Week 4 Assignment Performance and Practice Literature

Synopsis of:
Teaching Music Through Performance in Band Volume Three
Chapter One - Making Connections by Larry R. Blocher
What do I want my students to know and be able to do as result of their time in band
with me?

Introduction
o Making connections between all of the facets of a well-rounded education
brings deeper meaning to what we are learning.
o No part of music is of itself every part of making music is connected.
o Having the ability to transfer information from one musical concept to the next
equates to true understanding of music making.

The Process of Education

o Parallels Jerome Bruners education philosophy developed forty years ago that
states, the best way to create interest in a subject is to render it worth
knowing, which means to make the knowledge gained usable in ones thinking
beyond the situation in which the learning has occurred
o Identify the big picture ideas/concepts and then teach these ideas in a
sequential way to hone deeper understanding of the big picture.

Concepts
o Teaching concepts in a logical sequence allows us to add new ideas to the
initially learned concept.
o The concept is reading music the sub-concepts are everything students learn
that relate to reading music.
o Taught in a sequential way, students can make sense of the information being
delivered based on their understanding of what they have previously been
taught.

Making Research Connections

o Research indicates that musical concepts are being taught less than 3 percent
of teacher-student contact time. (As opposed to rehearsing for public
performance)
o Teaches for transfer is the idea that we take time in our lessons to teach
students musical concepts that students will apply directly to repertoire.

Comprehensive Musicianship = performance with understanding.

o Theory applied to practice
o Knowledge and skill applied to practical music making

What the Teacher Does is what the Students Get

o Teaching the music while teaching about music is key to our success as music
educators.
o Teaching for transfer, comprehensive musicianship and spending time
developing concepts requires passion, organization, materials and techniques
from the band director.

Chapter Two Silence and the Space of Time by Edward S. Lisk

Silence permeates our musical world

Silence is equally as important as sound when it comes to our canvas for musical
expression.
The amount of silence necessary is difficult to measure as we become impatient
waiting for the next musical entry.

Stephen Melillo: A building is architecture in space music is architecture in time

This is where the composer and conductor merge, in the Time Art.
The Ruler of Time is a teaching method that shows and has students experience the
feeling of rhythm over time using the comparison of music moving in time to the
divisions of a ruler.

Training the ensemble to think with timed thinking with the visual of a ruler makes
connections as implied in chapter one.
Teaching the Up or And of a beat is extremely important in terms of learning to play
consistently in time. Inconsistencies in time can occur with students who use the foot
tap method when learning to play in time! The size of a students shoe affects when
the up beat happens causing differences in how and when students are feeling the up
beats meaning that students are feeling time with slight differences.
Artistic considerations of the conductor come from making decisions on the length of
notes and size of space within time.
The beginning of silence (as opposed to the end of the note) is essential when
teaching phrasing and musicianship. This allows students to direct the mind to focus
on the horizontal flow of sound moving to the right side (end) of a notes duration.
This mindset keeps music moving forward.
Instead of using the word release, Lisk gives ideas for how to use the phrase how
silence begins to create a gentle, artistic response to ending the note.
Rests are implied and felt in tempo, but not counted by the beat number.
Lisk is promoting the teaching of natural characteristics of musical sounds (decaying of
notes) through experience and practice.
Concludes with the statement that we are responsible for students becoming active
participants and decision makers in their pursuit for musical excellence

Chapter Three Podium Personality by Ray Cramer

Regardless of the profession in which we are engaged, the success of our
work directly reflects the nature and passion of our personalities.

Introduction
o Three ingredients lead to ones success in any work: intelligence, knowledge of
subject matter and personality. 93% of a persons success rate is attributed to
having a dynamic personality, while only 7% is given to both intelligence and
knowledge.

Concert components
o The audience set expectations of the conductor to have the students ready for
performance

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The conductor is automatically evaluated the second they walk on stage.

The performers must feel adequately prepared and calm as they take the
stage to share their music.

Productivity through Personality

o Expectation - Make sure that your expectations of the band are in line with
students abilitie in order for all to achieve musical satisfaction.
o Preparation - The better the preparation for the rehearsal, the more productive
it will be.
o Work Ethic - In each rehearsal there needs to be a feeling of success nothing
builds success like success!
o Discipline - Students feel a greater satisfaction about their work when the
classroom is well organized, focused and expectations are set out to achieve.
Nothing productive can ever be accomplished if there is chaos and
uncontrolled behavior.
o Consistency - You dont need every student to like you, but if every student
respects you then you will be successful on the podium when it comes to
creating meaningful music. Be true to who you are on and off the podium in
order to create two-way respectful relationships with all students.

Effective Participation through Personality

o Motivation motivated and inspired students will produce great results.
o Self-Esteem is so important to youth feeling of success. Teachers must be
able to read their students.
o FUN is so important. Fun makes a diligent rehearsal tireless!

Non-Verbal Communication through Personality

o Posture to portray a positive personality without words, a correct posture
adds to the image.
o Face and Eyes They express ones true feelings. Use reassuring smiles and
warm expressions often!

Leadership through Personality

o Strong leadership sees what needs to be done and takes action to ensue
success.

Challenge students

Listen to students

Act as mentors

Recognize outstanding work

Practice humility

Follow through on commitments

o Leadership demands that we are constant LEARNERS.

Chapter Four Teaching Music with an Emphasis on Form and Structure by Richard Miles
The adult life of every student is enriched by the skills, knowledge, and habits
acquired in the study of music.

Introduction
o The structural organization of music is referred to as the form or design of a
piece of music.

Music structure = tonal center

Music design = melodic intent

o Teaching about the music is teaching comprehensive musicianship which
enhances our academic accountability as band directors.

Achievement standards exist and it is our job as academics to make sure that
we are teaching to the standards through the performance of music in band.

The Building Blocks of Music and the Musical Architecture

o
A piece of music is generally built in the following sequence:

Decide on the formal style and approach to the music.

Outline the length of the work and any additional elements to the
form.

Tonal centers established

Creation of themes, subjects, counter-subjects, etc

Phrases, cadences, harmonic movement

Tempo determined

Articulations and expressive markings for stylistic interpretation

Form and Structure in Musical Composition

o The form is the structural outline of a piece of music, and there are two
general types of form:

Single forms binary, rounded binary, ternary, variation, sonata,

rondo and imitative forms

Compound forms concertos, suites

o Great music molds itself into whatever form is the most fitting to the
composer.

The Analysis Process

o The first step is to determine how many different sections there are in the
score using cadences as a guide.
o Look at the melodic features in the piece are phrases restated or
contrasting? Represent this thinking with letters ABA, etc

Basic Form Mapping Procedures

o The design of a piece of music is illustrated with a schematic drawing of the
form.

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There are many different ways to map the different forms of music. This
chapter illustrates many options!
There can also be room to make interpretative decisions about form.
Main sections are labeled using capital letters of the alphabet over large
umbrellas of sections, and lower case letters are used to label inner parts
within the main form.
Introductions, Codas, and transitions can be added before, in-between and
after the main form of the piece.
Other musical elements to add onto the map of your piece of music include

Rhythm and Tempo

Melody
Bass line & inner parts
Harmony
Style
Orchestration
Texture
Dynamics
Instrumentation
Key
Mode

Teaching Ideas and Strategies

o Select literature to teach form specifically.
o Refer the sections of music in rehearsal according to the form of the piece.
o Have students mark form into their parts.
o Order extra scores to have for students to look at in reference to the form of
the piece.
o Have a music listening area for students to listen to music theyre working on
and music that is similar.

The Benefits in the World of Education

o Music education benefits the student because it cultivates the whole
child, gradually building many kinds of literacy while developing intuition,
reasoning, imagination, and dexterity into unique forms of
expression and communication. This process requires not merely an
active mind but a trained one. An education in music benefits society
because students of the arts gain powerful tools for understanding
human experiences, both past and present. They learn to respect the often
very different ways others have of thinking, working and expressing
themselves. They learn to make decisions in situations where there are no
standard answers. By studying music, students stimulate their natural
creativity and learn to develop it to meet the needs of a complex and
competitive society. And, as study and competence in the arts reinforce one
another, the joy of learning becomes real, tangible and powerful.
o This is such a great paragraph there is no way to paraphrase better without
losing the essence of Miles message.

Form Mapping Options

o Different options on how to represent the form of a piece are shown through
illustration in this section. Quite visual.

Form and Structure

o An extensive list of pieces organized into categories based on form. This list
would serve as a starting point to begin studying form, because the educator
has an idea of what the basic form will be before studying.
o This list would also serve to help educators choose music and plan to teach
this aspect of comprehensive musicianship to students.

Chapter Five Fervor, Focus, Flow and Feeling: Making an Emotional Connection by Eugene
Migliaro Corporon
Music is the embodiment and expression of our humanity in sound.
Ultimately, our goal should be to improve the quality of the human experience by
developing lives filled with feeling and purpose through performance in band.

Fervor and Creativity

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Great musicing can happen any time and anywhere in schools, students
must feel a sense of FERVOR from the teacher! (a great passion and feeling of
being consumed while making music)
Our job is convince the performers/students that we deeply believe in all
aspects of the interaction:

The composer,

The music,

The musicians,

The value of the experience

Creativity is an illusive concept, but in order to make beautiful music we must
be creative with our students regularly. Technical drill is not musicing with
passion.
We cannot teach creativity, but can guide students to discover their intuitive,
creative selves from within.
To be creative we must live forever in the question and be open to finding
many different answers in the musical process.
Intellect, Intuition, and Insight are three conditions that will lead to creative
success.
A great conductor must choose quality music (expressive > impressive) in
order to

Provide the richest musical experience

Promote the building of character

Elevate the human experience.

Quality of Experience > perfection of performance
Growth

(in any field) requires,

Awareness acquiring information through research
Knowledge Internalizing information through study
Wisdom Applying information through experience
Revelation Contributing information through ingenuity

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Flow

o Flow is the optimal experience.
o The experience is reached when students experience the correct balance of
challenge and skill.
o Elements leading to flow are: attention, focus, flow, and expression.
Barry Green, The Inner Game of Music
o We are in the business of developing bodies, minds and spirits through the use
action, memory and emotion.
o Mastering the inner game means that our achievement match our potential
equally through will, awareness, trust and potential.

Corporon combines these two great philosophies and creates an outline to adopt the
ideas and use in our band classrooms in order to make emotional connections daily.

Will and Attention

o Will refers to the determination of the individual to succeed.
o Attention requires intention and allows us to prioritize important bits of
information to incorporate into our performance.
o Our goal is to focus our attention on our will, and to become oblivious to
distraction while focusing singularly and completely.

Attention and Focus

o Being engaged allows one to transcend time and fight fatigue.
o The goal of this is to focus on one element of music making at a time in
rehearsal.

To solve a single problem, you must train your attention and focus to be on
that one problem, and ignore many other problems at the same time.

Trust and Flow

o Trust is something that evolves over time in a nurturing and safe environment.
o Trust makes it possible for the impact of the whole to be greater than the sum
of its parts.
o The experience of flow is the ability to alter the sense of time by transcending
the moment.
o We must arrange and organize our program in order to have these experiences
(picking correct music, have a focused attention, provide clear goals, have
opportunity for feedback, etc)
o Flow can only come from cultivating a feeling of trust.

Potential and Expression

o David Whitwell in The Art of Conducting music is the only art you cannot
see
o As a conductor, we learn to express through our silent art the art of
expression. We show how the music should sound and direct the emotive
character of the music.
o The conductor has two roles to make the musicians lives easier and to help
musicians access their emotions.

Expressive Elements
o In the absence of expressiveness, music becomes meaningless.
o Expressive Elements are:

Shape Vertical plane (up and down)

Direction Horizontal plane (back and forth)

Emphasis Sagittal plane (in and out)

Scoring Diagonal Plane

o Adding to expressiveness are:

Suspense, transformation and journey

o The experience of musicing can be quite magical. This magic can be achieved
when we succeed at evoking former feelings into the players and into the
audience.
o The presences of truly expressive music can not only be heard, but also felt.
o Compositions of value provide the musicers with the opportunity and
responsibility to express something.

Chapter Six The Band Director as Leader by Tim Lautzenheiser

As directors, teacher, leaders, the choices we make shape the lives of every
musician in the band.

The Band Director as a Leader

o Being an effective leader in the band room is the most effective way to lead
students towards meaningful rehearsals and successful performances.
o Students do not respond well to a demands.
o Teachers must nurture the students desire to want to succeed within
themselves.

A Demand for Excellence Teacher Centered Approach

o We can use management techniques and behaviour modification controlled by
pain, shame, guilt, and blame to motivate students to perform precisely and
well.

This type of leadership does not enforce any sort of responsibility onto the
students; instead, they will live in survival mode and just want to get through
the experience without any issues.
A focus on finding and fixing what is wrong.

A Desire for Excellence Student Centered Approach

o This type of leadership digs deeper to find the source of motivation within the
students.
o Involves students in the decision making process of making music, including
behaviour decisions.
o Contemporary style of teaching Agreed alignment of the members to
contribute to the purpose and vision of the organizational goals.

Comparison of Teaching Styles

o Often teachers will not adhere completely to one style of teaching over the
other, but instead will employ a blend of the two styles.
o The standard responses to aspects of these teaching styles are fairly uniform:

The Demand/Teacher Centered approached often dictates (with

thought-out purpose) what the program will look like and what the
students will do because the director knows best

The Desire/Student centered approach gives students more

responsibility and ownerships of all aspects of their program, but takes
quite a bit more time to get to the final product.

A Template for Success

o Present an inspiring and compelling mission:

Communicate the goals of the group with the group often.

o Demonstrate proven disciplines necessary to create group synergy:

Power of the people > authoritarian rule of the director

o Put people first:

An open line of communication allows us to hone the growth and

development of the knowledge and creativity present in our students.
o Model a high degree of self-responsibility:

Strength in relationships comes from being honest about what you

know and dont know yet.
o Have high expectations for results:

Learn to balance the dual task of being both people-oriented and

results-oriented. Taking care of the people vs. creating results through
those people.

Creating a Culture of Quality through Leadership/Modeling

o Creating a positive learning atmosphere is crucial to the success of the
program both for the people and for the results. In order for students to
access their creative potential they must feel safe and empowered to do so.