Prep Department Lesson with Perry, May 16, 2016

     On May 16, 2016, in Perry’s office, PMC 216, in Decatur, Illinois, I sat in on another prep department lesson, this time a high school junior, Jenny. She began her lesson as most of Perry’s students do, first with the chromatic scale in the range of the horn, followed by scales out of her Les Gammes book. This consists of major scale, played first in eighth notes in the range of the horn, then in triplets, followed by sixteenth notes, and then in intervals starting from thirds all the way through tenths. They are played a set speed, and then the entire process is repeated again with the major scales relative minor scale. While doing her scales, if she missed one note, Perry would stop Jenny and have her start back a few notes to make sure she got it right. Even if the transition between notes wasn’t as smooth as it could be, Perry would have her try and play that specific section again. Once she got through that warm-up, Perry noticed that Jenny’s left hand thumb tends to move all around on the back of her horn where the octave key is, so he cut a piece of red yarn and tied it to that key. Reading music, Jenny couldn’t help but see the red out of her peripheral vision, which Perry said was going to subconsciously remind her to keep her thumb still. Eventually it will become a habit and they will be able to take the yarn back off. Jenny then spent the rest of her lesson playing jazz, reading a solo while Perry played the piano, and then having him explain to her the theory behind the solo in relation to the chord progression of the piece. They ended with Jenny also doing a transcribed piece on Perry’s computer, having him play along with her to help her learn the notes by ear. He would play a phrase and she would try and mimic it. He asked her at the end of her lesson to have through the chorus memorized for her next lesson.

     Going back over mistakes to fix them is a good concept, but I feel that in Jenny’s lesson they fell behind in time lingering on trying to fix every single mistake. I also thought learning the concept of jazz theory was important as you’re learning to play jazz, but as Perry was describing it to Jenny, it seemed to just be going right over her head. Even I, who has very little jazz background, was finding it hard to follow. I think students are so concentrated on playing that they tend to focus just on the physical aspect instead of taking into account the theory behind the music that they are playing. If I was going to describe the theory of something to someone, I would give them a physical copy for an example so that they could follow and would be forced to pay attention to what I trying to explain to them.     

Prep Department Lesson with Perry, May 12, 2016

     On May 12, 2016 in Perry’s office, PMC 216, Decatur, Illinois, I observed a prep department lesson of a high school freshman. Perry began his lesson with having the student, Coy, play his chromatic scale. Coy took multiple breaths during this warm-up and afterwards, Perry told me that Coy has asthma so he usually begins his lessons sort of puffy, builds up his endurance, and then usually ends his lesson out of breath. Coy has been taking lessons for over a year now from Perry, and he thinks that he is already starting to breathe better, but it sometimes inhibits his performance. After the chromatic scale, Perry gave Coy another warm-up called “The Loop,” in which Coy had to label all of the scale degrees, play the warm-up, and then transpose it to F using the scale degrees. Perry asked him to have that warm-up memorized in the keys of C, F, and G for his next lesson. Next, Perry had Coy play, with multiple different types of jazz tonguing, his C, F, and G scale in the range of the horn along with them in different styles of thirds. They focused on a jazz solo that Coy has and paid attention to him properly executing the articulations. Perry and Coy played a jazz duet, slowly going over the runs that he struggled with and then switching parts. Lastly, Coy worked on a transcribed piece of music that he was learning by ear on Perry’s computer. Both Coy and Perry were very relaxed and comfortable during the lesson, with both of them being able to make jokes periodically.

     As tedious as it is, Perry never lets a mistake go. If one note, articulation, or rhythm is messed up, he will stop you and make you go back over it until you get it right. While this is a time consuming process, especially when reading something new, it keeps us students from forming bad habits and getting away with making mistakes. It also makes us better executers because we learn from ever mistake immediately. Something that I would do differently would be to have a lesson plan for each lesson. The plan can be altered of course, but sometimes time gets the best of the situation and things that need to be gone over don’t get covered within the hour. One thing that I would like to do as a teacher is to have the weekly scale and etude exercises for students to practice, because while they can get repetitively boring, it develops a student’s skill a lot faster than I think that they realize. Practicing scales and reading etudes on a consistent basis has made my sight reading skills much better, along with being able to play in a greater range of key signatures.

Muffley School, Instrument Zoo, April 15, 2016

     On April 15, 2016 at Muffley School in Decatur, Illinois, I helped out at the instrument zoo for multiple shifts and my only regret is that I couldn’t go to the first one as well. Out of all of my observation hours, I had the most enjoyable time there and was in such a good mood after it was finished. It was such a joy watching the children light up when they could get a sound out of the saxophone and kept wanting to play it for longer and longer. While there, we were teaching the children how to produced sounds out of the different horns while also trying to familiarize them with all of the different types of instruments that they could play. Most of them had little to no pervious instrumental experience, but took to playing the different horns quite well. Us older students did our best to describe as simply as we could how to properly make sounds out of our respective instruments, and then set the children up to be able to freely play a few notes. The more and more instruments the children played and could make noise from, the more they wanted to try more instruments from around the room. They seemed to really enjoy what we and they were doing.

     Personally, being able to physically show how to have the proper embouchure for saxophone was much easier than trying to describe it to the children. I would though have the children play clarinet first before trying saxophone only because saxophone takes more air, so those students that played saxophone first where overblowing quite a bit while trying the clarinet. After getting the children to be able to make a sound, the next best thing for them to do was honestly let them press what buttons they wanted to press and try making their own music. Being able to make multiple noises independently made the students that much more enthusiastic about doing what they were doing.  

          

Princeton High School Music Theory Class, March 25, 2016

     After the final junior varsity choir rehearsal, I was back into the music theory class. They began by reviewing their homework, in which they had to add the alto and tenor parts and four part score and analyze with roman numerals underneath. It was in a major key and had no inversions for the roman numerals. Mr. Crawford checked their homework for completion and then went around the room and for every new chord, asked a different student what the notes were in the chord, which note they doubled, and what they had for the roman numeral analysis. After reviewing the homework, Mr. Crawford then introduced the concept of first and second inversion triads and the rules for doubling notes in regards to each of those chords. It was quite a confusing topic for the students to grasp, so they did multiple exercises as a class discussing first only first inversion triads and then second inversion triads. They also discussed how to notate them as roman numerals and why the numbers are the way that they are. Even though the students were confused and not grasping the concept right away, they were relaxed because they knew that Mr. Crawford would be patient with them and wait to move on until they understood.

     I think that grading music theory homework based on completion and effort is a good way to assess how the students are doing because being such a difficult concept that only gets harder as you go, it would be unfair to mark students down for something completely new that they are trying to learn. If I was teaching that class, again I would do more examples on the board because visual comprehension would explain a lot of the confusing concepts that are portrayed by orally explaining the theory. I do like the moving at the pace of the class though because it didn’t overwhelm the students so they were actually making a valiant effort to understand what was going on, especially because they knew Mr. Crawford would stop class to help them.

Princeton High School Junior Varsity Choir, March 25, 2016

After the concert band rehearsal, Mr. Crawford went back downstairs to work with the junior varsity choir in the choir room. After warming them up with warm-ups from his Building Beautiful Voices book, Mr. Crawford very quickly ran over and addressed and fixed specific spots in each piece that need to be mentioned, such as one vowel not lining up on exactly on the beat where it was supposed to fall. Just fine tuning things like that. Then he ran through each song like it was the concert, recording the students. After getting through all of their pieces, he played the recordings back to them so that they could hear what they sounded like. He then allowed them to make their own comments and suggestions on things that they should do before going back to the pieces and fixing the different aspects that they didn’t like in the recording. The students were very engaged when they knew that they were being recorded and listened intently as their own voices were being played back at them.

     I really liked the concept of letting the students listen to and comment on their own performance because it allows them to have a say in what they are doing, and in turn I think that they will put more effort into trying to make it the best that they can. I didn’t like how they didn’t practice on stage because it is a different sound up there, and it is something that you do have to adjust to as a musician. But being able to record them before they performed, I thought that was a good alternative. When I teach I also want to be able to have my students give their own feedback on how they are performing, because I want them as engaged in what they are doing as they possibly can be. The idea of recording them is almost like a test in other classes, seeing how they perform and learning from your mistakes.

Princeton High School Concert Band, March 25, 2016

     On the next day that concert band met, March 25^th, I went back to the school to observe all of the same classes again to see how the ensembles performed on the last rehearsal before their concert. The band had their rehearsal on the stage in the auditorium so that they could get a feel for what their sound was going to sound like while they were in there. It also allowed for the technicians to do a sound check so that they would be ready for the concert. For this rehearsal, the band warmed up with Band Basics in F and then ran through the same #17 through the end of the Warm-up in Four Keys. They did this to warm-up and adjust their sound to the new location and acoustics. They then ran through each piece like it was the actual concert, but Mr. Crawford did stop at the end of each of the songs to comment on things that he wanted to come back and fix. They did this for all five of their songs and then went back and specifically addressed only the sections that he wanted to fix previously. Some moments got a little intense because there were some notes and rhythm issues that should have been figured out by then and Mr. Crawford was frustrated that they were still having issues with technical things.

     It was good that they ran through each of the pieces like they would at the concert, but I think that they should have just kept going and saved the comments for the end, because you weren’t actually going to stop and go back like that in the middle of the concert. I thought it was good as well that they focused on the pieces today and didn’t spend a ton of time warming up their key signatures. I think it was important as well that Mr. Crawford expressed his disappointment at some of the simple mistakes that some of the students made because it was too late in the semester for them to still be making those mistakes. It is up to the student to learn his or her part and I want to be able to express that someday as well.

Princeton High School Music Theory Class, March 23, 2016

     The last class that I observed on March 23^rd was Mr. Crawford’s music theory class, directly after the junior varsity choir, from 10:50 until 12:05. This class only has 8 students in it, but they were all very attentive. I think the fact that the class was so small made the students more comfortable when speaking up about concepts that they didn’t understand. I think that’s a really important aspect especially when it comes to music theory because it is a hard class but it is also crucial that you understand every concept because they all relate and build off of each other.  That day the class was focusing specifically on part writing when they were given the soprano and bass lines. Mr. Crawford explained the concept of how to properly double voices, and when asked to do exercises in their workbook, he did them along with them on his own copy. Then he would go around the room and ask each student to take one problem and do it for the class. This allowed them to ask questions if they were confused and show him that they understood once they got the concept.

     While teaching, Mr. Crawford sat at the same table that the students were sitting at and I think that allowed the students to feel more comfortable asking him questions when they needed clarification on certain things. It did allow the students though to get easily distracted by striking up a conversation with Mr. Crawford that may not be music related. I also probably would have taught more with examples on the board so that the students could see the process happening, instead of describing it and hoping they can apply in to their work. Someday, I’d like to be one with the students like Mr. Crawford was so that they feel comfortable asking me questions when learning. This concept of learning is different than the learning process we do in performance based classes such as band and choir, but similar to what we do with concepts such as those in mathematics.

Princeton High School Junior Varsity Choir, March 23, 2016

    The same day, March 23^rd, directly after concert band, Mr. Crawford moves down the hall to teach the Junior Varsity Choir from 9:25 until 10:40. Here, he was also preparing the group for their spring concert which was coming up soon. Their warm-ups came out of warm-up book called Building Beautiful Voices, in which they did warm-ups number 3, 5, 9a, and 53. These warm-ups in order, focused on freedom and relaxation, tone quality, and synthesis. They worked on three pieces, with the first being The Cloths of Heaven. They worked on measures 1 through 25 and measures 27 through 46, where he first had the sopranos sing their part, then he worked with the altos, and then the men, who are all considered basses because there are only 5 of them.

    Then he had them all sing together, SAB. He had worked with each group of singers separately to make sure that all of their individual vowels were matching before he added them all together. He did this same thing in their next two pieces, El Vito and Elijah. The students in junior varsity choir are less experienced singers, but enjoy singing, so I could tell that they were definitely trying to take Mr. Crawford’s advice and apply it to what they were doing. Mr. Crawford, being vocal music education and really enjoying choral music, gets very into his teaching and finds the expressiveness of vocal music to be one of the most important aspects. It’s really motivating to watch someone who loves music as much as Mr. Crawford teach it.
   Separating the different voices and working with them individually was a really important aspect in developing the sound of the choir. By making them sound unison separately, when he put them back together, their sound sounded that much more mature. When they had to focus on vowels though, they were really good at producing the right vowels sounds when they used hand motions to remind themselves of the proper shape of their mouths, but as soon as their hands went back down, they forgot what they were doing. Having them rely on their hands to mentally remind them what shape their mouth was supposed to make probably should have been used earlier in the teaching of the song and weened out sooner as they approached their concert. To adapt into instrumental teaching, I like how vocalists have to use the same vowels to sound mature and in unison, and I would like to use that same idea when it comes to the intonation in between instruments. The hand gestures they used were similar to the ones that I used last semester in Milliwomen, so it was a concept that I was familiar with.

Princeton High School Concert Band, March 23, 2016

     My first day observing was over Spring Break (March 23rd) back at my old high school. I was at Princeton High School in Princeton, Illinois, observing the concert band, who is under the direction of Mr. Brandon Crawford. Being on a block schedule, band is every other day, first thing in the morning from 8:00 until 9:15. The band began by playing a warm-up called Band Basics in D, which consisted of different tonal and scalar warm-ups in the key of D major. Following that, they did the last half of a warm-up called Warm-up in Four Keys, exercises 17 through the end. The last half of that warm-up has to do with being precise on articulations and rhythms because the whole band is in unison. The last three exercises are mini chorales to focus on intonation. Then the band did #1 and #12 from the 16 Bach Chorales, along with the Remington Scale Warm-up in both the keys of concert F and concert Bb.

     The band was getting ready for a concert, so they were fine tuning the beginning and endings of their pieces, focusing on getting them clean, crisp, together, and expressive. They played three pieces, With Every Winter’s Breath, In Storm and Sunshine, and Symphonic Overture. Before each one they played the concert major scale that the piece was in, Eb, Ab, and Bb respectively, followed by the exercises that the Warm-up in Four Keys had for each of the scales. They began by playing each piece all the way through, then Mr. Crawford focused on the musical transition from measures 23-64 in With Every Winter’s Breath, the opening articulations of In Storm and Sunshine, and the grandioso ending of the Symphonic Overture. Being such a small band, almost everyone in there enjoys playing in band or else they wouldn’t be there, so the atmosphere was a positive one. I could tell though that there was a lot of pressure on them though because they were a week away from a concert so the director was being very picky with their performance of the music.

     I liked the concept of Mr. Crawford working diligently on the opening and closing of the pieces, because the first and last sounds that an audience hears are the sounds that they remember. It is important that you start you performance off on the right foot. I thought that doing a ton of warm-ups in the key of each piece before playing it was helpful, but for the time restrictions of the class, I thought it took away from the amount of time that they could have spent working on the piece. I probably would have played each major scale and then moved onto working on the fine tuning of the repertoire. I like the fact that Mr. Crawford has the students sing many of their parts in class along with playing them. He is a vocally trained teacher, but being able to sing your part means that you can hear what is supposed to happen next and should help you perform your part with better intonation. Not being a vocalist, I would still like to have my students sing their repertoire before playing it. Music ensembles usually have aspects of them that relate to other music ensembles, especially when the same teacher teaches all of them, so the concept of singing and working together to make music similarly resembled my choir that I was involved in at the same time in high school.