Thomas J. West Music

The Value Of Efficient And Organized Musical Practice Routines

Fri, 24 May 2013 11:25:00 +0000

My blog started out back in 2008 as a series of practice tips and featured articles about the neurology of musical practice. The basic observation is that many elementary band and orchestra directors tell their students to "practice 30 minutes a day and fill out this practice chart", common practice I discussed at length in this article. The fundamental flaw in this approach is that the teachers do not teach the students how to practice, expecting them to figure it out on their own or rely on parents to fill in the gaps.

Playing a musical instrument is a complex skill requiring at least ten years of regular study to achieve a level of proficiency, let alone mastery. To wit, I occasionally continue to pass along good strategies for practicing instruments. I often receive links to blog posts in my inbox that people think will be a good fit for my readership. This following article is one such entry.

5 Tips for Encouraging Kids to Practice Piano is a great blog article with some time-honored techniques that apply for practicing just about any instrument. I caution readers on the use of a reward system, however. Music practice needs to become intrinsic to a degree if the student is going to have longevity. Many of us skated by with doing minimal practicing, but when push comes to shove, the students' pride in their own performance needs to stay the centerpiece of their motivation to practice.

This article (c) 2013 Thomas J. West. All content on ThomasJWestMusic dot com is licensed under a Creative Contributions Attribution-No Derivative Works 3.0 License. Please contact the author before publishing on or off-line.

Subscribe by RSS Subscribe by email

Great Performances: Griffin Allen And Dean Fields Perform Chick Corea's Spain

Mon, 20 May 2013 12:00:00 +0000

I teach at a unique school. The Center for Performing and Fine Arts is a rigorous pre-profeesional program offered by The Pennsylvania Leadership Charter School. While not a magnet school, CPFA provides students an opportunity to have a more immersive and focused arts education than most public schools in our geographic area.

One of the programs that is quite different at CPFA than other schools in our area is our guitar program. There are three levels of guitar at the high school, with students in the third level consistently receiving major scholarships to the guitar performance degrees at places like Berklee and the University of Miami.

At our spring instrumental concert this year, two of our senior guitar students performed Chick Corea's jazz powerhouse "Spain". It was quite literally in the top five high school performances I have ever been directly involved with as a teacher. The audio from the actual concert was sustandard, so PALCS's video staff member re-recorded them live in our student lounge after the concert. Griffin Allen (left) will be attending the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill this fall majoring in music composition. Dean Fields (right) will be attending Berklee Conservatory of Music in the fall for guitar performance.

I, their guitar teacher at CPFA, Mr. Sean Townsend, and the rest of our faculty and staff are incredibly proud of these two young men and their accomplishments.

Be sure to hang in there for Dean's comment during the fade-out.

Watch on YouTube

Subscribe by RSS Subscribe by email

Great Performances: Cluster Vocal Sings Matia Bazar's Ti Sento

Sat, 18 May 2013 04:25:00 +0000

I've been a big fan of Italian a cappella group CLUSTER since I saw them live at VoCALnation in 2012, and their new single just hit YouTube and iTunes today. It's a cover of Italian band Matia Bazar's hit song "Ti Sento". Cluster brings their own style to this tune with jazz harmonies, a deeper groove, and a vocal guitar solo. I'm looking forward to the upcoming albums (that's with an "s") that Cluster is currently working on.

Watch on YouTube

Subscribe by RSS Subscribe by email

Time Is Running Out For An Innovative Music Composition Project

Thu, 16 May 2013 12:00:00 +0000

About a month ago, I shared with you the story of an innovative new music composition project that brings together a composer, a community orchestra, and a drum circle program that benefits at-risk youth. Composer Ben Goldberg is teaming up with the Central Ohio Symphony of Delaware, Ohio to put together a unique composition that incorporates performers from a youth drum circle program. It's a mutually-beneficial arrangement for the composer, who will travel to Ohio to experience these young performers in person and use that experience to write the score, the orchestra, to premiere new material and connect more deeply with their surrounding community, and the at-risk youth, who will benefit from a music program similar to the successful el sistema model.

There are just over 48 hours remaining in the campaign. As of this writing, the project has 90 backers with a total of $5506. The goal amount is $7,700. Kickstarter campaigns are "all or nothing" funding, so if this project does not meet or exceed the goal amount by the deadline of pledged by Saturday May 18, 10:38am EDT, no money will change hands, and the project will not move forward.

Please support this worthwile effort. Learn more by watching the video on the Kickstarter page or by reading this interview with the composer.

Visit the Reconnecting Kickstarter page and make a pledge

I have spoken to composer Ben Goldberg via email, and he appreciates all of the support my readers have given him so far. Let's help make this a reality.

Incubation Period - Training Beginning Music Instrumental Students On Flute, Oboe, And High Brass

Mon, 13 May 2013 11:55:00 +0000

Throughout my career as an instrumental music teacher in American public schools, I have had the opportunity to start a lot of students on a new instrument. My approach to starting beginners is typical: I begin with mouthpiece and embouchure formation, basic playing position, and so on. Where I diverge from tradition is in my approach to teaching basic playing technique, which I will discuss in a future article.

In training these beginners, I typically find that there are a handful of wind instruments that require a longer period of time for most students to become proficient at basic tone production. Until a student can reliably produce the tone of the instrument, it is difficult to move forward into technique building or music reading. I call these instruments ones with longer "incubation periods".

Tone Production On The Trumpet And French Horn

While most beginning students are fairly successful early on in buzzing the lips and producing their first sounds, all brass instruments, and particularly the high brass, require the students to work on embouchure building and flexibility with a great deal of consistency over the course of several months to be able to produce an octave's worth of pitches.

To produce an airstream that is compressed enough to play mid-range pitches, players must build the musculature of the face to a point where the aperture ( portion of the lips that actually vibrates) can vibrate freely while the muscles hold back the resulting internal air pressure. As I tell my students, it literally is "weight lifting for your face".

The French horn has the additional challenge of having their typical tessitura in band literature written for the middle to upper part of the instruments playable range, requiring not only strength, but enough control to accurately find partials that are as close together as a whole step. Because of the strength and conditioning required, trumpet and French horn students must put in consistent practice time on a daily basis in order to develop this control.

Tone Production On Oboe

Oboe students typically do not have difficulty producing their initial tones on there instruments. Refining that tone and playing in extended ranges, however, can take consistent work that lasts at least a year, a fact that applies to bassoon as well. The initial sounds made by oboists are jarring and strident at best, and the quality and adjustments made to their reeds can play a major contributing factor.

If oboe or bassoon is not your primary instrument, dealing with double reeds may be a bit perplexing. If you have the luxury of having your double reed students study privately or work with a double reed clinician at your school, many of these issues can be addressed. If not, everyone, director and students alike, will have to exercise patience as the oboe students continue to work on improving the total quality and range of their instrument.

Tone Production On Flute

The instrument was the longest incubation period, perhaps, is the flute. There is little about producing the tone of the flute that is intuitive. It is quite literally a trial and error process, and because of the nature of the Hemoltz resonator effect being produced, students often find themselves in the early stages becoming light-headed from hyperventilation. Once the initial sounds become more consistently produced, they still remain breathy and unfocused.

Once tone can be produced reliably, the next challenge for flutists is developing control of the air stream to become capable of changing octaves reliably. I wrote at length about this topic, including some useful exercises, in this article. Even after gaining control of the low, middle, and lower portion of the high register, it will take more time and experience for the flutist's tone quality to go from the breathy, intermediate stage to a purer, more rounded flute tone.

Tone Production Is Esstential For All

Even for instruments that do not need extensive work to produce a good tone in the middle register, such as clarinet and saxophone, good tone quality must come before nearly every other aspect of performance. The saxophone embouchure is fairly forgiving, but players still need to apply the mouthpiece firmly against the top teeth and use the correct amount of reed tip opening to produce the correct pitch on the reed. Many sax players are producing the wrong pitch on the mouthpiece well into high school. leading to perpetual intonation problems and strident tone quality.

Clarinetists, because of the downward angle of the instrument, must have a firm lower lip, correct angle of pressure from the jaw, and must position the tongue correctly to direct the airflow to produce the correct pitch and tone in all registers. This is especialy true at the intermediate level as the venture into the register above high C.

Low brass perfromers are under the same kind of regiment as their high brass counterparts, there is simply less need for muscular development at the earlier stages of learning. Breaking through the "high F ceiling" is a tough process for many intermediate players.

Little else can fall into place for a wind instrumentalist until they are using the correct embouchure formation with the right amount and quality of air stream. Good tone is a pre-requisite for tuning, intonation, articulation, and even simply getting the instrument to respond in time for the downbeat. Many secondary level band directors are guilty of taking tone production for granted, not revisiting tone concepts enough to continue to help each section of the ensemble develop as individual performers. For the highest quality performance of the full ensemble, however, revisiting tone production needs to be a periodic checkpoint that is part of every ensemble's routine.

Subscribe by RSS Subscribe by email

Great Performances: The Real Group Performs Nature Boy Live

Fri, 10 May 2013 12:00:00 +0000

I am a big fan of vocal jazz, especially unaccompanied vocal jazz. My all-time favorite vocal group is and will always be The Singers Unlimited. Among their many jaw-dropping recordings, one of my favorites is this rendition of the 1947 song "Nature Boy" written by Eden Abhez and made famous by Nat King Cole.

The Singers Unlimited were one of the most influential groups in American history, and yet they fly under the radar for so many people who consider themselves vocal music fans. One of the many groups that The Singers Unlimited has influenced in measurable ways are Sweeden's perennial vocal jazz artists The Real Group. They have been touring the world for over 28 years and continue to deliver the kind of jaw-dropping harmony that began with the overdubbing vocal masterworks of Gene Puerling.

Here is a new recording of The Real Group performing their own arrangement of "Nature Boy" for a live audience. The precision of intonation and artistry of this recording, especially in a live setting, is nothing short of amazing. While there certainly were post-performance adjustments and mixing made to the video, none of that takes away from this performance. In fact, it enhances it.

"Nature Boy" is one of my most favorite songs. There is something about its melancholy words, chromatic melody, and underlying harmony that makes the main message of the lyrics that much more poignant. It's as if the song's statement of wisdom, which is "The greatest thing you'll ever learn in just to love and be loved in return", was discovered by the boy through many personal trials and tribulations despite his youth.

I hope you take a moment to put on some headphones or go to a quiet space to listen to both The Singers Unlimited version and this new recording.

Subscribe by RSS Subscribe by email

Competitve Marching Band: Dissecting The Music Ensemble Caption

Thu, 09 May 2013 12:10:00 +0000

The 2013 season will be my fifth year judging for the Cavalcade of Bands Association. I have judged nearly every music and visual caption for them at some point, but in the past three years, they have employed me almost exclusively as a Music Ensemble judge up in the press box. As a music ensemble judge, my job is to evaluate, rank, and rate the band's musical score, both in its composition and the level of excellence to which it is performed. Different competition circuits assign these two basic criteria differently, but in general terms, the Music Ensemble judge sits at a fixed point away from the band in order to evaluate the combined musical performance of all elements of the band. Some circuits assume that the musical score and the execution of said score are inseperable and therefore to be commented on equally. Other circuits actually seperate the score and the band's performance into two seperate captions in order to empasize the importance of both independently from each other.

Evaluating The Musical Composition

First of all, I as a judge give equal time to both the composition and the performance in my commentary regardless of what the criteria and captions are. For the musical score, I want to hear a band demonstrate that each section of the ensemble (woodwinds, high brass, low brass, battery, front ensemble) has multiple roles and contributions to the musical score. If the low brass is playing a bunch of whole notes in the range of a fifth the entire show, or the woodwinds might as well be called "trumpet 4", there is room for improvement in the score.

I also want to hear the score demonstrate a variety of musical feels, styles, tonal and rhythmic centers, and technical ability. The score should simultaneously showcase the abilities of the band, downplay its weaknesses, and create a musically engaging and effective show. It needs to be music that is appropriate for the skill set of the student performers. If the students are performing music that is technically, intellectually, or aestetically out of their reach, there is room for improvement in the show design in terms of music selection and arranging.

Evaluating Ensemble Performance Excellence

The excellence caption, as the "nuts and bolts" considerations, is fairly straightforward. The two areas that bands need to address the most in the Music Ensemble excellence considerations are rhythmic alignment and balance and blend.

For less experienced or smaller bands, this means maximizing the contribution of each individual so that a fully representative sound can be achieved. While this sounds more like a consideration for a field-level Individual Music judge, it impacts on the ensemble level as well. When your band has three flute converts playing tenor saxophone, a turmpet section with one vet and two seventh graders, or a bass drum line that is new to the job, there is no question that their individual contributions will have an impact on the ensmeble performance in a way that is measurable from the press box.

For larger or more experienced bands, ensemble precision and balance is a matter of fine tuning the execution. By the time championship week rolls around, it tends to be the bands that have adjusted the score to maximize both the demonstration of the band's musical capabilities and the ability to play in time, in tune, with good balanace and blend that ends up taking home the big scores from a Music Ensemble judge.

When The Music Ensemble Judge "Calls The Show"

In most modern build-up judging systems, it is rare that a single judge "calls the show" - in other words, evaluates a band's ranking and rating so much differently than the rest of the judging panel that the band in question either wins the championship when perhaps they shouldn't have or vice-versa. It does happen, and Music Ensemble can sometimes be quite divergent from the rest of the panel. It is possible that a championship band is presumably strong in all captions, but when the evaluations come, they find themselves deficient in one area. Judging a performing arts ensemble will always be a subjective practice no matter how carefully the judging sheets are designed or the judging community agrees on interpretation.

I had one occasion where, at a championship show, the winning band ranked 1 and 2 for every judge except me - I had their Music Ensemble score in 6th. When this happens as a judge, one thinks, "Uh oh, now I have to justify myself in critique." Luckily as a championship show, there is no post-show judges' meeting. If I did have to defend that score, however, I would have pointed out that the 5 bands I ranked ahead of them performed the score just as cleanly or better and presented a higher level of demand and exposure to each musical section of the band. At this show, the difference between 1st and 6th on my sheet was 1.2 points. That's performing in some very accomplished company.

The good news is that my score did not negatively affect the outcome, with the exception of costing the winning band the high music trophy. But honestly, from the perspective of the music ensemble judge, they didn't deserve it. My natural reaction when I first saw the score recap was " How could I be so far off from the rest of the panel? Did I have some preconceived notion that was affecting my judgement?" In this case, I believe that I judged the situation correctly despite the fact that I respect the band director that won the competition and expect his bands to have a solid outing every fall. Every year is different, and indeed every competition is different. The job is always to judge "the show of the day", and this time, I felt that their musical score as it was performed and presented that day was not as strong as their peers.

Education Through Musical Involvement

In the end, the ranking in rating of band is secondary in importance to the analysis and perspectives provided by the judging community. "Education Though Musical Involvement" is the motto of Cavalcade, and it aptly describes and codifies the emphasis that is placed on competition being a tool for creating excellent bands and nurturing excellence, musicianship, and strong work ethic in the participating students.

The adjudicators that make up a judging community come from varied backgrounds, including background outside of music education. They understand their caption or captions well, and the relationship between judge and band staff should always be thought of in terms of a partnership designed to maximize the performance quality, artistry, and entertainment value of a high school marching band.

Subscribe by RSS Subscribe by email

Quote Of The Day: Einstein "The True Sign Of Intelligence"

Tue, 07 May 2013 11:45:00 +0000

It's May and I find myself out of energy and looking forward to summer break. During my morning commute, which involves a 40-minute bus ride and a mile walk, I was commiserating with other teachers via Twitter on how difficult this part of the school year is - a month left to go with all of its culminating activities, and quite simply no energy left to implement them. My own wife and children at home are feeling the same way. Modern life on the US East Coast seems to be a constant sprint.

It was at this point that yet another great Einstein quote crossed my twitter stream:

The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge but imagination.

This quote resonates with me because I have come to realize over the past 5 years that creativity and innovation, weather it comes from people who are well-studied and skilled or just from minds that aren't afraid to come up with a new juxtaposition for an idea despite a lack of training, is what our economy relies on now more than ever. Teaching, learning, and fresh ideas are the stock and trade of the 21st century.

The ultimate application of knowledge is in the creation of new ideas. Whether it be for a new process for lighting our streets like this one or simply writing original music, imaginative ideas are the fuel that makes our society go. It takes some bravery and some passion to be an outside-of-the-box thinker in a culture where we fear "being wrong". It is one of the reasons that I have a 21st Century Artistry category on my blog and why I teach music composition in my band and orchestra classroom.

As I attempt to find the energy to finish off this school year and keep my spirits up, musing on the power of ingenuity and creativity is a little "mental floss" that is most welcome.

Subscribe by RSS Subscribe by email

Teaching Transposition To Secondary Wind Instrument Musicians

Fri, 03 May 2013 12:40:00 +0000

Image: Thomas J. West [CC BY-NC-ND]

Historically, I understand the reasons why the treble clef instruments of the wind band transpose. It doesn't change the fact that having transposing instruments is a ridiculously inefficient and troublesome convention that makes about as much sense as "i before e, except after c, and this list of exceptions to this rule". While it is true that the transpositions are primarily necessary to build an instrument that can play in tune within a certain range, it is still not really necessary to have those instruments read transposed parts. The trombone is actually an instrument built in the key of Bb, but they still read bass clef and concert pitch - why not the treble clef instruments?

Be that as it may, performers of wind instruments of any kind, especially those who play transposing instruments, should learn the basics of transposition and should be able to take something written in concert pitch and figure out how to play it in the correct key.

It Starts With Scale Study

I have written quite a lot about the value of tonal literacy and my method of ensemble scale study. In order to understand transposition, my wind players first become acquainted with the first three most commonly used keys for wind instruments, which are concert Bb, Eb, and F (I also have them learn concert C in this group because my students do a lot of performing with string players).

Training in transposition begins with a quick demonstration at the piano of a Bb, Eb, and F instrument playing their written C along with the piano middle C. When we begin spelling out and learning the concert Bb scale, we also dicuss the transposition for Bb, Eb, and F instruments and write the transposed scales on the board as well. Students begin to understand that transposing instruments have to play in a different key in order to match the C instrumments.

Learning Transposition In Both Directions

After learning how to transpose from concert pitch to their key, another essential skill is determining what the concert pitch is based on their written transposed part. This can easily become confusing, as students (and band directors) will transpose the wrong direction. I encourage student to know the transposition for one specific pitch, usually concert Bb, and apply that same relationship to the pitch they are trying to transpose.

For example, if clarinetists know that Concert Bb is their written C, transposing their written F should maintain the same interval relationship, resulting in the transposed pitch of Concert Eb.

Transposition As A Tool For Collaboration And Composition

Once students understand the basics of transposition, they are ready to begin reading lead sheets and composing for transposing wind instruments. My more self-confident students actually pride themselves on being able to correctly transpose any instrument in the band.

For most students, transposing a lead sheet is a good homework assignment. Once students have studied scales and can perform a few proficiently, sight-trasposing a lead sheet is a real challenge to test the mettle of the most dedicated.

As my students move through the music composition curriculum, writing for multiple instruments is a skill that is addressed in high school. By the time they have been through the curriculum and can transpose and perform major scales and arpeggios proficiently, they write first for solo instrument, then duets, trios, and quartets of homogenious instruments, then write a score for mixed instruments. My more ambitious student want to dive in and try writing for mixed groups as soon as possible.

Teaching For Longevity

In many band programs, transposition is something that band directors simply just don't take the time to teach because they have many other goals with the precious and limited time. If the band director's goal is to give band students as many performance opportunities as possible in order to reap the benefits of ensemble music-making, then transposition is not something that will be covered in the available instructional time. If, however, the band director's goal is to additionally provide students with the ability to play their instrument as a solo performer, or to use their instrumental performance to create their own original music to be shared online, understanding transposition is a key element.

Equipping music students for "life after school band" is something that every band director should consider as they design the allocation of their instructional time.

Subscribe by RSS Subscribe by email

Music Teacher Tip: Get Eb Alto And Bari Saxes To Cover Bass Clef Parts

Thu, 02 May 2013 11:50:00 +0000

The majority of my teaching career has been directing band and strings programs with 50 performers or less. This always creates issues for maintaining a managable instrumentation in order to cover all the parts of an ensemble. It is not uncommon for me to have to transpose parts from instruments I don't have in my ensemble so that they can be covered by other sections.

One little trick I figured out early on in my career as a band director is that Eb saxophones can read the notes on the bass clef staff as if they were their own part. The Eb transposition places the note heads on the same location on the staff as the notes of bass clef - a minor third higher than treble clef. On the bass clef staff, a second space Eb corresponds to the alto or baritone saxophone's second space C. Saxophones simply read the part as if it were written in treble clef.

It is not a one-to-one relationship, however, as the key transposition still applies. Saxophonists have to add three sharps to the key signature in order to perform in the correct key. In many band keys, which are flat-heavy, the flats in the key signature cancel out the sharps, leaving the player with typically some very friendly key signatures.

Accidentals in the bass clef part also have to be taken into account and may not be performed as written. For example, a written top line Ab in bass clef translates to an F-natural in Eb treble clef. Once students become adjusted to using their ear to assist in making these adjustments, along with some careful annotations with a pencil, accidentals such as these are not difficult to negotiate.

In my current teaching position, I often have sections of what are called "orchestra" classes. This is a general catch-all term for a class of mixed strings and winds. This year, one of my high school orchestra classes contained 10 violins, 1 double bass, and 2 alto saxophones. The combination is almost comical. There is little that this instrumentation works for, and the alto players had to often be patient while we worked on string ensemble material.

In this fourth marking period of the school year, we do a lot of sight reading as part of our studies. In this instance, I have been giving my two alto sax players the cello parts to read and having some violins read the violin 3 part, which doubles the viola. We are successfully able to read through string ensemble music, although by adding three sharps to string-friendly keys, the altos are often reading in A, E, and B major. They're used to it by now, as they've had to do it regularly.

For public concert or for memorized marching band material, I would take the time to write out a transposed part for my Eb instruments as necessary, making it less cumbersome for those players to learn their part. Making use of this commonality between bass clef and treble clef Eb notation has created opportunities for my small ensembles to still have a full ( but regrettably timbre-deficient) ensemble sound. It also creates a good challenge for my saxophonists to read and understand scale study, key signatures, and even basic chord theory.

Subscribe by RSS Subscribe by email

Links for 2012-08-24 [del.icio.us]

Sat, 25 Aug 2012 00:00:00 PDT

SheetMusic and MIDI files for VideoGames

Links for 2012-04-02 [del.icio.us]

Tue, 03 Apr 2012 00:00:00 PDT

8 Advantages you Should Know Before Buying a Television Online

Links for 2012-04-01 [del.icio.us]

Mon, 02 Apr 2012 00:00:00 PDT

Schluesselanhaenger Fisch Olivenholz 7,5 cm Das einfuehlsame Geschenk - ichkaufeonlineein's Space
Schluesselanhaenger Fisch Olivenholz 7,5 cm Das einfuehlsame Geschenk

Links for 2011-12-23 [del.icio.us]

Sat, 24 Dec 2011 00:00:00 PST

Restore the "Search…" Item to the Folder Context Menu in Windows 7
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\shell\find

Links for 2011-06-29 [del.icio.us]

Thu, 30 Jun 2011 00:00:00 PDT

simulator - sandbox area
/Library/Application Support/iPhone Simulator//Applications//Documents

Links for 2011-01-06 [del.icio.us]

Fri, 07 Jan 2011 00:00:00 PST

Push-on, Push-off
This is a simple 1-bit memory, mechanical unit, that uses the position of the boat to store the on/off output. Pressing the button once, switches it on. Pres...

Links for 2010-12-27 [del.icio.us]

Tue, 28 Dec 2010 00:00:00 PST

Arduitter: RF Links Reliable Messaging
An Arduino and Twitter integration project.