Colorado Music Educator’s Conference and Clinics

January 24^th-26^th 2008

Colorado Springs

Mr. Kemp’s Notes

Clinics that I attended:

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

You Want Me To Do What? (Creating a Full Orchestra)

The Rehearsal Bowtie (Rehearsal Planning)

Wind Band Sound (Achieving Clarity in Sound)

Boston Brass Demonstration with Ralston Valley High School Brass Quintet (Small Ensemble Coaching)

Oboe 101 (Thinking about Oboe? Read This.)

Wind Band Clarity with Lewis Palmer Symphonic Band (This deals with playing in tune.)

Army Brass Quintet (This is not a clinic, but trumpet players should follow the link anyway.)

Clinic: You Want Me To Do What?

What unique needs do wind and percussion players have in a full orchestra setting?

2:30-3:20

Thursday, January 24, 2008

Michael Gagliardo, Clinician

Who are these people?

How many players should you have? The more you have, the more you should know what to do with them.

The Classical Orchestra – Two Flutes, Two Clarinets, Two Oboes, Two Bassoons, Two Trumpets, Two Horns
The Romantic Orchestra – Two Flutes + Pic, Two Oboes + English Horn, Two Clarinets + Bass, Two Bassoons, Four Horns, Three Trumpets, Three Trombones, One Tuba, Percussion.
The Contemporary Orchestra – Who knows?
Doublings

Double the principal parts. Younger players have not reached the maturity level in tone and sound production to project the way that they need to.

Where do I put these people?

Risers or no risers?

Use risers for young players so that their sound can be balanced. Generally, the back of the ensemble gets lost without risers unless the players are strong enough to overcome this.

Various Positions for Sections:

Put principal players in the middle or the ensemble. Their confidence will radiate out to the edges of the ensemble.

What do these people want from me?

The “Band Culture” - This is different from the feel that orchestra rehearsals have.

The Warm-Up

String players expect something different from band students in the warm-up. String players tend to work on scales, and mostly in the sharp keys. Wind players love the flats. A good full orchestra will have wind players that are comfortable with the sharp keys and string players that are comfortable with the flat keys.
Wind players, especially brass players, need to do physical stretching exercises like long tones before a rehearsal, especially considering that they will likely have to wait for many measures of rest between playing times.

Tuning

Orchestras tune to A, but winds always play a Bb. Winds don’t like the A at all because A 440 is a bad note on some wind instruments.
Use the oboe to tune to. It will be the purest sound (with the least overtones) and will cut through the ensemble.

A Note On Programming – Keep the brass and percussion occupied!

Brass players and percussionists will always have lots and lots of rests in a full orchestra rehearsal. They will not understand how important those parts are, and will likely not be satisfied sitting for the duration. Don’t let them get bored because this is discouraging to young musicians.

What key is this in?

The Joy of Transposition: Strings don’t transpose. Almost all winds do. You have to know how to transpose these scores into concert pitch so that you can know which sections play in unison.
Make brass players learn to transpose their parts to concert pitch!

Performance: When 5 Is Company

Army Brass Quintet, Clinicians

2:45-3:35

Thursday, January 24, 2008

www.nationaltrumpetcomp.org

Look here for solo competition recordings of middle school and high school trumpet players. Click on 2007 Competition and look for the link that says “Audio Highlights”. Be amazed.

Clinic: The Rehearsal Bowtie – Lesson Planning

11:00-11:50

Friday, January 25, 2008

David Kish, Clinician

The traditional rehearsal technique is the “play, listen, and fix” approach. You start at the beginning and continue until you hear a mistake. Then you fix the mistake and you start the cycle over again.

Benefits of “Stop and Fix”:

Immediate feedback on mistakes.
Problems do not become ingrained.

Drawbacks of “Stop and Fix”:

People get bored when they are not playing. They are only there because they want to play.
Boredom leads to discipline problems.
The rehearsal time becomes a teacher centered classroom. Students have no responsibility to fix things on their own.
Some players end up feeling picked-on.
All of the communication to the ensemble is verbal.

The other end of the spectrum is the “A-Z” rehearsal. Start at the beginning and go all of the way through without stopping.

Benefits of the “A-Z” approach:

Musicians will become better sight readers assuming that they continually try to get back on board after becoming lost.
This approach offers more opportunities for non-verbal communication.
Students get a sense for the entire piece of music.
Magic of A-Z rehearsal: It leads to problems fixing themselves. (Assuming that the musicians are paying enough attention to know that there are mistakes.)

Using this planning technique alone requires a very trusting relationship between the musicians and the conductor. Will the musicians actually take responsibility for their parts? A better approach would be to combine the “A-Z” and the “Stop and Fix” approaches.

The Bowtie Technique: A-Z – Stop and Fix – A-Z

Spread this out over many rehearsals between the first read-through and the performance date. Taper down to “Stop and Fix” and then taper back up to A-Z.

If they can’t at least get through the piece the first time it is probably too hard.

One of the best ways to do the “Stop and Fix” combined with A-Z is to work backwards. K-End, say something, K-End, say something, J-End, say something, etc…

What do you need to do to implement this kind of rehearsal?

Tell your students what is going on. Make sure that they realize that you are aware of the problems that are happening, but that it is their job to fix them.
Don’t stop unless you have at least three things to say.
Teach the students recognize the importance of conducting:

Beat patterns
Expressive gestures

This is not about “running” something through without thought. Students should not be allowed to “check-out” during the “A-Z” rehearsals. Give each section a goal before starting the performance, and help them evaluate the performance afterwards.

Avoid Ingraining Mistakes: You will be able to tell what mistakes the students will be able to fix, and what needs your input.

There is a huge difference between a lesson plan and a rehearsal plan. Lesson plans are about introducing and refining concepts. Rehearsal plans are about the entire structure and sequence of the class. A good approach would be to use the “warm-up” time, which is really “technique building time”, to introduce and refine concepts. The “bowtie” structure is implemented as soon as the concert music is begun during a rehearsal.

Clinic: Wind Band Sound – Clarity

2:45-3:30

Friday, January 25, 2008

John Carnahan, Clinician

There are three elements for a good band:

Sound
Clarity
Intonation

Today’s focus: Clarity comes from three areas of performance:

Rhythm
Articulation
Balance

Rhythm:

The music is either a song or a dance. Dances must stay in time, but songs can be more expressive. The tempo should be allowed to fluctuate according to the melody in a song-style piece, but dance-style music has to be accurate and driving forward to the primary beat, which is determined by the melody. It will not always drive to beat one.

Think of playing in tune as more than just matching pitch. The band needs to be “tuned-up” by learning to play rhythms and styles precisely and uniformly.

Agogic Emphasis: An agogic accent is an emphasis by virtue of being longer in duration than surrounding notes, in a way that shifts their time of onset. (from Wikipedia) This deals with how the phrases of a song line up with the primary beats in a measure.

Directors can help eliminate accidental emphasis by conducting less. Conducting one beat per measure is sometimes more appropriate for the phrasing. Musicians can eliminate accidental emphasis by thinking of the melodic direction and resolution instead of individual notes.

Subdivision is great for teaching rhythms, but not so great for performing music. Use the metronome at home, and sparingly in rehearsal settings. Trying to play a part with all of the subdivisions simultaneously played by a metronome adds stress to the situation and will likely end up with extra emphasis on the wrong notes.

In rehearsals, have students mark the most important beat in each measure. This is the beat that they have to get to all at the same time. Be careful not to let the musicians hold that arrival note too long, though. It is tempting to do that just as a way of proving that we all arrived together.

We lose time in our ensembles almost right away after starting the music. Most musicians will stretch out count one, and that causes them to be late the next time beat one comes around. Being behind is the same as slowing down. If you stretch out the counts repeatedly, then you slow down substantially.

If you start together and get to beat one together then you will be reasonably together on everything else in between.

The metronome is more useful for the conductor than it is for the ensemble when you are aiming for ensemble precision. Use the metronome to conduct exactly the right speed, and make sure that they all arrive at the same time by following the conducting.

Articulation:

A note has three parts: The beginning, the middle, and the release. Each part can be manipulated. Articulation and style are completely connected.

What makes an accent an accent? The best way to emphasize a note is with space before it or a space after it. It is not about playing louder. Shape the note as a weighty beginning with a tapered (decrescendo) ending.

The exact way of performing an accent must be defined by the conductor, and then it must be practiced until everyone does it the same way.

What is the difference between an accent (>) and a marcato (^)? Marcato notes have more space before and after them. They should not be played louder than regular accents.

Staccato notes should have the most space between them.

How do we stop notes? Stop the air by breathing in at the release point. This is the most effective way to create clarity in the release. Do not allow students to stop the sound with their tongue.

Light staccato tonguing is impossible for students when they try to use their tongue to stop the sound between each note. Emphasize the space, but don’t allow them to work harder than they have to.

Balance:

As a general rule, faster rhythmic values should be louder than longer values. The thing that makes this hard is that musicians have to constantly adjust to the type of note they have. This means that no part should ever be played at a constant volume, not matter what the page says. The texture line is the harmonic structure of the music, and the melody should float above that. Actually, the melody should bob up and down in and out of the texture. This style of playing will always end up sounding more balanced. It will also sound more energetic even though the average volume will be less.

Performance and Clinic: Boston Brass Demonstration with Ralston Valley High School Brass Quintet

9:15-10:05

Saturday, January 26, 2008

Members of the Boston Brass Quintet, Clinicians

This session featured members of the Boston Brass quintet as they demonstrate coaching techniques with the Ralston Valley High School Brass Quintet.

The performance of a small ensemble starts with their physical set-up. The traditional way to set-up for a quintet is for the musicians to face each other. This means that the musicians can’t communicate with the audience. A better way to do it would be to set up in an open arc.

Showmanship is almost as important as the music. Some quintet music is really a solo backed up by a quartet. In that case, it would be appropriate to ask the soloist to stand.

Musicians often get stuck playing only (and exactly) the dynamics that are on the page. In terms of balance, it is better to sound right than it is to be right. That means you should play a supportive dynamic to the melodic line no matter what the page says.

The way that you breathe has everything to do with the style of your first notes after the breath. A gentle breath is required for a gentle entrance, and a quick, sharp breath is needed for a sharp articulation.

Don’t try too hard to do everything right during performances because the stress of trying to think about everything will actually prevent you from sounding good. Practice your part in small chunks, but don’t forget to think about the larger shape of the musical line. In performance situations, this should be the most prominent thought you have.

Know that your performance will move the audience in an emotional way. The direction that it moves is up to you. Decide what the message is before you play, and convey that with enough energy to reach people even if they are in the back of the room.

Air support is the key to pitch, sound quality, energy, and expression. The music actually comes from within you, and not from the instrument. This is not the way that most people think when they play. The instrument is a vehicle that needs to be in good working order, but you are the driver and the fuel.

Remember that even the end of a phrase, and often especially the end of a phrase, also needs intensity. People often back off on their support right before a breath. Long notes are the most challenging places to keep the audience engaged, and they need a little extra air intensity at the end.

Chamber music (small ensembles) is the best way to increase performance confidence, musicality, and leadership in large ensembles. It is an experience that should not be reserved for the best players in your ensemble. Everyone should play in a small group as often as possible.

Memorable Quote from the Boston Brass: “We don’t get paid for what it sounds like where we sit. We get paid for what it sounds like out in the hall.”

Clinic: Oboe 101 - A Survival Guide

11:00-11:50

Saturday, January 26, 2008

Aryn Day Sweeney, Clinician

Common problems that young oboists face:

The key of Bb is a very difficult key for oboe because of the fingerings. It makes far more sense to start oboe players in the key of G.

A lot of repair technicians do not know how to properly adjust an oboe. Make sure that you find a qualified tech.

The oboe has three bridge connections between low and high notes. Extra care must be taken when putting it together. Also, some instruments don’t work as well when the joints are perfectly lined up. Experiment by twisting them slightly.

The fingers should be curved when playing oboe for agility.

The angle of the oboe entering the mouth should be low. The instrument should never go past the player’s knees.

Air support is extremely important for tone and pitch. It is very easy to play flat on oboe.

Tonguing is different than other instruments. Do not say “tah”. “Lah” or “Ter” are preferred. Do not hit the reed straight on with your tongue. Hit gently from slightly below the reed.

Embouchure:

It should be like a whistle, not flat and pressing down in the middle like “mmmmmm”. Aim for “ooh”.
You should have a flat, long chin (how it looks normally)
Do not “roll in” too much. You should see both lips all the time.
Teeth need to be very far apart. (an inch?)
Do not put too much reed in your mouth.

Technique:

Only use “half hole technique” when you should. Only three notes use the half hole.
Move very firmly and precisely when covering or uncovering the half hole.
Never let your finger move off of the half hole key.
Use the appropriate octave key for the note that you are playing.
You can only use one octave key at a time. Using more than one will slow down technique and make matching pitch very difficult.
Fingering charts are often wrong. Check multiple sources for any note above high C.
Forked F should be without the Eb key. While it may improve intonation on some oboes, it is a very hard habit to break.

Intonation:

Playing with an incorrect embouchure causes most intonation problems.

Dynamics:

Do not play softly by supporting with less air. Think of the embouchure as a valve that can change size. Soft playing requires the same shape of embouchure, but a smaller version. Playing louder requires a larger opening of the embouchure.

Reeds:

Buy reeds from a private lesson teacher or oboe specialty shops online. Jones, Lesher, Emerald, and Evans are not quality reed makers.

Keep more than one good reed, and rotate them. Soak reeds in water before playing and rinse them after playing, and clean them out every two weeks with hydrogen peroxide or a pipe cleaner. The reed must be wet to use a pipe cleaner, and you should move the pipe cleaner only in one direction to avoid damaging the tip of the reed. Keep reeds in a good case. Get new reeds every two or three weeks even if they don’t look damaged.

Performance and Clinic: Wind Band Clarity with Lewis Palmer Symphonic Band

12:00-12:50

Saturday, January 26, 2008

John Carnahan, Clinician

We can only match pitch to one element, and the director should define that one thing.

Pitch is like electricity. It has to come from someone, and everyone else has to plug into that. Start with the lowest instrument, and add instruments one at a time from low to high. Add only principal parts at first. Add the other players only when this first core group is plugged in to the pitch. Add one person at a time in each section, and instruct them to listen to the pitch of their section leader. The principal players match the lowest voice, and everyone else should match their section leaders. Think of it like a tree where the reference pitch is the trunk, the principal players are the branches, and the rest of the players are the leaves. Each person must be connected to the grid at the appropriate point.

It is impossible to tune an ensemble without balance. Every entrance should be soft enough that everyone can still hear the reference pitch provided by the very first player. People want to hear their own sound, and so this is very difficult. They will typically play too loud or slightly sharp just to hear themselves. The rule is that if you can hear yourself then you are not listening to the reference pitch closely enough. Don’t listen to yourself. A perfect tuning blend will only allow the reference player to hear their own sound.