Advocacy

There is a growing excitement and interest in music among our students, and I think that we have all seen a noticeable change in musical involvement among our community. Our High School Pep-Band (open to students and community members) has become a great success and draws quite a crowd to our many sporting events. Our general ‘community spirit’ has been enriched over the past few years, and I believe it is a direct result of our increase in ‘school spirit’. I also believe that our music program has played an integral role in this process. Parents love to see their children excited about what they are learning in school, and music has been a key area in exciting parents to become more involved in their children’s futures.

Music has great value to all of the students that are involved with it in any way. Every day in my band room, I watch my students growing and changing for the better. They are excited to learn and be challenged. Music offers many students a type of learning that they can’t find in their standard classroom setting. Music also allows great opportunities for success. There are many ‘correct’ answers in the study of music, and each student is encouraged to approach the subject in their own unique way. Music encourages abstract thinking, problem solving, self-confidence, and teamwork.

It is in my interest, and the interest of our entire community to protect and advocate for the music programs in our schools.

Thank You,

Adam Craw

Tone

Tone is made up of a few different elements. First of all, timbre. The instrumentation in your ensemble will affect your overall tone. I think that this concept is often overlooked. This normally shouldn't limit what you can play, but some arranging may be necessary. A certain collection of instruments may not sound the same in a low register or up in their high range.
Another element to tone has to do with color and light. Terms we use to describe these concepts are bright, dark, mellow, bold, heavy, light, and sometimes actual colors can help a group to envision their sound. Physically, these concepts have to do with air speed, breath support, embouchure and other factors, but I think that generally saying something like, "let's try for a warmer sound at the B section" might be enough to actually get that sound from your ensemble.
Intonation is another element that is not separate from tone. If a band has a unified tone but does not play in tune, no one will hear their beautiful sound. Intonation is another issue that be literally be addressed, but I prefer to train students to listen and tune on their own, instead of me doing it for them each day. If they can learn to use their ear independently, they will begin to listen to others in the group and will become more conscious of blend and intonation. If they can begin to do this on their own, they are straight on a path to becoming great musicians!

High School Jazz Band on April 5th @ 7:30 am

Kelly's Jazz Band was an awesome little group of kids. They were all talented and committed musicians. Of course they would probably have to be to get up that early every day and play music. He started the class with a 12 bar blues in Bb that went on for quite some time. After a few minutes, Kelly would solo on his trumpet for a few bars and kick of a solo domino effect. Every student went in turn and played a 12 bar improvised solo. It was great to hear each different style and to see the kids really going for it. Some of them were really good!
Kelly told me that this warm-up was one of his most effective teaching tools. He said that some of the kids couldn't play a note of a solo at the start of the year, but they all seemed like pros to me. The rhythm section was having a little bit of trouble with intonation (bass and guitar). The two drummers were very talented and not afraid to try new rhythms. The piano player seemed on top of things as well. The trumpet section was strong and needed to be remind of balance from time to time.
Kelly's style of classroom management really seems to work with high school aged kids. He always uses his sort of 'dry' humor but never hesitates to get serious quickly if he needs to. There is room for conversation in this early morning band, but he always keeps them moving to the next piece of music so that they don't waste too much time. Overall, it was a great experience, and it makes me wish that I had an opportunity in my High School to be in such a cool jazz group.

Irving 5th Grade Orchestra on April 11th @ 8:45 am

Chandra-Lynn was an incredible teacher, especially for this age group. The students were very disciplined and well behaved. Their posture was nearly perfect! There was virtually no talking or goofing off throughout the entire observation. Not only were they behaving, they were attentive. they seemed to be glued on the teachers every word of instruction. The teacher was able to expertly keep the kids on task while not ever really losing their attention and energy.
The warm-up was a D major scale with an emphasis on tempo. The teacher would slow down and speed up while the students struggled to stay with her. She also used little catch phrases to help teach different rhythms. They had a quite a bit of trouble, but she used this time to teach them the role of the conductor and how important it is to follow them. Her conducting was very simple, clear, and effective for the level that these students were at musically.
The teacher used just the right amount of humor and it worked well for the kids. She was also very good at playing the role of a mother figure. At one point, she completely stopped the class and gave them a mini lecture on how they needed to bring their instruments and music in order for the group to be successful. The students promised to do better and seemed very upset to have let their teacher down. I was very impressed with this class.

Irving 5th Grade Band on April 4th @ 8:45 am

Mrs. Murphy was a singer but never played an instrument. She had some great ideas for classroom management, but sometimes the class would get out of control. She allowed them to talk but still maintained control of their energy. There were quite a few difficulties in the classroom that I saw during this observation. The kids seemed to get quite a bit more noisy and rowdy as the class went on. The teacher had a lot of patience, but there was also a lot of time wasted trying to keep the kids on task.

Another problem that I'm sure is very common to a beginning group was following the conductor. Tempo seemed to be a difficult concept for many of the students. The percussion section seemed to be the most ahead or behind the beat. This would be a tough situation to deal with because if your percussion is off, it's harder for the band to stay together. I would have love to take those drummers out for a sectional and get them straightened out. They were having trouble with simple eighth notes and were playing them as flams. I felt like the percussion section was basically used to being neglected.

The instrumentation was pretty balanced. Two oboes! That would be nice to start with! There was one girl on trumpet, but the rest of the girls were all on flutes, clarinets, and oboes. All the brass, saxes, and percussion were boys. It was interesting to see these stereotypes actually play out in the real world. Overall, I could see that beginning band is a ton of hard work. It would be very difficult for me to stay sane in a group of this caliber and age level. I felt like the teacher did a great job and I think that many of her students will leave her classroom with a love and excitement for music.

High School Orchestra Observation (Mar. 22nd @ 1:45)

This was my first exposure to a high school orchestra. Mike Certalic seemed pretty laid back, but he definitely managed his class room well. From what I observed, he seemed well-liked.

He had a great book of classical warm-ups. I liked how he varied each warm-up from the way it was presented in the book. He would have the students play with many different bowing techniques as well as having them change the direction of their bowing in patterns (2, 3, 4, 6). This was a great way for them to practice technique while also learning to be musical. It was definitely 'killing a couple of birds' with one warm-up.

One thing that I noticed was there were a lot of students (especially in the back) that were not playing with any enthusiasm and had incredibly poor posture. Some students weren't even playing at all for minutes at a time. I never noticed that he addressed this issue at all, but maybe he is fully aware and just has to pick his battles. Overall, I enjoyed the orchestra and would be excited to teach one of my own in the future!

High School Band Observation (Mar. 8th @ 1:45)

This was a fun one! We basically had the entire period to ourselves for warm-ups. There were three of us. Me, Jeph, and Shanna-Lee. I started with a Bb scale, but I wanted to try something a little bit more outside the box. We talked about the 'sound pyramid' and discussed issues that we might have with balance.

I had three 4-note parts written on the board for everyone to see. I divided the class up by where they fit in the sound pyramid; bass, alto/tenor, and suprano. When the groups played their parts separately it was quite simple sounding and boring to play. I had them all play together and try to think about how their part should be balanced with the other parts. As they all played together with this common goal it sounded wonderful! I, IV, V, I...I really think that it was effective and hope that the kids enjoyed it!