Original Work Progression

My original work has two parts to be able to complete the project in whole, and the two
aspects of it are learning how to conduct and read a score and improving my teaching skills.

Initially, I thought at Heritage the only conducting style I could learn how to do was a
strict drum major style, however band directors don't typically use this more firm style. This
tends to appear more childish, so directors usually use a more loose, fluid conducting style in
order to ensure they look musical and maintain not being a distraction for the audience.
However I have not completed this portion of my original work because initially I wanted to wait
for my mentor to teach me how to conduct properly, but I have decided to take a more proactive
approach. For this upcoming week, I plan on asking my directors if they could take time out of
their hectic schedule to teach me how to conduct in a more band director style. I am planning
on taking the initiative during this week by emailing my directors tomorrow morning, Friday
March 1, asking for their availabilities.

For the second part of my original work, I have made massive improvements in my
teaching skills since I took a couple of notes while observing Ms.Winter, Cockrill Middle
School’s Assistant Band Director. From that interview, I started providing more examples of me
playing my clarinet for my mentees, especially with the one at Maus Middle School because I
saw at Cockrill Middle School how the students were able to better understand the concepts
Ms.Winter was trying to express to them by hearing what it was supposed to sound like. Once I
started to playing for Julia and Harshitha, I soon saw them catching on to the concept much
quicker, which allowed us to go over more concepts than any previous sessions. Another aspect
I changed with these two individuals was attempting to preach a better practicing style because
I saw my band director previously do this during one of the lower band’s periods. Mr.Prasifka
was illustrating to Symphonic Band that practicing warm ups to strengthen the three core
aspects of being a musician, tone, articulation, and technical capabilities, would allow them to
improve faster as musicians. I took this information and explained it to my younger students, so
they can start a healthy relationships with practicing earlier on than most other musicians do. I
also gave them a list of warm ups they already had and assigned them as homework, so they
start applying these more advanced practice techniques as soon as possible. I currently can’t
see what the outcome of this recommendation is quite yet, but even if it doesn’t go as well as I
hope, I’m going to continue to push towards preaching this concept to Julia and Harshitha
because I strongly believe this with be the main cause for them obtaining their goals they
created for themselves by the end of the year. What I plan on doing next week for my students
is create a warm up packet for them, so they can work their way through it during spring break
while attempting to advance the impacts of my advice.

I progressed immensefully in the teaching portion of my original work and I genuinely

believe that they will come back to our practice session next week improving at least a little bit
if they practice the warm ups I assigned them. However I didn’t achieve much improvement in
my goals of learning how to conduct because I kept making excuses on why I couldn’t progress
in this aspect of my original work. However this week, I changed this minor bump in the road of
my original work by proactively sending emails to my directors to learn how to conduct.