The polyphonic drones can model justly in-tune intervals. There is always a drone prominently playing through our sound system using the Tonal Energy Tuner app. Play-Along Resources Help Model Tone, Intonation, and Tempo In a year without any COVID concerns, I would also encourage the brass to buzz these melodies on mouthpieces to develop their inner ear and flexibility. I write solfege into these practice guides and alternate between the students singing and playing. ![]() For example, if I want to work with the tuba part in measure one, I can tell the entire band to play “Part 1. Instead of isolating sections of the band during rehearsal, I can have everyone playing at all times. By playing in unison, they leverage their strength in numbers to develop firmer and more stable tone quality while learning to hear what an ensemble blend should sound like for the first time.Ĭaption: This is what an individual part looks like in Dorico once completed. By playing each part of the music sequentially, students get more practice sight-reading while learning who in the band plays which notes. For example, Part 1 has everyone in the band playing the bass line of measures 1-8. The guides are organized by rehearsal marking. This year, we have repurposed that gear to integrate audio technology into traditional rehearsals seamlessly. Dorico’s keyboard shortcuts and flow-based composing make it easy to design supplemental resources as quickly as you can think.Ĭaption: Last school year, my team purchased some equipment to support hybrid teaching. Additionally, I took the pieces I was planning for our winter concert and wrote out every person's part for every instrument using Dorico. I started by ensuring that I centered instruction around accessible melodic material from the method book rather than technical exercises and drills. Transforming Concert Literature into Unison Melodies Adding solfege with the Lyrics popover was equally easy. Was it possible to do all of this? Yes!Ĭaption: Dorico’s popovers, like this one for dynamics, allow you to enter notation naturally and quickly. I wanted to emphasize tone quality, intonation, balance, and bend, while somehow managing the classroom and preparing them for a December concert. I decided to keep them playing in unison for as long as I could keep them interested. This year, most of them had only experienced a half year of in-person band before walking into my classroom. Many of these students are first-year players. My Concert Band class has 50 6th and 7th-grade students. But when students first join a large ensemble, they can lose their independent sense of tone, intonation, and balance if too many separate voices start happening in their concert literature too soon.Ĭaption: The Tonal Energy Tuner app is only a few dollars, and it play justly in-tune polyphonic drones and a metronome simultaneously. Young musicians often learn this way by nature of beginning method books focusing on familiar, unison melodies, which elementary school teachers teach in instrument-specific sectionals. I believe this is much easier to achieve while playing in unison. In Musical Performance: Learning Theory and Pedagogy, Daniel Kohut claims that students need a “superior concept” of the sound they wish to make. Developing the EarĪll excellent music-making starts with the ear. I will explain how I am implementing them in my beginning band class to ensure that they develop great ears, strong ensemble sound, musicianship, and all while preparing concert music. I want to describe some of the teaching strategies that have been most helpful this fall (and long since before COVID) while also sharing some technological tips I have taken from virtual learning into this year. They will have to relearn how to listen outside their comfortable bubble of one.Ĭaption: A mixer at the front of the room allows me to pump my voice, computer, and phone through a stereo and mix them to taste. ![]() Even if students' skills have been sustained or improved, they are likely returning to the classroom with less handle on things that they can only learn in a group: intonation, balance, blend, and even basic rehearsal expectations. This is especially true after many programs have lost over a year of in-person instruction. ![]() I find that if I rebuild the ensemble, focusing on fundamentals, it is impossible to fail. Every year I teach band, I start from the beginning.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |