Colorado Music Educations Clinic and Conference

January 18^th – 19^th, 2007

Mr. Kemp’s Notes

Clinics that I attended:

(Click on one to take you directly to that point.)

Teaching Percussion from the Podium

Getting All of the Notes All of the Time: Brass Techniques

Technique Building for the Middle School Orchestra

Tricks of the Trade: Creating a Thriving High School Choral Program

Getting Your Percussionists Involved in Jazz Band

More Kids in Music is a Good Thing: Recruiting and Retention

Sight-Reading: Are you a Scout or a Jedi?

Intonation in Ensembles: Why do we wait?

Teaching Percussion from the Podium

Shilo Stroman

Thursday, January 18^th

Equipment:

A quality instrument equals a quality sound.

Use the right tool for the right job. (Different types of the same instrument for different applications.)

Tune the drums every few weeks. This should be regular maintenance.

Timpani heads should be changed every two years.

Check the cords that hold your mallet bars up. They sometimes need to be replaced too.

Set-Up:

Try putting percussionists in different places during rehearsals to find out where they sound best according to the hall or band room. It matters.

Arrange the set-up so that the students can move efficiently to their instruments when changing.

Spike the floor with tape so that students know where to put instruments every day.

Check for the height of the drum, and allow them time to change it between songs.

Place the stand low for mallets so that they can see their instrument and the conductor.

Don’t let anyone hide in the corner while playing percussion, especially when they are playing mallets.

Use a trap table for accessory instruments so that nothing makes noise when it shouldn’t.

Recognize the problems aurally and visually:

Incorrect beating spot

Timpani players usually play too close to the rim. It should be three inches in from the center of the bowl for proper resonance.

Mallet players need to avoid the nodes of the bars. Avoid the part that the cord goes through. This is easy to see if you get to the side of the instrument and look across.

Snare players should avoid the top edge of the drum. Always avoid the dead center. Play just off center. Put tape on the stick at the grip spot so that they always hold it at the correct place.

Every cymbal has a threshold of good sound. It will sound better if you do not crescendo past that point.

Do not buy marching band cymbals. Buy quality symphonic cymbals.

Cymbal mallets: Cord mallets (or vibe mallets) work best for suspended cymbal. Yarn does not respond as well, but is darker. Rubber is good for rhythmic parts.

Snare: Keep all the fingers on the stick all of the time. Imagine that it is like water, and you don’t want it to leak out.

Velocity is a better term than play louder or hit harder. The stick should have enough force that it comes back to you, even at soft dynamics. Use only the velocity that you need.

Crash Cymbals: Everyone can play them, but not everyone can get a good sound. Distance does not make volume with cymbals. It creates accidents. Again, use velocity as the answer instead of distance.

Interpretation:

Ask your students how they think the part should be played. They need to think about such things. How does it fit in the rest of the ensemble.

Be aware of whether the notes should be short or long. Use pencil markings for short or long. Tenuto and staccato marks are just as good for percussionists as they are for winds.

Percussionists should breathe before they play, just as winds would do. Breathe together, play together.

Playing with the ensemble:

Rehearse the percussionists with other sections.

Organizing the percussion section:

Create a rotation schedule for percussionists during warm-ups. They do not really need to warm-up with bass drum.

Have each student play in all areas at least every two concerts. Do not allow them to “specialize”, or think that they are specialized when they really aren’t.

It is okay to add parts to the music for educational purposes. Don’t double snare parts, especially for festivals. Trombone parts can be doubled on the low mallets.

Timpani players should be able to play scales by using the pedal.

What to do with “extra” students:

Let them go practice percussion ensemble stuff in the practice room.

Split the section so that you are rehearsing with some, and some students are working somewhere else.

Getting All of the Notes All of the Time:

Practical Techniques to Handle Demanding Brass Ranges

Thursday, January 18th

Al Eberhardt, Colorado State College – Pueblo

C.H.O.P.S. System

Control equals tone. Tone equals good sound.

Posture counts more than most people think. Even moving as little as an inch can damage the tone.

The instrument does not have to come straight out of the face. A slight angle works better for some students.

Bring the instrument to you, not the other way around.

Moving the jaw forward can sometimes help with sound and range.

Air support is a must for control.

Hearing: You have to hear the part in your head before you play it.

Rehearse it down an octave first.

Observation: Little habits can creep in that can ruin your playing.

Use recordings of good players, and record the students playing.

Practical Application of Previously Mentioned Techniques

Do warm-ups at least to the highest note required by the music.

Do not blow into the stand or other player’s backs.

Take big enough breaths to reach the end of the phrase.

Use low chromatic refreshers during long or demanding rehearsals.

Approach all phrases, loud or soft, high or low, with equal focus.

Program music to challenge, but not to defeat your students.

Plastic mouthpieces are great for students with braces. They are also cheap.

System: Develop a system that works for each student. (Private lessons required)

Start all practices with warm-ups and range builders.

Perform all assigned scales and arpeggios (memorized at some point). Notice the word choice here. It means something different to perform than it does to practice. Approach these scales as performances because they will be in the music some day.

Play all assigned etudes and excerpts.

Demonstrate improvement on all assigned solos.

Listen to student and pro recordings of assigned materials.

Technique Building for the Middle School Orchestra

Thursday, January 18^th

Bob Phillips

The sound that students make is already determined by their bow position before they even start the sound.

Use various “weights” while bowing rather than telling them about pressure. (0-10 pounds)

Start with a bad, overly weighted sound, and then back off from there until it sounds better.

Example of bowing exercise:

“Start with 10 and release down to 5.” This teaches attack.

Practice bow attack like pizzacato. The “pull” should sound the same.

Use referential analogies for the speed of the bow. (0-65mph)

“Let’s use five pounds of pressure at 45 mph.”

Elbow Level:

7 levels of the bow.

Strokes (Attack)

You either push or pull, there is no down and up.

Use a partner to hold the top of the bow while the student playing pulls and pushes. (Down and up) Sound quality doesn’t matter at this point. This is so they can feel the resistance.

Spiccato: Get basketballs from the gym, let the bounce it.

The ball goes down and comes back up. You accept the weight of the bounce and redirect it down. Compare this with slapping the ball, which kills the bounce.

Start from the string, and then come off after the initial stroke. Don’t use any weight, but just play sixteenths without coming up at first. Then instruct them to just release all of the weight of the bow. The bow will bounce on its own.

Spiccato is a back and forth movement more than it is a vertical stroke.

The faster you get them out of D majorities the better.

Be careful not to let them think of D and A positions as “normal”. Get them moving as soon as possible to remain flexible and avoid gripping the instrument tightly.

Position exercise:

Put your left thumb in your ear.

Put your pointer finger on your eyebrow.

Put your third and fourth finger on you lips. This is the correct finger spacing for string instruments.

Shifting:

Have them practice by using harmonics first. (String Explorer, BK2, #75) This will force them to put their finger in the right place because the harmonic will not speak unless it is.

There is no point in conducting them unless they are ready to follow the music and respond to the important gestures of it. Anything else just trains them not to watch. Definitely do not click on the podium.

Students must be taught to audiate. (Hear it in your head before you play it.) This is the only way to play accurately.

Use games: Have one person play a sustained note and ask another to “hide” in their sound. They will automatically match weight, speed, and bow length because they will stick out otherwise.

Kids don’t play out of tune because they don’t care. They play out of tune because they don’t understand. They may be able to match the person next to them, but not vertically in the ensemble.

Advanced Middle School Technique: Melodic call-response. Repeat it. Look at different sections, and play them new riffs. Eventually every section will be playing something different.

Have them switch parts at the snap of your fingers.

Sight reading:

We all miss dotted notes of all kinds. Practice those rhythmic patterns that are difficult.

Every kid should be trained to conduct before they get out of middle school.

Throw a coin up in the air and ask the kids to clap at the exact moment it is caught. Then do this with an imaginary coin.

Most kids use the force when they sight read. It is some imaginary power that they think will help them get everything. They need to earn how to scout instead.

Tricks of the Trade: Creating a Thriving High School Choral Program

Friday, January 19^th

Dawn Wilson, Cheyenne Mountain High School

Dan Jeppson, Pine Creek High School

Sarcasm is not a viable teaching strategy.

Kids need to be goofy sometimes.

Create Traditions

Take pictures to post on the walls of the classroom.

Encourage the social aspect of being part of the ensemble.

Tap students to organize social events.

Have music playing when the students enter. This really helps create a mood for the rehearsal. Upbeat music works well in the morning.

Have, and display, a genuine passion for what you do.

Transition Times (Post concert, end of year, etc…):

Have the ensemble write post performance logs using only positive comments.

Have an “open mic” day.

Sight-sing masterwork music.

Have them sing along with a good recording.

Use instruments sometimes. Boomwhackers, handbells, orff, etc…

Bring in guest clinicians.

Rehearse songs that you are planning for next year.

Start working on All-State materials at the beginning of the year.

Create CD’s with scales and triads for them to practice with.

Take field trips.

Getting Your Percussionists Involved in Jazz Band:

How They Can Contribute to the Ensemble

Friday, January 19th

Dr. Darin Kamstra

Director of Jazz Studies and Percussion, Mesa State College

Use Vibraphone

Option 1: Vibraphone part already included in the piece

Option 2: Play lead trumpet part on vibraphone.

Make the students transpose. It is an easy transposition and an important skill.

Option 3: Play the lead alto part on vibraphone.

You may have to transpose the part for the student.

Option 4: Comp on vibraphone using the piano part.

Two note voicing (3^rd and 7^th of the chord using smooth voice leading)

Beware of over-comping, especially when there are other comping instruments.

Accessories:

Some accessories can work in a straight-ahead setting, such as using the triangle to mimic the open/closed high-hat pattern in swing.

A shaker can be used on beats two and four.

Latin Styles:

Determine the specific style that you are playing, as there are many types of Latin music.

Most frequent styles are

Brazilian: Bossa Nova/Samba

Cuban: Salsa/Mambo

Specific styles can be determined from the bass part.

Brazilian styles typically emphasize the third beat of each measure.

Cuban styles typically emphasize the + of 2, beat 4, or both.

Choose the appropriate instruments for the style:

Brazilian:

Shaker, Cabasa, Triangle, Agogo Bells, Pendeiro, snare drum, reco-reco, cuica, surdo, repinique,samba whistle, crash cymbals.

Play patters that do not double the drumset part.

Cuban

Congas, bongos, timbales, cowbells, maracas, claves, guiro, bombo, shekere.

Again, play patterns that do not double the drumset part.

Generally, Cuban percussion parts never double one another exactly, although they frequently align closely with each other in relation to the clave pattern.

Playing Technique:

Use the right stick for the instrument. Thicker sticks end up creating a heavy sound. Use lighter sticks when possible.

Use a clip for triangle. That clip will give the student a solid way to grip it while playing the open and closed patterns.

Suggested Resources for rhythmic patterns:

Uribe, Ed. The Essence of Afro-Cuban Percussion and Drumset. Alfred Publishing

Uribe, Ed. The Essence of Brazilian Percussion and Drumset. Alfred Publishing.

Have students switch instruments during the piece to better fit the style of what is going on. (Example: use a shaker, and then switch to triangle with open/closed pattern.)

More Kids in Music is a Good Thing: Recruiting and Retention

Friday, January 19, 2007

Bob Phillips, Alfred Publishing

v Let’s imagine that math teachers had to recruit students for their classes. It would scare them to death, yet this is our reality every year.

v Successful recruiting is most successful when it is not viewed as a zero sum gain. In other words, it is important for each part of the program (vocal, band, orchestral) to grow. The total number of students involved in the program is more important than the numbers involved in individual ensembles. They will all grow when one becomes successful.

v Never tell a student that the instruments are hard to play!

Components of Successful Recruiting

Attitude Development (Are they likely to start?)

This happens in advance. You have to have made some kind of contact with the students before you try to recruit them.

Look for insertion points in the curriculum of the younger grade levels.

Most parents make the decision on whether they want to get their kids involved in music one year before you even try to recruit them.

· Kids always join in groups with their friends.

· Kids always drop out in groups. They have to be with their friends. This can create a negative image for the whole program or the next year.

How does the staff respond to your recruiting methods/needs?

· Recruit teachers as much as you recruit students.

Create a buzz in the community by doing performances outside of the school.

· House values are higher when the music programs are strong in the area, and real estate agents can tell you if your program is known in the community.

An effective recruiting demonstration

Positive student/parent response

Effective Follow Up with parents and students

High Quality Teaching: It doesn’t matter how good the recruiting is if the teaching that follows is it bad.

Attitude Development/Arts Attitude Development/Public Relations

Students

Parents

Administration and Staff

The community (public and business)

“Informance” (instead of just a performance)

Every performance should educate the audience.

Be careful with research. Check it first.

How old is it?

Are the numbers misleading?

Philosophical and Real World Rationales

Brain Research, Howard Gardner and Arts Advocacy

Plans and Decisions – How and When to Recruit

Know schedules, do letters, make proposals

Visitations – as a program or each program individually?

Professional musicians are not good recruiters. They are not trained for it.

Peer-to-peer recruiting is better than us-to-them.

Communicate with the classroom teachers, the whole school, and with individual students.

Types of Recruiting Demonstrations

Individual – One on one

Small Group

Large Group

Don’t play anything hard as an example. Play something that they will get to play soon.

Peer Group

Spread the kids around the room. Kids need to touch it and feel it.

Ask kids to help. Turn it into a contest. Which section will recruit the most? (The result will be balanced if your recruiters are from a balanced ensemble.)

Professional Musician

Professionals don’t know how to talk to kids.

They play music that is too tough for kids to understand.

Senior Citizen

Senior citizens are powerful recruiters. They are not “generic adults” like you are.

They have free time.

They are funny because they don’t care what anybody thinks.

Video/CD ROM

Create a movie that tells a story, and use student performers to fill in the soundtrack. (Each character would get a short theme played by a different instrument. Play the hero’s theme on the instrument that you need the most, and make the villain’s theme played by the instrument that you need the least.

This will get the kids very excited, and it shows them how music works for leitmotivs.

The Decision Making Process: What Instrument Will I Play?

Communicate with good, detailed materials.

Parent’s Objections

Solve the objections before your parents can come up with them.

It is easier to shape the decision than it is to solve the problem.

Be positive in your communications with parents.

Retention:

If the program isn’t good on top, it will be very difficult to recruit the younger grades.

Do you know the exact date that your counselors will be talking to all grade level students about their upcoming year?

Be proactive about talking to students about scheduling.

Language Classes:

It is far more effective for students to take language classes in their last few years of high school than it is to take them as freshmen/sophomores in terms of the amount they will remember during college.

Be proactive with your students regarding the inevitable sports/AP class questions. “I can’t do both!”

Bring students to the recruiting fair that are actually on the sports teams and in the AP classes.

“Adopt-a-beginner” program for Tri-M or advanced ensemble members.

Have them teach lessons once a week.

Have them log their contact with the younger kids.

Use this as a lettering requirement for high school?

Sight-Reading: Are you a Scout or a Jedi?

Saturday, January 20^th

Bob Phillips, Alfred Music Publishing

Mistakes that are made:

Sight-reading is more successful if you use a process. It is a skill, not luck. Good sight-readers use a method to “scout” the music before playing it. The “Jedi” method, where you just “feel it as you go”, doesn’t work.

Students should have the most common “band” scales memorized. Point out the key and then ask students to finger through the scale a few times as a unison exercise while saying “ta”.

You need checkpoints. Ask them to yell out the answers as you call out “checkpoint one!”, etc…. There needs to a physical response for everything.

1. Title (That tells you a lot about the musical style)
2. Composer’s Name (Composers have distinct styles)
3. Tempo/Tempo Changes
4. Key/Key Changes
5. Time Signature/Time Changes
6. Road Map
7. Beginning and Ending Dynamics
1. Kids most often miss the first dynamic.
2. The judge needs to hear the last dynamic correctly too.
8. Accidentals
9. Articulations

Does everyone have the right piece

Roles:

Ø The director is responsible for clear beats and cues.

Teach the kids to conduct, and let them conduct sometimes.

Teach them also to conduct meter changes.

Ø The players are responsible for looking ahead, playing together on the downbeat of each measure, looking up, and not stopping.

Rhythms that we miss:

Ø Dotted notes (students must subdivide and keep track of how much they have already played)

Ø Long Notes (What is the unit of pulse?)

Ø Rests (Planned silence

Ø Ties (The problem with ties is that they are often dotted notes in disguise, often over a bar line.)

Ø Syncopation (Subdivide!)

Ø Long notes transitioning to short notes. (Skipping a level of subdivision: Whole to quarter, half to eighth, etc.)

Ø Short notes transitioning to long notes. (Skipping a level of subdivision: Whole to quarter, half to eighth, etc.)

Students should practice subdividing as a physical exercise. Ask the students to play the short notes that make up the long notes.

You need to make a psychological statement to the judge.

Ø You must look confident and professional. Judges pick up on that. Convince them that your group is good before you even start.

Make the kids responsible for looking for info. Don’t go through the entire score flipping through the score.

You must have a counting system, and the students must practice it.

Conjunct interval patterns: Train students to look at scale patterns as crests and dips. They can be trained by drawing lines that follow the pattern. A continuous line illustrates this well.

Disjunct interval patterns: Train students to use a arpeggios as harmony.

Occasional missed notes are not very upsetting to judges if they are part of the key signature. However, they will deduct major points if they miss an accidental because it is written down for you.

You have to practice sight-reading without stopping.

In most states, it is okay to sing and chant in the sight-reading room.

Ø Students should finger and chant the rhythm.

Ø Danger of singing: Don’t sing so much that you can’t hear the students.

Intonation in Ensembles: Why do we wait?

Friday, January 20, 2007

Michael Thornton, Principal Horn player with the Colorado Symphony

University of Colorado French Horn Choir (13 players)

Students often view tuning as a mystery. They often aren’t sure what it sounds like to play in tune to begin with, and learning to recognize the sound is the first step. Then they aren’t usually sure what to do.

What is playing in tune? Find a tangible way to teach these concepts.

Ø Discuss the concept of sound as waves.

Ø When the waves are lined up, they amplify each other.

Ø When the waves are out of “sync” they work against each other.

This is what is happening when we hear “beats” (wah-wahs).

Ø You have a fifty-fifty chance of being better in tune no matter which way you move. The trick is that you have to move, and do so in small increments, until you find the correct pitch.

The interval of a Major 3rd must be played 14 cents lower than standard pitch, and a minor 3^rd needs to be played 16 cents higher than pitch. These intervals will not sound “in focus” if the notes are played with the “needle” right on the center. (Example of a Major 3rd: One person plays a C, and another plays an E. The person playing the E would need to play 14 cents flat to make the harmony sound in tune.)

The 7^th scale degree needs to be played 12 cents flat to be in tune for both major and minor keys. This is on for harmonic situations with multiple voices. (The 7^th degree is the third of the Dominant chord in both major and minor keys.) These adjustments should not be made while playing solos.

Tune-Up by Stephen Colley allows students to play chorales with proper intonation. It comes with a CD of the other voices.

It is important that students can hear recordings of good musicians that play the same instrument. They need to learn what a good sound on their instrument is, and the “color” of playing in tune.

The Needle Sometimes Lies

Ø Play a pitch and use a tuner to show when it is in tune. (Needle)

Ø Play the pitch on a strobe tuner as the tonic.

Ø Change the strobe setting so the pitch is now the major 3^rd of the key.

Ø They will see that the tuning of that notes is wrong now. Proper pitch of a given note is key specific.

A “drone” pitch provides a stable reference point for intonation exercises.

Ø Both sing and play in unison with the mechanically produced pitch, and then bend it around until you find the correct match.

Ø You can plug a chromatic tuner into the speaker system, choose the pitch to be output, and then play it over a speaker system.