Posts filed under 'Genres and Stylistic Elements'
Today, in my school mailbox, I received a sample copy of the new Measures of Success beginning band method book, which is to be released by FJH publishers. The method book and its various related pieces were authored by a team comprised of Deborah A. Sheldon, Brian Balmages, Timothy Loest, Robert Sheldon and David Collier.
The package includes a very nice letter from the book’s co-author (and uber-composer) Brian Balmages, a ‘director information guide’, and finally a full copy of the series’ B-flat Clarinet Book One which includes two audio CD’s. As a collector of beginning band method books (at least it’s less geeky and more useful than collecting stamps or wearing movie costumes to comic book conventions) and a fan of Brian’s music, I have been waiting for the release of Measures of Success (MOS) for a few months now.
First impressions:
The design and production look good, as you would expect from FJH Music. The cover is black with blue, red and yellow designs; the inside is basically black and blue. The physical product is a soft-cover, consumable-workbook-style book (essentially the same physical presentation as the other major methods). The CD’s ride inside the front cover of the student book in a paper envelope with clear plastic window, again duplicating other previous publications.
The book is complete, in that its contents include concept introductions, short exercises, assessments, items which ask the students to write answers in the book (a la workbook above), and full-band arrangements embedded within the progressively-numbered ditties.
The only immediate, obvious differences between MOS and other leading methods (Standard of Excellence, Essential Elements/EE2000, Accent on Achievement, Band Expressions, etc.) are that MOS: (1) is organized into six large units rather than 20-30 small units, (2) includes six full-page assessments rather than two dozen one-line assessments, and (3) seeks to set itself apart from other methods in the quantity and quality of full-band arrangements.
I’ll dig in to MOS this weekend and give a little bit more detail in the coming week. Check back soon!
March 6th, 2010
A stunning post from Kenneth Woods at A View From the Podium this week. Check out Kenneth’s essay on Mahler 2. Especially notable are the dozen or so audio clips of a menagerie of conductors bringing their own (more and less “correct”) interpretations to the piece:
Who goes for contrast, and who goes for continuity? Who is fastest and who is slowest? Who has the most terrified sounding Alto soloist? Let’s listen….
On behalf of all of us, Kenneth, thanks for digging through the stack of discs and harvesting the gold!
January 26th, 2010
I was recently asked to contribute to the music education portion of the Jemsite blog. Important excerpts are copied below, but I encourage you to read the full post here. You can even purchase guitars and accessories from the site.
I surprised myself a little bit with the honesty with which I answered the last question. Read it through, and see what you think.
Q: You currently teach Beginning Guitar classes in school. What do you teach exactly, especially considering you say you only have a repertoire of about 6 major chords?
A: My guitar repertoire may be larger than six chords, but I am still not a guitarist. Neither was the band director who started that class at that school. But she felt, as I do, that music is not a spectator sport and that every school should provide an inroads into music for every child.
The guitar curriculum for that class requires that by the end of one semester, every student will demonstrate that they can: hold and care for a guitar; tune a guitar; work correct left-hand technique; work both right-hand classical technique and use a pick; read pitches between the low E and high G; read rhythms including whole, half, quarter and eighth notes and rests; read basic tablature; play a melody alone and with a duet partner; play basic major chords alone and accompany a melody; play power chords; compose an original power chord riff; use simple multitrack recording software; and create an arrangement of a song using all of the tools in their toolbox.
Q: What’s the difference between “training” and “education?” Do you think teaching music education is more important than being an actual performer?
A: “Education” differs from “training” in a small but important aspect: process is more important than product. In a training scenario the student learns how to do one thing one way, whereas in an education scenario the student learns the concepts that operate that thing and therefore can apply the knowledge to new situations. A burger flipper in a fast food joint gets trained to toast the buns the same every time, but a chef in a Michelin-rated restaurant should educated in how flour combines with yeast and therefore can create new kinds of breads or adapt to different ovens. In a guitar lesson, a teacher can take one of two strategies: teach the E minor chord and the A minor chord so that the student knows two chords, or teach how minor chords are built so that the student knows every minor chord. Unfortunately, most guitar teachers in the world pander to the lowest common denominator, and teach the student how to play the song (for example, “Today we’re going to play ‘Foxy Lady’. Play this note, then play this note, then play this note…”) rather than teaching the student how to play guitar (for example, “Check out these crazy notes….they are called tri-tones. Here’s how they work, here’s why they sound strange, here’s how to make them yourself. Let’s practice some tri-tones in this song ‘Foxy Lady’.”)
“Music education” isn’t something a guitar teacher would teach. Rather, it is the philosophy with which the guitar teacher approaches the lesson. Surely every guitar student wants to be a performer. The question is, does the student want to perform a limited selection of songs in their bedroom, or does the student want to perform a wide variety of songs, including their own original tunes, on a stage in front of an audience?
Q: You direct the Wind Ensemble, Jazz Ensemble, Concert Band and Rock Band Workshop for an international school in Asia. How are guitar classes currently being integrated into school band/choir programs?
A: Most schools in the U.S. don’t offer guitar. With easy availability of guitar teachers and private guitar lessons outside of school, most districts feel no pressure to add the faculty or spend money on a class set of instruments. Schools that do offer guitar mostly offer it as a one-semester elective, with no opportunity for student to continue after the final exam. This scenario is better than the old-fashioned Music Appreciation class in which student memorized the birth and death dates of Mozart. Some schools with beginning guitar also have an advanced guitar ensemble class so that students can continue indefinitely, gaining more skill and becoming mentors to younger guitar students. Because most music classes in middle and high schools are Band and Choir classes, student who have studied guitar on their own find opportunities to participate in the school Jazz Band. Often these are students who are also singers or wind instrument players who play or sing classical music in the Band or Choir while taking guitar lessons after school.
Q: Do you believe the guitar is a worthwhile instrument amongst school musical performances? Why?
A: Any instrument, and any style of music, is worthy of school music concerts. The point of teaching music in schools is that music (1) is valuable just because it is music, (2) teaches personal and social skills that are critical to young peoples’ success in real life, (3) builds school spirit and community identity, and (4) is fun. Guitar meets these criteria just as well as clarinet, violin and voice do.
Q: Tell me about your Jazz Ensemble and Rock Band Workshops and how guitar comes into play there.
A: I usually have one or two guitar players plus a bass player every year in the Jazz Ensemble. These are typical numbers for a big band (think Count Basie, Duke Ellington, and Gordon Goodwin). In fact, my Beginning Guitar class has been an important recruiting tool for the Jazz Band.
Rock Band Workshop is an open-door program, like open-mic afternoon. We have had between two and twelve guitarists show up to any given session. Anyone can come play, whether alone or with a group. We have had singer-guitarists cover Jack Johnson, and we have had six-piece rock bands play Iron Maiden. We even had a solo bassist perform just the bass part of a Slipknot song because she was new to our school and didn’t know any other musicians. At the Workshop that day, she met a metal band who was performing without a bassist. By the next workshop she was in that band, and by the following school year she was in the Jazz Band and the Wind Orchestra. At Workshop, each person/group plays their song and then gets feedback from the guest experts (our school has a shocking number of faculty with serious gig experience) on everything from how to play in time together to how to get the best sound out of their distortion pedal/amplifier combo.
Q: How important is music education in school in determining how a child does in other areas of learning?
A: Research on this question has been huge but inconclusive. We are sure that students who excel in music also excel in other subjects. However, researchers have not been able to show whether this relationship is a cause-effect situation or merely a coincidence caused by another factor. For every study that shows cause-effect, there is another that shows no cause-effect. However, wouldn’t you rather your own child have it than not?
Q: What is the future of music education?
A: The future of music education is in technology, student compositions, and self-directed learning. Guitar and piano will play an increasing role in school music classes as Web 2.0 tools become more commonplace in the classroom. Within the next 30 years, Band class as I know it will lose precedence in school curricula. Chamber music will be more common. The new music class will be more about students recording their own music (on any instrument—guitar, woodwind, brass or otherwise) and distributing it digitally than about large ensembles. Band, Choir and Orchestra will not be forgotten; their excitement, energy, inclusiveness and community ties (not to mention their relationship to sporting events) will keep them active in schools, but as extra-curricular activities rather than as graded classes. Students’ technical performance skills on their chosen instrument will be increasingly measured by computer, giving music teachers more tools for grading technique objectively and for coaching students to more fully create the emotional effects that make classical music so powerful. And finally, within the next 50 years, music will become mandatory in every year of school for every student as new research in neuroscience and cognitive psychology will convince school administrators and politicians that music makes definite, measurable improvements in students’ ability to solve problems, mature emotionally, relate to others and generally be successful in life.
October 26th, 2009
All call - I am looking for high-quality blogs focused on (instrumental?) conducting. Do you read or write a can’t miss conducting blog? Tell me about it! I crave hundred-proof VSOP conducting juice!
I am trying to focus on coverage of the art and science of musical score interpretation vis-a-vis ensemble leadership through gesture, so I am leaving out sites that generally cover job announcements and appointments. Here is my current minuscule list, based on nothing more than a quick Google search:
Richard Sparks - http://richardsparks1.blogspot.com/
Kenneth Woods - http://kennethwoods.net/blog1/
Rob Archibald - http://conductingblog.org/
Sarah Hicks & Sam Bergman (”Conductors and Conducting” thread) - http://www.minnesotaorchestra.org/insidetheclassics/blog/labels/conductors%20and%20conducting.html
October 26th, 2009
Tenet One: Our very first learning objective in Beginning Band is for students to make a characteristic sound. In fact, tone quality remains the first criterion on most judging rubrics right through high school. Really, what kind of classical musician would you be without the ability to make a beautiful sound? The need for good tone quality even affects other elements of music: “only play the fortissimo as loud as you can control the tone”, “don’t play the staccato so short that we miss the tone”, “your high range is not how high you can squeak out a sound, but how high you can control, sustain and repeat”, and “play that _____ a little slower, Billy, quality is more important than quantity” are always good advice.
Tenet Two: As interpreters of music, it is our job as professional musicians to bring each work to the audience in such a way as the composer intended for it to sound. That is, we strive for authentic interpretation. As educators, part of our task is to teach young musicians how to interpret each piece authentically. But we cannot simply teach each piece–we must give our students a wide range of tools to do so in a wide range of musical literature. Another way to say this is that we must give students the vocabulary to make all the sounds required in different works and syntax to combine them in meaningful ways in new situations. We must not train our students (like circus monkeys) to play this piece or that piece, but rather educate them to apply musical wisdom to new situations without prompting.
Query: Are there any situations in which authentic performance could be in opposition to tone quality? Are there any situations in which you would actually give your students permission to sacrifice timbre? Jazz music is a good example…while jazz players have a different concept of tone from symphonic players (even different mouthpieces and reeds!), there is still an enormous disparity between jazz musicians in what constitutes acceptable tone. Many jazz musicians of renown have been musically illiterate, and some have produced tones that would peel paint of walls. Should we teach students to make those sounds in the pursuit of authenticity? What if I program a Rebirth Brass Band chart for my Jazz Ensemble? The characteristic second-line sound is gritty and in-your-face. What about a Rolling Stones or Hendrix rock chart for my Concert Band? Do I simulate a little bit of distortion by tacitly allowing the trombones to play a bit blatty? Even back “at home” in traditional “classical” wind band repertoire, surely experienced conductor and performer Percy Grainger knew what would happen to timbre when he marked multiple “f”’s in Lincolnshire Posy. How do you teach tone quality? How do you teach articulation and dynamics? Are there any situations in which you would sacrifice a little tone quality?
January 29th, 2009
Programming a thematic concert for your ensemble is a quick, easy way to emphasize the bigger, overriding concepts of music for your students while giving a boost of catchiness to your concert publicity. Programming according to a theme could be geographical, historical, or musically theoretical. Planning an entire concert according to a theme does not have to be restrictive, as themes could be completely abstract….and really, three pieces out of five are enough to support your theme. Just think up a catchy title for your musical evening, have a poster contest among your students, and get back to studying those scores. Try these easy (and possibly educational) themes for your Spring Concert:
Time periods: Renaissance, Romantic or Contemporary
all music from one time period, and/or a work based on a period theme. Better yet, teach your ensemble (and your audience) what is it as well as what it isn’t by playing the original and the adaptation back to back.
Journey Through Time
Play one piece from each of the Renaissance, Baroque, Classical, Romantic, and Twentieth Century.
Trinity or Attack of the Killer Threes or Triple Play
one work has three flats, one work has three movements, one work has three beats to the measure, one work is a triple-concerto.
Choose a country
Spain, Ireland, Greece, Russia, and Mexico all have significant bodies of literature for American wind band composed about them or from their folk songs. (I can’t say enough about Anne McGinty’s Greek Folk Trilogy or about Brian Balmages Images of Ireland for young band). The continent of Africa has been a subject of fascination for composers, even if it is not a country. I hope to see more works drawing on cultures of the Middle East, the Far East and authentic (artistic) uses of Latin American themes in the next ten years.
Antithesis or Opposing Forces
Include something antiphonic or polychoral, such as from Renaissance Set 1 collection edited by Mark Scatterday; a work for soloist and band; a work that features your percussion section; pair up one work featuring Baroque basso continuo with another work built on a jazz walking bass line; play a superhero movie theme such as Batman, Spiderman, or Superman; and for the grand finale, “bring balance to the force” with Convergence by Roland Barrett.
Life Cycles or Rebirth or Renaissance or New Beginnings
Include the version of Arirang, the famous Korean folk melody which translates as ‘new beginnings’, which best fits your ensemble’s needs, or even perform two contrasting settings of the theme; include the version of Stravinsky’s “Finale” from The Firebird which best fits your band; include a piece from the Renaissance; and for advanced bands, do yourself a favor and check out Steven Reinecke’s Rise of the Firebird.
Antiphony Concert Poster
December 29th, 2008
As we approach winter break, the pace of school life speeds up while the pace of class drops. More middle school students forget their instruments at home while the high schoolers struggle under the weight of last-minute projects. With the Fall Concert out of the way, I find this to be a helpful and appropriate time to ease up on the performance expectations of Band class. The week or two between the concert and winter break are a great time to address content standards which have been left by the wayside in the two-month buildup to the big concert. It is a time for reflections, self-evaluation, and goal-setting for the coming semester, as well as lessons in improvisation, composition, and relating music to the arts and other subjects.
One of my favorite lesson plans (no doubt because it is one of my students’ favorite lessons) is based on track two of The Complex Rock Tour live DVD by the Blue Man Group. In this video, the Blue Men play an instrument made of…well, you’ll just have to buy the DVD and find out! Be sure to follow copyright law as you expose your students to this excellent educational moment.
These reflection questions are an excellent start to the conversation. Question 1 and 3 are great tie-ins to science curriculum, while question 2 is a great starter for the Communication Area of Interaction in the IB-MYP program and may also address standards in your school’s social studies curriculum. All of these questions will need to be reworded to greater or lesser degree for younger (grade 6-7) students. The premise which forms the connective tissues of The Complex as a show and as an album is a parody of the cliches surrounding rock concerts and the rock music industry, and could ignite a thoughtful conversation among your older students (if copyright law allowed showing large segments of the disc).
1. What is the instrument the blue men played? How does it make vibrations (sound)? How do the blue men operate it? Of what family of instruments is it a member? If you gave it a name, what would you call it?
2. Playing the instrument requires teamwork, and playing in a band requires teamwork. Tell how the blue men communicate with each other and with the rest of the band. If the blue men do not speak, how do they communicate? How do musicians communicate during a piece in concert band?
3. The blue men have no ears. How can they “hear” music? Using what you know about the physics (sound is vibration) and anatomy (the human body is composed of organs, while organs are composed of tissues), hypothesize about how the blue men are able perceive sound. That is, how do you think vibrations go from the air into the auditory cortex of their brains?
November 30th, 2008
Tonight I heard a concert of Wagner. It was not just any Wagner concert, it was the Bayreuth Festival Orchestra playing Wagner. I suppose if any ensemble knows how to play Wagner, it should be the Bayreuth, right?
Ahh, Wagner. Is there anything bigger? Eight double basses, four flutes (one picc), four oboes, four clarinets (one bass), for bassoons, four harps (ferchristsakes), four trumpets (one bass), four trombones (is that a contrabass?!?), four horns that sound like eight (are they doubling on tenor horns? antique bell-up E-flat horns? euphoniums?!?), and a tuba the size of Siberia. No really, the tuba was huge. No really, I just looked it up on the Cerveny website to see if it was likely a .787″ or a .795″. I knew it would be big, but wow; the catalogue lists the Kaisertuba bore size as “Grand Canyon”. Really.
The first half of the program was the complete first act of Die Walküre, in concert. Appreciating the genius of the leitmotif concept did not increase my enjoyment of the work, or that of the students I took. Beautiful for sure, intense like no other, but not a shocker that it never hit the Top 40 pop charts. Call me simple minded if you must, but leitmotif only brings a feeling constant frustration of “never going anywhere” musically…and Wagner really rubs that in with his long-winded-ness. The frustration of Die Walküre reminded me of the first time I played Johan de Meij’s Symphony Nr. 1 “Lord of the Rings”; although not related to Wagner’s cycle in any narrative or structural way, sections of that work shift gears before a given variation (seems to me) to have been fully explored. When a piece finally arrives at the tutti…well, I want a tutti, dammit. Let’s rock and roll. Let’s sturm und strang until the storm leaves us exhausted and gasping for breath. Thinking of the short-winded climaxes of de Meij reminded me of another anti-climax…what is that Alfred Reed piece I’m thinking of? Is it “Russian Christmas Music”? You spend at least a hundred bars building to a gigantic dominant chord which could only be followed by a major-key, big, tutti statement (rock and roll, here we come!), only to hit a deceptive cadence and change into the wrong key for a slow, minor-key development of a different theme. What a letdown! In any case, leitmotif aside, the orchestra in tonight’s Wagner was outstanding and really brought each beautiful moment (after moment, after moment) to life.
The second half of the program was drawn from Götterdämmerung, finishing with the famous brass-erotica of “Brünnhilde’s Immolation and Finale“. What awesome music! Lighter on the leitmotif (no pun intended), featuring longer lines of glorious brass in big, fat chords and melody doubled an octave below. Rock and roll, here we are! How can teenagers not love this music? “Hooked on Classics” may have been an artistic abomination, but this piece almost makes it seem like a good idea again. Of course, it would have to be Lars Ulrich or Mike Portnoy…godbless him, but Charlie Watts couldn’t keep up with either Wagner or the Bayreuth brass… I’d set that big “Immolation/Finale” brass hit as the ringtone on my cellphone, if I didn’t already know that the rinky-dink phone speaker would just make me cry out in frustration. In fact, there should be a law against playing the end of Götterdämmerung on small stereo systems. In fact, if they can make Wagner-tubas and Kaisertubas just for the Ring cycle, then they ought to be making separate stereo systems for the Ring cycle. I’d buy one, and I’d set it up in the living room in its own cabinet, right next to the Onkyo on which I play everything else. Götterdämmerung forever! Wagner for president!
This is the music that brought me into classical genres as a teenager, and is the music that I believe has the best chance of capturing my students’ attention. Now if I could just cut out the first three hours and forty-five minutes, I might have a recruiting soundtrack!
October 26th, 2008
Did you catch the June, 2008 issue of Teaching Music magazine from MENC? Teaching Music doesn’t do much for me most of the time, but the feature article “Out of the Box” really goes to the heart of what Third-Stream is all about. Yes, we need our flagship ensembles–bring on the Advanced Wind Ensemble, the Honors Chamber Singers, the elite Symphony Orchestra at your school–but we also need alternate ways for students to approach music. I hope we can all agree that every child deserves to have music in their lives! Students who aren’t gifted, students who come from different backgrounds, and students who just didn’t join the band in 6th grade still deserve the opportunities for happiness and personal growth that music provides. Even dedicated band students have other talents and interests; your last chair trumpeter could be the leader of your steel drum ensemble, but you’ll never know it unless you start some alternative opportunities on your campus. Alternative offerings can often be a foot in the door for recruiting talented students who otherwise would have shied away from joining the band; I recruited my jazz ensemble’s pianist and guitarist from guitar class, and a violinist for the pit orchestra from the jazz ensemble. Even the jazz ensemble was alternative and controversial in the 1950’s, and now is a staple of music education in the U.S.
Besides, bands in schools were once considered to be offensively “out of the box”….and now no school is complete without a band!
September 3rd, 2008
