We have all marveled at the ensembles from smaller schools that earn straight Is at festival while performing music from the AA list. What is it that enables the class C band to masterfully play Holst, Reed and Gillingham? How does a class B orchestra perform Copeland, Beethoven and Dvorak? They do not have access to private instructors, their facilities are some of the worst in the area and their budget is not any better than the other schools in the area.

The reason these ensembles are able to masterfully perform this literature is the rehearsal is a carefully prepared lesson emphasizing skills development, refinement and growth, constant review, effective teaching methodology and creating a positive attitude by eliminating the road blocks to success. The successful teacher is constantly seeking ways to create opportunities for success in his or her students.

Lesson Preparation – Eliminating Road Blocks

A great performance is the result of diligent lesson preparation. The goal of our program is to present a concert. To successfully achieve that goal we must create instructional objectives that logically progress to the fulfillment of our goal. One cannot perform music unless one has developed musical skills. Tone production, intonation, rhythmic proficiency, technical facility, tonguing or bowing proficiency, understanding music symbols, phrasing and musicality must be mastered before we can expect the composition to be masterfully performed. We need to ask ourselves what does the music require of the musician and create a sequential pedagogical skills development curriculum to achieve these goals.

Musical skill acquisition should be the result of a long-term realistic plan from beginning band and orchestra to graduation. The key word is realistic. We must consider how much time is available to implement the curriculum. Does the beginning class meet twice a week or five times and for how many minutes? Are the classes designed as full band, like instrument or homogenous classes? How are the middle school/junior high and high school ensembles configured? These are factors we must consider before creating an "ideal" curriculum for the students. A good curriculum incorporates adequate time for expansion and review of the acquired skills.

Creating a curriculum does not have to be an agonizing process. For first year band or orchestra, establish the basic musical skills the students must have to perform beginning literature. Emphasize proper posture, tone production, pulse awareness, rhythm reading expectations, a few scales at a specific tempo (including the chromatic scale), ranges for wind instruments or positions on strings, appropriate alternate fingerings and a few rudimental skills for percussion. Generally, your method book will determine these, but that is not the only teaching tool. We need to supplement the limitations of any method book with other sources and our own materials.

Each year should continually reinforce the basics and requirements of the year before while expanding the student musician’s skills through graduation. Remember to continually allow time for review of acquired skills as the curriculum progresses and maintain a logical sequential pattern. For instance, why not teach cut time before learning eighth notes. When you teach cut time first the students already understand the relationship of whole, half and quarter notes so you are introducing one new concept. Later, when you introduce eighth notes the students have mastered the concept of subdividing the pulse in cut time with quarter notes, now all they have to learn is a new symbol, the eighth note.

Regardless whether there has been a curriculum in place or not, how can we improve an ensemble’s music skills and performance within the short term? What are the skills the students need to build a better band or orchestra in sixty days?

Before we begin to develop lesson plans we need to assess the students’ capabilities. Teaching them rhythm patterns in eighth and sixteenth notes is useless if they cannot maintain a steady pulse and properly execute half and dotted quarter notes. Do you remember those education classes you had to take in college? You know, where they talked about Piaget, Gagne, Skinner and all those guys when we wanted to talk about Stravinsky, Brubeck, Dvorak, Grainger and Holst. Do you remember the term, pre-test, post-test? We need to know what the students know before we can design effective lesson plans. Where they should be or we expect them to be is irrelevant. We need to start where they are, not where we think they should be. Conductors get the privilege of starting where they want. Teachers must start where the students are.

Think back to your lessons on your principal instrument in college. How did you become a better performer during those four or five or ten years? Did you acquire your skills through the literature you played or did the literature you played reflect your acquired skills? You developed that wonderful tone by practicing long tones, breathing exercises, lip slurs or long bows that lasted forever. You gained technical facility through scales at the merciless ticking of a metronome not from a solo. Your rhythm skills developed as your private teacher banged away, ‘1, 2,3 ,4, 1," as you played the dotted eighth sixteenth pattern at the merciless ticking of a metronome. Over and over and ….. Well, you get the idea. Our musical performance abilities are the result of the musical skills we developed.

We create opportunities for success when we develop our student’s musical skills and then apply them to the literature. When they have sixteenth note runs in the music they play right by them, evenly, with relative ease, since they have practiced them regularly for weeks, months and years. If they have not developed the technical facility in that key the sixteenth note pattern will be uneven and out of control. And, the student cannot develop the expertise to play the passage well in the month before the concert. Fluidity, is gained through diligent exacting work that cannot be accomplished in four to six weeks. When the student encounters the sixteenth note pattern and has the facility to play it with relative ease, he/she succeeds and gains a positive attitude about their abilities in music. That’s how that class B orchestra just blows by Copeland.

Obviously, this applies to all aspects of skill acquisition. Legato passages play with ease because of tone development and breath control. Rhythms are easily performed in the music because they have been learned and drilled as part of the currculum. Tonguing and bowing concerns in the music are minimal because there has been long term, sequential development of these skills. Attacks, releases, tone, blend and balance just need minor adjustments in the music because they have been addressed constantly every time the ensemble plays, whether it was long tones, scales, rhythm studies or tonguing exercises. Instead of constantly running into problems, the student is equipped to enjoy the music making process. The roadblocks to success have been minimized, if not eliminated.

The next step in preparing our lessons is music selection. It is important to select concert material appropriate to the ensemble’s skill level, available instructional time and your rehearsal abilities.

Choosing literature that exceeds the ability of the ensemble throughout the entire composition is unrealistic. Use the 80-20 Rule. Many years ago I attended a clinic presented by Professor H. Robert Reynolds, the director of bands at The University of Michigan. He said the ensemble should be able to sight read 80% of any composition you intend to perform on a concert. As a young director I couldn’t believe he would set standards so low. Then, I started thinking about his words. He was absolutely right. Any of the ensemble literature I played, with few exceptions, I could sight read at least 80% of the work. Wind band, orchestral, quintet, musicals, jazz, whatever I only needed to "woodshed" between 5-20% of the piece. With the rare exception of a tour-de-force solo, I had the skills necessary to sight read at least 70% of the work. I just needed to work on the finesse of the music.

Don’t select music that will monopolize instructional time to learn. There needs to adequate rehearsal time to work on fundamentals. Each rehearsal must emphasize the development of tone, technique, ensemble precision, rhythm and intonation. We must not let the concert music interfere with the continued growth of musical skills. Remember, six weeks in school time is not six weeks in the real world. There are assemblies, school wide testing, full orchestra, field trips, snow days, vacation days. You get the picture. I always planned 20% less rehearsal time and considered the performance was one week before the actual performance. Even with the community band I conduct, the real dress rehearsal is two weeks before the concert, not the week before. There needs to be time for the musicians to get comfortable with the concert. Choose music that draws on the abilities of the students and encourages their application in performance.

Consider the keys in the music you select. Are the students prepared to play in them and have they acquired the skills to negotiate technical passages and play in tune in the key? If they will be required to play fast passages and are not fluent in the finger patterns for the key, they will not be able to learn this in time for the concert without sacrificing musical presentation, at the least. If the ensemble has not worked intonation exercises or chorales in the key it will be difficult to correct suitable for the performance.

Determine the rhythmic sophistication of the composition. Are the rhythmic patterns consistent with the ensemble’s abilities? Has the ensemble developed a strong enough awareness of the subdivision of the pulse to properly place notes in slow tempos? Check for meters that may cause the students difficulty to be sure they are in their domain of mastery.

Other considerations are style, length, ranges, articulations, fingering, bowing or sticking demands. Choosing a piece with a great deal of slow legato playing can be beneficial if the ensemble is fairly adept at this style rhythmically and in sustained playing. If they aren’t you need to minimize this style until they have developed the skills needed. We need to improve through success, not by placing huge obstacles in the way that foster frustration. Passages that require fast tonguing or spiccato bowing will not play well in the concert if we have not prepared the students for these challenges and eliminate opportunities for failure. Excessive range will be a problem especially at the end of a selection or concert if embouchure development has not been consistently addressed. It is important to select music that compliments and refines the skills of the ensemble at its level of development.

Perhaps the most critical consideration when selecting concert music is your abilities to teach it. Do not confuse conducting the piece with teaching it. One of the reasons the school down the road can play more demanding literature successfully is the director has a large bag-of-tricks acquired through years of trial and error. I always equate teaching with a toolbox. When we first own a home we may have a screwdriver, pliers and a hammer. Every project around the house takes a long time. Over the years we convince our spouses we need the multi-socket wrench, power drill and screwdriver, a circular saw, you know, all that Tool Man stuff. Now, the jobs that used to take an hour only take ten minutes. It is the same for us as teachers. The more sophisticated the composition the more it will call upon efficient teaching skills. We must be careful to select literature we have the tools to teach.

Finally, we need to study the score as we make our lesson plans. Determine the skills required to perform the piece and include them in the fundamental development of the ensemble. Anticipate problem areas and incorporate them into the development portion of your rehearsal. There may be an awkward rhythm, difficult interval for brasses, a tricky bowing, isolate these and teach the concepts as part of the skills process. Mark the score for entrances, meters, tempos, melodies and counter melodies and isolated effects. Those little triangle effects, or cymbal crashes can hide in the score and the musicians can never now where they are. Determine the phrasing and practice conducting beginnings, endings, transitions, meter changes and phrases with a metronome. Studying on your own with a metronome will expose tempo deviations in a rehearsal immediately. You will be accustomed to the proper speed and you feel the change. Not knowing how you want to phrase until the third week is a waste of rehearsal time. The musicians will have become accustomed to improper or no phrasing at all. Retraining them is difficult at best. Your knowledge of the score makes playing the music a lot easier for the ensemble.

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