My Day
Today I copied and put together the audition music for the concert bands. It was good for me to see what kind of material should be ready and what the expectations are. All of the audition material was pulled from the all-state audition books. In concert band I taught most of the hour for the first time and I found that it went smooth. I made sure before this rehearsal I had goals and specific things I wanted to work on. This helped me have a lot more direction. Although there are always variables that will throw off what I want to accomplish, by having a line of sight I did a lot better with keeping the ball rolling. After I taught I took notes on what I worked on and what I accomplished with the band so I have a solid reference point when designing my goals for next class. In Wind Ensemble and Symphonic Band I sat in and played with the clarinets. We sight read a piece in one group, which is good practice for me as well, and I helped the clarinets with a tricky section in another piece in the other group. At the end of the day I played with the guitar class.
Instrument techniques
General Instruction
Band
-With the Concert Band I worked on “The Phantom of Dark Hollow”
-Entrances at the beginning to work timing, pitch, correct notes, tone
-m. 9 beat 3 in the tenor sax and horn, melody, phrasing, solid entrance
-m. 39 the “engine” of the piece, articulate, tempo, I have student vocalize correct articulations with the metronome, isolate section to find out who is dragging
-m. 56 phrasing with the melody and working on the accompaniment maintaining tempo
-m. 59 entrance of low brass, play f not mp
-Last 4 measures to work on balance, cut off, crescendo, release of last note
-Mix it up, sit by a person with a different instrument than you
-Psychology
-“Sit up,” afterwards say, “Good job only two of you had to actually sit up so you are already doing great with posture.”
-Have students work on watching the conductor, have students sizzle quarter notes and the conductor changes the tempo
-Run circle of 4ths/5ths exercise at the beginning of class
-Say directions over the band rather than stopping
Quotes and Other Random Happenings
Analogies!
-Compare balance to a speaker of a stereo, the small circle on the speaker is the treble voices, the large is the bass voices. Play like that.
-Crescendo analogy, f is boil, your job is to increase the heat (the students)
Prep
-I will be working on “Kentucky 1800” next MWF, and Friday will be a full run through
Discipline
-I had my first issue with discipline (major issue). Several students in a band were making derogatory comments to each other, threatening each other, etc. I heard this when I was sitting by them and I immediately told the director. The main reason I told is because the students were saying things about killing and life threatening. Joke or not, better safe than sorry. The director spoke to the students and they denied it, but they were still given a warning. I asked the director what could I say or do to make sure my teacher to student relationship wasn’t damaged, and the director said to, rather than say anything in the negative, next time I direct the rehearsal and those students do well, say something like, “Thank you, you guys are doing really well, a lot better.” This way it stays positive but they are aware that I am still watching. This puts me as an authority figure and not trying to be their friend to gain respect, but making them feel like they have earned it. Genius!
