Beginning Band

Rehearsal
Effective Planning for Teaching and Learning
 Update
 Next unit: Methods Book Evaluations &
Comprehensive Musicianship (read)

 Dr. Silverman’s Workshop: A one-page reflection can

take the place of ANY low grade during the semester.
WRITE IT UP RIGHT AWAY and TURN IT INTO Bb!

 Working in class on methods book (today & Mon., due

on Wednesday)
 Executive Skills
 Posture

 Breathing

 Embouchure

 Carriage

 Fingerings

 USE WARM UP TIME!!!

Always reinforcing basic concepts of technique throughout

year
 Executive Skills
 How do we teach posture?
 Executive Skills
 How do we teach breathing?

 Connect breathing to posture

 Executive Skills
 Mouthpiece assembly – parts and pieces

 Embouchure to mouthpiece sounds

 Connect sounds to breathing to posture

 Executive Skills
 Assembly and carriage

 Sounds to carriage

 Connect full instrument to mouthpiece to breathing to

posture
 Executive Skills
 Fingerings and first three notes

 Small muscle athletes

 Connect….got it?
 Slow first semester – reinforce skills and teach depth not
breadth

 Develop aural skills. Sing. A lot.

 Develop automatized skills. Transfer executive skills to

each NEW skill learned.

 Connect to literacy. TEACH FOR TRANSFER.

 Fast second semester; go for breadth.

 Musical Approach to
Literature in Beginning
Band
Teaching literacy and Conceptually for Independent Musicianship
 Method to Literature
 Teach rehearsal behavior DAY ONE

 Classroom set up

 TEACHER determines music/method books

 Sheet music is an extension of the method book

 Beginner band music generally SAB or SATB

 Address all elements of music

 What are STUDENTS doing? Not what YOU are doing!!

 What is literacy?
 The National Association for Music Education (NAFME)
states that a person with music literacy is able to
understand and engage with music in a number of
different ways, including the creative, responsive and
performative artistic processes. He or she is able to
perform music in a manner that illustrates careful
preparation and reflects an understanding and
interpretation of the selection.
 Elements of Music
 Rhythm – beat, meter, tempo, syncopation

 Melody – pitch, theme, conjunct, disjunct

 Harmony – chord, progression, consonance, dissonance, key,

tonality, atonality

 Timbre – register, range, instrumentation

 Texture – monophonic, homophonic, polyphonic, iitation,

counterpoint

 Form – binary, ternary, strophic, through-composed

 Expressive Elements (Dynamics) – levels, crescendo, decrescendo

 Hierarchy of Learning
 Notes

 Notes in rhythm

 Melodic phrases

 Harmonic accompaniments

 Timbre

 Form, texture

 Expressive elements

Build one thing at a time and keep air moving, reinforce executive skills.
 Ideas for Rhythmic
Development
 Identification

 Warm-ups

 Scales

 All learn
 Ideas for Melodic
Development
 Goof Proof

 Melody for all

 Pass melody

 Pass phrases

 Find the melody

 Ideas for Harmonic
 Sing
Development
 What supports melody?

 Fitting parts together with melody

 Antecedent/consequent
 Form
 Micro to macro
 Same/different
 Repeat/new material
 Rhythm & Duration
 Sound & silence (not notes & rests)

 Sound has beginning – middle – end

 Release of note

 Beats happen between counts

 Articulation styles
 Identification (often note SHAPE is stylistic)
 More than ONE (syllabic)
 Beginners and Intonation
 Consistency in tone first

 Hum/sing pitch

 Drone

 Teach in-tune/out-of-tune
 Piccolo & tuba concept

 Pitch correct/incorrect first

 Trios/sections approach, not individuals yet

 Other tips
 MODEL

 High quality recordings

 How to practice

 BREATHING

 Count, clap, sing

 Subdivide & Dr. Beat

 Challenge advanced students; leave no one behind

 Method book to Music
 Count, clap or tap  Brass buzz, ww play

 Name notes  Subdivide 8ths/16ths

 Name notes & finger  Different tempos

 Say and Sing  Different dynamics

 Play every other measure  Slurs/combinations

 Play backwards (additive)  Note by note

 Sizzle  Alternate m. by section

 Method book to Music,

continued
Cut time/Half time Divide class in half


 Percussion metronome  Always give the non-

performing something to
 Play with accompaniment do (musical or listening)
 Score Study
Reference: O’Toole, P. (2003). Shaping sound musicians. Chicago: GIA Publications.
Inc.
 Top Ten for NOT Studying
Scores…
10. Nobody taught me.

9. Not enough time.

8. Only college guys do that stuff.

7. My band director didn’t and he was great!

6. I don’t want to mark up the score.

5. I want to improve on sight reading.

4. If I prepare too well, the group will frustrate me.

3. I read well enough to keep ahead of the students.

2. I passed theory and I am not doing that stuff again..

NUMBER ONE REASON
FOR NOT STUDYING A
SCORE:

I AM JUST THAT GOOD.

 Analysis of Music
 Thorough preparation increases student learning

 Who might make mistakes? Where?

 What do the students know? What do they NOT know?

 How will you help them achieve more?

 How do you plan for growth?

 You facilitate learning by doing mental lifting BEFORE

teaching the piece.
 Broad Description
 Title

 Composer

 Genre

 Background
 Broad Description
 Ranges

 Challenges for grade/level

 Describe transcription/arrangement

 Find traditions/stories/folksongs/original composition

 Elements of Music
 Form
 Binary
 Ternary
 Rondo
 Sonata Allegro
 Through-composed

 Devices
 Fugue
 Chorale
 Trio

ALWAYS ESTIMATE AND PLAN FOR THE CHALLENGES!

 Elements of Music
 Rhythm
 Primary motives
 Time signature/meters
 Devices (i.e., hemiolas)
 Aleatory
 Improvisation

ALWAYS ESTIMATE AND PLAN FOR THE CHALLENGES!

 Elements of Music
 Melody
 Shape
 Tonality
 Modulation/tonal relationships

 Consonance/dissonance

 Motive
 Countermelodies

ALWAYS ESTIMATE AND PLAN FOR THE CHALLENGES!

 Elements of Music
 Harmony
 Harmonic rhythm
 Modulation
 Key relationships
 Dissonances
 Suspensions

ALWAYS ESTIMATE AND PLAN FOR THE CHALLENGES!

 Elements of Music
 Timbre
 Color from instrument voicings
 Mood
 Texture
 Title clues

ALWAYS ESTIMATE AND PLAN FOR THE CHALLENGES!

 Elements of Music
 Texture
 Homphonic
 Monophonic
 Polyphonic
 Density
 Contrasts

ALWAYS ESTIMATE AND PLAN FOR THE CHALLENGES!

 Elements of Music
 Expressive Elements
 Dynamics
 Phrasing
 Articulation
 Tempo

ALWAYS ESTIMATE AND PLAN FOR THE CHALLENGES!

 MUSIC ASSIGNMENT
 GRADE 1

 GRADE 2
 PREPARATION
 Examine the instruments for division of parts, ranges.

 DO each of the slides with the music in brevity, so we

can discuss the specifics of teaching to each of these
instruments.

 BRING your ideas for answering these questions:

 What must the students know BEFORE you begin the
piece?
 What will they be learning THROUGH this piece?
 How will you assess their knowledge?