Posted by jrt002
1. April 17th,
2009 11:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.
2. Today I
rehearsed the piece “The Blue and the Gray” with the high school
band.
3. Today Mr. Siegel
started off band rehearsal with four different warm up pieces from
their T.O.S. book. He conducted the warm ups today and the purpose
of this was to get the band to watch him while he was conducting. He
messed with a couple of things such as tempo and dynamics and if the
students did not follow him he would stop and start the piece over.
He also reminded the students of specific aspects of the music to be
aware of such as balance and suspensions in the music. The tubas
were talking when he was about to begin one of the warm ups and when
they missed their entrance because of their talking he stopped and
told them that they need to stop talking and focus on what they are
there to do. Mr. Siegel then tries to continue with the warm ups but
the students are not making a good entrance so he has them start the
piece and won't move until they have a good entrance that is
together. Mr. Siegel then goes on to tune the band and after the
entire group is tuned he tells that that he tuned one note on their
instruments now it is their job to make sure the other notes on the
instruments play in tune. Mr. Siegel then goes on to run the piece
“Inner Peace” and before starting he reminds his students that
they should play through the phrases, where they should breath, and
that if they have to breath before then that they should make sure
they are not breathing while the person sitting next to them is. The
flutes are out of tune when they start the piece so he tunes the
flute by tuning two of the players with a tuner and then has the rest
of the group listen to the correct pitch and make the proper
adjustments. After playing a small part of the piece Mr. Siegel
stops the piece and compliments the students by telling them they are
playing the song with a lot of musicality and it is not boring at
all. While Mr. Siegel is conducting the band he talks to the group
about specific things such as watching him while he conducts. When
he hears that certain areas of the band are out of tune Mr. Siegel
tells them to listen to their intonation and the students adjust.
There are also a couple of students that have bad posture while they
are playing so Mr. Siegel points them out and tells them that they
are better musicians than that and that all of the band should be
conscious of something as simple but important as posture while they
are playing. Mr. Siegel also makes a lot of eye contact with the
band while conducting so that the students are also watching him
while they are playing.
4. Mr. Siegel has a
very good presence over his band while rehearsing and because of this
his students make a lot of fixes when he tells them to. He teaches a
lot during his rehearsal too which I feel is important because the
students keep their focus because they are given information between
playing which is really affective at making the students listening.
I think that Mr. Siegel did a very good job disciplining his members
too when they were not doing what was expected of them. The
disciplining that he does helps the students to be more professional
while they are in rehearsal which means they will most likely treat
their concert with professionalism. Mr. Siegel also shows a lot of
confidence to the students while conducting and it is very obvious
that he knows what he is talking about with his students especially
when he tunes sections through rehearsal because he hears them go out
of tune. I found it useful when he would give the students direction
while conducting the piece because although they are focused on
playing the hear what he asks of them and does not have to stop
rehearsal in order to fix these minor issues. I also think that Mr.
Siegel made a good effort to compliment the band when ever possible
because it was visible that the students felt better about themselves
when he told them that were playing something right.
5. Do students
learn aural training in a situation such as band where they are
playing an instrument or do they have to be taught about intonation
in order to realize they are playing out of tune?
6. I feel that I
learned in this class that sometimes the best way to address issues
in the band setting is to be vocal while the group is playing. This
method keeps the students attention without slowing the pace of
rehearsal and has instant results with the students. It is obvious
that the students do get frustrated and sometimes restless when they
are constantly stopping and starting on a piece of music. High
School students have many different personalities and depending on
the day one particular student may be a completely different person
when it comes to doing work. The students do not always want to
focus on what is happening in the class room so by addressing them
while still playing the students are forced to focus because the
teacher is where their attention already is. I feel that
disciplining the students in front of the entire class really tends
to work very well because the students don't always like being
embarrassed in front of their peers and for some of their students
this is very embarrassing. At the same time there is a problem with
students who like to be the class clown type because they like the
attention that they get when they are called out and so in order to
fix this problem the teacher really has to be stern with them and
show them that they are not kidding.
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Posted by jrt002
1. April 24th,
2009 11:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.
2.Today I rehearsed
the piece “The Blue and the Gray” with the high school band. I
focused mostly on articulation and style of the piece today in class
and worked on the “Aura Lee” section of the piece. The students
were used to me being in front of them by this point of the semester
and worked with me very well. The band was smaller today because
about half of the band is also in Orchestra and today was Orchestra
day for those students.
3. Mr. Siegel
started class today by giving the students about five minutes to come
into the room, get their instruments and warm up a little bit
themselves. When the students were coming into the room he stood at
the door of the band room and the instrument closet where he could
see the hallway, the band room and the instrument closet to make sure
the students were not playing around when they should be getting
ready for class. Once the students were all in their seats Mr.
Siegel got up on the podium and began to warm the group up. He did
not have to say anything to the band to get them to stop playing
because they saw that he was ready to start class. The band warmed
up on four different pieces out of their T.O.S. book. After playing
the first piece which was in F major Mr. Siegel told the students
that they had thirty seconds to figure out “My Country 'tis of
Thee” on their instruments in the key of Bb major. After about
thirty seconds he cut the band off and then told them what note they
started on using sol feg syllables. Once the band got started
instead of conducting Mr. Siegel gave the sol feg hand signs for the
notes. Mr. Siegel did the same thing after the next two pieces out
of the warm up books which were in the keys of Eb Major and F major.
While working on the warm up pieces Mr. Siegel discussed balance
issues that the band was having and then had the band play the piece
over again. When playing #75 out of the book Mr. Siegel explained
the whole concept of suspensions to the group and told them to listen
for them and bring them out so they are noticeable to the listener.
This applied to the piece “Inner Peace” that the group was
playing because it is a choral type piece that has a lot of
suspensions in the music. Mr. Siegel also explained to the band how
they moved through the chord progression of I-IV-V-I in their warm up
which is a common chord progression in music. When the band played
one last choral from the book which was in the key of Bb he told the
students they are now back to Do. Once the students established the
key of Bb major in their heads Mr. Siegel had the band tune starting
at the lower voices of the band and moving up to the higher voices
when he told them to. Mr. Siegel then went on to run the piece
“Renascence” and while he ran through the piece he would
occasionally stop when the students weren't playing parts right and
he would either tell them what he wanted or tell the students that he
had gone over what he wanted there and they should know how to play
it. If they played it right without him telling them what he wanted
then he move on but if they didn't then he would remind them of what
he wanted. He would also occasionally stop the group when he really
liked what they were doing to reinforce how he wants them to play the
music. There were also parts of the piece in which students played
it right but were hesitant in their playing so he would tell them
that they played it right and to be confident in their playing
because it sounds good. He also reminded students of things in the
music such as supporting the phrases they are playing and playing
confidently through the transitions of the music. He also made a
point to compliment the French horn player on his solo when he played
it very well.
4. I like how Mr.
Siegel give the students a couple of minutes to get their instruments
after the bell rang because realistically the students do not have
enough time between class and getting to the band room to get to
their chairs and warm up on their own. If he tried to start class
right at the bell then he would probably not have a good amount of
the students attention because they would still be coming into the
room and getting their instruments. Not only would they be ignoring
Mr. Siegel they would be rushing with their expensive instruments in
their hands which could potentially be a bad thing. I like how Mr.
Siegel used the rehearsal situation to both introduce music theory
for the students who know a little amount of theory and apply it and
terms for the students who have studied it before. Setting the band
up in the key of Bb was a really good idea that I believe worked
because the piece that the band played after the warm up is in the
key of Bb so the students had the sound of the key in their heads
before they even started the piece. Mr. Siegel uses a lot of
encouragement and compliments the group a lot during the rehearsal
which is beneficial because it reinforced what the students were
doing right. Being critical of what the students were playing seemed
very successful also because the students were then critical of their
own playing and corrected their problems very fast.
5. When critiquing
the ensembles performance should the band director make sure there is
an equal amount of encouragement so that the students do not get
discouraged or will the students take the information being presented
to them and try to improve to make themselves better musicians?
6. I feel that
teaching during a band rehearsal is a very effective way to educate
the students and reinforce their former knowledge because the
students are already engaged in what they are doing and have the
focus of the teacher already. The students who do not have the drive
to take these music theory classes that are offered are also
presented enough knowledge about music to improve on their playing
and it helps build their aural skills. I learned from this that
there are a number of good ways to present this information to the
students without boring them with it and to also get them excited
about a subject they might otherwise feel is not useful. After
rehearsal the students who have not taken these types of classes
before came to Mr. Siegel with questions about what he taught them
and also with an interest to take the classes in the future. I
really like that Mr. Siegel treats his band class as a class in which
the students do build their musical knowledge and find it interesting
because he delivers the information in an interesting way.
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Posted by jrt002
1.April 3rd,
2009 11:30 a.m. -12:30 p.m.
2. Today I
rehearsed different sections of “The Blue and the Gray” to the
Manheim Township High School band. I picked apart different parts of
the music and worked on things such as balance, articulation,
dynamics, entrances and phrasing. I wanted certain notes to be
played a specific way and to do this I would explain them to the
students and also sing how I wanted it to sound so that the students
could have an example. I used musical terms with dynamics by telling
the student that I wanted certain parts forte while the other parts
play piano or I asked the students for crescendos and decrescendos in
certain places in certain instrument parts.
3. Today during
rehearsal Mr. Siegel followed his rehearsal plan which was written on
the board for the students to see. They started their rehearsal with
three different chorals in their warm up book. Today he wanted his
students to focus mostly on intonation while they were playing. He
also emphasized good posture while playing. To reinforce posture he
would give the students pencils during rehearsal while they were
playing. He stopped the band a couple of times to make an example
and would throw the student the pencil which excited the students a
little bit which was needed because the students were visibly very
tired and did not want to be in class. While the band was playing he
would talk to his students and have them improve things such as
intonation without stopping the band from playing. The first piece
that the band played was “Rolling Thunder” and before they
started the piece he reminded the students that he wants an
aggressive sound from the band because that is what is characteristic
of this type of music. He stopped the band during the piece to fix
balance problems because he was getting a lot from certain sections.
Most of the balance problems were something such as the first and
second parts of sections weren't coming through equally. He also
stopped the group a couple of times to explain how the group was
playing it and how he wanted them to play it instead. The last piece
that the band played was “Inner Peace” which is a chorale type
piece. Mr. Siegel conducts this piece without a baton and tell the
students to watch him because he is going to stretch out certain
beats. Before running through the piece he goes over a couple of
announcements while he has the students attention so that they will
listen to him. He also tells the students that while playing this
they should be conscious of musicality and try to be musical with the
piece.
4. I feel that the
warm up is a very important part of rehearsal because it sets a tone
to the students of how rehearsal is going to be ran. He was very
demanding of the students but not to the point where it is outside of
their ability. He also had a couple of goals for the students from
that rehearsal which is good because it gives the students something
to focus on without having too much to think about during class. I
feel that the pencils were a good idea for the students also because
it caught their attention and got them interested in what they were
doing especially for a day that they lacked focus. I do not know if
I would throw the pencils to the students though because although it
did get their attention it did create a little bit of chaos and one
of the students might have gotten hurt also if they weren't paying
attention and accidentally got hit by one. It could also potentially
create chaos among the students which would not be good because he
could lose control of his class room. Reminding the students of what
is expected from them before beginning is a really good idea also
because it helps to decrease the chance that he will have to stop the
piece and remind them then. I wonder though if the students are
going to get so use to this that he is going to have to remind them
at the concert to do these things or if the students are going to
remember these things or write them in on their music. I like how he
made announcements about upcoming events to the students before the
end of rehearsal because after the last piece the students know it is
time to leave and they do not want to pay attention and listen to
their teacher. For the run through that they do Mr. Siegel once
again reminds the students of what he expects from the which is very
effective in rehearsal because the students listen very well.
5. Will students
get so used to being told how certain pieces are played that they
rely on it or will they learn from these reminders that they should
play the music that certain way before the concert?
6. I feel that this
rehearsal was ran a lot differently than most of the other rehearsals
that I have observed during the semester and the main reason why is
because the students were in a completely different mind set than
they usually are. I did learn from this that you have to be a very
flexible person when you are a teacher. Although you always have the
same students through out the year for the most part they are not
always the same people. Little tricks are always helpful because as
a teacher you can never tell what type of mood the students are going
to be in. I feel that the little things such as the pencils do help
because although the students probably don't really care too much
about a pencil they feel left out. To change that the students will
do their best to give what is asked of them to get what they do not
have.
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Posted by jrt002
1. March 27, 2009
11:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m.
2.Today I ran a
rehearsal of the high school band. I rehearsed the piece “The Blue
and the Gray.” The band was very responsive of everything that I
did and asked of them which helped a lot when it came to working with
them. I planned out the rehearsal by section and picked out certain
parts that I wanted to work on and had an idea of how I wanted the
different sections to sound.
3. I observed Mr.
Siegel warm the band up today. He warmed them up by having them play
a few chorals out of their choral book. After warming the band up
Mr. Siegel introduced me and told the band that they were to treat me
as if I was their teacher. I rehearsed the group and afterwards Mr.
Siegel recorded two of the bands pieces so that they can go back and
listen to themselves to see how much they have improved and how much
they need to improve.
4.I think that as my
first time in front of a high school band I did an extremely good
job. I was worried up until the time that I got up on the podium
that I would not come across like I knew what I was doing. Being up
there in front of about a hundred students was not as intimidating as
I thought it would be though. The students for the most part
listened to what I asked of them and when they didn't I had them go
back and do the parts over again after reminding them of what I was
looking for. After class I talked to Mr. Siegel about how things
went for my first time. He told me that he thought I did a very good
job with the students and seemed very confident on the podium. He
also told me that a couple of the students made comments to him about
how I did not seem nervous at all. Mr. Siegel did tell me what I
should do for the next time I came down and pick apart the different
voice parts of the piece to listen for specific things and improve
the sound that way. As far as Mr. Siegel's part of class that he
taught I felt that a lot of what he was doing was a lot of what we
were taught to do here at LVC. He warmed up the band with their
choral books but instead of just having them warm up he used the
music to educate the band. He taught specific things such as how to
listen for and fix intonation while playing and he also got the band
to play with musicality using good dynamics, articulation, and having
clean entrances. I also like how Mr. Siegel told his students to
treat me professionally and as if I were there teacher because they
did listen to him and they listened well. The recordings that Mr.
Siegel made are a really good idea too because it allows the students
to hear themselves and critique their own playing to prepare for the
concert. I think this is a really effective technique because I find
that it is a lot easier to critique music when it is being listened
to compared to when it is being played.
5. Am I effectively
showing my students what I ask of them and what can I do to improve
how I tell the students what I want from them?
6. I learned from
this experience that not all high school students are as well of
listeners as this band is. From past experience with high school
students I have learned that they do not always want to listen to the
person in charge even if it is the teacher. Talking to Mr. Siegel
helped me the most I feel though because we discussed rehearsal
techniques and ways to keep students attention. I was told that I
kept a good pace of my rehearsal with the students, but sometimes
students need a different pace during class depending on the day and
the mood that they are in. I feel that that is one of the most
important things I learned because I could tell occasionally when I
was moving a little too fast for the students when explaining what I
wanted and I had to slow down and simplify my explanation.
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Posted by jrt002
1.April 20th,
2009 11:30 a.m.-12:15 p.m.
2. Today I observed
the high school band rehearse.
3. Mr. Siegel
started off rehearsal by allowing the students a couple of minutes to
get their instruments and get seated. While the students were doing
this he was standing at the door of the instrument closet to make
sure the students were not playing around while in the closet. Once
most of the students were in their seats he got in front of the band
and stopped the students from playing by waving his hand as if
cutting off the band. He started off the rehearsal by going over his
plan for the day which was written on the board of the room. He then
went to the three warm-up chorals that the band plays every rehearsal
in order to warm up. During these warm-ups Mr. Siegel reminds the
group of what they should be paying attention to while playing such
as intonation, dynamics, and the conductor for tempo changes. Mr.
Siegel messes with the tempo and dynamics of the pieces while they
are warming up also so that the group gets use to actually paying
attention to the director. Mr. Siegel next tuned the band starting
in the tubas and having the students come in when he cued them and
tune by ear. He then moved on to work on the piece “Lord of the
Rings” from the movie. With this song Mr. Siegel had planned out
specific parts of the music that he wanted to work on and went to
those spots first. He would single out a certain part or line in the
music and explain how he wanted it done. If the students fixed it
the first time he wanted it then he would move on to the next part.
If the students didn't do what he wanted of them then he would
explain it differently and have them play it until they had it right.
Once he fixed the parts that he had planned on Mr. Siegel then ran
the whole piece and reminded the band of all the things that he
wanted them to be conscious of while they were playing. Mr. Siegel
then moved on to the next part and had his students run the piece
“The Blue and the Gray” so that I could hear the piece since this
is the piece that I am going to be working with during the rest of
the semester. After running the piece which is about twelve minutes
long Mr. Siegel recorded two of the pieces that the band is playing
for the concert. These pieces were “Three Chorales for Band” and
“Renascence.” The point of making these recordings were so that
the band could listen to how much progress they have made with these
pieces and also what else they had to do before the concert in order
to make these pieces concert ready. Mr. Siegel then ended rehearsal
by making announcements about events that are coming up for the band
and what he wanted his students to do before the next band rehearsal.
Mr. Siegel then dismissed the band and told them to make sure they
put everything back where it belonged and to have a good weekend.
4. The rehearsal of
the band was very organized and I feel benefited the students by
being focused and not wasting any time. A good planned rehearsal is
always the best way to keep high school students focused and the pace
of the class was fast enough that the students didn't have time to
lose focus. Starting the practice out with something slow and not
too technical allowed the students to focus on musicality without
having to worry about notes. The way he reminded the students about
what they learned helped the students apply musicality to the music
they are playing for their concert. The order of his rehearsal was
very contrasting also to keep the students attention. The band
started with calm slower music and then played something that was
more up tempo. I also feel that while this rehearsal was very
productive in working on several parts of the one piece he did not
try to work on too many pieces which would probably lose the students
attention. Recording the band to let the students hear what they
actually sound like is an idea I like a lot because while listening
to music it is a lot easier to hear what sounds good and what doesn't
compared to listening for those things while playing. The students
also got a chance to develop their listening skills also though
because he reminded them before each piece what they needed to listen
for and what they were already doing well. There was plenty of
reassuring to the students and also a lot of criticism that was
needed in order to help the band improve their sound.
5. Do the students
actually benefit from listening to their recordings or do high school
students lose interest while listening to themselves?
6. I feel that I
learned a lot about how to effectively rehearse a group and I saw
things that are both affective and things that the students do not
grasp as easily. I also learned about how it takes some more
motivation for certain students than it does for others because not
all students want to be there as much as some. I feel that the
rehearsal was ran great and Mr. Siegel did a great job keeping the
students on track. A lot of the ideas that he used were similar to
what is taught to us at Lebanon Valley College which helped show what
we are learning in class actually works and how these strategies
help.
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