Solo & Ensemble, Festival, Etc.
The choirs have been at Festival all week so today they took a break and watched Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs....
This put into question my thoughts and viewpoints on "movie days". I think at one point I would have said "no way, learning should always be taking place, some sort of activity should be involved" but I really don't think I believe that now. We get classes cancelled for time off because of extra-curriculars, why shouldn't we also reward our students for a lot of extra time and effort put in with a movie (or some other type of reward)?
Not all of the students, however, got a break just yet. Solo and Ensemble is coming up and we were assigned students to work with on their pieces. Lindsay and I worked together with two girls. I thought it was really nice to have two teachers and one student, as it allowed for each of us to play off of each others strengths, work things out together, and also provided for two sets of ears, oftentimes reaffirming something that I had also heard or was thinking. Having two teachers in a room...just a thought. I suppose maybe that's why some people enjoy having student teachers (and perhaps why others don't) :)
Sunday, March 29, 2015
Grand Ledge Visit 3
Surprise! Get up here...
After warmups today, Doug put both Lindsay and I on the spot and had us conduct ~8 bars of a piece the girls had been working on for festival.
I worked with them on the beginning of Pie Jesu and we got through the first phrase. Doug then suggested that
1) I take the beat out of my wrists (Josh taped and after watching the video they were definitely not "strong" enough)
2) He had me stop beating every 4 count on the ends of important phrases and through big crescendos and decrescendos and just had me show those musical choices for the singers (his rationale was that they needed to see that more than beats and the pianist was obviously skilled enough to stay in time)
3) Move my gesture a little lower (into better breath space)
4) Make cut-offs upward vs. the flipping of the wrist to show the cut-off
I then tried it again and felt like I adapted and retained what he had told me well, which I thought was great practice for any sort of teaching in the future. Putting me up there without notice in the first place was enough to get me thinking quickly, and then throwing multiple changes out certainly had me working hard. I thought some of the changes were really valuable too, and can definitely transfer into my other conducting. I know my wrists sometimes get pretty loose with long-legato phrases and pieces.
After warmups today, Doug put both Lindsay and I on the spot and had us conduct ~8 bars of a piece the girls had been working on for festival.
I worked with them on the beginning of Pie Jesu and we got through the first phrase. Doug then suggested that
1) I take the beat out of my wrists (Josh taped and after watching the video they were definitely not "strong" enough)
2) He had me stop beating every 4 count on the ends of important phrases and through big crescendos and decrescendos and just had me show those musical choices for the singers (his rationale was that they needed to see that more than beats and the pianist was obviously skilled enough to stay in time)
3) Move my gesture a little lower (into better breath space)
4) Make cut-offs upward vs. the flipping of the wrist to show the cut-off
I then tried it again and felt like I adapted and retained what he had told me well, which I thought was great practice for any sort of teaching in the future. Putting me up there without notice in the first place was enough to get me thinking quickly, and then throwing multiple changes out certainly had me working hard. I thought some of the changes were really valuable too, and can definitely transfer into my other conducting. I know my wrists sometimes get pretty loose with long-legato phrases and pieces.
Sunday, March 15, 2015
Sight Reading Activity!
1. Identify starting pitch and tonality
2. Sing scale using hand signs
3. Troubleshoot jumps with hand signs (Do-sol, Fa-la, Re-ti-do, mi-do-sol)
4. Ask students about time signature and key signature
5. Tap the beat on heart, count sing
6. Audiate your part, singing out loud first and last note
7. Sing through entirety
Grand Ledge Visit 2
Mr. Armstead adheres to a very strict routine. Classes always start with zero talking and a very clear warm up routine that the girls in the class are familiar with and I would guess have been doing since day one. Although the routine may change a bit from day to day (Friday's always incorporate more movement than other days, etc), the expectations are very clear on both the teachers part as well as the students.
This Friday was slightly different for me, however, because Mr. Armstead had me working with a student who was going to solo and ensemble one on one. It struck me as she and I walked into the practice room that I would have been terrified to do this only a few semesters ago. but as I scanned the music for the first time, I was able to easily identify what areas would probably need extra help and felt very equipped throughout the 15ish minutes we worked together with tools to help with support, emotional connection, energy, text, and various other things. It was a really gratifying experience, and I felt like she enjoyed creating and growing in her music and thinking a little more in depth about what the piece was about. Looking back, however, I DEFINITELY would have gone through the whole piece with her. We only sang through the A section and there was no reason we couldn't have at least sung through the entirety of the piece at the very beginning and then gone back and worked stuff.
For the remainder of the class Mr. Armstead had a worksheet and activity about musical theater. The worksheet gave a brief explanation and background about what musical theater is and where it comes from. He then identified some well known songs and played clips of them for the students (mostly songs middle school students would recognize). They were asked to respond to what they liked and didn't like, how it made them feel, what the mood was, etc. It is also an expectation that anytime a worksheet is done in class, it should be filled out with complete sentences, otherwise it will not get credit (yay for the literacy standards).
This Friday was slightly different for me, however, because Mr. Armstead had me working with a student who was going to solo and ensemble one on one. It struck me as she and I walked into the practice room that I would have been terrified to do this only a few semesters ago. but as I scanned the music for the first time, I was able to easily identify what areas would probably need extra help and felt very equipped throughout the 15ish minutes we worked together with tools to help with support, emotional connection, energy, text, and various other things. It was a really gratifying experience, and I felt like she enjoyed creating and growing in her music and thinking a little more in depth about what the piece was about. Looking back, however, I DEFINITELY would have gone through the whole piece with her. We only sang through the A section and there was no reason we couldn't have at least sung through the entirety of the piece at the very beginning and then gone back and worked stuff.
For the remainder of the class Mr. Armstead had a worksheet and activity about musical theater. The worksheet gave a brief explanation and background about what musical theater is and where it comes from. He then identified some well known songs and played clips of them for the students (mostly songs middle school students would recognize). They were asked to respond to what they liked and didn't like, how it made them feel, what the mood was, etc. It is also an expectation that anytime a worksheet is done in class, it should be filled out with complete sentences, otherwise it will not get credit (yay for the literacy standards).
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