post a funny video in the spirit of the holidays, but otherwise you won't hear from me again until after Christmas. Thank you for reading, happy holidays, and until next time, take care!

Musically yours,
Mr. Cooper

Conducting: Trust Your Training, and Take Risks

Greetings!

I was originally going to do a single blog about my conducting reflections from this past semester, but it would've been a much longer read. So instead, I'm going to release my one reflection in chunks. Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoy!

I love conducting. I won't say that I'm an amazing conductor. I'm regarded as one of, if not the best among my fellow students, but I think that's only because I practice, watch videos, study the music, and occasionally take risks. But regardless of how good I may or may not be, I love to conduct. From the moment I started my conducting lessons I wished the baton could be my primary instrument. So it's a lot of fun, and luckily I had the chance to conduct the ASU Wind Ensemble for about 15 minutes, and later the chance to use my conducting while working with a local public school band. There were some things I did well, but there are also lessons I learned along the way.

Trust Your Training

Remember this? Some say it doesn't
work, but I say, "Sure it does!"

The end result of two semesters of lessons and a semester of class conducting is... that I should be just fine. That's the good news. When I conducted the Wind Ensemble, I expected they would be able to catch on to where I was placing beats and generally be able to follow my directions. The only thing I couldn't get out of the group that I wanted were the swells placed throughout Grainger's "Irish Tune", which are pretty important. I still haven't figured out how I can fix that. But a lot of other things went well.

What I didn't know is whether or not my conducting would work for a high school band I had the chance to work with for a rehearsal. Why? Because a LOT of graduates from our music department have told me they have to discard most of what they learned in those classes once they're in front of their groups. But I couldn't very well go into the rehearsal prepared to conduct differently, so I decided to go based on feedback.

As we started the warm up, I told them what the goal was and noted, "This will also be a good chance for you to get used to my conducting." Trying not to show my nervousness, I gave them four prep beats, breathed on beat four, and Group 1 of the chorale came in. Actually, all of the groups entered just when they were supposed to with only visual cues, and I got a diminuendo on the last note. I didn't do anything special or change anything from when I worked with the college group. They noted that my preparation was different from what they were used to (different number of prep beats). I simply demonstrated my prep conducting (four beats, breathe on four), and it didn't trip them up ever again.

So what you learned in conducting class does work. I can only speculate two reasons why it wouldn't. Perhaps you didn't put in the practice on the fundamentals needed to convey clear patterns and basic gestures, such as articulations and dynamics (I mean practice with an approach similar to what you gave your instrument, to be clear). I don't mean to offend anyone by any means, but I know not everyone practices their conducting the way they practice their primary instruments. Everyone has different priorities while they're trying to get through college.

Of course, many teachers did put in that effort and were let down when it didn't work. Peter Boonshaft talks about this and why it happens in his book, "Teaching Music with Passion: Conducting, Rehearsing, and Inspiring". It's a terrific book that I highly recommend, and in which you'll find the answer to that conundrum and many others. The summary is that he believes conducting is a visual language, and we have to teach that language to our students just as if we were teaching them a foreign language (along with other factors and tips). Cool, right?

Take Risks! (Kick Your Training to the Curb)

The only thing about your training is that it was probably mostly restricted to a class setting, and therefore you probably only got the basics. I've noticed the difference it makes in students when they're also taking conducting lessons, but even then, as an undergrad you're still pretty much covering basics. Your graduate studies may or may not give you additional formal training. The problem is that, because it's undergraduate training, lessons or not, you're only really covering the basics. And the system we learned often felt constricting to me.

It was constricting because you had to conduct inside of a box. Literally. Your pattern has to be as wide as it is tall. Yes, it makes for easily understandable beat patterns, but there are some things that are just more effective when you need moments of impact. Besides, a LOT of great conductors don't worry as much about beat patterns. They conduct the music and their ensembles respond just fine! For example, check out this video of Reginald Houze conducting the Angelo State University Wind Ensemble on Sousa's "Easter Monday on the White House Lawn":

Dr. Houze conducted the Angelo State Wind Ensemble for one year, and it was by almost all standards of measurement the most successful year the Wind Ensemble has had in my six years here (although this year is shaping up pretty good, too!). His conducting was very different from anything we'd ever seen. But we responded to it. Actually, we responded to it very well. We never had an issue keeping pulse, and we experienced great musical moments at nearly ever single rehearsal. He's currently the head director at Overton High School, an arts magnet school, and his conducting has become even more focused on expressing the music as opposed to beat patterns. It takes the student some getting used to, but it works really well.

So between my experience with him, and of watching great conductors on YouTube, I was just itching to get outside of that box. The biggest risk I took in class and in lessons prior to my 15 minutes with the Wind Ensemble was in experimenting with depth perception (leaning forward or backward). In preparing to conduct Grainger's "Irish Tune", I knew there was a spot where bigger really would be better. The climax of the piece. I can't remember the measure off hand, but if you've heard it, you know what I'm talking about. Staying strictly in a beat pattern with a larger box, to me, wasn't going to communicate the impact I wanted.

But I knew that by going outside of that box, I was taking a risk. And I said, "To hell with it. I'm going for it! And if it doesn't work, I'll go back in the box."

But can you guess what happened? It worked... really well! I modified one thing about the gesture on a repeated playing because I had a suspicion they could put out even more sound there. And I was right! The last time through that section I was overwhelmed by the ensemble's sound. The players who were listening, including those in the percussion section, experienced what Ben Zander calls "Shining Eyes". It was very cool.

Scary for me, because I thought it might impact my grade, or that I would at least catch some flack for it. But ultimately very cool. And my teacher didn't even mention it when we reviewed the video.

Your training, if you practiced and feel comfortable in the fundamentals, will serve you well, whether it's a college band or a public school band (even the smaller ones). But don't be afraid to get outside of your box and take risks when the music calls for it.

Thank you for reading! I recently discovered how to track my blog's traffic, and I've been surprised to discover that a small group of people actually read this! I can't see who reads it, but it's neat to know there is an audience. This blog has always been more about me helping myself through reflecting on my experiences, but I'm honored to share those experiences with those of you who give of your time to read them. Thank you so much. I hope you continue to enjoy reading them, especially while I have time to write them over the break. Until next time, take care!

Musically yours,
Mr. Cooper

Continue to the next Conducting Reflection?