Holiday Lights 2009

This past week, the String Ensembles and Concert Bands from three of my schools combined for a performance at a Holiday Lights display at a local park.

I teach essentially the same music at each school, so it was easy to merge the groups together without any additional rehearsal.

This was our second annual performance at this event, and I plan to continue the tradition. It’s a fun way to get all my best music students together in one place in a very festive, casual setting.

We performed under a tent-like canvas covering with a small opening right above the center of the stage. Since it had been raining that day, there was a pretty constant drip below that spot. So I set up my conductor’s podium right in front of that spot and the first row of music students right behind it. We watched drips of water come down between me and the flute and violin players throughout the performance.

Here’s what my groups performed:

String Ensemble:
- Rockin’ Winterland, composed by a recently-retired teacher from my district
- Banana Boat Song
- Jingle Bells, from the Essential Elements Christmas Favorites book
- Symphony Theme, a nice arrangement of Beethoven’s Ninth/Ode to Joy

Concert Band:
- Holiday Sampler, from the Accent on Achievement method book
- First Rockin’ Christmas, arr. by John O’Reilly
- Big Rock Candy Mountain, from the Standard of Excellence First Performance collection
- Winter Wonderland, arr. by Michael Story. This was my students’ favorite.

Fruit!

At long last, I finally feel like I’m seeing the fruits of my labor with my beginning musicians. Kids are finally playing Hot Cross Buns and other tunes from the beginning of the method book, and they’ve got decent beginning level tone, embouchure and rhythm.

Here are some of the steps we beginning band teachers go through just to get to this point:

- Recruit students for the music program
- Have meetings with parent to enroll students
- Distribute school instruments, or discuss rental options at local music stores
- Obtain method books. (This was no small task this year!)
- Establish the schedule of music classes
- Confirm schedule with principal, secretary and custodian
- Distribute schedule to teachers
- Meet with music students and discuss policies, etc.
- Teach students to assemble and care for instruments
- Hope that students won’t damage instruments before learning to play
- Teach students proper embouchure/holding technique
- Listen to first sounds on the instrument. (Contrary to popular belief, this is NOT the hard part. All of the above is the hard part.)
- Teach students first fingerings
- Hear students individually play #10 from Essential Elements Book 1, a four-measure/five-note exercise
- Rejoice

String Method Book Matters

Has anyone else been affected by the international shortage of Essential Elements for Strings method books? (Yes, I am over-dramatizing the issue.) Despite the well-intentioned efforts of my district and the local music stores to be prepared for the fall rush, these books have been selling out nationally.

At one of my four schools, I am trying out a different string method: New Directions for Strings published by FJH. My district has used Essential Elements for about 10 years now, and I thought it might be time to explore other options.

If any of you string specialists would like to share your thoughts about either of these books, please do.

Beginning Flute Notes

After years of inconsistent success with teaching beginning flute, I’m venturing into uncharted territory. Feel free to call the Pedagogy Police after you read this.

Instead of using the first 5 notes of the concert Bb scale, I’m going to teach flutes using the first 5 notes of the concert F scale. This will eliminate that awkward transition from C to D, but still teach Bb rather than B natural.

After students have become proficient at these notes, adding D, Eb and the higher F shouldn’t be too challenging… right? At least that’s what I’m hoping!

If any of you beginning flute teachers have suggestions on how to overcome common obstacles, please share them here. Or if you want to join me in my little experiment, let me know how it works for you.

New School Year’s Resolutions

It’s the beginning of a new school year, which means it’s a great time to review goals and “new school year’s resolutions.”

I recently needed to provide my professional bio to an organization. On reviewing the last version, I became a little disappointed in myself. Though I claim to be a writer and arranger, I haven’t been as productive as I would like.

It’s been said that one way to make sure you reach your goals is to tell someone about them and be accountable. So that’s what I’m attempting to do here. Here are my writing goals for this school year:

• Compose two original works for young orchestra
• Compose three original works for young band
• Compose or arrange three easy jazz saxophone duets

I’ll be sure to write about my progress with these goals along the way.

If you’ve got goals for yourself you’d like to share, feel free to share them here.

On Vacation

Happy Summer! Those of you who follow this blog may have noticed I haven’t posted anything recently. After teaching Summer School, I’ve been enjoying some vacation time. I’m focusing on being a husband and dad rather than a music teacher. It’s been very refreshing.

If you’re on summer break and have the opportunity to clear your mind from the issues of teaching, do it!

See you in the fall!

Close, But Not Quite.

Today in my 3rd grade Summer School class, my students had their first flutophone lesson. I taught them the parts of the flutophone, and we reviewed them together. “Mouthpiece, tone holes, bell…”

When I pointed at the tone holes once more, one girl proudly shouted, “toenails!”

It was a wrong answer I will not soon forget.

Studio Web Site: A Call for Help

I’m considering the idea of creating a web site/blog for my private students and their parents, and I’m looking for good examples. (Yes, I’m giving you an invitation to plug your site and shamelessly brag about why it’s so great.)

If you do have such a site, what are its main features? I’m wondering specifically about including the following elements:

- Teaching schedule, so parents can see when they might schedule make-up lessons
- Lesson policies, and all that boring stuff
- Curriculum, so parents and students can have an idea of where they’re at and what’s next in the grand scheme of things
- Photos of students, to give the site a more personal feel
- Videos/audio files of students’ work
- Links to online activities and educational sites

Is your site an interactive blog where readers can make comments, or is that an opportunity for problems?

What else am I missing? Please share your thoughts!

Misplaced Concerns

This evening I had the pleasure of being part of a panel of music teachers to speak in an undergraduate Music Education course my supervisor teaches. I was honored to have been asked to participate.

An interesting phenomenon took place as the Q&A session began. The points of concern of the college students were quite different than those of the panelists.

The students asked questions about these topics:
- The most effective fund raisers
- Teaching music theory
- Band trips
- How the 10-second rule is impossible
- Listening materials (the subtext of the question being “Can I get my kids to listen to Bartok and Coltrane?” A panelist’s response: “They need to listen to the guy playing Lightly Row on their Essential Elements CD.”)

These were the panel’s points of emphasis:
- Connecting with kids
- Learning from other experienced teachers
- Being flexible

They spoke of their most effective ways to motivate students, what to do when you’re kicked out of your teaching area, and keeping an attitude of lifelong learning.

As you might imagine, I learned a great deal from listening to the other panelists.

Elementary Music Festival 2009

Here are some photos from the final rehearsal for my district’s Elementary Music Festival Concert.

The concert included performances by the String Ensemble (about 200 students), the Flutophones (400+ students), the Honor Orchestra (150 students), and the Honor Choir (200+ students).

The Honor Orchestra is an audition-only group made up of students throughout the district. Each piece is rehearsed and conducted by a different music teacher.

The String Ensemble is made up of beginning and second-year string players who are selected by their music teachers. Students are typically in String Ensemble for one or two years before participating in Honor Orchestra.

The district rents our local arena for the concert. Both the stage and the audience seating were packed!

The Honor Orchestra. Yours truly conducting.

 

 

 

The Honor Orchestra

 

The Honor Orchestra. Yours truly conducting. (2)

 

The Honor Orchestra, conducted by a colleague

 

The String Ensemble

 

The String Ensemble