Facilitating Learning Flashcards
Discuss the role of teacher feedback in rehearsals as formative assessment of student evaluation.
Informal assessments keep students accountable for daily progress and give the teacher formative assessment of the students’ progress.
Examples include on-the-spot quizzes, discussion, informal questioning, discussions.
On-The-Spot Performance Tests give the teacher the opportunity to gauge progress on a section or the individual. Teachers can give quick and succinct feedback on accuracy technique, or other issues that arise.
Information questions and discussions relating to musical analysis allow teachers to assess and provide feedback to help students’ comprehension of the matter. The more feedback a teacher can provide, the more learning opportunities will be provided for the students.
Describe kinesthetic theories of rhythm reading that aid musical development.
These theories hold that rhythm can’t be experienced without having first experienced its movement physically. Since rhythm refers to the flow of movement through space, students should experience through their bodies first. Once the rhythm is experienced physically through movement, students will more readily be able to audiate the rhythm during rhythm reading.
Phyllis Weikart, a prominent figure in movement pedagogy, advocated the introduction of movement-based learning in early childhood education so that early gross motor development could better prepare students for more complex rhythmic integration in musical development.
Other motor theorists have found that rudimentary motor movements are formed before the age of 5 and all other motor movements after 5 are reinforcements and stabilizations of those fundamental motor movements that were learned in early childhood.
Discuss the kinesthetics of octave playing on keyboard instruments and the different schools of thought on physical approach.
When the keyboardist plays an octave passage in one or both hands, the hand must stretch to the length of 8 keys. The motion should be played and released quickly since the reach of the octave can present unnecessary tension and exhaustion to the arm.
One school of thought is to play the octave quickly. and release the tension as quickly as possible back to neutral hand position. In a long passage of octave playing, this method requires the quick stretch and release at each octave.
Another school of thought has the hand fixed at an octave position and uses the quick movement of a flexible wrist snapping for each motion to play the octave passage as quickly as possible.
Yet another school of thought has the hand and wrist fixed in the octave position and uses the quick movement of the elbow to play each octave.
Discuss the slight differences in bow position and bow handling of the different string instruments.
Violin/Viola bows should have a rounded thumb holding the side of the bow with a pinky on top of the bow, the other fingers comfortably holding the other side of the bow. Fingers should be fairly arched during a down stroke and more elongated during an up stroke. Bow shouldn’t be held with any tension but firmly and lightly. Player should be careful not to extend any finger (this will create tension on the wrist).
Cello/Bass bows should be held in a similar way to the violin/viola but the pinky finger should rest next to the middle and ring fingers. The arm doesn’t generally stay above the bow since the instruments are played upright. The bow handling on a cello and bass requires the elbow and arm to lower significantly whether you play near the tip or the frog.
Describe how to incorporate solfege into regular rehearsals to develop sight-reading skills.
Incorporating solfege helps teach the relative relationship between pitches as they occur within any diatonic scale. The reinforcement of solfege on a moveable-do system trains the students’ understanding of relative pitch.
As students learn to sight-read through solfege, they will be able to identify the relative position of the pitch within a scale, without the additional processing of identifying the absolute pitch.
Teachers should begin by teaching students all the solfege syllables with the added hand motions that reinforce the spacial relationships between pitches. Solfege syllables should be reinforced by singing through a number of different keys to train the students’ ears to hear the relationships between the diatonic pitches. As lessons progress, students should be required so sing or play back certain pitch intervals in various keys.
Describe the activity components of an Orff-Schulwerk lesson plan.
The Orff-Schulwerk approach emphasizes children’s natural tendency to play as a key component to musical discovery and development. Students have the opportunity to explore rhythms, melodies, and songs, then imitate, improvise, and create them on their own.
Central activity components include:
- Speech
- Singing
- Movement
- Playing Instruments
Natural Speech : Children use common chants and rhymes to explore rhythmic stress patterns.
Singing : To introduce tonal patterns and strengthen children’s singing abilities. Singing activities are most often formatted as games and simple songs to encourage students’ natural tendency to play.
Movement : Movement through games is important as music and movement are fundamentally intertwined in the Orff-Schulwerk philosophy.
Playing Instruments : Common instruments include body percussion, hand instruments, and orff instruments - built specifically to facilitate easy access for children. (Bass, alto, soprano xylophones and metallophones, soprano and alto glockenspiel)
Describe the types of audiation according to Gordon’s Music Learning Theory.
Edwin Gordon developed the Music Learning Theory to describe how students learn music and how it should be taught. The theory centers on the concept of audiation (a term Gordon uses to describe the internalization of music when performing, listening, or composing).
Gordon differentiates audiation from aural perception, as aural perception is an involuntary response to sound in the brain, whereas audiation requires cognitive processing inthe brain to give meaning to the sound.
Gordin delineates 8 different types of audiation.
- Listening to familiar or unfamiliar music.
- Involves reading familiar or unfamiliar music.
- Writing familiar or unfamiliar music via dictation.
- Recalling and performing familiar music from memory.
- Recalling and writing familiar music from memory.
- Creating and improvising unfamiliar music.
- Creating and improvising unfamiliar music while reading.
- Creating and improvising unfamiliar music while writing.
Describe the importance of the diaphragm in breathing for vocal music and how it works.
It is one of the main acting forces behind inhalation and exhalation. When singing, it is important to actively engage the diaphragm during inhalation for a deep supported breath, as well as exhalation to prolong the supported singing breath as long as possible.
The diaphragm is a sheet of muscle that separates the abdomen from the chest cavity. The diaphragm muscle is attached to the lower part of the rib cage, the spine, and the lower edge of the sternum. As the muscle contracts, it increases the length and diameter of the chest cavity, causing a vacuum in the lungs, inducing air to enter the lungs through inhalation. During exhalation, the diaphragm muscle naturally relaxes, deflating the lungs and expelling air out from the lungs.
Define and discuss the advantages and disadvantages of extrinsic motivation in the classroom.
Extrinsic motivation is defined in behavioral psychology as motivation that exists for an individual apart from the activity or task such as an outside pressure or reward, as opposed to intrinsic motivation in which motivation exists in the activity itself. When students are extrinsically motivated, satisfaction lies in an external reward, pressure, or some external prompt.
Music educators can facilitate or encourage extrinsic motivation in the classroom, especially when there is a lack of intrinsic motivation.
Classroom structure is often based on extrinsic motivation through rewards such as grades, privileges, and peer esteem. Extrinsic motivation can also exist through a student’s sense of future well-being and goals.
If the teacher focuses on extrinsic motivation, the motivation will disappear when the motivators disappear. Educators should instead encourage extrinsic motivators such as the student’s acknowledgement of the tasks’ importance towards a future goal.
Describe the various mutes for trumpet and trombone and the resulting sounds.
Trumpet and trombone share all the most popular mutes with a specific version made for each instrument.
Straight Mute
Cup Mute
Bucket Mute
Wa-Wah/Harmon Mute
Plunger Mute
Hat Mute
Straight Mute : Tinny, metallic sound.
Cup Mute : Muffled, darker tone (common in trumpet sections during the classic big band era of the 1930’s and 1940’s)
Bucket Mute : Softer tone, reduces the piercing quality of loud or high notes that cam be amplified by other mutes.
Wah-Wah/Harmon Mute : Buzzed tone, often associated with Miles Davis’ trumpet during his cool jazz period.
Plunger/Hat Mutes : Used similarly with the musician playing with one hand while manipulating the mute over the front of the bell with another.
Discuss considerations when devising a core repertoire list for an ensemble.
When devising a core repertoire list for an ensemble, its important to take many musical aspects into consideration.
A core repertoire list should provide a strong framework of music education for the students, factoring in the students’ musical growth and development. It should include a variety of rhythmic features that challenge the ensemble’s technical abilities.
The repertoire should:
- Include a varied and wide range of harmonic language.
- Exhibit melodic lines that demonstrate creative writing and expressive interests for the students.
- Be well orchestrated, providing musical interest in all sections of the ensemble.
- Provide a balance between tutti and thinner textures.
- Provide some works that are deeply expressive.
- Allow students to expand their musical expressive language.
- Be well-sequenced in introducing new musical concepts.
- Reinforce old concepts.
Discuss how music instruction can be integrated with common core subjects.
Music educators have the unique opportunity of integrating subjects outside of the fine arts with musical instruction. While focusing on musical instruction, the students can be fully immersed in musical learning as well as language arts, history, math, and science.
When discussing musical phrasing, music educators can relate questions and answers in music to questions and answers in English.
Students can also examine how individual phrases within music to reinforce the work as a whole, the same way an individual sentence or paragraph relates to a written text as a whole.
Teachers can use repertoire selections to reinforce historical knowledge as well, whether it be the Industrial Revolution during the Romantic era, or the Greek and Roman renewal of the Renaissance era.
Basic musical elements require a mathematical understanding such as the division of meters and the relationship of subdivided beats.
Concepts such as humidity, fluid dynamics, and physics can be integrated with instrument knowledge such as woodwind care and sound wave properties.
Explain how to care for and maintain woodwind instruments.
Woodwind instruments should be handled with care, taking precaution to avoid damage by jewelry, buttons, or zippers.
Instruments should be kept dry while in storage.
After each playing session, the instrument should be wiped clean, making sure to use an appropriately sized swab (which is especially important for small-bored piccolo and oboe). On a monthly basis, apply key oil to key pivot points. Similarly, apply a small amount of cork grease to the tenons and neck corks, taking care to remove any excess grease. Wipe down the finish of the instrument to remove fingerprints and oils from fingers, moisture, and other debris.
Never use alcohol on any plastic parts or excessive force when constructing the instrument.
Thoroughly clean out the mouth between eating and playing. Clean mouthpieces weekly.
For reed instruments, discard reeds that a chipped or cracked. Don’t leave them on the mouthpiece, and check metal ligatures for signs of damage, as an out-of-round ligature can damage a mouthpiece.
The instrument should be kept out of direct light and excessively warm, cold, or humid environments.
Discuss techniques for teaching musical imitation as an improvisational method.
Improvisation cannot exist without imitation. As the very basis of improvisation, imitation allows students to learn techniques, progressions, melodic contour, and rhythmic patterns of improvisers of the past. Once the student has immersed himself or herself in studying improvisation through imitation, he or she will be much better able to assimilate improvisation techniques for innovative and new musical ideas.
Students begin to learn how to imitate from birth. Language acquisition, gestures, and expressions are all learned through imitation. Therefore, as an educator, the process of teaching imitation should focus on musical selections to imitate, allowing students to explore phrases in various keys and moods. The musical selections should give the students total immersion so that the learned framework becomes a launching point for free exploration in the next step towards full improvisation.
Discuss appropriate jazz standards for a beginning middle school band.
For a beginning jazz band, a director should choose repertoire based on the opportunity it presents to play and experiment in the new idiom, taking advantage of the unique aspects of jazz music in a way that is educational and engaging. These features may include focusing on swing feeling, sectional solos, and other harmonic and structural features.
Charts should provide the opportunity for students to take improvised solos, and students on all instruments, including the rhythm section, should be encouraged to experiment with improvisation. Popular publishers with charts for beginning jazz bands include: Hal Leonard, Alfred, and Kendor. These arrangements are tailored to beginning musicians and may include sample solos that can be used as teaching tools.
The director may wish to consider jazz standards with common chord changes such as “I’ve Got Rhythm” or simple 12-bar blues. Over the course of the school year, the director may want to find charts that will allow different soloists to play featured parts.
Describe how to care for and maintain stringed instruments.
Stringed instruments require care and maintenance on several fronts.
The instrument should be handled with care, and players should avoid directly handling the fragile varnish, which can be damaged by oils on the hands.
When playing, care should be taken to avoid damage by jewelry, buttons, or zippers. Immediately after each use, remove oil, rosin dust, and other debris with soft cloth.
Special treated cloths can be used, but must not be used on strings or the hair of the bow. String instruments should, whenever possible, be kept in a well-regulated environment away from excessive exposure to direct light, too hot or too cold temperatures, and too dry or too humid environments.
Failure to observe these precautions can result in bending, cracking, glue joint separations, arching distortion, and many other problems.
Discuss techniques for teaching musical variation as an improvisational method.
Much of improvisation consists of variation:
Thematic
Melodic
Rhythmic
Stylistic
Harmonic
When teaching musical variation to students, the instructor should begin with only slight variations within a controlled framework. The students may start exploring variation through melodic variation first. All other aspects of the music should remain constant so the student has a foundation from which to diverge. Melodies may introduce appoggiaturas, silence, and added neighbor notes, until the melody is so varied that the only recognizable aspects are the constant harmonies.
Many educators can also use the call-and-response technique for group improvisation, with each call and each response of the students a continued variation of the riff.
Educators should incorporate improvisations by students in every concert or project as an extra motivator as students learn how to improvise through techniques such as variation.
Describe the categories of woodwind instruments and how they operate then describe the transposition and instrumental ranges of five to seven woodwind instruments.
Woodwind instruments include single reeds, double reeds, and flutes.
All woodwind instruments have side holes that are left open or covered to change the sounding length of the tube.
Piccolo
- Treble clef notation
- Transposed an octave higher
- D4-C7
Flute
- Treble clef notation
- No transposition
- Bb3 - D7
Oboe
- Treble clef notation
- No transposition
- Bb3 - A6
Clarinet
- Treble clef notation
- Bb clarinet sounds a major second lower
- A clarinet sounds a minor 3rd lower
- D clarinet sounds a major 2nd higher
- Eb sounds a minor 3rd higher
- E3 - C7
Bassoon
- Bass or tenor clef notation
- No transposition
- Bb1 - Eb5
Describe the literary and musical background of the ballade genre.
The ballade refers to a literary and musical form in which words are set to 3 stanzas with 7 or 8 lines each. The original literary form of the ballade usually featured a narrative that could be comic, romantic, tragic, or historical. Although ballades have been around since the Medieval ages, renewed interest in the Romantic era helped the genre to flourish in the 18th and 19th centuries.
Poets who often wrote ballades that were then set to music include Goethe, Schiller, Fontaine, Heine, Platen, Chamisso.
Notable ballade composers who set literary ballades to music include, Schubert, Schumann, Liszt, Wagner, and Strauss.
By the middle of the 19th century composers started to write purely instrumental ballades. Chopin wrote 4 piano ballades, most likely based on poems by Mickievicz, and both Liszt and Brahms wrote instrumental piano ballades.
Discuss how to select appropriately leveled, culturally diverse music selections for an advanced high school ensemble.
As a music educator, it is important to select appropriately leveled, culturally diverse music selections to reflect the musical diversity within the global community as well as to challenge the students in a variety of styles and genres.
Music directors should select a variety of music that is below, at, and above an ensemble’s level to provide opportunities for in-depth expressive growth without technical obstacles, as well as music that challenges the students technically to reach the next level.
Music directors can consult state contest repertoire lists for a general list of appropriate repertoire, as well as published repertoire books. Culturally diverse composers such as Soon Hee Newbold, William Grant Still, Dorothy Rudd Moore, and Yasuhide Ito may offer many works that would be appropriate for an advanced high school ensemble.
Discuss the physiology of vocal range development.
Until puberty, a child’s vocal mechanisms are not fully developed and do not contain the full range of the adult voice.
Infants are born with a very high larynx.
The larynx drops slightly when a child reaches the age of 3. From age 3 until 10-13, the larynx is not yet fully functional.
The vocal folds of a child are much shorter than an adult’s vocal folds, and the larynx of a child sits higher than an adult’s.
The range of a child is relatively limited as compared to an adult; high and low pitches are reached by the lengthening or thickening of the vocal folds.
During puberty, a child’s larynx grows to its full size, drops, and the vocal chords lengthen and thicken substantially.
The fully matured vocal mechanisms acquire a vocal range much larger than a child’s, functioning through the complex muscular and cartilage actions within the larynx to produce wide-ranging pitches in different registers.
Discuss the use of colleagues, mentors, conferences, and publishers as repertoire resources for a music program.
A conscientious director should be willing to look to a diverse variety of sources for repertoire. By drawing from colleagues, mentors, conferences, and publishers, the director can tap the experience of people of different tastes, ages, backgrounds, and musical circles.
The suggestions of those with a different approach to choosing repertoire can be particularly valuable, as these suggestions are the most likely to be overlooked by a search undertaken independently.
Publishers may be useful due tot heir access not only to their own catalogs, including back catalog that may have been previously overlooked, but also to the catalogs in the publisher’s extended network. As publishing houses have consolidated and collections have become digitized, repertoire that may haver only been available from small boutique publishers has become available for wider circulation.
Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of intrinsic motivation in the classroom.
Intrinsic motivation is defined in behavioral psychology as motivation that exists for an individual in the activity itself, as opposed to extrinsic motivation in which motivation for an activity exists apart from the activity such as an outside pressure of reward.
Intrinsic Motivation leads to satisfaction in the activity or task at hand, partly from a natural curiosity and partly from gratification in doing the task.
Music educators can facilitate or encourage intrinsic motivation in the classroom but it is only effective for those students who already have a natural tendency towards the task at hand. For other students who find no internal satisfaction or curiosity for the task at hand, intrinsic motivation will be useless.
Intrinsic motivation, when effective, can foster a high quality of learning and creativity in students.
Describe repertoire sources for an intermediate middle school chorus.
Choral directors should choose intermediate middle school choir repertoire that is high quality, teachable, and appropriate for the range, ability level, cultural context, and programming considerations of the ensemble. There are many repertoire sources for the middle school choral director that can assist in a preliminary repertoire selections.
The American Choral Directors Association publishes multiple repertoire list include ‘Tried and True Literature’ for junior high choirs, as well as honor choir repertoire lists. Donald Roach’s ‘complete Secondary choral Music Guide’ includes extensive repertoire lists, music theater sources, and other content that is valuable for the middle school choral director.
Music directors can also consult state clinic and contest repertoire lists. Several publishing companies also produce suggested repertoire for intermediate choirs as well as complete compilations of choral works for the middle school choir.
Discuss various techniques in teaching musical aesthetics and expression.
Music educators can use various techniques to teach musical aesthetics and expression in their students. Instructors should use the technique of modeling often, to demonstrate various physical and aural attributes of an expression to the student.
The student should have various visual and aural models of expressive representation to be able to integrate the technique and sound into his or her own expressive voice.
The music educator can also use guided listening to teach musical aesthetics to students.
As another method of modeling, the student will be ale to listen to the individual expression of other performers in developing one’s own musical aesthetic.
The music educator can also analyze, reflect, and evaluate musical performances together with the students, so that the students will be able to think critically and creatively in, analyzing, reflecting, and evaluating their own unique musical aesthetic and expression.
Discuss various strategies to accommodate students with visual impairments in the music classroom.
Since the student with visual impairment will not have the visual aspect to aid their learning, music educators should focus on other modalities of learning like aural and tactile methods, to help the visually impaired student succeed.
If the student with visual impairment is learning how to pay an instrument, the educator should allow ample time for the student to physically explore the instrument and take it apart if possible. The student should also have the chance to explore other examples of the instrument so that student can fully conceptualize the shape and various aspects of the instrument.
The instructor should use the Braille Music Code for lessons on staff notation. Students should not be expected to rely solely on their aural awareness of music, but should be able to learn notation as well.
When demonstrating instrumental technique and movement, the educator should demonstrate the action by placing his or her hand under the student’s hand.
Describe the use of the Socratic method in guided listening to teach students self-assessment and to develop one’s own musical expression.
The Socratic method refers to the philosophy of education as set by the ancient Greek philosopher Socrates, which advocates the use of questions in developing a student’s critical thinking and intellect. Rather than lecturing or telling the student education content, the questions compel the student to use critical thinking for a solution or answer.
The music educator can utilize this philosophy of education in all areas of music education, and especially in guided listening to teach students self-assessment, critical thinking, and how to develop one’s own musical expression.
Music educators can ask guided questions such as “How do the expressive elements of this performance inform your own planning?” to foster a sense of self-assessment in the student’s music listening. Asking open-ended questions rather than yes/no questions will further develop the student’s critical thinking abilities and intellectual curiosity, translating the analysis of guided listening to his or her own musical practice and growth.
Discuss various strategies to accommodate students with physical disabilities in the music classroom.
When a music classroom is able to accommodate students with physical disabilities, there are numerous benefits for both the students with the disabilities as well as the average student.
Inclusion promotes social awareness and acceptance, increased motor development, and higher mental activity.
The music room should be ADA-Accessible and free from obstacles or other hazards. Also the instructor can acquire adaptive instruments that allow students with physical disabilities the opportunity to develop motor and aural skills on a real instrument.
Instructionally, educators should be sure to include lessons that require minimal physical strength. This will encourage confidence and self-esteem for student with physical disabilities.
Educational goals should be appropriately sequenced to facilitate outcomes that are realistic and achievable.
Describe a sample six-week curriculum and objectives for grades 1-2 in general music instruction.
In grades 1-2, students experience a wider range of musical characteristics, learning more about music by doing. Students should follow a balanced curriculum that includes experiment learning such as playing, singing, and moving to music.
In a sample 6-week curriculum that focuses on intruding rhythm to students:
Week 1 : Might include games and songs that introduce the concept of a steady beat to students.
Week 2 : The concept of a steady beat should be reinforced while associating certain beats with certain counts (quarter note = 1 count, half note = 2 counts).
Week 3 : Steady beat and notes should be reinforced through movement and songs.
Week 4 : The students should compose using quarter and half note values to musical.
Weeks 5-6 : Students should continue to reinforce these concepts as well as improves on the learned rhythms through games, dance, and songs.
Discuss strategies for motivating students in the music classroom.
It is important to provide motivation for students in the music classroom, since motivated students result in higher engagement and better learning.
- Become a role model. When students see the excitement and passion for the lesson material, that energy will be transferred to the students.
- Know the students well. Once students know that the teacher is involved in their education they will be motivated to do well.
- Use positive reinforcement and constructive criticism. These nonjudgmental remarks should motivate students on ways to improve.
- Use frequent activities where students have the opportunity to demonstrate their achievements, encouraging them to progress to the next level in cooperation.
- Set realistic performance goals, once that are appropriately challenging but still attainable.
Discuss methods for establishing classroom rules and way to manage negative responses to rules.
When teaching music in a group setting, it is always important to establish classroom rules and consequences in the beginning. The music educator should thoroughly explain expectations for the classrooms, detailing examples of good behavior and class participation. During this discussion, the music educator should also explain the consequence of inappropriate behavior or negative responses to rules so that the students know the system of classroom rules from the first day.
Although positive reinforcement should be emphasized in classroom management, the educator may need to use negative reinforcement in certain situations. If a student responds negatively to classroom rules, the educator may try positive reinforcement first. If this isn’t effective, the teacher may have to remind the entire class of the rules and consequences. If this is isn’t effective, then the teacher may have to talk individually to the student, reinforcing the rules and taking action on the consequences of not following the rules.
Compare the style of Impressionism in the visual arts with Impressionism in the musical arts.
Impressionism began as a visual arts movement at the end of the 19th century and beginning of the 20th century with the works of Eduoard Manet, Claude Monet, Edgar Degas, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Berthe Morisot, Camille Pissarro, Alfred Sisley, and Mary Cassatt.
The painters of the Impressionist movement sought to move away from the highly defined traditional painting of the official salons of the day and to create works that caught the brief, sensory effect of a particular moment through optical effects of light, color, and atmosphere. The painters used soft brushstrokes, abandoning any sharp lines to evoke a sense of haze and smoke in their work. The Impressionist movement in the visual arts paralleled the musical movement of the 19th and 20th centuries as well. In the music of Claude Debussy, formal elements such as distinct tonalities, cadences, and line work were abandoned, while soft effects such as non-climactic melodies, complex textures, misty instrumental colors, and continuously changing forms all contributed to fleeting moments of color.
Discuss techniques to correct intonation on brass instruments.
Correct intonation on brass instruments is the result of properly forming the entire system flowing from the diaphragm to the end of the instrument. Playing with good posture and breath support allows the player to play at a wide variety of registers and volumes more comfortably, reducing strained intonation that can occur at the extremes.
Cue the student to think of the airway from the lungs to the throat and the oral cavity as a broad and open passageway. Playing in front of a mirror allows the student to monitor horn placement and embouchure. Mental practice is extremely important. The student should have a clear idea of the tone they want to produce and think actively about playing with good tone.
Long tones are an excellent tool for developing intonation. Depending on the particular instrument, the student should learn which note fingerings are inherently out of tone and how to adjust the relevant slide to compensate.
Describe the differences in concert length and pacing for a beginning middle school band and an advanced high school concert band.
The beginning middle school band will have had little experience with performances and may still be working through rudimentary techniques and skills on their instruments. Repertoire for the beginning middle school band will focus mostly on easily accessible beginner works.
The advanced high school band will have at least a few years of experience performing and playing their instruments. Repertoire selection for the advanced concert band will have a wider range of intermediate to advanced works.
Endurance is also an issue for beginning band. The concert length will be shorter with shorter musical work and more frequent changes. The advanced band will be able to perform longer works of music with less frequent breaks.
Discuss instructional activities to improve pitch reading in beginner students.
Pitch reading can be a challenging concept for beginner students as many mental processes occur from the written visual cue to the symbolic processing, to knowledge retrieval, to the answering output.
For beginners, it is important to have a reference when pitch reading, whether it is middle C or another referential pitch. Students should also understand the spatial relationships required in note reading, that higher on the staff means higher in pitch and lower on the staff means lower in pitch. The teacher should ensure that the beginner student understands how to play high and low on their respective instrument before continuing lessons into more complex playing. Similarly to language learning, the teacher should provide ample reinforcement and practice in pitch reading as the student begins to integrate the symbols with aural and pitch meanings.
Discuss techniques to correct intonation on woodwind instruments.
Correct intonation on woodwind instruments is the result of properly forming the entire system flowing from the diaphragm to the end of the instrument. Playing with good posture and breath support allows the player to play at a wide variety of registers and volumes more comforably.
Cue the student to think of the airway from the lungs to the throat and the oral cavity as a broad and open passageway. Playing in front of a mirror allows the students to monitor their embouchure. The student should have a clear idea of the tone they want to produce and think actively about playing with good tone. Long tones are an excellent tool for developing intonation.
Tuning to the rest of the ensemble, piano, or tuner should be done only after a thorough warm-up, at which point tuning adjustments to the instrument (pushing in or pulling out sections) can be made.
Compare and contrast the fixed-do system and moveable-do system.
In the fixed-do system of notational reading, the solmization of pitches refers to a specific pitch, usually where do refers to c, re refers to d, mi refers to e, and so on. In the moveable-do system of notational reading, the solmization of pitches refers to any pitch within a diatonic scale so that do refers to the tonic, re refers to supertonic, mi refers to the mediant, and so on.
In the moveable-do system, any pitch can be do, while the rest of the diatonic scale is built upon the relative tonic pitch. The fixed-do system of notational reading focuses on the functional association of the specific pitches to the staff, where do is always recognized as C. The moveable-do system of notational reading focuses on the intervallic relationship between the pitches as they occur within the scale.
Discuss instructional activities to improve rhythmic accuracy in beginners.
Many times, rhythmic inaccuracy in beginner students results from a lack of basic reinforcement of the concept of a steady beat. Beginner music students will benefit from heavy reinforcement of a steady beat through movement activities such as dancing to the beat of a song, clapping or tapping along to a rhyme, swaying back and forth while counting out loud, or other forms of multi-sensory learning that involve the kinesthetic mode as well as the aural mode.
Beginner music students will also benefit from visual and aural modeling from the music educator as well as from peers. Peer learning can be a great source of motivation and encouragement to learn, as students will generally want to match the level of their peers. Music educators should also introduce the concept of the heartbeat in practicing a steady beat, relating the abstract concept of tempo and meter to a familiar one of the body.
Discuss the neural bases for mental practice efficacy.
Mental practice has been shown to be a highly effective method of instrumental practicing when access to an instrument is not possible. When musicians practice traditionally on an instrument, the maxim “practice makes perfect” describes the correct pattern-forming process of the brain.
Many music educators ascribe instead to the phrase “practice makes permanent” as scientists know that repeated practicing reinforces the cognitive neural pathway of a particular action, similarly to the way habits are formed. It is therefore important for a musician to make sure to practice passages correctly, or else incorrect technique can easily be habituated by repeated practicing.
The concept of mental practicing mirrors the neural processes of physical practice and helps to reinforce a particular neural pathway even without movement. Mental practice combined with physical practice provides optimal cognitive and motor learning for a musician.
Describe the educational value of programming widely diverse repertoire for an ensemble.
Good concert programming will reflect the diversity that that audience experiences in the world around them. Concerts must engage the audience with relevant and fresh perspectives through culturally diverse and new works as well as through the musical standards of the past. Showcasing contemporary new works alongside a traditional classical work can inform and rejuvenate the audience’s listening ear. It also illuminates the performance practices of the past. Students will have a broader musical perspective by experiencing music from different cultures, genres, and time periods. Widely diverse convert programs can unite audience members of the past, today, and of the future.
