by Mahaliah Edwards

The 2016 film Hidden Figures was a huge success, both at the box office and in making us aware of the African American women who were instrumental in NASA’s 1962 mission to put John Glenn into orbit. We’ve all heard of Scott Joplin but there were and are several classical composers of colour who have seemingly been forgotten through the ages. Here are just a few of the many hidden figures in classical music past and present. Have you heard of these musicians, virtuosi, and composers before?

The 18th century saw many composers of African descent flourish, despite being born mostly into slavery or lowly conditions.

Ignatius Sancho (1729-1780), was not only a composer but was also an actor and gained significant fame as a writer.

Joseph Bologne, Le Chevalier de Saint-Georges (1745-1799). The son of a wealthy planter and his slave, Joseph Bologne was a conductor, composer and virtuoso violinist. He was a dedicatee of several works by prominent composers such as Carl Stamitz and Gossec. As a composer, he had a varied volume of works from the popular opera comiques to many vocal works, from 14 violin concerti to symphonies and chamber works.

Joseph Antonio Emidy (1775-1835). Born in West Africa and sold into slavery as a child, Emidy began playing the violin under the support of his master. Not long after learning the violin, he won a position in the second violin section of the Lisbon Opera orchestra. Unfortunately, after his fortunes in Lisbon, during the Napoleonic wars he spent some years on ship as a fiddler. Emidy eventually settled in Cornwall, England, becoming a music teacher and leader of the Truro Philharmonic Orchestra.

George Bridgetower (1778-1860). The son of a servant of the Hungarian Prince Esterházy, George Bridgetower was something of a child prodigy and by the age of 10 had moved to London to perform on the stages there. Did you know that Beethoven had originally dedicated his violin sonata No. 9 to Bridgetower? The two fell out over a lady and Beethoven rededicated the sonata to Kreutzer, which is why we all know it as the Kreutzer Sonata.

Fast forward to the late 19th/early 20th century and we have Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (1875-1912) who was hailed as the “African Mahler”. He was a composer and conductor who studied with Charles Villiers Stanford at the Royal College of Music in London. He composed a stunning Violin Concerto in G minor and you can find Tasmin Little’s recording of it online. He also compiled 24 Negro Melodies in 1905, including Deep River, performed here by Jascha Heifetz. His daughter Avril Coleridge-Taylor followed in his footsteps and became a composer herself.

For more modern composers we have the likes of Julius Eastman (1940-1990) who was a composer, pianist and vocalist from New York. He graduated from the Curtis Institute and had a career making music particularly in the minimalist style. As a vocalist he became noted for his recording of Nonesuch by Peter Maxwell Davies.

Segun Akinola is a composer who graduated with first-class honours from the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire. I first came across his music when watching a BBC Docu-series “Black and British: A Forgotten History.” I discovered that he composed the apposite score for the documentary and have been following him since. Segun is a BAFTA Breakthrough Brit. Check out his sound cloud to hear some of his material: https://soundcloud.com/segunakinola

Fun Fact: Did you know..?

Coretta Scott King won a scholarship to study at the New England Conservatory in Boston.

By Julie Lyonn Lieberman, Artistic Director, Strings Without Boundaries.

Brought to you by the new Ascentè Violin Strings

Young students’ brains struggle to organize a relatively blank mental canvas to master and record a number of complex processes. Meanwhile, musical components like tone and dynamics often take a back seat to these core essentials.

Researchers define the brain’s ability to learn as limited to a specific number of units of attention. For instance, the conscious brain can only process 15 - 50 bits / second whereas the sensory system can process 11 million bits / second. That’s a ratio of 1 to 200,000 and explains why kinesthetically oriented tools that help maintain form in each hand are so successful.

Brain research also states that it takes three hours of repetition for the motor cortex to lock in a new movement pattern and two new patterns learned simultaneously can dilute this process and add minutes and even hours, weeks, or months to each undertaking.

Let’s look at our opening statement more closely in this context. Classroom learning encourages children to turn off sensory feedback and think in a left-brain, linear, sequential modality. During a music lesson, the child must switch cognitive processes in order to receive sufficient sensory feedback required to maintain correct form while simultaneously juggling tuning issues, sense memory, and the translation of symbols on a page into muscle moves. Even a straightforward task, like mastering a G major scale, demands right-brain thinking (mapping spatial relationships) and auditory memory (locking in the sound of the scale), as both motor cortices pump extremely different streams of information to the right and left hands. All this while trying to retain new rhythmic information. Most pedagogical systems, even before we understood the workings of the brain to the extent we now do, have wisely built skills in step-by-step single-focus routines to accommodate these complex processes.

Unfortunately, if tone and dynamics are left out of the early learning picture, they can tend to be ignored or added as peripheral and often mechanical skill later on. Those of you who’ve served as judges in your state juries know how we want to jump up and dance and break out the champagne when, after hearing a dozen-plus kids play the same scale, arpeggio and piece of music, one of them actually plays musically rather than just physically correctly.

Here are some fun approaches to tone and dynamics that won’t tax your student’s brains even further.

Photograph by Carey Weiss

Tone

Aside from the obvious — good form in the bow hand coupled with controlled bow motion across the strings—students have no preexisting criteria to compare or even understand the difference between a coarse or nasal sound versus a pleasing one. The shortage of decent-sounding fractional-sized instruments compounds this problem. And, as stated above, students are often too fixed on brain-to-muscle response and pitch to contend with such a complex issue.

There are several approaches you can use to help students focus on tone:

Use Gear. A microphone or a solid-body (electric) violin coupled with a mixer or preamp and an amp can come in handy to assist them. In all three cases, these components offer knobs that can control the amount of bass, mid-range, and treble that cooperatively generate the final tone coming through the amp. Nowadays, this equipment isn’t too expensive or can be bought used on Ebay. To learn more about these pieces of equipment, you can read "Get the Best Tone on Your Electric" on my NS Design blog “Lyonn’s Roar.” This issue includes an interview with D’Addario’s Fan Tao about how to choose strings. It can be a fun game for your students since they live in a world of technology. Invite volunteers to adjust the knobs and turn this exercise into a guessing game: Did Talitha boost the treble or the bass? How much does Sam need to turn up the midrange—2:00? 5:00? 9:45?—before it sounds too bright? What adjectives would the class use to describe the different sounds they hear?

Use Recordings. If you don’t have a budget to buy this equipment, try compiling snippets from various recordings of the same piece of music and invite them to describe the difference in tone between five cellists, violists, or violinists. Or play the same piece of music (preferably one they are presently learning) on several different instruments and ask them to describe the difference between the instruments.

Use Strings. Of course, the right set of strings can elevate a substandard instrument considerably. If your program can’t afford full sets of strings to use for ear training, try buying A strings from three or four different companies so that students can hear the difference on the same instrument. You might throw an old, dead string into the mix. This exercise provides an opportunity to teach them adjectives like shrill, nasal, bright, dark—or whatever other words you would like them to link to sound production—but you can also elicit descriptive words that include colors, feelings, and any other categories you can think of in addition.

Dynamics

We rely on markings on a page to convey the complex range of emotions a more advanced artist is able to incorporate into his or her performance. The range from pianissimo to double forte all too often doesn’t translate into expressive performance, so many string players never make that leap as they mature. Their dynamics sound correct but slightly mechanical.

I began to incorporate the use of imagery in the early 1980s while working on my book, You Are Your Instrument, to help alter mind-to-muscle response as a tool for dealing with unwanted side-effects from the chemistry of nervousness. I was delighted to discover a surprise benefit: greater expressiveness on the part of workshop participants in sessions nationwide. Images can be restricted to the five senses or extend beyond. As a warm-up, challenge students to play a simple phrase or open strings while seeing a specific color in their mind’s eye, smelling a particular scent, pretending they are standing in a pool of cold or hot water, walking in the rain, or any other range of images you care to experiment with.

Then you can experiment with images for either hand:

Imagine your right hand is a piece of flexible rubber

Pretend your left-hand fingers are bouncing on a trampoline

Envision standing barefoot in warm mud while the hair on your head reaches straight up to touch the sky

And so on. Once your students are warmed up, you can invite them to play a piece of music with images embedded into certain phrases. For instance:

Make measure 2 sound like a flock of birds taking off in flight

Start measure 4 as if it’s a train that’s coming around the bend and as you approach the end of the measure, the train will arrive and then head off into the distance

Make the final four measures sound like you can’t wait to get to the playground, etc.

Invite your students to invent images they think appropriate to certain phrases in whatever songs you’re currently rehearsing. You can also invite a number of volunteers to play the piece solo while focused on an image of his or her choosing and see if the class can guess correctly. For instance, a student might choose to focus on tasting lemon while playing, and, based on the experiments I’ve run, you’ll be delighted to find that many students will guess “tart,” “tangy,” “lime,” and other taste sensations that are very close to lemon.

Brought to you by the new Ascentè Violin Strings

When a student is excelling beyond their peers, what can you do to keep them engaged in class? How do you build on that performance? Part of being a teacher is pushing students in new directions at the right time. Here's what the D'Addario team of educators has to say:

Scott Laird

North Carolina School for Science and Mathematics

It is so important to keep all of your students, especially those starting to excel, engaged at all times. Here are a couple of tips for offering those students extra challenges and responsibility.

Make them your official “part demonstrator.” When it comes time to demonstrate a passage, use them. Even work with them ahead of time to learn other parts in the ensemble rather than just their own. Then, if you want to demonstrate Violin I, they can play Violin II and vice versa. Extra responsibility is always a great motivator!

For that matter, why not teach them how to read other clefs (alto & bass clef) on the violin? Then, they can stay engaged by playing other parts in the orchestra and really learn the functionality of each instrument’s voice. It is amazing what kids can do when given the challenge!

Daryl Silberman

Primo Orchestra Director of Elgin Youth Symphony Orchestra

So, you have an advanced player in your beginning strings class - what to do, what to do! Of course, you may have thought of some of the obvious teaching 'tricks' of the trade:

Show them the information about your local youth symphonies, private teachers, music theory classes and piano/guitar teachers.

Have that student switch to another instrument (violin players can learn viola, cellists can learn bass, upper strings can learn bass or cello and visa versa! We can always use more basses, right?).

Give them a part with shifting fingerings rather than staying in 1st position (have them play all in 3rd position, all in 2nd position, etc...)

Make them an 'assistant director' and have them conduct and/or rotate their seating daily so that they with with the newer learners.

But here are a few other tips you might not have tried yet:

Have that student become the class historian - he/she takes pictures and video during the concert cycle creating a 'visual' record of the concert cycle, keeps a document of the rehearsal process for the concert cycle to go along with the video and pictures, and gathers information for the class on the composer and history of the pieces they are playing.

Using your advanced student, design a warmup protocol that this student 'leads' the class with for the first few weeks, then share the leadership responsibility by having others run the warmup routine with your advanced student 'helping' from within the orchestra.

Share some of your teaching strategies with this student, like working with a student teacher, and sometimes instead of you teaching a concept or new skill, train this student to teach his/her peers.

If the student is physically big enough, write a grant and get an electric instrument (these are full sized) and treat this student to some 'solo' time. There are many contemporary and classical pieces that lend themselves easily to a solo that is gently amplified.

Christian Howes

Creative Strings Academy

I am a proponent of encouraging students to improvise, compose, or arrange music from the moment they begin playing.

While a major focus of practicing is related to learning or internalizing skills on the instrument, students can also use some of their practice time to create original music, regardless of their technical proficiency. Here are some ways to make it easy for them to do so:

Prescribe clear parameters related to feelings, techniques, musical elements, or "other". For example, "improvise using full bows" (technical), make something up that's very slow (musical), "play something that feels sad" (feelings), or "play anything you want inspired by the concept of a triangle" (other).

Make sure not to give the student parameters outside of their realm of skills/knowledge. In other words, if they don't already know the D major scale, don't ask them to play in the key of D Major. If they know 4 notes in the D major scale very well, you can encourage them to improvise using only these four notes.

by Audrey Williams

I recently had the daunting experience of buying another cello. The one that I’d been playing on since 9th grade suffered a fatal sound post crack last year, and unfortunately had to be retired. My first cello held such sentimental value for me since my parents went through a lot to get it. They wanted me to have a nice instrument to play on when my high school symphonic orchestra took a trip to New York City to perform at Carnegie Hall.

Before deciding to buy a new cello, I first had to determine if it was worth it to get my sound post crack fixed. I took it over to a popular luthier in town named Stephanie Voss to get an assessment. Her assistant informed me that the after-rehab value of my cello wouldn’t be worth the thousands of dollars it would take to get the crack properly repaired, especially since one of its previous owners had nailed a dowel into the neck block as part of a previous repair. Since the neck block couldn’t be adjusted due to the dowel locking it in place, my strings were always too high off the fingerboard in thumb position the closer I got towards the bridge. Stephanie could only shave my bridge down so far before my strings would then lay flat against the fingerboard in first position. That issue alone would have had a negative impact on the resale value if the sound post crack hadn’t already devalued it to something close to scrap wood.

With all of the additional challenges that my cello was facing, we all came to the conclusion that it would be best for me to invest in a new cello. That’s when I got help from an excellent cellist with the Atlanta Symphony who was coaching me at the time. She referred me to her friends at Ronald Sachs Violin Shop who gently held my hands through this difficult process. Since I was looking for a high end concert cello sound on a tight budget, they directed me to the Jay Haide and Frank Ivantie models. The Violin Shop was gracious enough to loan me the two cellos for almost a month so that I could try them out at home and use one of them for a solo performance that I was scheduled to give at the Atlanta Southwest Fine Arts Center.

I finally decided on one of the Frank Ivantie models. This was the same cello that my coach from the Atlanta Symphony had used for some of her Symphony concerts as a temporary replacement while her antique cello was being worked on in New York. I figured I couldn’t go wrong with that choice since it had already held its own at the highest levels of performance.

What I learned from this cello shopping experience is that, as in life, we sometimes need the help of our friends to make it through situations that get thrown our way. I’m glad that I had my coach, Dona Vellek, to lean on for guidance and solid advice. She helped me to find an excellent cello at a reasonable price with a few other perks thrown in since I was using professionals in her network. Letting go of a sentimental instrument is difficult, but I hope you'll have the resources to guide you when it’s time to purchase your next instrument.

Contributed by Melissa Perley of Paul Perley Cellos.

Springtime in New England is beautiful. The newly strong sunlight is fabulous for our lilacs, tulips and daffodils. Soft warm air also lures us out of our winter hibernation. Cool breeze replaces the static dryness that chaps our hands, cracks our cellos.

The humidifier replaced by the dehumidifier.

It is now that students come to lessons with a quizzical look on their faces as they lament of their instrument, “Whose cello IS this?”

In preparing for spring recitals, it has suddenly become nearly impossible to finger notes.

Often during a lesson I will quizzically tilt my head to one side and peer. This odd angle is often mistaken for intensity or hard focus. The reality is that I am tipped that way to see just how high the student’s strings have climbed, seemingly overnight.

Engagement becomes a term for battle.

Fortunately, if you are here for a lesson, Paul is a stone’s throw away armed with his post adjuster. Take heart, getting the cello you know and love back is possible with a tune-up. This requires us checking the instrument for open seams (gluing them shut when needed), adjusting the sound post and possibly changing the bridge to give the desired string height. Often players in our climate have both a “winter” and “summer” bridge to swap out as needed. Guilty secret - I have been known to have five different bridges... Hey, some people like shoes…

It is a treat to watch a player come in with their stranger-cello in hand, dismay on their face only to later pick it up, put bow to string and break into a smile as it calls familiar again.

We recommend seeing cellos in our area twice yearly. Easy to remember- spring adjustment is donewhen school lets out and winter adjustment around the Christmas holiday.

My students are not alone in their frustration. Since it takes several weeks for humidity to fully settle into the instrument and to slide back out again, periodically I have been able to get my instrument sounding great only to pick it up the very next day, put the bow to string and cry (literally) “Whose cello IS this?”

by Megan Fedor

How accurate are the signs of the zodiac when explored through the lens of famous Classical composers’ personality traits? It turns out some are pretty close:

Aquarius – Mozart

January 27, 1756

Introverted, nervous, distant

Mozart is well-known as being a prodigious composer with social connections and a love of all things fun and humorous. His preserved letters show a heart of gold with endless capacity for love. Common Aquarius traits, on the other hand, are detachment and fear of emotional expression. Perhaps Libra or Cancer would be a better astrological sign for Wolfgang Amadeus!

Accuracy: 0%

Pisces – Chopin

March 1, 1810

Optimistic, sentimental, dependent

Chopin is one of the most sentimental composers to have ever lived, as evidenced by his delicate and nuanced piano works. Although his love life illustrated his dependence on others, that dependency also contributed to his negative outlook on life. That’s not a Pisces trait, so it’ll cost some accuracy points.

Accuracy: 75%

Aries – Bach

March 31, 1685

Quarrelsome, strong, bipolar

Aries describes Bach to a T. He is well-known for his lack of patience with those he viewed as inferior (only those who disagreed with him or couldn’t follow his directions)! Everything unyielding Bach did was for the sake of perfect musicality – I can’t think of a more justifiable reason to yell at people.

Accuracy: 100%

Taurus – Tchaikovsky

May 7th, 1840

Hungry, headstrong, lazy

Tchaikovsky is known as a shy adorer of Mozart with incredible studiousness and attention to detail. Tchaikovsky’s hard work and talent propelled him into musical fame, more so than a hunger for recognition. Lazy he was not, nor headstrong as his every move was carefully crafted in his search for happiness. Tchaikovsky may better be described as a Cancer or Scorpio.

Accuracy: 0%

Gemini – Stravinsky

June 17th, 1882

Social, tenacious, polar

Stravinsky is well-known for his social grace and business skill, forthcoming political opinions, and principled determination. His music, however controversial at its premiere, reflects these qualities as its variance is an honest reflection of his thoughts and feelings.

Accuracy: 100%

Cancer – Mahler

July 7th, 1860

Moody, lovable, committed

Mahler’s moodiness is evident in his demeanor– he was known to rave and ramble one moment only to fall silent and dejected the next. More committed to his art than anything else, Mahler was easier to revere than to love. His personality is perfectly encapsulated in his magnificent symphonies.

Accuracy: 75%

Leo – Debussy

August 22, 1862

Bold, intelligent, arrogant

Feline in nature, bold, and intelligent are fitting adjectives to describe Claude. His quirky personality and inability to love past his music led for a turbulent and sad life. However brilliant, Debussy was not one to be called arrogant.

Accuracy: 90%

Virgo – Dvorak

September 8, 1841

Agreeable, orderly, practical

Dvorak is known for his pleasant and unassuming disposition and his love for family and nature. Order and practicality defined his life as he rose to the ranks of elite composer without elevating his ego in the slightest. Agreeable to the max, Dvorak is best known for his warmth of character.

Accuracy: 100%

Libra – Liszt

October 22, 1811

Levelheaded, hilarious, loyal

Liszt is most well-known for his virtuosic displays of talent in both his ostentatious performances and written music. He was loyal to his friends and generous in his support of musical talent. His flashy performance style and great fame don’t exactly add up to being levelheaded. Perhaps Liszt would be better suited as a Leo.

Accuracy: 50%

Scorpio – Copland

November 14, 1900

Mysterious, sensitive, realistic

Scorpio perfectly captures Copland’s complex nature. On the outside, he displayed a deep calm while his true feelings were hidden deep within. Sensitive to the feelings of others, he displayed the greatest tact in all social interactions. Realism was part of his nature – he dressed simply, and took things as they were.

Accuracy: 100%

Sagittarius – Beethoven

December, 1770

Rebellious, immature, impulsive

Beethoven’s strong personality and tumultuous life make him a true Sagittarius. Non-conforming and erratic behaviors became more prominent as deafness took over. Difficult to get along with, he might smile or scorn at the drop of a hat.

Accuracy: 100%

Capricorn – Poulenc

January 7, 1899

Hardworking, direct, independent

Poulenc’s personality was complex, eccentric, and unique. Dedicated to his art, he wrote music that spoke to him and defied most conventions. Not necessarily direct, Poulenc contained within him a self-contradiction in search of reconciliation.

Accuracy: 75%

by Audrey Williams

Many years ago, a few of my colleagues and I formed a string quartet for the purpose of performing at events around the metro Atlanta area. In my opinion, your relationship with your ensemble requires a degree of trust and intimate knowledge of each other’s musical quirks, which is very similar to what you might experience in a relationship with your significant other.

As a contract musician, I don’t always get the luxury of playing with the same group of people all the time, so I find that I’m always adjusting my style of play to match the strengths and weaknesses of the musicians around me.

Below are some helpful tips for anyone who plays in an established small ensemble or if you’re looking to join a chamber group one day in the future:

Respect the abilities and opinions of your colleagues. Everyone will have an opinion, which should be respected even if the group decides to go in a completely different direction. Most people just want to know that their voice was heard and taken into consideration.

Talk openly and agree on what you all want the group to become. Everyone should agree up front on rehearsal schedules, performance schedules and goals for the group. Whether you decide to treat the group as a hobby or a professional job, everyone needs to be aware of those expectations from the very beginning.

Learn how to give constructive criticism and sincere compliments. Your ensemble mates will be happier to play with you if you have a positive attitude. You will also have a better experience as well.

You may want to consider designating someone to lead rehearsals. This may help to make your rehearsals run smoother and more efficiently. Everyone can still make suggestions about which passages they would like to work on, but the leader should make the final call about where the group should start and when the group should stop to make fixes.

So many have died fighting for the freedoms that we hold so dear in America. Let’s take a moment to put aside our differences, mourn those we have lost, and celebrate the sanctity of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

Adagio for Strings

by Samuel Barber. Listen here.

A Symphony: New England Holidays, II. Decoration Day

by Charles Ives. Listen here.

Orfeo ed Euridice, "Dance of the Blessed Spirits" (Melodie)

by Christoph Willibald Gluck. Listen here.

String Quartet in A Minor, Op. 132, Movement 3

by Ludwig van Beethoven. Listen here.

Piano Sonata No. 30 in E Major, Op. 109

by Ludwig van Beethoven. Listen here.

I leave you with an excerpt of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s “Decoration Day.”

Five Things Every Student Should Know

by Mahaliah Edwards

As a second year undergraduate, I’m half-way through my BMus course – the English equivalent to a Bachelor of Music. I like to think I’ve learned a few things about surviving as a music student. Without further ado:

Make the most of every opportunity

Take advantage of your student status! Many stores, online retailers and concert venues offer some sort of student discount or concession - find out what is available to you. My local concert venues offer tickets for students at a very low price for any seat in the hall, so there is no excuse for me to turn down the chance to see exciting concerts. Last semester, I saw the world-renowned violinist James Ehnes for £5 ($6)! Any student will be aware that studying is expensive and any way of saving can only be a good thing.

(Even when that opportunity is free time.)

Additionally, after speaking to my various tutors, coaches and mentors, it has become clear that life as a student accommodates the most time for practice. and When you launch into the profession, time for practicing is drastically reduced. This little word of advice has really made me appreciate the fact that as a violin student at conservatoire, I have excellent facilities to enhance my practice. I urge any music student to treasure the practice rooms and other facilities at your institution, and to make as much use of them as you can.

Organization!

Diaries, journals, and calendar are your best friends. Without these things your life will surely be very difficult, unless you possess a really gifted memory. Life at any college or university is very busy and even more so for musicians. I know from personal experience that along with my weekly timetable, numerous projects, and rehearsals with different ensembles, I would not be able to function without my planner. I like the fact that I can clearly see every class or event for the coming week. Whether your preference is the calendar on a portable device or a tangible diary or calendar, it is an essential for every student musician.

Find an equilibrium in life & Know your limits!

It is important to have a balanced life. Studying and practice can often take up most of our time, leaving little time to do other things we enjoy. I’ve learnt that as much as I want to work hard and see the results of my hard work, it is impossible and impractical to constantly be in work mode. Having down time, enjoying life is a good antidote. For me, doing things that are completely unrelated to music help refresh myself. On the other hand, the highlight of some students' lives might be going out. Indulging in too much partying is impractical and doesn’t reap great results. Although it’s not always easy, finding a healthy balance is a sure-fire way to be on top op everything and makes life a little less stressful.

Establish yourself

During your time at a music college or conservatory, you should have an idea about your career goals. It’s never too early to envision yourself as an artist in the industry. Try to figure out your place in the music world. For me having career aspirations is my main driving force through music college. The fact that I have an idea of where I want to be in the future makes the everyday struggles of studying and practicing easier. Don’t let your status as a student deter you from going for what you want. If you want to be an orchestral musician, go on orchestral courses. Many institutions have partnerships with local orchestras where they have side-by-side schemes and students can rehearse alongside the professionals. If you want to be a music journalist or critic, why not start a blog now and publish your own writing? Whether you want to be a soloist or session musician you should definitely launch your website, Youtube Channel, SoundCloud account in addition to other social media. Start putting yourself out there whilst you’re a student and you’ll have good prospects for when you graduate.

by Danny Ziemann

Last week, we examined philosophy and its role in teaching. We began with:

“Upon completion of our lessons, I want my students to know all of their major scales with correct fingerings and various bowings.”

... and extrapolated:

“I want my students to be able to play scales in tune with harmonic understanding, aural awareness, varied bowings, and a focused tone. I want students to understand their role in the music they play, seek out and connect with unfamiliar music, and feel empowered to improvise without fear.”

We are not at a comprehensive philosophy yet, but what we do have is a foundation of independent musicianship. My role as a teacher is to help students identify how they learn best and give them the skills to teach themselves after the completion of our time together. As my teacher Jeff Campbell said on our first day of lessons, “I want to become as useless to you as quickly as possible.” The point stuck, and I always thank Jeff for his role in helping me develop musical autonomy.

Now that we have a better understanding of our ultimate objective, we can brainstorm teaching methods that will foster independent musicianship. This is the portion that goes beyond the scope of philosophy and puts our analysis into practice. Here are some examples:

Putting It Into Practice

Reducing fear introduces confidence to musicianship.

In understanding how to turn this talk into action, we need to seek out a common educational link in all of our learning objectives. One clear teaching link that jumps out to me is a foundation of strong aural skills. All of our objectives--understanding one’s role, development of technique, being able to connect to unfamiliar music – are made possible by strengthening the ear. This will be another key part of our philosophy. One tenant of my teaching is to let the ears guide the hands, not the other way around. There are numerous programs and pedagogues dedicated to fostering aural skills--Ed Gordon and Music Learning Theory comes to mind (the Jump Right In series); also Orff and Kodaly. Use of solfege, abundant singing, and learning melodies with accompanying basslines / harmony are all examples of aural engagement that can be practiced daily. You will spend less time focusing on intonation issues as your student will be more apt to hear by how much their intonation is off. Your students will foster musical empathy early on, particularly with ensemble playing, as they have the tools to connect musically with those around them.

Going back to our initial query into scales, why exactly should students be able to demonstrate scales? If it's a means for understanding a layout of their instrument, then we should get creative about how we utilize them. I always teach scales with some harmonic framework, adding the accompanying minor and major triads to each scale degree. (For example: C Major, D Minor, E Minor, etc. in the key of C.) Teaching a major scale as a line of eight notes does not really help students understand a key, if that is your goal. Think outside of the box! Perhaps you can teach a melody and the bass line using tunes with a lot of scalar movement (Somewhere Over the Rainbow, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star). You can also improvise with a limited selection of notes (from the scale) and slowly add more in until the entire scale is utilized. As a tenant in my own teaching, I always show at least two or three fingering choices when introducing new scales. Again, the goal is to show how one can really understand a key on the instrument; a skill that is transferable to all keys and scales. Various bowings can be thrown into the mix as well.

Teacher-guided listening of recordings is a great way to help students develop a discerning ear and the ability to identify “good tone.” You can help your students develop critical ears by playing recordings and asking questions, giving them criteria to think about, and adjectives to speak with. For example, you may say “_______’s sound is very airy / focused / thin / round to me. You can affect the sound by adjusting the weight, speed, and position of the bow — what do you think they’re doing to create this sound?” Entire conversations can be based around this, and you can use a number of musical topics: tone, time feel, vibrato, length of note, and dynamics to name a few. This can be a foundation for weeks’ assignments: “For next week I want you to listen to ________, list five adjectives to describe their phrasing, and incorporate elements you enjoy into your playing.” Students will learn to listen to music actively. This gives you a chance to share what you love and forces YOU to be very clear in expressing why.

When asking students at a conservatory what words they associate with improvisation, the most popular answer was “fear” or some variation of it. Students explained that they didn’t feel armed with enough knowledge to do it well – not knowing the scales or chords and creating music without notation made it most daunting. By empowering students with aural skills and the ability to develop a clear sense of phrasing, improvisation became less fearsome. Reducing fear introduces confidence to our musicianship. There are many ways to incorporate improvisation into teaching: students can improvise with a select few pitches, over the chord changes of simple folk tunes, using varying rhythms on a single pitch, or even embellishing familiar melodies. You do not need to be an expert to start introducing it into your teaching!

It's easy to see how one objective can create many learning opportunities. These examples just scratch the surface. With all of these thoughts in mind, let's move towards constructing our final philosophy.

Creating Our Philosophy

We began by brainstorming what skills we wanted our students to have, revising our initial objective after deep questioning. We found a common theme in our revised learning objective and brainstormed appropriate teaching tools to accompany those tasks. Without further ado, here is a short teaching philosophy based on fostering independent musicianship:

“My teaching philosophy is to foster independent musicianship at the highest level in each of my students. Independent musicianship can best be achieved by honing strong aural abilities, which becomes the catalyst for developing freedom on the instrument and musical expression. Arming students with these skills empowers them to face familiar and unfamiliar music with confidence. Through this process we help the student identify how they best learn, providing them a lifetime of musical learning opportunities, far after the completion of our formal studies.”

by Danny Ziemann

I’d like you to think back to your private lesson experiences as a student. What do you remember working on with your teacher - executive skills, etudes, pieces, for example - and how did you go about it? Dig even deeper—what was the first thing you remember learning? What is the first thing that really clicked with you; something that guides you even today?

Let's talk teaching materials. Did you primarily work through a book? What was the process--linear (you must finish page 13 before attempting page 14), or were you able to skip around freely? Did your teacher create their own learning materials? What about your relationship with your teacher—did you connect well or was each lesson pure drudgery? Were you happy with your overall success? Was there any sort of teaching sequence or methodology that you could discern; maybe even a teaching philosophy of some type?

Hopefully this trip down memory lane wasn’t too traumatic! Chances are that your private lesson teacher had some sort of philosophy or framework that they were guided by. And if you plan on doing any type of teaching, crafting a philosophy is an excellent way to help organize your thoughts and provide an underlying structure to your methods. You may even have something similar already! Philosophy has always played some role in music education, stemming back to Plato in Ancient Greece with the Quadrivium. Philosophy first helps us justify “Why should we study music?” without resorting to misguided claims like “music makes us smarter at math.” Philosophy can also help educators understand the big-picture goals, objectives, and inherent themes that exist in our teaching methods.

Always be thinking about your students’ musicianship after your formal musical relationship is over.

A philosophy of music education can be rooted by something as short as “I want to foster _________ in my students,” or it can also be as detailed as Bennett Reimer’s aesthetic A Philosophy of Music Education and David Elliot’s praxial Music Matters. Philosophy is indeed a useful tool, but the role of a philosopher is to ask “Why?” and not necessarily “How?” Your job as the teacher is to put the rubber to the road and put philosophy into action! In the next two posts, we will go through the process of crafting an effective sample teaching philosophy and discuss putting it into practice in your own teaching life.

The first step

If this seems overwhelming, fear not! The first question you should ask is:

“What do I want my students to know and accomplish upon completion of our lessons?”

Notice that the question is phrased with terminal language. Always be thinking about your students’ musicianship after the formal musical relationship is over. For the sake of our example, let's aim for a fundamental skill that is often the focus of beginner instruction; something like…

“Upon completion of our lessons, I want my students to know all of their major scales with correct fingerings and various bowings.”

This is a common learning objective and certainly a worthy skill to instill in your students. Let's create a line of questioning that will better help us understand implicit biases and shortcomings in our learning objective:

Does completion of this task indicate anything about the student’s musicianship beyond their executive skills? How are you engaging their ear throughout this process?

What if the fingerings are correct but they can’t hear if the scale is in tune? Have they succeeded if they can play their scales but don't understand how scales work or their harmonic implications?

Does this teach them anything about how functional harmony works on their instrument?

Are playing scales by rote a creative endeavor? What's the first scale you teach? What's the second? When do you teach minor scales?

Will you use notation?

Will you relate this task to familiar and unfamiliar repertoire?

Is the idea to teach a functional layout of the instrument, or are you hoping to talk about intonation, time, and bow use throughout development of this skill?

What does this do to foster a love for music?

One simple statement really brings up quite a number of diverse questions! This line of questioning can get us closer to understanding precisely what we’re teaching and why. Try it within the context of your own teaching and see what you can conjure up! Defining nitty gritty learning objectives (with detailed insight!) allows us to explore our potential philosophy. Now, let's zoom the focus out and revise our previous statement to reflect our philosophical inquiry:

“I want my students to be able to play scales in tune with harmonic understanding, aural awareness, varied bowings, and a supportive, focused tone. I want students to understand their role in the music they play, seek out and connect with unfamiliar music, and feel empowered to improvise without fear.”

Notice the educational buzzwords in our statement: understanding, awareness, thoughtful, empowerment, and improvisation. We started off with a singular skill and are now dealing with larger ideas, building a deeper understanding of what is important to us as teachers. The focus here seems to be on creating autonomy and confidence. Great!

Zoom out even further—what’s the largest single umbrella term you can use to connect all of these terms?

How about creating independent musicianship?

All of these learning objectives—development of harmonic understanding, aural awareness, and especially empowerment—are signs of developing innate musicianship. Empowerment refers to autonomy, defined as freedom from control or influence. Helping students become musically autonomous means they will continue to learn after our formal time together ends--our exact learning goal. This will be the foundation for our philosophy!

In our next post, we’ll dig further into this idea and talk about putting it into practice.

by Megan Fedor

This is a question I never asked myself growing up. I began playing the violin in second grade, played every band instrument throughout high school, attended summer music camp (“band camp” to the layperson), and ended up going to music school. I did participate in high school sports, but missed many practices due to violin lessons and orchestra rehearsals. I eventually quit when I couldn’t handle jamming one more finger in basketball during college audition overdrive prep days! While my friends were hanging out and going to parties, I was hard at work trying to hone my skills and prepare for my future. The underlying truth that I was a nerd resounded so loudly that the question of being cool never needed to be asked.

The underlying truth that I was a nerd resounded so loudly that the question of being cool was never even asked.

As an adult, I have begun to reopen the question. This is due in large part to the reaction I get when revealing that I am a violinist and music teacher. Most people are impressed. I often get, “I wish I could play an instrument,” or “When can you play for me?” Oh, how the tides have turned! These adults are probably the same people who in high school sarcastically asked the music kids, “Did you go to band camp?” Maybe I’m still not cool, but finally my craft is appreciated by my peers. I never doubted my choices even when being teased in school, but now I have the ultimate affirmation.

I will leave you with one final story that struck me. My students and I have undertaken a Composer of the Month project this year. While studying Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony, we compared the traditional symphony with a souped-up version by the Trans-Siberian Orchestra (listen to the TSO version here!). After comparing and contrasting the two pieces for some time, I bit the bullet and asked students which they preferred. I assumed their young and impressionable ears were wooed by the rock instruments and pounding beat of the electric version. Surprisingly enough, we were split about half and half!

Maybe classical music is cool after all!

…or maybe half of my students and I are nerds. We'll never know.

by Mahaliah Edwards

Masterclasses can be a daunting prospect for musicians. Playing to a prominent musician who is then going to critique and teach is a big thing. In addition, there will probably be an audience. Here are a few ways you can bring your A-game to the masterclass:

Preparation is key; it goes without saying but it is absolutely vital to be prepared. Have your piece ready to perform. Try to arrive early to set up and relax before your performance. Make sure that you have had rehearsals with an accompanist (if you need one) before the day. If there is an accompanist you haven’t played with before, try to have at least a conversation with them about the way you want to play. If this is not possible, try to communicate clearly with them while playing. Make it known when you want to do something different with the tempo, etc. There is nothing worse than being prepared but having your performance suffer due to miscommunication with the accompanist. Good accompanists are like gold dust so when you find someone who you play well with, never let them go!

If you can, it's always good to get a feel for the space you’ll be performing in. If you can have a prior rehearsal at the venue, it’s a good idea to get used to the acoustics and work out any adjustments you make have to make with dynamics etc. By being extra prepared, you’re giving yourself the best chance to do brilliantly in the performance.

Have an extra score ready for the visiting professor. This is useful, as they can pinpoint specific places in the music that they want to talk about. Also, the visiting tutor can write things onto the score directly which you can then study afterwards.

If you can, record your masterclass with audio and / or visual. You can then use the footage to add to your portfolio and for your own archive too. Recording the class is a good way to reference or remember anything you may have forgotten. The video footage is recommended because you can also look at the visual aspect of your performance.

Finally, remember that a masterclass is only someone offering their opinion and ideas on how you could play the piece. You don’t have to implement all their advice into the piece; you may not even agree with everything the teacher says. The point is that you have the opportunity to play to a professional and they give you ideas to play with. Be prepared to try new things and experiment with metre, tempo, timbre and everything in between!

by Audrey Williams

Over the years, I’ve had the interesting challenge of teaching a handful of students who were on the autism spectrum. I’ve always had a special place in my heart for the special needs community since my youngest sister was born with a serious disability, and I’ve lived through some of her struggles with her first hand.  I feel that I have to at least try to work with any student who has the desire to learn an instrument until we reach a point where I’m more of a hindrance than a help.  

Every student is different, and this is even more so the case with autistic students because there is no one way to categorize or pigeon hole autism. Even high functioning autistic students can have social interaction and motor control issues that you’ll have to find a way to overcome.  I had one student who consistently had a hard time focusing on complex assignments while another could complete assignments very well, but would start humming and zoning out if my lectures went beyond a minute or so. I had yet another student who had the spectacular gift of being able to identify the pitch of any note he heard on any instrument in the exact order that each note was played even though he had severe limitations in his daily life due to his Asperger’s symptoms. There was definitely no one-size-fits-all teaching strategy to handle the array of behavior patterns, but below are a few techniques that helped me reach my students where they were so that they could also reap the benefits of music lessons just like their mainstream counterparts.

Be prepared to provide a simplified version of assignments or break complex assignments into smaller pieces. I’ve found that having smaller bite-sized deliverables helps keep the momentum during lesson time. For example, we may decide to check off a song line by line instead of making it a requirement to play the whole song perfectly from beginning to end.

As a music teacher, you just have to accept that most assignments will never be polished, so you may have to pick one or two teaching points to focus on and then move on once you feel that your student has reached an acceptable level of proficiency.

For some students you may have to get all of their senses involved in order to draw them into the lesson. I have red rhythm sticks that I let students use to beat out their rhythms while counting out loud. In the past, I’ve also had students glide and then hop across the room to demonstrate the difference between playing legato and staccato. Sometimes I would unexpectedly throw in a flashcard exercise if I would see that I was reaching the end of my students’ attention span for a particular assignment.

If your student has perfect pitch, then you might want to build your lessons around that strength since that is something that comes naturally to the student.

If a student is consistently having trouble reading notes on the staff, then you might want to try associating a note name with the pitch or even a color and then make the connection to the symbol on the staff to see if that helps. You can have your student color the note on the staff with the same color that you used in your association game. Your student can use this same color chart on his/her assignments for the next few weeks or months to see if this finally helps things click as they learn to read notes on the staff.

Colorful and quirky visual aids may also be helpful in getting your student to focus on what you’re trying to teach.

Give your rehearsals a distinct routine, and warn students if you'll be breaking from it. Many students find this comforting.

I believe that all students should have the equal opportunity to play in my student recitals if they so desire and have the adequate time to prepare. For my autistic students, I make sure to physically practice recital etiquette starting weeks before a recital. This is sometimes very effective for students who have trouble emotionally connecting to others. This way they know what they’re supposed to do even if they can’t fully understand why they should acknowledge the audience that has so kindly sat through their performance.

I’m in no way an expert when it comes to handling autistic or other special needs music students since the bulk of my training has come on the job. This list of ideas came about after a long time of trial and error, and I’m happy to have met my autistic students because they’ve helped to make me a better teacher for all students. I hope that this article will be helpful to you should you ever find yourself in my shoes one day.

by Grace Youn

The start of a new year often means one thing for me: audition season.

At this point, I'm starting to lose count of the number of auditions I have taken, whether for admission into schools, music festivals, or professional opportunities, and no matter how many times I have been through this process, I still experience all the feels - stress, anxiety, adrenaline, excitement. Being in the process of applying to school myself, there are things that I do to make this process a little less stressful.

Pack extra supplies.

Strings, rosin, spare bow, you name it. Bring it. I've had a string break and all the hairs fall out of my bow before major performances. Unfortunately, stuff like this happens and you need to be prepared. You'll be happy that you were.

Arrive 24 hours before your audition.

I have found that it is best to get to your destination 24 hours in advance. I do this to allow time to get settled, adjust to a new time zone if I'm traveling far, and familiarize myself with a new place. Arriving early allows you to scope out the area and figure out your practice situation. Besides that, traveling is stressful and to perform your best, you need to be well rested.

Scope out the audition site.

Since you arrived early, you now get to check out the audition site, find your favorite practice room, map your way to the audition room, and get a feel for what the school is like! That way, you will not have to worry about getting lost, especially if the school is big!

Eat well.

I'm definitely that person who does not like to eat before a performance, but I do it anyway. Your body needs energy. You don't have to eat a lot. Just pick something healthy and moderately filling. For me, it's often a snack consisting of bananas and peanut butter an hour or two before audition time.

Know what piece you're going to start with.

With school auditions, I've found that 9 times out of 10 your panel will let you choose what you want to start with! Choose the piece you feel is strongest and will best showcase your strengths.

Breathe and have fun!

At this point, it's all out of your hands. You've prepared to the best of your ability. As hard as this is to believe, the panel WANTS you to play well, so take a deep breath and play your heart out!

by Megan Fedor

Hufflepuff

Loyalty, hard work, dedication, patience, fair play

Brass Family: The incredible amount of hard work that must be put forth to master one of these instruments defines the house. Brass players always play fair – just think of the French Horns tirelessly playing the “pah-pah” of a waltz for entire concerts of Johann Strauss simply to spare everyone else (sorry violas). The bass trombone player exemplifies patience counting pages and pages of rests waiting for his next entrance. Loyalty and dedication come to mind when thinking of tuba players, never missing a rehearsal or being a second late to return from a break. Hufflepuff House often gets misinterpreted as representing simplicity or simple-mindedness, which could not be further from the truth.

Hogwarts Orchestra: Cedric Diggory, Trumpet; Pomona Sprout, French Horn; Ernie Macmillan, Trombone; Nymphadora Tonks, Tuba

Gryffindor

Bravery, daring, nerve, chivalry

String Family: Typified by the fearless leadership demonstrated by the Concertmaster as she stands before a full concert hall to tune the orchestra and the gall it takes as the string section plays the soaring chromatic lines of Richard Strauss, we have Gryffindor House. The second violin and viola chivalrously bow down to take a supporting role, only occasionally rising to the forefront. The nervy harp sits alone in the back of the orchestra, always a soloist when performing an impressive glissando. Cellists are the reason we say “Gryffindor” over and over as we have the sorting hat on our head, and bass players bravely live each day contorting their bodies to play an instrument of such impressive size and difficulty.

Hogwarts Orchestra: Harry Potter, Violin I; Ginny Weasley, Violin II; Ron Weasley, Viola; Hermione Granger, Cello; Nearly Headless Nick, Double Bass; Minerva McGonagall, Harp

Ravenclaw

Intelligence, wit, individuality

Woodwind Family: No one can argue that the woodwinds are the brains of the orchestra. Simply imagining the intellect needed to coordinate breath, articulation, and fingering while avoiding a reed squeak leaves me in need of a nap. Who else in the orchestra is able to multi-task to the extent that they are actually making parts of their instruments in rehearsals and concerts! Flute and piccolo players often know the score as well as the conductor, and clarinetists have the wittiest comments to keep you entertained when the last 5 minutes of rehearsal seem to last a lifetime – am I right?

Hogwarts Orchestra: Rowena Ravenclaw, Flute; Filius Flitwick, Piccolo; Cho Chang, Clarinet; Luna Lovegood, Oboe; Gilderoy Lockhart, Bassoon

Slytherin

Ambition, cunning, resourcefulness

Percussion Family: Fundamentally resourceful in their ability to cover a symphony’s worth of instruments with only a few musicians, percussionists dominate Slytherin House. The cunning triangle player must place his strike just ahead of the beat so it reaches the back of the hall perfectly in time with the rest of the ensemble, as the resourceful timpani player must find an opportunity to inconspicuously tune the instruments. The artistry of the marimbist relates directly to the dexterity of a skilled wizard mid-duel. Ambitious to a fault, percussionists are often the busiest members of the orchestra, rushing from rehearsal to other gigs and are endlessly wrapped up in their creative pursuits.

Hogwarts Orchestra: Draco Malfoy, Triangle; Vincent Crabbe, Snare Drum; Gregory Goyle, Bass Drum; Bellatrix Lestrange, Timpani; Tom Riddle, Marimba; Severus Snape, Piano

Specific house adjectives courtesy of: http://harrypotter.wikia.com/wiki/Hogwarts_Houses

by Audrey Williams

After playing with the same musicians for a while, I started to instinctively know how my chamber mates would react to and interpret various musical passages. I call this the ‘sweet spot’ of ensemble playing. This is the point where you don’t have to always mechanically think about what you’re doing anymore but can rather feed off the energy of your cast of players.

In a large orchestra setting, I usually feel like I can relax a little since the pressure isn’t on one person to present an artistic expression to the entire audience. On the other hand, playing in a small ensemble where I have to carry my whole section as the only principal player is a whole other ball of wax that requires so much more focus and effort. I was excited for the opportunity, but also nervous since I’d spent the past few years perfecting my solo cello act. I sought professional help from the Atlanta Symphony community school's chamber music intensive. I learned some helpful tips for anyone who's just getting started with chamber music:

Study the music and come to rehearsal with some ideas to try. You should look at a score and listen to a recording of the music (if you can find one) prior to rehearsal. This will help you come up with some musical ideas to experiment with and will make your rehearsals so much more productive.

Work as a group towards perfection. The group should work together to perfect phrasing, articulation, dynamics, intonation and balance.

Listen closely to what’s being played around you. You don’t want to trample over anyone’s solo nor should yours get lost in the fray either. You should listen to your ensemble mates to make sure you’re matching intonation and articulations. Instruments in the lower register may need to play out more so that the bass voice is audible. You may want to have an independent listener sit in on your rehearsal and critique your instrumentation balance if you’re not sure about what you’re hearing while you’re playing.

Practice thoroughly at home before coming to rehearsal. All members of the group should make a conscious effort to learn all notes and rhythms at home during individual practice sessions. The ensemble rehearsal is not the place to try to figure it out. This slows everybody down and takes time away from other music that needs to be looked at.

Make sure to have a copy of the full score, a tuner, and a metronome present whenever you rehearse. A full score should be readily accessible so that everyone can see how all of the parts are supposed to fit together.

Try to run through the entire piece or movement before you leave rehearsal. After you’ve had a chance to fix mistakes, phrasing, articulation, etc., you should try to pull everything together in a final play-through before you pack up. This will help to reinforce what you’ve rehearsed.

Ensemble chairs at rehearsal should be set up in the same arrangement that you’re planning to use in live performance. Rehearsals train your ears to hear your music a certain way, and if you’re seated next to someone different on stage, it will most definitely throw your ears and performance off.

These are just a few suggestions that should be helpful to any musician no matter their level of experience. As always, you should remember to have fun when you play! Music is a gift that should be enjoyed by all. Happy practicing!