When a student doesn’t want to come….

As teachers, we all have students who want to cancel their private lesson because they are not prepared…they didn’t practice.  When they (or their moms) call to cancel, I tell them this is a slippery slope; one week of not practicing turns into two, and before they know it, they don’t want to come to lessons anymore because their skills have gotten away from them.

I encourage them to come to that lesson anyway; even though they have missed an opportunity for muscle memory growth that week, it doesn’t mean you have nothing to teach them.  Don’t yell at them!  I don’t mean you shouldn’t admonish them, but don’t scare them into not wanting to come back.

Think of it as an opportunity to use their instrument to explore a new facet of music theory, to learn more about the composer of their piece, and yes, to find out just how important that lost week of muscle memory was….I have a lever harp in my studio that I use sometimes in those cases; I strongly believe that transference of skills (i.e.,relation of notes on the piano to notes on the harp) facilitates a deeper understanding of music theory and appreciation.

Authentic Purpose and My Passion

          http://www.amazon.com/Authentic-Purpose-Tamilyn-Banno-ebook/dp/B00A7D12XE

My sister, Tamilyn Banno, recently wrote a wonderful little book called “Authentic Purpose”.  She asked if I would read some drafts before publishing, and do some editing.  I thought, “How cute, my little sister is writing a little book”.  Well, it turns out I was very profoundly taken by her written words.

There is a “quiz” in it, but not like any quiz I have ever taken…as a matter of fact, I hemmed and hawed before I finally agreed to do it; I thought I just didn’t have the time.  I wanted to edit what she had written; I didn’t have time for actually answering the questions!  It’s sort of like a Cosmo magazine quiz we used to take when we were young (What Are You Looking For In A Relationship..remember those?).

But I did take it….and as a result, my purpose in life has never been more clear.  I do a lot of different kinds of things to make a living, and getting the bills paid each month was about all I could think about…until I took that little quiz.  I realize that my “Authentic Purpose” is more than teaching or performing.  My real passion, as I’ve now discovered, is providing my students with an opportunity to perform…not just for the sake of showing mom and dad what they’ve been working on, but by helping them learn, through recitals, that life can be a little messy.

Recital pieces are rarely perfect.  They’re not; get over it.  Yes, we strive for excellence, of course we do; but the real measure of a person, I feel, is how they handle their mistakes. That is what I often focus on in my teaching, and a much happier lady I am for helping my students to understand that.

Stagger breathing

Ok, I thought I was the only one who did this…thankfully. I am NOT!

When I was in high school, I was taught that “stagger breathing” was taking a catch-breath in between words.  A I grew in my craft, it occurred to me that in a choir situation, this could be ominous:  too many repeated consonants, and LOTS of “S” at the end of a word going on…

But how do you fix that?  The answer is easy, but difficult to employ at first because it is soooo counter-intuitive!  Here it is:

Instead of taking a breath in between words, take your breath instead of a word.  You read that right!  Instead of singing a short word or note (the word “the”, for example), pretend you are singing it (for the audience’s benefit)…but in reality, you want to inhale instead!

Now, this needs to be practiced; the technique is difficult at first, if one was trained to take that catch-breath in between words.  Once each individual in your choir becomes more comfortable with this concept, it’s time to make sure that everybody doesn’t take their breath on the same word!

That’s how I found out I wasn’t the only one who used this technique: an acquaintance of mine, Linda, and I were hired as ringers to be the only two altos at a performance.  At rehearsal, I decided to employ “my new technique”…only to discover that Linda was doing the same thing!  And yes, we were taking our breaths (for long phrases) on the same words.  We kept snickering every time it happened; at the break, we sat down to “divide up” the words so we wouldn’t stagger breathe at the same time.

 

And I thought I was so clever….!  Have any of you been practicing this method?

Dipthongs and Smooth Phrasing

This is an exercise that is difficult at fist, but becomes much easier in just a short period of time. If I could only pass along one single technique, this would be it!

We’ll be using this melody I made up for the occasion:

I Will Praise Your Name

Music Education: Vegetable Soup?

These videos I’m sharing today put a whole new spin on teaching instruments and the orchestra; I believe you’ve got to somehow include this in your lesson plans!  Click here: Vegetable Orchestra

The above video I found on my MSN home page today;  I decided to do some research, and found links to the source: The Vienna Vegetable Orchestra.  For those of you who have your students make their own orchestra instruments, this is a trip!

Here is a sample of their concert work:

An innovative way of making music….as music teachers, finding a way to “serve up” the orchestra can be dry. Our responsibility is to motivate; this is a fine choice for teaching the instruments, and for an extension of teaching “found sound”.  Enjoy!

Unison vowel production in Music Education III

Robert Shaw, the incomparable American conductor, said, “To create a smooth legato line, sing vowels only until the vowels align with the beat. Then add the consonants back in “on top” of the vowel line“.

This is a very short way of stating my earlier blog on unison vowel production and legato line; but if short and sweet works better for you, then I am happy to include his words.  I do tend to belabor a point, I have been told….

Anyway, you can hear the success of using this technique in the Robert Shaw Chorale rendition of  “Shenandoah”.  I cannot think of a lovelier example of legato singing.

Music Ed and Do Re Mi

Here’s a wonderful video that went viral this summer; it was recently sent to me again for the third time….I figure that means there are still folks who haven’t seen it.  I smile every time I see it, so for those of you who haven’t viewed it yet, I’m including it here.  The Sound of Music was a really big deal in my family when I was growing up, and when I saw this video for the first time, there were tears in my eyes.  I just figured it was because I was tired from a long week, but my sister (who sent it to me) said she, too, felt her eyes fill up as she viewed it!

Music Education and Articulated Consonants

So….once your vowels are unified, it’s definitely time to move on to consonants…..

A reader left an excellent comment: 

 “Dear Michelle,
I have some issues with how to pronounce final consonants, because I learn different things from language/speech teachers than in music. For example, in speech/language sessions, I was taught not to dentalize or aspirate “d” or “t” endings, but it seems that this is what is taught in music.
As I am not a professional musician, I realize I may be missing something. Can you help out? Thanks.”

The way you articulate in vocal music is definitely different than you would in speech; it’s  as if you must be fluid in two different languages.  In making music, I strongly advocate putting a “shadow vowel” after an explosive consonant (like a D or a T).  Robert Shaw said “Two consonants in succession (p/l, d/b, t/f, etc.) require a neutral “uh” vowel to be rhythmically inserted between them. Two words, one ending in a consonant and the next beginning with one, frequently require this neutral vowel (or “schwa,” or “shadow vowel”) for clarity of articulation”

I would further recommend having your choir put this “shadow vowel” on an explosive consonant (D, T, P, etc) that happens at the end of a phrase:  In his treatment for choral singing , ” The Chorale Singers Cheat Sheet” , Sean Boulware says, “Explode consonants, don’t implode them. Audiences may love us for our vowels, but they respect (and pay) us for our consonants.”  You must have your choir execute “shadow vowels” so that the text is clearly understood by the audience.  Now, if the “schwa” is just too much, either have the choir as a whole back off a little bit, or just cut back on the number of choir members who are to perform the “shadow vowel“.  Remember, you want to have enough so the choir is easily understood, but not so much that you turn off your listeners! 

It’s a bit like “terrace dynamics“:  even though that means to go from one dynamic level to another (piano to forte)  with no graduations of volume (no diminuendos or crescendos), this was often accomplished in the Baroque era by suddenly eliminating instruments to achieve a quiter sound until it was time to play more loudly again.

Let’s Take A Break!

Time now, I think, to take a break from all this talk of  correct unison singing, vowels, consonants, yadda, yadda, yadda…..come with me now to “Africa” and hear Perpetuum Jazzile perform, making music with  an astounding a capella rendition of rock band Toto’s song with an amazing duplication of a rain storm…this is nothing but pure enjoyment.  Please take the time to watch this video; if you’ve never seen it, I promise you’ll enjoy it.  If you’ve seen it before, I’m pretty sure you’ll want to see it again!

Music Education: How and when to pronounce “S”

Oh, my……how and when to pronounce “S”,  if done incorrectly, will make the smile of any trained singer listening to the choir’s performance turn into a grimace!  We need to fix that problem immediately!

This requires more than just a conductor giving cues for ending a phrase; singing in and around an “S” requires group practice.

Many times, especially with an older group, I have found that an elongated “sss” is not uncommon; often I find that choir members who do this consistently are actually trying very hard to follow my directions.  If you can isolate the offenders, I recommend asking for ‘help’ from them, and a few others, in this area by asking them to help out by “lisping” when an “S” comes along.

I myself always use a lisp when I am a choir member; in this way, I am not contributing to the problem! It helps that I actually had a mild lisp as a child; my youngest sister had one, too, and we went to the “speech teacher” at our elementary school.  I was able to overcome my problem pretty easily (turns out I was “lazy”…Me!  Can you believe it?  Maybe that’s why I am such a stickler now…)

This helps with elongated “S”, but it’s up to you as the conductor to make sure that your choir holds off on closing their syllable; they’ll need to close their “S” all at the same time to avoid any “hisssssing” that might result from individuals closing to pronounce the “S” at different times.

Next time, a nice change of pace for us…don’t miss this video!