Thomas J. West Music

Musical Microcosms - The Cultural Impact Of Music And Education

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 20:20:00 +0000

One of the topics that I have pondered the most as a professional music educator is the role of music-making in our modern culture. As a young man in college charting my future, I had an epiphany during a bowl trip with the Penn State Marching Blue Band that this, indeed, this marching and concert band thing, was what I wanted to do. But how does one do that professionally? The best answer for me was to become a band director. There really are very few opportunities out there to be a professional marcher, and those mostly involve enlisting.

It became very apparent rather quickly that school band, orchestra, and chorus programs were a musical microcosm. They, of course, do much to help shape American youth in their formative years, but their impact within their communities and on American culture is limited to Friday nights at the football stadium and cliche stereotypes as dated, dorky activities on tv programs and movies. It is this perception in the court of public opinion and the vast popularity of rock bands that led to the formation of educational programs like School of Rock.

School performing ensemble programs only account for 20% or less of a student body. The reasons for this are numerous, but include the fact that wearing a band uniform and committing as much time outside of class as the sports teams do is a difficult sell for a lot of teens. The other 80% are left with little options for music-making in an educational environment, and we are left with a culture of under-educated music consumers.

Programs that bridge that gap between popular culture and the in-depth study of quality music-making are desperately needed. Quality music, despite it's genre, incorporates all aspects of music into its performance. Melody, rhythm, meter, harmony, texture, timbre, dynamics, phrasing, and so on are present to varying degrees in all music of depth. Some genres of music lend themselves more to the expression of those aspects than others, but all music-making should strive to communicate with all of these tools. Students of music of all ages need to experience these aspects and their impact on communication.

School performing ensembles as a microcosm are possessed with public performances and the pursuit of excellence. 95% of their instructional time is spent preparing for the next public performance. The quality of music performance in our schools has continued to climb, spurred on by "musical sports" such as competitions, ratings festivals, and the like. Students in those ensembles perform their part at high levels of proficiency, but often lack experience in other areas such as technical proficiency outside of their concert repertoire, improvisation, theory, and composition. The microcosm of school performing ensembles has "performed itself into a corner" in terms of the program's relevance and value to the community it serves. Striving for excellence in these ensembles is addictive activity for both the students and their instructors, and it leaves students with a desire to be involved with that kind of a program after their school days without a place to go do it. The days of the community band and drum corps are waning.

Instead, school music programs produce ensemble musicians who can't stand on their own. They are unable to make their own music without a director. Or, their attempts to make their own music are superficial and technically flawed. This kind of education does little to bring depth of musical knowledge and quality music-making to our greater collective culture. So what can bridge that gap, if not school bands?

Music Technology As A Bridge

One of the most exciting educational pushes right now is the increase in secondary schools offering electronic music, music production, and digital music composition courses. With the advent of the iPad and affordable yet versitile programs like GarageBand and Mixcraft, students who do not have a traditional background in performing music can finally get a high school music education along with their performing music classmates that is actually worth something.

Students in these courses are learning the basics of melody writing, simple chord progressions, form, texture, meter, and more. They are also learning basic studio techniques such as microphone and mixing console basics, signal processing and digital effects, and basic mixing and mastering of musical content that can be published legally online. Music technology courses are exploratory and creative in nature, allowing students to learn the basic music concepts from their instructors and then use the technology to explore and experience it first-hand.

Contemporary A Cappella Singing As A Bridge

Another emerging art form that helps bridge the gap is contemporary a cappella singing. With roots going back to barbershop harmony and the doo wop groups of the 50's and 60's, today's contemporary a cappella scene celebrates popular music of the last fifty years. Contemporary a cappella is, indeed, its own microcosm, as is barbershop singing. It has grown over the past twenty years into a form of music performance and music education that can be found on virtually every college campus in the United States. As those a cappella singers graduate and become professional music educators themselves, more are turning to contemporary a cappella to augment and modernize the traditional Western European choral programs in thier schools.

Contemporary a cappella is a mcirocosm that has momentum right now, with the general public actually beginning to take notice of the skill and creativity of these vocal "bands without instruments". In a mass media culture with superficial pop, hip hop, and country music (most of which will not stand the test of time), contemporary a cappella's quirky, yet skillful and expressive demeanor is gaining ground with television programs like Glee and The Sing Off and with the success of groups like Striaght No Chaser.

The Bold Frontier Of The 21st Century Sonic Artist

All music education has value for the microcosms they serve. People quite simply become better human beings by making music of any kind, especially when that music goes hand-in-hand with learning more and honing your craft. The days of the average Americans making music recreationally are long gone, made obsolete by the rise of the mass media industry. We let "the pros" provide us our entertainment now rather than making our own.

And yet...

We are on the verge of a new expressive frontier. With the internet's ability for anyone to share anything they produce, musicians everywhere have an important role to play in the shaping of our culture for the mutual benefit of all. Education and the creative spirit will keep our culture from spiraling into complacency and entropy. We need brave souls like Jonathan Coulton and Paul and Storm who are willing to give up their day jobs to pioneer their own blend of cultural influences into a different musical expression. We need people like Deke Sharon who understand the value of education and the importance of performing quality music that isn't 100 years old.

Musical styles will always have their own following. People's taste in music is as personal as their choices in attire. Musical microcosms will always exist. It's time, however, for a return of the musical artist. In an era when musicians no longer have to wait for a record label to "choose them" for distribution, we need bold moves and hard work from musicians who are willing to give their all to making sonic art. And since anyone can put themselves out there now online, never has there been a more important time for music educators to lead the way with the knowledge and skills they possess.

This article (c) 2012 Thomas J. West. All content on ThomasJWestMusic dot com is licensed under a Creative Contributions Attribution-No Derivative Works 3.0 License. Please contact the author before publishing on or off-line.

Subscribe by RSS Subscribe by email

The Era Of Transparency, Child Abuse, Hazing, And A Marching Band Near You

Tue, 17 Jan 2012 15:00:00 +0000

In this new age of transparency thanks to the Internet, regimes in the middle east have crumbled, skeletons are coming out of closets, and many situations that were "don't ask, don't tell" in the recent past are no longer socially acceptable. The more public your life and your work are, the more of a responsibility you have to operate with the highest levels of impeccability.

And that means school band directors.

American high school and college marching bands are some of the most publically visible organizations associated with their school and the community they reside in. Marching band directors are often called upon to be the bastions of discipline and integrity for their students and their bands are called upon to be goodwill ambassadors for the entire town. There have been many stories over the years of impropriety among band directors, but none more so than today.

Back in December, news that the death of the marching band drum major at Florida A&M had been ruled a homicide by blunt force trauma was announced. The incident was the result of traditional hazing practices gone awry. Such incidents of hazing are unfortunately still common practice at many universities among their greek organizations in particular, but college marching bands also are sometime subject to gentle, yet definable hazing.

And now today, in the continued wake of the Jerry Sandusky scandal at my alma mater, Onward State has reported that the Penn State Blue Band will no longer play a stadium favorite because of the original artist's continued connection to child abuse. [LINK]. "Rock 'n' Roll, Part 2", commonly known as "The Hey Song", is a favorite played by many marching bands in the stands at football games. This certainly is not the first time that a marching band has been publically challenged on its song choices, but given the gravity of the Penn State situation, Dr. O. Richard Bundy made the right call - to discontinue performing a song that has garnered the best crowd interaction over the years.

If you are a high school or college marching band director, never has there been a more imporant time for you to tighten the reigns on the activities of your program, both on and off the field. If you are a college band director, you have the added responsibility to hold firm on your policies on underage drinking and substance abuse.

The Internet and social media has ushered in a new era of transparency for all of us. This is a good thing, because many old ways of behaving and relating to one another must now change. These incidents have always been around, but now it is easier for a large audience to be aware of it and to call out for change. The best practice is, of course, to make your every word and deed of the highest quality you can. You will be reminded of it when you do not, as I was recently when a reader complained about something I had posted on my blog. Or, if you choose to sling damaging words of insensitivity and commit acts that disturb and diminish others, you will find yourself among the company of those, both online and off, who treat people similarly.

Subscribe by RSS Subscribe by email

Curse Of The Rock God - A Conundrum For Guitar Teachers

Tue, 17 Jan 2012 13:00:00 +0000

The following article is a guest post.

I've got good news and bad news. The good news is that there are lots of kids out there who want to learn guitar because they want to play like [insert guitar god here]. The bad news is that there are lots of kids out there who want to learn guitar because they want to play like [insert guitar god here].

This presents an interesting set of choices for guitar teachers (and parents). Do we force these kids to learn guitar "the right way" (whatever that means) and run the risk of turning them off, or do we teach them exactly what they want to know just to keep them engaged?

I think it's possible to do both, but a lot depends on our willingness as teachers to adapt to each of our students instead of forcing our students to adapt to us. I'll get to that in a minute. But first, a story:

A teenager starts taking guitar lessons because he's just heard "Ozzy Osbourne/Randy Rhoads: Tribute" for the first time. He is transfixed by the saturated tone of Randy's guitar, the virtuosity, the energy of the songs. Walking into his first lesson, he's giddy with anticipation because he's about to begin a journey whose only possible outcome is an arena packed with rabid fans chanting his name. He sits down across from his guitar teacher and is promptly presented with a Mel Bay guitar method book. Time to spend the next six months in the key of C major.

I was that teenager. Can I at least put some distortion on my rendition of "Mary Had A Little Lamb," please?

I did eventually learn the things that I wanted to learn, mostly from publications such as Guitar World and the now defunct Guitar for the Practicing Musician. I was on-again off-again with private lessons, bouncing around from teacher to teacher. They were all good players, but not one of them ever spent any significant amount of time talking to me about why I wanted to play the guitar, who my favorite players were and what kinds of things I wanted to learn - in other words all the things that would have kept me engaged and coming back for more.

This is by no means an indictment of guitar teachers in general, just an example of how easy it is to lose a student to indifference and boredom.

Let's take a look at a couple of things that typically constitute the "right way to learn guitar" and see if we can focus on some ways to adapt them to the interests of our students:

Reading standard notation - I'm going to fly in the face of conventional wisdom here and argue that not every guitarist needs to know how to read standard notation. There are a substantial number of teachers out there who think that tablature is the root of all guitar evil, but did you know that some of the earliest music for fretted instruments is written in - drumroll please - tablature?! That's right, during the Renaissance, early lute music was written in tablature. Trying to play "Greensleeves" or "Semper Dowland, Semper Dolens" by reading standard musical notation? How historically inaccurate of you!

Before you get out the torches and pitchforks, I'm not arguing that knowledge of standard notation is worthless. There are plenty of situations where it is necessary:

* Session musicians need to know not only how to read standard notation, but to sight read fluently. Can't do it? No job for you.

* Playing in ensembles with non-guitarists creates the necessity for a common musical language. Try telling a horn player that you're playing "fourth string, fifth fret" and let me know how that conversation goes.

* Anyone wanting more than a basic knowledge of music theory will benefit greatly from knowing how to read standard notation. Tablature might be easy to read, but it's not very effective at illustrating voice-leading, a fundamental building block of western music.

My point is that the need for standard notation is situational. The student who wants to broaden her horizons and get into a jazz ensemble will probably be more than happy to learn standard notation because it moves her towards her goal. That same student, however, might be completely turned off by standard notation if it's jammed down her throat along with the rest of some "no fun of any kind" method book as soon as she walks through your door. And the reality is, whether we as teachers like it or not, students who only want to play rock music in a garage band probably don't have a lot of reasons to learn standard notation - so force it on them at your own risk.

Understanding music theory - I still remember the day when my music world was turned inside-out. I was in harmony class at Tulane University and the professor was explaining to us that the "rules" of music theory and voice leading that we know today are really not rules at all, they're just conventions that were used so frequently by composers such as Bach, Mozart and Beethoven that they were codified - and then routinely ignored by later composers such as Chopin and Debussy.

What does that mean? In the immortal words of Grease, "The rules are, there ain't no rules." In other words, different musical aspirations require different angles on music theory. Does your student want to be a rock god? Start with the pentatonic minor scale and the mixolydian mode. Jazz cat? Modes, arpeggios and chromaticism. Folk artist? Chord progressions.

The point here is to make sure that the theory you're teaching supports what your student wants to accomplish. Classical music theory and rock/blues theory have some very basic differences that can be frustrating to a student. For example, classical music typically requires defining a major or minor tonal center, while blues/rock often requires an ambiguous (not predominantly major or minor) tonal center. Teach your student theory in conflict with how they want to sound and watch the confusion set in.

So what can you do about all this? Listen to your student. Understand his goals, what his favorite kinds of music are, which players he admires most. Help him pursue his goals, and support that pursuit by teaching him the things he needs to know to achieve what he wants to achieve. Your reward for this will be trust and engagement, and you will find with many of your students that as they get better they will come to you wanting to broaden the scope of what theyíre learning. At this point they will basically be asking to learn the stuff that they would have complained about had you hit them with it right from the start.

You can also help your students by knowing your own strengths and weaknesses as a teacher. If a potential new student comes to you wanting to learn jazz, but you're a blues/rock specialist, build a referral network so you can always do the right thing for the student.

And that's really the crux of the matter - it's not about us. It's about our students. If we always keep that in mind then we will be able to figure out what's best for each of them individually in order to keep them engaged and enjoying themselves.

About the author: Dan Vuksanovich got his Master of Music degree in classical guitar performance from the Peabody Conservatory of The Johns Hopkins University in 1999. He currently teaches and blogs about how to get better at guitar via his website, www.whyisuckatguitar.com.

Great Performances: Walk Off The Earth Performs With 5 People On One Guitar

Sat, 14 Jan 2012 15:45:00 +0000

This particular performance is not of the caliber I normally include in the Great Performances series, but the novelty of how it is being performed is worth observing. Walk Off The Earth is an Ontario-based independent contemporary band that specializes in inventive covers of popular songs and their own originals, This particular cover of "Somebody I Used to Know" by Goyte was shared with me on Google Plus. All five members of the band play one acoustic guitar, each taking a piece of the composition as their own. It's a very simple song going back and forth between D minor and C major in D dorian.

Their other material is equally as inventive and interesting, incorporating loop pedals and unconventional instruments. This kind of creativity is sorely needed in contemporary music, and whether or not they are ever signed by a major label is really immaterial. Be sure to visit their YouTube channel and check out the other innovative materials they have posted (fair warning: they have potty mouths).

Watch on YouTube

Subscribe by RSS Subscribe by email

Current Trends In Live Online Music Lessons

Fri, 13 Jan 2012 13:40:00 +0000

I have been offering live private music lessons via webcam since 2008. Over that course of time, the online environment has changed dramatically thanks to social media advances. Despite these trends, my student roster continues to be sporadic and modest in size. I had attributed that primarily to the notion that online lessons had simply not "caught on" yet as a viable way of receiving music instruction. Given my recent experiences, however, I am beginning to change my point of view.

This recent article from the New York Times entitled With Enough Bandwidth, Many Join the Band - Music Lessons on Webcam Grows in Popularity, Catherine Saint Louis accurately reports the advantages of online lessons (convenience in scheduling, no need to travel, etc.), but also identifies accurately the trend in online music lessons that is catching hold with consumers. It turns out that the surge in popularity is an economic one more than resistance to a new method of instruction. In the article, Saint Louis reveals that "niche" instruments are popular choices for online lessons - instruments such as the bagpipes, ukulele, and mandolin. This is an economic motivation of supply and demand - most of us would have to hunt for an experienced teacher of niche instruments in our geographic area, but you can find many willing to skype with you.

The other type of online lesson that is surging are those students looking to study with professional specialists on a particular instrument. Again, it is an economic scarcity. Top-flight specialists are available on skype for anyone worldwide rather than having to hunt for a specialist in your area. One such specialist I have spoken to stated that about half of his current private lessons roster is online via skype.

I am a generalist when it comes to music instruction. My area of focus is on helping beginning and intermediate students build a foundation in the basics of musicianship and the mechanics of their chosen instrument. I can start beginners, work with intermediate students, and coach advanced students on any band or orchestra instrument, voice students, piano students, and guitar. What I can not do is give specialized instruction at an advanced level for any of those instruments with the exception of my primary instrument, which is the clarinet. So far in the four years I have been teaching online lessons, the trend for me as a generalist has been to get elementary or middle school students who are in a situation geographically where a local instructor is not available or affordable. I have also worked with a few adult learners from all over the world - people who always wanted to learn or want to return to the instrument they played as a child. In all of those students, all but two have only taken lessons online with me for an average of two months. I currently have two students for online lessons, one of which has been with me for a little over a year.

The convenience of online lessons also means that students will tend to try it and not stick with it. When it comes to specialists, however, their client base is dedicated to studying the instrument and actively seeking out top-tier instruction. They are more likely to stay committed, though any of us who have been through an undergraduate music degree program can tell you that even students studying to be professional performers may not always be dedicated.

As the validity of online instruction, blended learning, and cyber schools continues to grow, economics will obviously continue to be the determining factor in the kinds of online music instruction that proliferates. I would add that instrumental instruction for high demand instruments, such as guitar, piano, and drums, will continue to be lucrative for teachers simply by virtue of the vast number of students looking for help. There are cultural factors at play there as well, but that is a different topic for a different article.

Given my current experiences and information such as this New York Times article, it definitely gives me pause and is food for thought. A change of focus is in order for my online lessons service - what that change entails has not yet formulated itself in my mind. Suggestions are welcome - send them to my contact page.

Subscribe by RSS Subscribe by email

Best Online Tools for Musicians

Thu, 12 Jan 2012 16:25:00 +0000

The following article is a guest post from Elaine Hirsch, who has contributed to TJWmusic.com on several previous occasions.

New software and the rise of the Internet have made it easier than ever for artists to earn money with their music while gaining an audience and improving their sound. There are many online tools now available to musicians to help with a variety of needs, including instrument tuning and composition. MBA Online has stated that the mobile revolution – with sleek and stylish devices becoming more useful in terms of processing power and functionality is the next step in revolutionizing consumer products. Furthermore, the applications created for these devices create huge market value for app buyers. Here's a look at some of the best online tools available.

Cleartune Chromatic Tuner App

Cleartune is one of the most popular instrument tuner apps available today. This app is available for the iPhone and Android phones and can accurately tune your instrument with your smart phone's built-in microphone. With Cleartune, you'll find it easy to tune electric and acoustic guitars, bowed strings, bass, woodwinds, brass, piano, tablas, tympani and most other instruments. This app even includes adjustable calibration and support for custom temperaments, in addition to other great features. It costs $3.99 but is a must for any musician.

Finale - Online Music Notation and Composition Software

Finale is one of the biggest names in the music software industry.They offer a range of products, including Finale Song Writer. This program gives an easy way for artists to create and then print sheet music, import/export MIDI files, enter music with a keyboard, mouse or MIDI device and create music with up to 8 staves. This software costs $50. The main Finale program, however, gives you the ultimate control of every part of the printed page. It costs $600/$350 and provides the most power for any artist that wants the most features while creating music online.

APS MusicMaster Pro

MusicMaster Pro is often called an all-in-one tool and a must have for any musician. Although not free, this $15 iPad application provides musicians witha PDF viewer that allows them to highlight and mark music, or any other document. It also comes with a metronome, a tuner, an audio recorder and playback, a stopwatch, customizable playlists, a unique score and audio filing system and more. This app is wonderfully priced and is a convenient and easy to use tool for music teachers, students, conductors and performers of all kinds.

Noteflight

Noteflight is another online notation program that has received rave reviews. Recently, BerkleeMusic.com, the online extension of the award-winning Berklee College of Music, partnered with Noteflight to incorporate this online software into many of the college's courses. The app allows you to view, create, print and playback music notation and is one of the most innovative products on the market.

These online tools are designed for musicians and offer a range of benefits. Using these tools, musicians can find new ways to compose, edit their music and share it with a much wider audience. Other tools like tuners, metronomes and playlists are also helpful and save both time and money.

KeyStone A Cappella To Compete In Harmony Sweepstakes

Wed, 11 Jan 2012 12:50:00 +0000

KeyStone A Cappella is my newly-formed semi-professional contemporary a cappella singing group. We were formed in April of 2011 and sang our first public performances in December. KeyStone sent an application to the Mid-Atlantic Region coordinator for the annual Harmony Sweepstakes competition back in December. We just received word yesterday that we can officially add February 25th at 7:30 PM at The Birchmere in Alexandria, Virginia to our performance calendar!

The Harmony Sweepstakes A Cappella Festival is the premier American showcase for vocal harmony music. The annual national competition draws from hundreds of vocal groups from around the country with regional competitions in eight cities. The winning group from each festival is flown to perform in front of celebrity judges and a sold out house of enthusiastic a cappella fans at the National Finals in San Fransisco. Past winners of “The Sweeps” as they are known in a cappella circles are such heavyweights as Maxx Factor, Groove for Thought, Toxic Audio, Naturally 7, SoVoSo, M-Pact, The Coats, and North Shore.

We invite all of our friends, family, and fans to join us for this great night of close harmony singing as we take the stage for our first appearance at a regional level. Tickets can be purchased through Ticketmaster HERE. We recommend buying them early –this is a great show and seating is limited.

Market Trends For Private Music Lessons

Mon, 09 Jan 2012 18:45:00 +0000

There is no question that trained musicians who offer private lessons deserve to be compensated fairly for the time and effort they put in to teaching private lesson students. There is also no question that in the current global economic slump, less people can afford to pay for private lessons at $40 or more an hour.

I have been teaching privately in person and online since I hung up my marching band director's hat in 2008. I have definitely noticed that the majority of families who want band and orchestra lessons have either beginner or intermediate level students and come from upper middle income or higher famimiles. I have had more than one student who had a nanny and had maid service going on when I visited.

There are also far many more students out there looking for guitar lessons than any other instrument, with piano, drum set, and voice being the second most popular. Band and orchestra continues to be "that thing that kids get involved in during high school" while pop music instruments continue to be the dominant force in American culture.

I offer lessons in all of these instruments at the beginner and intermediate level and will coach performers at the advanced level. I have enough direct experience with all of them to get someone started with good habits and point them in the right direction. There is no question in my mind that at this juncture, I need to invest some time in becoming more proficient at guitar to be able to tap into that large pool of students. I currently am working with beginner guitar students as part of the Remote Access program at my cyber charter school. I am guiding them through the Alfred Basic Guitar series in assignments where they record exercises from our unit of study to send to me and then play for me "live" on webcam.

Seeing what the market is willing to pay for is an interesting indicator of our economy and culture.

Subscribe by RSS Subscribe by email

The Passing Of A Wind Band Icon: W. Francis McBeth

Fri, 06 Jan 2012 18:15:00 +0000

While sharing a few articles with the Facebook Band Directors PLN today, I saw the announcement that W. Francis McBeth had passed away.

Read Southern Music Company's Announcement HERE

McBeth had a long and prosperous career as a band and orchestra composer. His wind band piece Chant and Jubilo was one of the first works as a young high school student that struck a chord with me and made me fall in love with the wind band. A fellow Sinfonian, McBeth received the Charles E. Lutton Man of Music Award in 1988 for his continued contributions to American music.

As I glanced at his collected works on his Wikipedia page, I saw the titles of so many great works, and so many more that I have never had the chance to perform. Kaddish, They Hung Their Harps in the Willows, Of Sailors and Whales - so many great performances.

May we all have as strong an impact on the world around us as W. Francis McBeth.

Subscribe by RSS Subscribe by email

Choosing Your Next Concert's Repertoire With Smart Music

Fri, 06 Jan 2012 18:00:00 +0000

Even before the final strains of the December Winter Concert float into the air, I am already contemplating repertoire selection for my spring concert. Choosing concert repertoire is one of the most important decisions that the director of a public school performing ensemble has to make. You spend countless hours working with your students on that material, and the technical and aesthetic content of those pieces comprises the bulk of what they will learn about musicianship and skill building this school year. Add to that important notion the obvious need to carefully consider the difficulty level, instrumentation, and orchestration of the repertoire you are selecting to make certain that it meets the needs of every section of your ensemble. Is the French horn part out of range for your young horn section? Is the cello part challenging enough for the veterans in your orchestra? How much polyphony is really going on between the upper woodwinds and the mallet percussion?

Choosing repertoire is an extremely important process that I discuss in more detail in this article.

In "the old days" (say, 10 years ago), an ensemble director would have to resort to relying on their own prior experience with repertoire, study scores at a music retailer, or listen to demo CD's from publishers and the J.W. Pepper catalogue. When listening to those recordings, however, you often did not have access to the score, so determining the difficulty level of inner parts could be difficult. So, you make some hard choices and hope for the best.

Man, that method is so 2002!

In 2012, you can peruse thousands of titles for band and orchestra for all ages and ability levels using the Smart Music library. The best part: every title has a quality recording of the full ensemble and will display on screen every part in the score! You can listen to indivieual parts played back by midi piano as well, both with or without the ensemble recording. Want to see if there's enough to do for your percussion section? Call up the percussion 1 and 2 parts. Check the technical demands being placed on the upper woodwinds? No problem.

For this spring, I needed two to three pieces for string ensemble. I have 6th through 12th grade strings, some of whom are new to the instrument, so repertoire in the J.W. Pepper "medium easy" category is about the right level. So, I searched the Smart Music library for string ensemble pieces at the ME level and got a list of about 7 or 8 screens worth of repertoire with 50 titles per page. I was looking for a grade 2 string ensemble piece with percussion that I could use with my combined high school and middle school strings, and I found it in Robert Sheldon's "African Adventure". Perusing each part revealed that my most inexperienced students would be able to master the violin 2, 3, viola, and cello parts by concert time. My high school and advanced middle school students could easily hold down the violin 1 part.

Second, I needed a "stretch" piece for my high school and advanced middle school strings students. I found the perfect piece in Richard Meyer's "Geometric Dances", grade 3. This three movement work was the winner of the Texas Orchestra Directors Association Composition Contest in 1996. A meaty first violin part for my strongest players, accessible yet challenging parts for other voices, and some percussion in the third movement made this piece a home run. Plus, Richard Meyer's music is incredibly well-crafted and a lot of fun to play and listen to.

Smart Music made it possible for me to listen to each of these pieces, view the parts, and make my important choices for the life of my students this winter and spring. On top of that, since both pieces are in the Smart Music library, students can use Smart Music as a practice tool to help themselves prepare and master their parts. This will be particularly handy for the fiddle music the first violins are called upon to perform in movement 1 of the Meyer piece, which is entitled "Square Dance" (geometric... square... get it?)

To gain access to the Smart Music library, you need a year's subscription. For the amount of time and energy Smart Music is saving me, it's worth every penny.

Subscribe by RSS Subscribe by email