Practicing

The first article I found, “Goals for Practice and Performance, and Mind-Body Approach¸” actually draws attention to some of the techniques that I use for practicing. One technique is call the conscious voluntary movement exercise (CVME) which includes focusing on and slowly moving one part for limited ranges before practice to help you focus before you start as a form of meditation. Students can then modify this exercise each day so that it won’t become monotonous and it keeps them engaged. The article also suggests using the CVME before a performance to help a student focus their mind and energy towards performing.

Beers, D.Y. (2006) Goals for Practice and Performance, the Mind-Body Approach. The American Music Teacher, 56(1), 24-27. Retrieved from Wilson Web Database.

Although this second article is written towards piano students, I believe it can be used for any focus area. “Self-Directed Practice and Performance” talks about building up a “tool-box” of ideas and techniques to use in the practice room, and how to set goals for each student as they practice. It also mentions how you should stress the importance of taking notes and marking music during lessons so that they know exactly what to work on later. Lastly it advises setting up pre- and post-performance goals for students so they know what to work up to and how to look at their performance afterwards.

Pearce, E.T. (2004) Self-Directed Practice, A Key to Both Student Success and Motivation. The American Music Teacher, 54(2), 29-30. Retrieved from Wilson Web Database.

The third piece is also written for the piano student, but like the other article I think these skills and tips can be transferred to practicing any instrument. This article stresses that we must focus on students’ musical and technical skills during their lesson so that it can transfer to their practicing. Introducing broad ideas are good in that they are flexible enough to include all of the finer details that will come along later in practicing. It also brings up the point that because every piece a student plays is different, many of the practice techniques will be different as well.

Cooper, T. (2004) Small Moments—Big Impact: Teaching First-Year Students How to Practice. The American Music Teacher, 54(2), 33-34. Retrieved from Wilson Web Database

Practicing

My personal beliefs about practice are that it should be effective, fun, and a retreat from the craziness of the everyday life. It isn’t always about how much a person practices, but that the practice they do is beneficial and they learn something from it that will carry through their next practice sessions and/or lessons. Also, having unproductive practice sessions can bring about frustration and more mistakes than would happen otherwise. Making practice isn’t always fun, but having a reward for a job well done in a practice session, such as a fun piece, will make it more enjoyable. Once a student knows what makes their practice beneficial and enjoyable, they should be able to use it as a way to get away from some of the tasks that overtake their lives

A 30-Year Follow-Up Study of Actual Applied Music Practice versus Estimated Practice—Madsen

This article summarized the process and results of a study pertaining to practice of college students during an eight-week period 30 years ago. The same people—at least those who could be contacted—were asked to think back on the study and estimate how much time they really practiced. During the study, they had to keep records of their daily practice times as well as their ratings of their levels of productiveness during those practice times. In addition, they also had to keep track of how often they were distracted. To make sure these students were practicing as much as they said they were they were also randomly monitored. Overall, the results showed that people generally were not close in their estimates of their practice times; however, 89% of them agreed to this statement: “I believe that there is a close association between my highest level of music performance and total amount of deliberate practice, defined as practice activities involving specific goals and strategies.”

In discussing theories of practice, Madsen reveals two important things music educators must take into account: diligent, focused practice yields greater music achievement; and talent is not a major consideration in determining who will be an expert performer. (Madsen, 2004)

Motivational Strategies: The Outcome Starts Here –Hammel

This article discusses the views of several teachers regarding practice, with the hopes that students who practice effectively will perform well and be motivated to practice even more. One of our jobs as teachers is to educate our students on how to practice by modeling good techniques, having students demonstrate their practice techniques in lessons, and using self-evaluation as a tool for students. Hammel suggests students practice at regular, scheduled times, take breaks while practicing, and using an appealing practice area free of distractions. He also states that it is not the amount of time a student practices, but how effective and goal-oriented the practice sessions are. (Hammel, 2003)

Teach Them How to Practice—Kostka

In this article, Kostka describes the likelihood of students to continue with music based on their practice habits and enthusiasm for the subject. It is our job as teachers to encourage and teach good practice habits. We cannot simply assume students know how to practice. The tips Kostka gives include the following: create a quiet place to practice regularly; having a practice plan unique for each student; practice practicing during lessons; use aural example of repertoire, warm-ups, etc.; allow students to select some music to do for fun as a reward; teach creativity within practicing; and self-evaluate. (Kostka, 2004)

Hammel, B. (2003). Motivational Strategies: The Outcome Starts Here. American Music Teacher , 39-40.
Kostka, M. J. (2004). Teach Them How to Practice. Music Educators Journal , 23-26.
Madsen, C. K. (2004). A 30-Year Follow-Up Study of Actual Applied Music Practice versus Estimated Practice. Journal of Research in Music Education , 77-88.

I decided to interview my junior high band director, who still serves as the music teacher for grades 5-8 at Grant County Junior High in Carson, ND.

How much practice do you require of your students at each grade level, 5th-8th grade?
Required or ask? I recommend that each student practice up to 2 hours per week but parents and students say they are too busy to take the instrument home or that it is too big to carry on the bus. Those that practice show that they have the skills early in their musical career and because of that they don’t have to practice as much when they are older.

On average, how much do your students really practice?
Some do the 2 hour bit, but others just become weight to the musical organization and become frustrated over the fact they can’t play or perform.

Do you believe there should be a certain amount of time students should practice?
Very strongly yes, but they need to have motivation and desire to be better not only from me but from parents as well as themselves. Even if they would practice 15 minutes a day as average in a week’s time they would show improvement.

Or should students simply make whatever time they do practice be an effective time, whether it is more or less than the amount of time you suggest they practice?
Any time spent on the instrument is going to a help even if they just look at it or clean it, it will develop into a relationship with that instrument that they need to know.

What is your stance on practice?
Practice makes perfect, the music class setting is a rehearsal for learning the dynamics of the music and sound of any piece of music

What makes practice most effective?
A chair that is comfort able for proper posture and breathing, a music stand to hold the music a upright position, an instrument that plays well and knowing that correct name for symbols in music,(etc fermata-not birds eye)

What should students do if they become bored in their practicing?
In this day of technology there many devises to make practice fun, tape recorder, CD with an accompaniment, and if your school has the money “Smart Music” for evaluation and learning.

Practicing

This article by Burton Kaplan discusses 4 steps to practicing (though they are different from the steps Dr. Adams talks about, I think they follow the same line). The author says that “Practicing is a conscious managerial skill…” In order to practice effectively, musicians have to, in a sense, coach themselves. For many musicians, this task is difficult because they’ve never been taught how to practice correctly. The 4 steps listed for practicing effectively are:

1. The technique of observation: Identifying and Prioritizing Problems. – In order to solve problems, students must know they exist.

2. The technique of success at any cost: Setting an achievable goal and finding a strategy to reach it. – Goals shouldn’t be too difficult and frustrating or too easy and boring. When a goal has been achieved, make sure the student tells himself “good job,” as a personal positive reinforcement.

3. The technique of intimacy: Stabilizing the new success. – When success is first achieved in a certain spot, immediately play it perfectly again, before memory fades. This increases the ratio of success to failures, and helps musicians remember HOW playing correctly feels. The students should do this until they can play it perfectly 5 out of 5 tries.

4. The technique of the first try: Testing performance control. – Usually performance dates and times are pre-arranged well in advance, and the student must play whether they feel like it that day or not, and they only get one shot at it. This step is designed for students to set a specific time (similar to when the actual performance will be) and play through everything on the first try – no stopping allowed, until they can do it proudly for several days in a row.

Kaplan, Burton. 2004. Practicing for Artistic Success: Empowering the Student with Self-Management Skills in the Practice Room. “The American Music Teacher.”

Another article titled “Teaching Problem Solving in Practice” says it is important for musicians and music students to practice for a number of reasons including: to build endurance, flexibility, and dexterity. It says students must learn how to problem-solve on their own during practice sessions and gives different techniques for doing this, and goes into depth with how to use slow, metronome work when practicing a difficult spot. Similar to the first article, this one states the importance of students being able to be dependent on themselves when it comes to practicing and improving.

Byo, James, L. 2004. Teaching Problem Solving in Practice. “Music Educators Journal.”

A third article I found entitled “Helping Students Get More Out of Practicing” focused on the motivational aspects of music. Often students won’t practice simply because they don’t feel like it, and teachers need to help them find a way around this feeling. The article gives several tips for successful practice. Some of these are: Setting achievable goals, making practice a habit, Use warm-up time, use a pencil to mark music appropriately, and concentration.

Mauro, Lucy. 2001. Helping Students Get More Out of Practicing. “The American Music Teacher.”

I asked Marty Lanter a few questions about music practice time in elementary through high school students. He said that as far as having ‘practice report cards,’ he only requires them through 8^th grade, and that the requirement is one hour a week. He also brought up that one of the big reasons, especially in smaller schools, for students not practicing enough is because they are spread too thin. “You’re best band students are more than likely you’re best football players, volleyball players, etc.” These students are often busy with all sorts of other activities, and practicing ends up getting put to the wayside. He thinks that the trick is to teach them how to effectively practice early on in their music education to create good habits early. Marty also mentioned that the use of SmartMusic can be a beneficial practice aid to high school students.

Choral Pieces--Standards-Based

All pieces:

· Singing: 8.1.1 Sing accurately and with good breath control throughout their singing ranges, alone and in small and large groups.

· Singing: 8.1.2 Sing with expression and technical accuracy a repertoire of vocal literature.

· Singing: 8.1.4 Sing music written in two and three parts.

· Reading Music: 8.5.3 Know standard notation symbols.

· Evaluating Music: 8.7.1 Know how to evaluate the quality and effectiveness and music performances.

· Evaluating Music: 8.7.2 Know how to apply specific criteria when offering constructive suggestions for improving the performance of self and others.

All Things Bright and Beautiful

· Singing: 8.1.1 Sing accurately and with good breath control throughout their singing ranges, alone and in small and large groups.

o Sing alternating phrases between parts I and II as solos passed to various people in the choir.

· Music and Other Disciplines: 8.8.2 Know how principles and concepts of other disciplines are related to those of music.

o Transfer words to poetry, study Cecil. F Alexander’s works—English, history (?)

The Pirate Song

· Instrumental Performance: 8.2.1 Perform on an instrument, alone and in small and large groups.

o Insert a “percussion break” at measure 61 and have students use percussion instruments in rhythms fitting the mood/theme of the piece.

· Instrumental Performance: 8.2.2 Perform with expression and technical accuracy on a string, wind, percussion, or classroom instrument.

o Same as above.

· Composition: 8.4.1 Compose short pieces of music containing the appropriate elements of music.

o Compose the “percussion break”.’

· Composition: 8.4.3 Use a variety of sound sources when composing and arranging.

o Same as above.

Flying Free

· Singing: 8.1.1 Sing accurately and with good breath control throughout their singing ranges, alone and in small and large groups.

o Students sing a phrase of their part as a soloist, then with one person per part, then larger groups on each part, then as a full choir.

· Reading Music: 8.5.2 Sight-read simple melodies in both the treble and bass clefs.

o On first reading of Soprano part (part 1), provide music for the line written in both clefs. Sing bass clef on solfege first, then treble clef.

The Lone Wild Bird

· Singing: 8.1.1 Sing accurately and with good breath control throughout their singing ranges, alone and in small and large groups.

o Open first verse up for a solo or small group for demonstration or for concert.

· Singing: 8.1.3 Sing music representing diverse genres and cultures (Southern folk tune)

· Improvisation: 8.3.3 Improvise melodic embellishments and simple rhythmic and melodic variations on given pentatonic melodies and melodies in major keys.

o Improvise a different descant part based on the melody at measure 41.

· Music, History, and Culture: 8.9.1 Know characteristics of music genres and styles from a variety of music cultures.

o Southern folk music style

Suncatcher

· Composition: 8.4.2 Arrange simple pieces for voices or instruments other than those for which the pieces were written.

o Compose piece for small ensemble, put students in groups according to what instrument they play. Those who do not play instruments will be assigned to groups and encouraged to provide a percussive part for the ensemble.

· Composition: 8.4.3 Use a variety of sound sources when composing and arranging.

o Same as above.

· Listening: 8.6.1 Understand appropriate terminology to describe specific music events.

o After listening to the groups’ arrangements, describe where specific musical events occurred.

· Evaluating Music: 8.7.1 Know how to evaluate the quality and effectiveness of music and music performances.

o After listening to the groups’ arrangements, describe their effectiveness, what was done well, what could be better.

· Evaluating Music: 8.7.2 Know how to apply specific criteria when offering constructive suggestions for improving the performance of self and others.

o Same as above.

· Music and Other Disciplines: 8.8.1 Know how relationships expressed through music can be expressed differently through other art disciplines.

o Create suncatchers—art.

o Student volunteers may perform as dancers for this song on the concert—dance.

· Reading Music: 8.5.1 Read complex rhythms in simple and compound meters.

o Sightread syncopated first phrase, straight and simple rhythm of measures 21-27, and syncopated overlapping rhythm beginning at measure 29.

Simple Gifts

· Singing: 8.1.1 Sing accurately and with good breath control throughout their singing ranges, alone and in small and large groups.

· Singing: 8.1.3 Sing music representing diverse genres and cultures. (Shaker culture)

· Instrumental Performance: 8.2.4 Play by ear simple melodies on a melodic instrument and simple accompaniments on a harmonic instrument.

o Play pedal tones to accompany the melody before hearing the piece with the piano accompaniment. Use ear to determine when pitch/chord should change.

· Improvisation: 8.3.1 Improvise simple harmonic accompaniments.

o Add rhythm to accompaniment suggested above.

· Listening: 8.6.2 Know the uses of elements of music in the analysis of compositions representing diverse genres and cultures.

o Before reading the piece, play Copland’s original composition. Have students identify the form and musical elements.

I arranged these pieces in order of least to most difficult. Based on what I chose to do with each, I do think the difficulty does influence the choice of standards to use. It definitely seems to me that the more difficult a piece is, the more possibilities there are for it. My lists of things to do with each piece seemed to get longer as the pieces progressed in difficulty. This may mean I would have to begin to tackle hardest pieces first, which would probably be wisest anyway, just to make sure I am able to cover everything.

Article Summaries

Bringing General Music Techniques to the Instrumental Class
Vernon Burnsed and Pamela Fiocca
Music Educators Journal 1990; 76; 45
This article talks about using general music techniques when teaching your students in band. One technique they give is to use the Kodaly rhythm syllables with echoing to help students learn new and difficult rhythms in a piece. It also mentions that hand signs and solfege syllables are beneficial in the beginning instrumental classroom; they can help develop a sense of aural perception and greatly help with sight reading as well.

Teaching Ensembles to Compose and Improvise: Here are some practical ideas for incorporating the creative activities of composing and improvising into instrumental ensemble rehearsals
Maud Hickey
Music Educators Journal 1997; 83; 17
As the title tells, this article focuses on how to teach your ensembles (both beginning and more experienced) to compose. The easiest way to begin is when students are learning new notes, give them only a few notes (maybe 1, 3, 5) and have them write a piece with pre-drawn measures; then have them all play their pieces together. The same can be repeated with new rhythms that students are learning too. For more experience band members, the article mentions having them look at pieces they are working on, and finding patterns and tools that composers are using in them to help them gain ideas. This article also talks about taking an entire semester and working on an original piece composed from themes and ideas from the students. The students would then get the opportunity to play and premiere their piece for the audience either at the end of the semester or during the next semester. One other thing that this article mentions is that improvisation can be used every day in the instrumental classroom, even during scale warm-ups.

Team Teaching in the Secondary Instrumental Music Classroom
Craig Brenan and Randy Witte
Music Educators Journal 2003; 89; 31
This article dealt more with teaching at the same time as another teacher in the classroom. It mentions that in this situation more children with get closer attention. This is huge especially when the students are just learning to play their instruments. It talks about how to effectively split the workload, and what must be decided upon if sharing the room with another teacher.

Article Summaries--Teaching Instrumentalists

Playing Without Pain: Strategies for the Developing Instrumentalist—William J. Dawson

· Prevent problems before they start

· If you do notice a problem, get help for it.

· Allow the body to heal, and then fix the environment or technique that may have caused it in the first place.

o Work toward better posture and technique to correct problems

o Use what abilities to play that you have while recovering from pain or other injuries

o Adapt the environment to benefit instrumentalists

§ Better equipment (seat straps vs. neck straps, floor pegs vs. neck straps, harnesses vs. neck straps; chairs encouraging good posture)

Audiation for Beginning Instrumentalists: Listen, Speak, Read, Write

· To achieve music literacy, build music listening and speaking vocabularies.

o Learn without notation first, allowing students to focus on musical content.

· Encourage aural skills activities in early education, and then transfer those skills to playing instruments.

· Learn concepts by using contrasting concepts (use duple to teach triple, use other sounds to teach a specific sound).

· Singing should come before instrumental instruction.

· Use songs taught by rote in the band setting.

· Teaching patterns (tonal and rhythm) to help students understand structure by reinforcing “pieces” of the puzzle, similar to how sentences are built.

· Use pattern-reading to help develop improvisation skills through comprehension.

Woodwind Vibrato in the Band Class—Mark C. Ely

· 4 types of vibrato: diaphragmatic/abdominal, jaw, throat, lip

· 2 most common in woodwind players: diaphragmatic/abdominal, jaw

o Dependent on instrument

· Diaphragmatic/abdominal vibrato comes from varied wind pressure coming from the abdominal muscles.

o Common on flute and oboe, sometimes bassoon

· Jaw vibrato comes from a change in lip pressure against a reed—hard to distinguish between jaw and lip vibrato.

o Used on saxophone and clarinet in combination with lip vibrato.

· Throat vibrato created by tightening and relaxing the throat muscles.

o Creates more of a tremolo; not very pleasing to the ear.

· Lip vibrato produced by moving the lower lip.

o Nearly identical to jaw vibrato, but more difficult to control.

· Begin using vibrato before high school, perhaps in 5^th-6^th grade.

o Should have a good grasp on fundamental skills and good listening skills first.

· It is best to teach vibrato to certain skill levels and particular instrument groups because each section uses a different kind of vibrato, and all students may not be ready to learn vibrato.

· Vibrato is used to enhance musicality and tone quality, not detract from it.

Dawson, W. J. (2006). Playing without Pain: Strategies for the Developing Instrumentalist. Music Educators Journal , 36-41.

Ely, M. C. (1993). Woodwind Vibrato in the Band Class. Music Educators Journal , 29-33.

Liperote, K. A. (2006). Audiation for Beginning Instrumentalists: Listen, Speak, Read, Write. Music Educators Journal , 46-52.