Professional Literature

Caravan, Lisa. (2016). Building Musicianship with a Collaborative Approach during Your

Orchestra Rehearsal. National Association for Music Education: Music in a Minuet.

Retrieved from http://www.nafme.org/building-musicianship-collaborative-approach-

orchestra-rehearsal/.

This article talks about the problem in music classrooms that is typical of all levels of

school orchestra today: lack of musicianship. Caravan proposes that this problem is caused by

only focusing on the correct notes and rhythms in a rehearsal. Notes and rhythms are vital to play

a piece well. However, music is not just notes and rhythms. Music wouldnt be music without

any musicality. Once a student learns notes and rhythms, he or she may feel like theyre done,

instead of working on phrasing, dynamics, articulation, style, etc. The article mentions that in

order to play musically, one has to have a musical thought about how they want the music to

sound before producing it, not while one is producing it. This article provides a few activities to

get students to get into the mindset of playing more musically. The first one asking for input

from students. Students are musicians, and they generally know how the piece should sound once

they have practiced it enough. Another strategy is to divide them into groups and have them

come up with a story that the piece tells. It could be totally different from the composers intent,

but that doesnt matter. It gives them a visual image to try to paint with the music they create.

The author also proposes that students assess each other on how they convey moods and the

story. Feedback like, This was a little too loud here, remember its supposed to sound kind of

like soft little rain drops? could be very beneficial to a students musicianship.

The author wrote this to give strategies to music educators for developing their students

musicianship instead of just correct notes and rhythms. The intended audience is orchestra
teachers that could use these kind of tips and activities. This article influences the two lessons

Im doing with rehearsing the two pieces with the orchestra. This reminds me to not just look at

the notes and rhythms and focus on those, but to help students with dynamics, story, mood,

articulation, style, etc. It gives me some strategies to use for teaching this, which is really helpful

for my unit.

Frederickson, Karen B. (2002). Fit to Play: Musicians Health Tips. Music Educators Journal

Vol. 88, No. 6, 38-44 Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/3399804.

This article describes the nature of musician health today. Musicians experience a lot of

strain and stress if they start practicing for long periods of times without taking breaks. There has

been an increase in musician-related injuries over the past few years, and education in physical

health would help lower the amount of these injuries. The article says that The novice musician,

especially, should be made aware of the importance of body position, muscle tension, efficiency

of movement, and the relationship of overall health to performance (Frederickson, 38). The

article goes on to explain that warm-up activities should be used in the classroom for the sake of

warming up and preparing the muscles for the work ahead of them in a given rehearsal.

Frederickson then explains multiple exercises that can be used for musicians who are either

recovering from some music-related injury or trying to prevent it. A lot of the exercises require

sitting with good posture, and arm movement. This may be difficult to perform in a classroom,

since it requires weights or soup cans, but I think they could easily be replaced by water bottles,

or something more commonly found in the music classroom. There is also a wrist exercise that I

think would really be beneficial for string players.

The author wrote this work to inform musicians about musician-related injuries, and

provide exercises to prevent these injuries. Muscle strain has been a rising issue in the music
world, and not many people are aware of it. The intended audience is both musicians and music

teachers. She mentions many ways to incorporate physical health in the music classroom

curriculum. This fits in with my neuromuscular-skeletal lesson. In the lesson I plan on teaching

the importance of musician health and posture. In order to do this, I plan on doing many different

exercises, especially for the arm and wrist.