eckroth total band director workshop

The man that hath no music in himself,
Nor is not moved with concord of sweet sounds,
Is fit for treasons, stratagems and spoils;
The motions of his spirit are dull as night
And his affections dark as Erebus:
Let no such man be trusted. Mark the music.

Shakespeare — The Merchant of Venice, Act V, Scene 1

I attended the Eckroth Music Total Band Director Workshop last week and was privileged to hear from the likes of Col. Lowell E. Graham, Samuel Hazo, Michael Mossman, and more. Hazo quoted the portion of Shakespeare above to emphasize the importance of music to us as human beings, and he and others gave me a number of things to think about.

1. Pyramid of sound (Graham) — I'm still sorting through my thoughts on this topic. Col. Graham called it "American folk pedagogy," and said that people don't grasp what Francis McBeth was trying to get across in the pyramid concept. I'm planning on doing some more reading on McBeth and then writing a full post later with my thoughts on band sound.

2. New Music Reading Sessions — It's usually pretty fun to play in a band director band, and it is nearly always valuable to spend some time on the other side of the baton. One of the highlights of the sessions was reading Due North (Michael Sweeney), which was commissioned by a consortium of schools including SCPA. I think the piece turned out very well, and it was a simple and easy project to take part in.

3. "Every emotion but joy is dissonant" — Sam Hazo pointed this out when talking about the need for musicians (especially young ones) to emphasize dissonances so that they sound right. Perhaps it is a bit of a stretch, but I don't think it is much of an exaggeration. He used the piano to demonstrate how he would make a single interval sound with a variety of emotions. Try it yourself for an interesting exercise.

4. Equipment is Important (Nick Petrella, Shelly Jagow) — I learned some things about percussion (check out the difference in sustain on the vibes with the paddles open and closed all the way--you might be as surprised as I was) and about woodwind sound. Most eye-opening was a video of a college-level clarinet section playing some Persichetti on their normal equipment and then switching out only the mouthpiece for their original student piece. What did they sound like? My clarinet sections. The tone and pitch got worse, the articulation got worse...everything sounded worse on the student mouthpieces. Resolution: get students to play on equipment that helps them sound their best.

scale syllabus

When I was in high school, I didn't appreciate the resources available nearly enough. One such resource was the scale section in our jazz band method book. I can't imagine how much time it took our band director to put it together—it's handwritten for all four common transpositions in jazz band—and contains several patterns in all keys as well as the typical jazz scales.  While it probably isn't necessary to write out every the scale for every key of a given mode, I think it is helpful for some students to see everything written out. I decided to recreate (or at least imitate) it in Sibelius for my students last year, and I'll share it here in case it is useful to anyone else. If you use it, let me know how you like it (or not).

Download scale syllabus

chamber music in band

When I started teaching at St. Croix Prep, it was all I could do to figure out how to teach as well as determining the content for my frequently-changing courses. I had to get bands to sound passable in time for their performances and I had to help individual students grow during their weekly lessons. Early on, though, I wanted to expect more from student musicians than just playing their own parts in the full band. Since my groups have always been relatively small (anywhere from 13 to 47 students), there has often been one-on-a-part instrumentation. Still, chamber music requires a higher standard of playing from every student involved, and I have worked on incorporating it a little more deeply every year.

Between no chamber music and chamber music, I added a requirement to my middle school classes that I call "class performances." Once or a twice a quarter, every student has to perform for the class. First- and second-year players get to pick from their method book and typically play alone (though I permit duets on occasion if they take the extra time to work them out). For the last quarter of sixth grade, however, all students have their lesson groups rearranged from like-instruments to mixed duets and trios. Then, in the second half of the year, seventh and eighth graders do the same. More advanced students may play in a quartet or quintet, but I've found that duets and trios are usually easier to manage.

Class performances can be one of my favorite parts of the year. It's a chance for the performers to work through nervousness and perhaps even show off for their peers, I get to sit and enjoy the music (if it's good), and the students listening practice for being good audience members at more formal performances. Next step: though I do record the performances, I would love to make them more accessible to students and parents as a marker of their progress.

This past year, we hosted a small Solo and Ensemble event. We brought in a couple of adjudicators and hosted a few groups from one other small school. The students were proud of the ratings they earned, and I'm looking forward to growing the event some more next year.