This week, one of my french hornists successfully auditioned into the PA All-State Band. I am so proud and happy for him! He always had a sincere desire to make it to the all-state band since he was a Freshman. At our school, we have a wall in our music wing where the portraits of all 6 of the previous All-State Band participants hangs. Three of them are french horn players. Following our District Festival, we examined his scores and we met and laid out a plan for him to make the all-state band at the next audition at Region Band. What is so exciting about this is that we mapped out exactly what he needed to improve about his playing, and we came up with a practice plan to help him prepare. Then, he stuck to it – faithfully. He practiced every single day for the last six weeks and all of the work that he put in paid off! This is the first student I have ever had in my 8 years of teaching music that has ever made it to state band. I think I might be more excited than him!!

You can read more about it over at our band site here.

Over this long weekend, I decided that it was time for a different setup for my concert ensembles in the rehearsal room. I have previously tired “in the round” rehearsals, and it worked out very well. This time, though, I wanted to do something different, so I started doing some reading and found two different interesting ideas. The first was to group the instruments a little bit differently so that instruments with like tonal quality were grouped together. But the other thing I tried is what I want to share.

Space them out.

I had read that if you want the instruments in the ensemble to resonate properly that you should try to space out the students at least one chair away from another. I tried this, and in my ensemble of about 40 winds, it took up the whole band room. One caveat here – if your space is limited and you have a large group, this probably isn’t going to work in your band room. But, you may want to try it on stage for your next performance! Anyway, I was immediately amazed and what I heard and so were the kids! It was amazing how much cleaner and clearer all of the parts in the group were! Woodwind tuttis that I thought were sloppy were now instantly cleaned. Plus, I could hear every kid and every instrument in the group! It was amazing!

As the students left rehearsal that day, I asked a saxophone player what he heard. He said, “I heard parts in those songs that I never knew existed!” Others commented about how much easier it was to hear for intonation and balance. I can’t wait to see what the group sounds like on stage!

If you have the room, I strongly encourage you to give this a try and let me know how it works out for you! Have fun!

What follows is a list of thoughts that I came up with in an effort to prepare a lecture/seminar that I am going to give my senior high and junior high students tomorrow. It ended up being quite the narrative, and I hope that I can get through it all in one class period! Feel free to use any of the listed thoughts and ideas, and please share if you have anything to add! Exciting side note – first post this school year!! Woohoo! Enjoy!

Thoughts On Practicing

Follow the 3 Golden Rules
- Go Slow!! You should never make a mistake when you are practicing! Why? Because you should go slow enough. If you don’t, then you are practicing mistakes and thus wasting valuable practice time. This means start working under tempo NO MATTER HOW SLOW IT IS! Then you can gradually speed up. This will save a lot of time in the long run.
- Work small sections. Isolate where your problems are. (This also requires you to be a good listener while you are playing). Where is the trouble? Between 2 specific notes, or between 3? Is it just two beats of a measure that you’re having trouble with? Just work on that part! You do not need to practice stuff you can already play! For example, in a long run of notes that is difficult, start with 2 only, then when you feel comfortable with that, add one more note, etc.
- Related to the above – REPEAT, REPEAT, REPEAT! You must repeat these slow, small sections until you know them as second nature! This is how we train our brains/muscle memory to play the passage correctly.

A good minimum practice time goal should be at least 1 hour EVERY day if you want to see real results, but…….quality of practice time is far more important than quantity…it’s what you do with your time that’s important! The most important part is that you spend time with the instrument EVERY DAY (outside the band rehearsal). Remember, our job during rehearsal is to take what you have worked on in the practice room and put it together with everyone else. With that in mind, set a goal for each session, based on the amount of time available to you. Maybe your goal is to simply get better at one phrase if your time is short. Remember, even if you just make one thing better during your practice time, you are still getting better!

GET A METRONOME!! This serves many purposes, but two of the most important – you begin to develop great time & it keeps you from increasing the tempos you are practicing at too quickly. When we GRADUALLY speed up tempos that we are working on, we then give our brain/muscles time to learn. When we speed up too quickly, we don’t learn correctly (and are probably practicing mistakes).

WHEN YOU PRACTICE, IT SHOULD BE PERFECT…NO MISTAKES!! Why? Because we should go slow enough to make sure there are no mistakes.

These techniques seem counter-intiutive. It seems like this will make it take longer to learn a given passage or piece. BUT, in the long run you will actually learn the piece/passage much more quickly! This is because you are practicing perfectly, without mistakes. The purpose of practice is to train our brains and muscles to work together at specific times when music is read or heard.

For any performance, you want whatever you are playing to become second-nature. You must be 110% prepared, because you lose 10% just to nerves.

Individual practice is what will set you apart from other musicians your age.

Many times, practicing your instrument does not provide immediate results. Such are all good things in life! But, dedication to it and your instrument will pay HUGE dividends over time. If you follow the methods above, you will be surprised how much more quickly you will improve.

Do not allow yourself to get frustrated. It happens to the best of us when we are practicing! If you find yourself getting frustrated while working on a particular passage, simply put the instrument down for a minute or two and walk away. Go get a drink, or take a lap around the building and come back to it a few minutes later. You will come back fresh, having given your mind and spirit a short break from your hard work!

Practicing your instrument should also include fundamentals. I begin EVERY practice session with a tonal warm-up to get my mind and instrument ready to play. I then continue by playing my major & minor scales with a metronome. For me, this is a routine that I have established over many years…clearly, I had to learn those warm-ups and scales first. Practice cannot just be about working on your repertoire. Granted, that is a large part of the practice time, but you also just need to get better at playing your instrument in general…this is done through practicing fundamentals that are specific to your instrument, although ALL instrumentalists should know their major and minor scales AT LEAST 2 octaves.

Go take lessons! Individual time with a teacher on your instrument will be very helpful in helping to direct your practice and individual learning.

LISTEN TO GREAT MUSIC (AND GREAT MUSICIANS ON YOUR INSTRUMENT)! How else will you know what your instrument is supposed to sound like? You need to have a “picture in your ear” of what you should sound like. The internet is a great resource for finding recordings, but a word of caution here – not everything on the internet is good. See Mr. Butchy if you are looking for suggestions of who to look for on your instrument. Also, listen to recordings of your band pieces. Mr. Butchy makes them available to you on the web. You should be listening to these recordings A LOT!!

All of this information is based directly on my own experience (and struggles) with learning how to practice. I guarantee that if you follow these suggestions, you will improve by leaps and bounds!

Today, I had a chance opportunity to play some clarinet duets with one of my students. We had a great time, and I was reminded of how much playing duets with friends in college improved my playing individually. This experience also reminded me that giving students the opportunity to perform in chamber ensembles can greatly improve their musicianship.

So, I started thinking about what kinds of chamber ensembles I could have – Brass Ensemble, Flute Choir, Clarinet Choir, Saxophone Quartet, Percussion Ensemble, etc. But then came the next obvious question – How do I incorporate all of these groups into my already busy schedule? I could ask for them to be added as classes, but I am aware that students have a tough time scheduling everything they want to take as it is. We already have marching band, jazz band, and pep band after school.

So, I’m looking for ideas from you all – Do you incorporate small ensembles, and how do you do it? I’m looking forward to hearing what you have to say!

This morning the SHS Symphonic Band had an outstanding rehearsal with Mr. Andrew Erb, Director of Bands at Thiel College. The Band is preparing for the annual Large Ensemble Music Performance Assessment here in PA, and I asked my dear friend Mr. Erb if he would come in and work with the band for an extended rehearsal time. My building administration and teachers graciously allowed the band students to come to band rehearsal for a double period so that he would be able to work with the students for a decent length of time. (I wish to give the administration and faculty my sincerest thanks for allowing this to happen!)

Andy and I talked before rehearsal and he asked if there was anything specific that we had been working on that I wanted him to address. I told him that I purposely didn’t want to tell him, because I wanted his fresh ears and fresh ideas. I have known Andy for many years and he is an outstanding musician, and I knew he would pick out the things that he was hearing and work on them. Plus, this clinic was as much for me as it was for the students…it allowed me to hear some new perspectives on pieces that I had been rehearsing for several weeks now.

To my absolute joy, Andy presented many great musical thoughts, ideas, and techniques to the group…each one completely different that anything I had told them. This was great for the students because while he of course reinforced many of the things I had been working on, he also had some new ideas that made the band sound great! Andy has spent many years in the HS band setting and was able to relate to the students immediately…they responded great and even laughed at his corny band director jokes!

Then it donned on me – I should do this much more often. I think that I am going to try to have someone come and work with the students at least once per semester and maybe even once per nine weeks. Even if it’s just a director from a neighboring school, I think the fresh ears and ideas can only help the band improve!

If this is something you have never done before, I highly recommend it! I can tell you with a certainty that my group is playing better than they were an hour and a half ago before working with the guest clinician…and I will be a better conductor/teacher too! So, call some friends and have them come and work with your band – it can only make them better!

As we go through our daily rehearsal routines with our groups, it is easy to become complacent with our critical listening skills. I think that both directors and the students in the ensemble become used to our daily sounds, and sometimes we don’t always listen with the most critical ear, especially when we are “in the moment” of cueing the right section, or playing the correct notes.

Zoom H2 Handy Recorder

I have been recording my rehearsals off and on for a few years now,  and have found that it is extremely helpful not only to me but to my students as well. I used cassette tape recorders in past years, but now with digital audio recorders, the process has gotten even better. The quality of the recording is quite good, even with a small hand held device. I personally use a Zoom H2. There are a lot of memory-card based recorders like this one available, and we could discuss all of their merits in an entirely different post. Here are my observations of one of our most recent recording sessions.

1. Recording should be done on a regular basis. I think it’s important for students to have this regular feedback about what they really sound like. I don’t do this often enough, and I think for it to really be effective, you should constantly evaluate what you are doing.

2. Record and listen right away. During class, we listen to our recordings immediately, while the students’ performance is still fresh in their minds. Usually, I find that they students think they sound better than they actually do.

3. Focus the students’ listening. When listening to the recording, have the students make a list (either physically or mentally) about what the group is doing well, and what they are not doing so well. I also remind them that we are interested in things that we are doing as a group, so that no one is “attacking” any one person’s abilities (or lack thereof). As I tell the students, they should address their individual weaknesses at home on their own time…the purpose of our rehearsal is to take what they’ve worked on individually and to see how they fit together as a group.

4. Think about keeping past recordings. Sometimes, near the upcoming performance, I will play a recording of an early rehearsal of a piece. It gives the students great perspective, because they can hear how far they have come during the rehearsal process. This has definitely been a positive technique, as the students are able to see the fruits of their labors. This is especially helpful if we might be having a rough rehearsal, when we just can’t get seem to get something right.

Another observation – The recorder does not lie! It’s brutally honest, and sometimes students need to hear that! It also can really drive home some of the concepts that I have been repeatedly telling the students. Often, once the students can actually hear what I have been hearing and telling them, they finally understand what they need to do.

Finally, I have found that while listening to our rehearsal recordings, it makes me more aware of what I am doing in the classroom. Sometimes I think, “Wow, we wasted a lot of time on that!” Many times, I will even hear things on the recording that I never heard in the rehearsal room! Recording our rehearsals has not only improved the students’ awareness of their performance, but has also helped me to be a better and more effective teacher!

I encourage you to give it a try and share your experiences!

Earlier this week, I was trying to come up with ways to help my ensembles to become better listeners. Most of the students in the groups (both Senior High and Jr. High) are pretty good individual musicians, but I have found that they are lacking in good listening skills. They do not yet fully comprehend how to listen to something other than themselves when playing in an ensemble.

In an effort to “shake things up,” I used a technique that I had used in the past. I asked the students to get up out of their seats and go and sit by someone who did not play the same instrument as them. Of course they were excited to do so, as many of them got to sit by their friends, and it was something different. But aside from that, this was truly a great learning experience for them and me.

The first thing that I think we all noticed was that the band did not sound nearly as good as usual. I believe this is due to several factors. First, those in the group that tend to “hide” behind the better players in their section were not able to do so. Second, since they were not able to sit with their sections they were much more timid with entrances and just playing their parts in general.

However, I found this exercise to be beneficial, as it forced them to hear other parts of the ensemble that they had never heard before. Hopefully, this will lead to better listening across the ensemble during rehearsals and performances.

This led me to another idea. I had often heard of this, but never tried it. I thought that another neat way to get the students to hear others in the ensemble would be to put them in a circle. I had to have two rows due to the number of students I have and the space constraints, but I still think it achieved it’s purpose. I had upper woodwinds in the inner circle and the brasses and saxophones in the outer circle. Unfortunately, I had to leave the percussion where they usually are. I still had the students sit in sections, because I think it’s important for them to be able to hear their section. But, now we were all facing each other, and playing at each other. I stood in the center. Again, I believed this helped the students to hear each other better, and since we have been working on balance and blend in the last several weeks, this worked really well. They were able to hear across the group, and throughout the rehearsal, their blend and balance truly improved.

Another interesting thing I noted from my perspective in the center of the circle was that I was able to hear parts better. Usually we are in curved rows, four deep. I find it difficult to hear those trombone and trumpet parts sometimes when they are sitting in the back of the ensemble. The circle seating arrangement allowed me to hear more clearly what was going on. Additionally, I had much better proximity to every student and section in the group, which I liked. It was almost a more intimate setting.

We kept the chairs set up like this for a few days. I obviously would not leave them like this permanently, but it will be great to do from time to time. I am anxious to hear what the group will sound like tomorrow back in our “normal” seating arrangement.

Overall, it was a great exercise for the students and myself. I will definitely come back to this from time to time!

While working with a student this morning on an honors band solo, several thoughts about practicing occurred to me. Actually, I’ve always had these thoughts about practicing, but I don’t think I ever bothered to write them down.  What follows is a list of my basic beliefs about practicing.

1. We must teach students HOW to practice! All too often, we tell students, “Go home and practice.” But, what if they don’t know what to do? I think many of our students simply (hopefully) take their instrument and music home, start at the beginning of the song, play to the end and then say, “Okay, I’ve practiced.” This method is not effective, if they don’t know what to do. In my personal experience, I never practiced in high school (sorry Travis!), but I didn’t think I ever needed to. I could sight-read the music easily, and never really struggled with the repertoire on which we were working. This was fine until I got to college and really needed to practice. Then I struggled…because I never learned how to practice, I did not excel at anything I was required to do. After 2 years of listening to my saxophone professor telling me how to practice, I finally wised up and started listening to him (after a near disaster at one of my fist juries!). If we do not teach our students how to practice, their efforts will be futile – they will become easily frustrated and give up.

2. Students must have a practice plan in mind. Students should set small goals for what they want to accomplish during each practice session. This will give them an idea of what to work on. Depending on time availability, it could be one section of music, one phrase, one measure, or even playing that one note perfectly in tune.

3. Students must have a sound in mind. This is critical! If students do not have any idea what the trumpet should sound like when it is played at a high level, then how do they know what they should be striving for? Encourage your students to listen to great artists on their instrument – then they will truly begin to understand what they should sound like!

4. Students must practice the technique of the instrument before practicing the music! In the world of music education (especially those involving ensembles) we often do this backwards. We give the students the repertoire, and then they begin to learn how to play the music. But, are they really practicing the instrument. We all “teach music through performance in band”, and that is certainly important and necessary, but students must learn how to play their instruments in order to do this. Nothing helped me to play my repertoire better than sitting in a practice room working on my 12 major scales (with a metronome!!) every morning. Not only did this practice get my fingers and technique more coordinated, but it also gave me an opportunity to work on my air support and tone. We must become masters of technique on our instrument – then we can truly make music!

5. I believe in 3 Golden Rules of Practice. (1) GO SLOW!! The best advice I ever received was from my collegiate saxophone professor. “You should never make a mistake when you are practicing.” How is this possible? You should be going slow enough so that you never make a mistake. If we make mistakes while we are practicing, then we are practicing mistakes, and that is a waste of time. Slow down! Don’t worry about the tempo! You must first get down the basics – technique, air support, tone quality before you can ever play up to tempo! (2) Work on Small Sections. Only focus on those small parts that are giving you trouble. Don’t worry about “practicing” stuff you can already play! Break it down to the smallest parts…are specific notes giving you problems, then work those two notes back to back. (3) Repeat, Repeat, Repeat! Take those small sections and play them over and over and over until you feel totally comfortable with them. USE A METRONOME!! Each time you feel comfortable, move the metronome up one marking. A gradual increase in pulse is imperative….if you go too fast too quickly, you will be practicing mistakes. You must give your mind time to get the fingers in sync.

6. Even if your playing improves only minutely during a practice session, you are still improving! Isn’t this the goal for every session? You should walk away from every practice session with a sense of accomplishment, not matter what. If you employ effective practice strategies, then you will have improved. If you don’t feel that you have improved (even ever so slightly) then you may want to look at your routine and see if it is effective. This thought was the one that brought me back to the instrument hour after hour for more practice!

I’m interested in your thoughts on practicing, and what key points you may pass along to your students! I’m sure I’ll have more to share as I think of them!

In the course of my first few weeks at the new job, I have found myself once again asking if I push my students too hard. This comes from a strange happening in my Jr. High group in which about 3 or 4 students have dropped band all together and several more (and their parents) have been discussing dropping band with the guidance counselor. I should mention that I did away with a study hall that the Jr. High Band used to have built into their schedule – this has become most students’ reasons for wanting to drop. I’m not convinced that this is the sole reason, however.

But these students (and subsequent discussions with the guidance counselor) have made me think once again about the work ethic that I impose on my students.

I have always firmly believed that I only wanted the students in my program that truly wanted to be there and always gave 100%. If that only meant that I had 20 kids, so be it; at least it would be 20 dedicated students! I believed this would also lead to a great program, where every student was totally dedicated and hard-working. This indeed did happen in my last position. I always had a small group, but they were excellent musicians, and very dedicated. Unfortunately, parents and administrators don’t always recognize and/or understand quality in music performance. What they do understand is number of students participating. I always supposed it was other factors that kept my numbers low – scheduling conflicts, lack of support, etc.

Now I have much larger ensembles (50 in Jr. High & 65 in HS), but that also means that the range of student abilities is much wider as well. In my new position, I have students that are much better musicians than at my old school, but I also have a few students who sometimes don’t even play because they lack ability.

Other recent events in my rehearsals have caused me to think that maybe I push students too hard. I find that I tend to be a very laid back person, but on the podium, I am extremely focused and want to make the best use of our rehearsal time. Sometimes I get the feeling from the students’ reaction that this is more intense than what they would like.

So I find myself saying, “Am I too hard on them? Are my standards too high? Do I push them too much?” The problem is that I’ve tried to compromise who I am and my standards for the students before. It doesn’t work. I end up being miserable, and then so do the students…it’s not a good situation for anyone. I can’t just stand in front of them, wave my arms and collect a paycheck. I just can’t do it.

A wise man that I respect very much recently told me that we as music educators must teach to our best students. I believe this is good advice. Those students should have the best experience possible, and I believe everyone else should rise to the occasion. So the question becomes how do we as teachers balance the work and fun in our classrooms? How do we push students to be the very best that they can, but at the same time ensure that they are having an enjoyable experience that keeps them coming back for more? I always thought that seeing the fruits of their labor in their performance would be enough, but I’m not always sure that’s true for every student. What do you think?

Congratulations to all members of the Senior High Concert Band for an outstanding performance at Tuesday’s Music Performance Assessment at Westminster College! The band garnered two Excellent ratings and one Superior rating (Superior being the highest possible) from the panel of judges for an overall rating of “Excellent.” This is equivalent to a PSSA standard of “Advanced” or a grade of “A.” At the 2009 MPA, the Concert Band performed at a “Grade 2″ level, however, this year, the band performed at a higher “Grade 3″ level. The performance included a Paul Lavender arrangement of John Williams’ Raiders March, Gustav Holst’s First Suite in Eb for Military Band, and Charles Carter’s Overture for Winds. The bands have been improving by leaps and bounds over the past few years, and this assessment reflects all of the students’ hard work and dedication to the program. Following the performance, Mr. Gary Taylor, Director of Bands at Wilmington High School and Festival Host, commented to the band that “If [he] could give out an award to the most improved group from last year, it would be the Sharon band.” Audio recordings from the performance are here. Congratulations once again to the members of the Senior High Concert Band!

As a director, I couldn’t be more proud. This group performed Grade 2 & 3 level pieces at last years’ festival, and in just one year, they performed a Grade 3 & 5. Playing the entire Holst First Suite was a major accomplishment for these students, especially since we lack some essential instrumentation like trombones and horns. I re-wrote a lot of those missing parts to be covered in other instruments, and they did a tremendous job covering all of the stuff I wrote out for them.

The performance went really well, and overall, I’m quite pleased. Some aspects of the performance were better than ever, and of course some have gone better in the past. But, in the end, the students did an absolutely outstanding job performing some of the most important literature ever written for the concert band.