Midwest 2010 Day 3

Another day done at Midwest.

Started the day by going to a session by Paula Cider. It was very inspirational and spoke to a lot of issues that we have to deal with as educators.

After that I visited the exhibits for one last time and picked up a new baton and got a free case with it since it was from an old friend, Guy Lake.

I then attended an interesting clinic hosted by Mark Wood. It dealt with electric orchestra and rock and roll orchestra. I wonder if this will gain more popularity and if we will be seeing more of this in then schools.

The next session was hosted by David Vandewalker and dealt with ensemble clarity. Good stuff. Lots of practical ideas that can be applied to both band and orchestra. The big idea was to quantify abstract ideas to help clarify and make the rehearsals go more efficiently.

For the fourth session I went to a clinic on vibrato. Good refresher and had some interesting data to be shared.

To wrap up the day I finished with a clinic by Yo Goto. It was really neat to see how the Japanese club bands operate. There's a lot there to be learned. In essence the student engagement is through the roof as they give feedback and also run rehearsals/sectionals. The discipline and engagement is phenomenal. I am brainstorming how to incorporate some of these ideas into my teaching.

Gotta post a group pic of us later that we took at the end.

Goals/task:
- incorporate Japan ideas into my teaching
- quantify abstract ideas


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:S Indiana Ave,Chicago,United States

Midwest 2010 Day 2

Day 2 of Midwest was just as awesome as day 1, albeit a little tiring.

I started the day in a Sibelius demonstration where I picked a few tips and shortcuts in Sibelius. I also learned more about photo score and Got a couple of new websites to use to find music.

The second session of day involved standard based education in our ensembles. The idea I took away from it was to shift focus away from the group and focus once again on the individual student.

For the third block of the day I went to listen to a great HS orchestra and got some repertoire ideas. The afternoon sessions weren't as good but I did pick up some useful conducting ideas and movement ideas.

I closed out the day by listening to a great community band and then another full orchestra.

Great news for the day: I won a FREE copy of Sibelius 6 today!!!

Goals/ideas for future:
- use the Internet to help create a more well rounded music experience and address state standards (website/blackboard)
- create sight reading folders
- use photo score and Sibelius to create easier parts for struggling students
- use photo score and Sibelius to arrange more music from Internet for strings (e.g. String quartets)
- when conducting arrangements order original scores
- incorporate more student movement into lessons/playing


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:S Indiana Ave,Chicago,United States

Midwest 2010 Day 1

Today was the first day of the 2010 Midwest clinic. It was AWESOME!

After registering we went browsing around the vendors. There were so many. I purchased a set of suspended cymbal mallets that have no contact noise.

The first clinic I went to was on wind partials and the overtone series. It was okay and I received a very useful handout. It made me realize that I need to review my wind instrumental fingering and pitch tendencies.

The 2nd session of the day focused on string bass technique. Got lots of good info and also purchased two books with exercises and etudes for string bass. The new goal is to spend more individualized time focusing on the basses

The last clinic of the day focused on string bowing. Good info too and a good packet. After that I was speaking with H. Watanabe about method books and next year I am going to switch to a new method. The year after I want to incorporate the Essential Elements Book 4 as well.

To close out the night we watched the Marine Corp band (pic below) and then the Michigan State Jazz orchestra (which totally rocked!).






To recap goals/lessons from today:
- work on relearning wind instrument fingerings/tendencies
- incorporate overtone series into score study (be proactive about intonation)
- create a set-up for percussion ALL THE TIME
- focus on bass technique/development more (individualized attention)
- Incorporate more right hand technique exercises into warm up (pencil)
- transition to new method book over next two years


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Chicago, Illinois

2010 Winter Concert Reflections

This past Saturday was our 2010 Winter Concert at P.C.C.C.

Overall it went very well.  Here are some positives about the evening:
- Creating my action plan really helped to stay organize - next concert create one for presidents of both orchestras and maybe EMs
- Performance was at the level of expectations.  CO performed really well on the Ivanov.
- CO was well behaved and managed themselves very well; kudos goes to the officers for their diligence

Things to improve on:
- CS behavior before the concert was very unfocused - need to find a way to better focus them... some kind of activity perhaps
- Stage transitions were slow because of incorrect order (should be split in two; fill from front of stage first)
- EM's didn't all show up for loading/unloading

After evaluating their concert I think I would like to push them a little harder than I originally had planned.  I'm ordering a couple more pieces to help with this and am thinking of replacing one of the CO pieces with "Danse Bachanelle" that is more challenging.