The Auto-Pilot Warm Up

It's so familiar for me to stand in a band room of any sort and hear everyone warm up at the same time.  It seems like wherever I go, that sound always sounds the same.  The fact is that many people's individual warm up routine also sounds the same each time as well. 

I've started to get requests for me to cover certain topics in my blog now that I have a few regular readers.  One of those questions is about developing volume.  My thought is that the best way to develop more volume (or less volume) is through the warm up.  Many people warm up at mezzo something-or-other.  We are what we eat, er, play.  If you warm up every day in the mezzo range, you will become very comfortable and good at playing in the mezzo range.  If you push the dynamic level to a higher level during your warm up, you'll become better at playing all around in that higher volume level.  Disclaimer: monitor your intonation and support when you change dynamic levels in your warm up.  Practicing loud, out of tune splats will not make you better at playing loudly; it will make you better at producing loud, out of tune splats!

To elaborate more on this, here are some ideas on how to incorporate dynamics into the warm up:

During Long Tones
Disclaimer: Beware of playing long tones at loud dynamics for a long time, especially while playing high long tones.

• Crescendo and decrescendo during the long tones so that you reach either extreme on each note or every other note.
• Play loud long tones in the low range where its easy to feel the bagpipe feeling of emptying the lungs evenly.  Keep each tone steady as possible and use a tuner to make sure that it stays in tune.
• Play long tones as quietly as possible.  Work on eliminating the fuzzy sound that occurs at the lower limit of your own dynamic range.

During Clark Studies
Disclaimer: If you read the actual text in the Clark book, it tells the musician to play these studies as quietly as possible.  They're not kidding, you can hurt your lips if you play these too loudly for too long.

• Play them as quietly as possible and work on eliminating the ghost notes that happen when playing at the very lower limit of your own dynamic range.

During Lip Slurs

• Play the whole lip slur at either the upper or lower limit of your own dynamic range.

• Crescendo or decrescendo the whole lip slur, starting in one dynamic and moving to the other.

During Lyrical Warm Ups

• Play the whole melody at either the upper or lower limit to your own dynamic range.
• If the melody doesn't have dynamics, write them in.  Exaggerate them first and then settle into a normal dynamic range.

 I hope these ideas help with developing a comfort with playing in a louder or softer dynamic range.  If anyone else has any blog ideas or questions they would like answered in a blog, email me or comment on a post!

Finding My Rhythm

My blog is starting to develop its own rhythm.  That sentence actually fits pretty well with a music blog!  I tend to switch between articles that share the bit of knowledge I have about music and how to become a better musician with views from my little niche of music.  I also seem to be developing blog readers who like reading about these things.  It's a good match, and I'm so excited that the feedback I've been getting is positive!  I've even been getting requests for blogs on certain pedagogical topics.  I haven't forgotten to write them, it's just that with a wedding a month away, I might not get to it right now.

Now that I've settled into blogging and have started following other people's blogs, I have found some blogs that follow the same topics that I do.  One of those blogs is the one that my good friend from the Royal Northern College of Music writes.  She's currently a doctoral tuba student at the University of Iowa.  She has scholarly entries interspersed between quotes and photos that relate to music.  It's a good mix of entries that she wrote herself and entries that she's found elsewhere.  Her blog features entries on the friendship between Vaughn Williams and Ravel, the process of recording all of the national anthems for the olymics, and the best rehearsal techniques for a brass ensemble.  She even has a practice pie chart!  I think everyone should flood her blog this week and leave a comment on your favorite entry.  Tell her Amy sent you!

Kate Wohlman: Musician and Overthinker

General Characteristics of Good Sight-Readers (2 of 2)

            A few weeks ago, I published a blog on how we sight-read music.  I mentioned that soon I would publish another portion of my paper.  I’m sorry that it’s taken me so long!  I’m getting married in a month and a half and, needless to say, I’m pretty busy.  Here, then, is the blog-edited section of my sight-reading paper about the general characteristics of good sight-readers.  To make it fit a more reader-friendly blog format, I’ve just taken out some direct quotes, simplified some of the language and elaborated on a few topics that may be of interest to all of you sight-reading enthusiasts out there. (I know you’re out there somewhere!)

Many studies have tried to understand what makes a musician particularly good at sight-reading. There have now been enough studies that have revealed the same results that we can take these studies into consideration when we look at the characteristics of good sight-readers.  These skills include the ability to scan over the music accurately prior to playing, to know tonal patterns that construct music, to read rhythms quickly and accurately, and to achieve higher-than-average grade point averages in both academics and juries. 

            A very important step in sight-reading takes place before the first note is played.  Musicians must be able to quickly and accurately interpret the music prior to playing.  In a study conducted by Gary E. McPherson, students were asked to sight-read a passage.  Before they started, the researcher covered the music and asked the students questions about it.  Almost none of the lowest 25 participants knew the key and time signature while almost the entire top 25% knew both facts.[1]  This shows that good sight-readers can look at the music before they start actually playing and understand all of the important features like key, time signature, new tempi, difficult accelerandi and ritardi, and difficult passages.

            Another characteristic of highly efficient sight-readers is the ability to recognize commonly used musical ideas.  A study conducted by Carol B. MacKnight proved that “tonal pattern instruction is superior to note identification teaching techniques in development of both sight-reading skill and auditory-visual discrimination skills.”[2]  This means that being able to recognize typical note patterns helps the sight-reader more than being able to read each individual note.  The ability to recognize these patterns depends greatly on learning the fundamentals of music like scales and arpeggios. Musicians use a variety of techniques to learn tonal patterns, and this recognition greatly aids in their ability to read music quickly and efficiently.

            The next characteristic of good sight-readers is by far the most widely proven and most researched.  Good sight-readers have good rhythm-reading skills.  More than half of the errors made by sight-readers are rhythmical mistakes.[3]  That means there are more rhythmical errors than all other errors combined!  Along with working to recognize typical note patterns, sight-readers can improve their abilities by working on recognizing common rhythmical patterns in all time signatures.

            One less commonly brought up point is that performance jury scores and music theory grade point averages are significantly higher in students who are proven to be better sight-readers.[4]  The fact that good sight-readers have higher jury grades may prove that students who are good sight-readers also work harder on their craft than the average student in general.  They may simply practice more than the average student and thus be better prepared for both sight-reading and their juries.  The fact that better sight-readers have higher music theory grade point averages seems to either suggest that students work harder on their skills in general or, maybe studying music theory including chordal structure helps students recognize the musical patterns they may come across while performing.  While these are characteristics that many sight-readers in the college and university level students hold, it must be said that this characteristic cannot apply outside of the college/university setting.  Not all good sight-readers are aware of advanced theory in the music that they are playing, nor do they need this knowledge be good sight-reader.  This characteristic shows up consistently in studies, but researchers seem to not know quite what it means when it comes time to translate data into action. 

            There are certainly more characteristics of good sight-readers.  This compilation is simply composed of the most commonly mentioned ones from the available literature.  In summary, the best ways to improve sight-reading are to work on recognizing common note and rhythm patterns, always check all of the details of the piece before starting, and oh yeah, PRACTICE MORE!

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[1] McPherson (Autumn, 1994): p. 227.

[2] MacKnight (Spring, 1975): p. 23.

[3] McPherson (Autumn, 1994): p. 217.

[4] Elliott (Spring, 1982): p. 11.

 

Elliott, Charles A., “The Relationship Among Instrumental Sight-Reading Ability and

Seven Selected Predicter Variables.” Journal of Research in Music Education, Vol. 30, No. 1 (Spring, 1982), pp. 5-14.

MacKnight, Carol B.  “Music Reading Ability of Beginning Wind Instrumentalists after

Melodic Instruction. Journal of Research in Music Education, Vol. 23, No. 1 (Spring, 1975), pp. 23-34.

McPherson, Gary E. “Factors and Abilities Influencing Sight-reading Skill in Music.”

Journal of Research in Music Education, Vol. 42, No. 3 (Autumn, 1994), pp. 217-231.

 

Living With a Life in Music

I found a wonderful blog entry tonight about why musicians pursue music as a career. From a different perspective, it could be about why some people don't understand why we've chosen it as a career. Either way you look at it, it's a good blog post.  I thought I'd share!

From The Leading Tone, May 13, 2011:

If you’re a working classical musician or are studying to become one, you probably find yourself having to justify that peculiarity to many people.
Or to yourself, even.
I’ve studied music at several places—one of them quite famous—but am finishing my undergraduate degree at a college mostly focused on aerospace engineering. I made the decision to study there because it was local and affordable, and because the faculty and other students are remarkable people, a well-appointed artsy island amid a vast sea of tech.
Some students from other parts of campus are genuinely surprised to learn that our school has a music department at all. “Why would you major in music—what can you even do with that?” they will ask me...

 Read the whole thing at The Leading Tone

An American's Guide to Whit Friday

          After living and going to school in Manchester, England, I’ve tried to keep up with British culture.  Beyond occasionally checking out a Manchester United football match, this includes keeping up to date with British brass banding events.  I’m amazed with how many American euphonium players haven’t  learned about or become involved with brass bands.  I can’t complain too much because I had never played in a brass band until I was in England.  My first experience in a brass band and my first time ever playing a baritone was actually when I was filling in for a rehearsal with Black Dyke.  Talk about baptism by fire!  We played “The Force of Destiny.”  I was hooked.

          A big part of banding for many brass bands is competition.  The US only has two major brass banding events per year, the US Open Brass Banding Championships, and the North American Brass Banding Association’s (NABBA) annual contest.  Great Britain, the place where banding originated, has many, many more events per year than the US.   I won’t get into all of them because frankly, they confuse me!  There are so many that even when I was in England, I couldn’t keep track of them all.  However, one of the most unique brass banding events just took place this weekend, and I wanted to take advantage of the news peg to let everyone know about it.  Maybe I’ll get someone new hooked on brass banding.

          Whit Friday (no, I didn’t miss the “e” at the end of Whit) is the Friday before the beginning of Pentecost, the Christian feast seven weeks after Easter.  This year, that Friday was June 17^th, this past Friday.  For the event, brass bands around the area meet up around mid-afternoon to cram into a coach bus with all of their instruments and supplies (and often beer).  They travel to various towns and cities in the area.  At each location, the band plays two marches.  During the first march, the band actually marches into the contesting area.  During the second march, the band plays in a set location and is judged by a hidden adjudicator.  After playing at a certain location, the band gets back in the coach and heads to the next location.  At some point in the evening, around 10:30 for smaller towns or as late as 2:00 am, the winners (winners Tameside, winners Saddleworth) are announced.  The contest is known for having so many prizes.  A band could win for marching well, having the best soloists, playing well, or even being the first to play at a certain location.  Prizes range from £1,000 for best performance in a larger city to £35 for best soloist award.  

          This year’s big winner was Brighouse and Rastrick, winning most of the larger prizes and many of the best soloist awards.  Here’s a youtube video of their performance at Dobcross, one of the cities involved in the Whit Friday competition. 

If you want to follow up with a more comprehensive listing of the winners and categories, check out 4barsrest.com.  Next year’s Whit Friday is scheduled for June 1^st.

New Low Brass Forum

Yesterday I was reading through some of the blogs I follow and I noticed that David Clancy's blog mentioned a new forum for low brass players.  I checked it out, and while it seems pretty small still, it looks promising.

The forum was started by an amateur euphonium player named Larry Herzog. Herzog, a sales engineer from Wisconsin, has recently become interested in playing euphonium again after a long break from the instrument.  When he looked for some low brass online support, he didn't find much so he decided to start his own forum.

The forum had 24 members last Friday and today, a week later, it's up to 37.  The forum is pretty small still, but gathering members quickly.  It's made up mostly of amateur euphonium, trombone, and tuba players with the more experienced ones giving advice to more novice players.  Big names like Roger Bobo and Steven Mead have signed up, but haven't been active other than the occasional encouraging remark.  Despite the only occasional input from the Steve, any post about him or from him seems to be gathering a flood of responses.

The forum seems to be building up pretty good product reviews and answers to common questions.  The focus is on products, practice techniques, and related news.  It also has a great blog stream that includes this blog (hello lowbrass.org people!).  Anyway, check out the new forum.  It's worth your time and you could learn something or help out a fellow low brasser.

How We Sight-read Music (1 of 2)

Howard Snell wrote in his book, The Trumpet: Its Practice and Performance a Guide for Students that “reading music is the prelude to playing.”[1]  While we always want to play our best, we may not give much thought to actually reading music.  While I was in graduate school, I studied sight-reading in depth for a large research project.  So many research papers with valuable information go to waste, so I have decided to transfer a portion of my paper into a less formal, more reader-friendly blog format and share it on my new blog.  

          

            The process of sight-reading is pretty complex.  When a musician sight-reads, his/her eyes move back and forth in spurts, not smoothly like many people assume.  A sight-reader’s eyes can make up to four stops per second in the process of reading the music for the first time. [2]  This way, the eye actually takes millions of little pictures that the brain then interprets.  This allows the eye to glance ahead at more difficult parts while following where the musician is actually playing.  Good sight-readers are always in a state of looking ahead to anticipate future difficult passages.  In fact, most good sight-readers can remember bits of music up to seven notes ahead of the note that was last played if the music were to be taken away in mid performance.[3]  After the eyes see the music they then send the message to the brain to interpret.

            For sight-reading to progress smoothly, the brain has be able to interpret all of the signals coming in.  Information that is organized in an unfamiliar way, or not recognized, confuses the brain and the sight-reading standard drops.[4]  Any conflict in the brain means that the brain has to “think” about what is going on as opposed to simply responding in the way it knows how. The more comfortable a musician is with the markings, the better chance s/he has of getting through the music without delay.  This is one good reason why we have guidelines for standard musical notation.  When a musician tries to read music in any other format, it takes the brain an extra few seconds to think, and this delays the music.  

            The ear and brain work together for yet another task.  The ear takes in information and sends it to the brain to analyze.  This comes in most when the musician makes a mistake in sight-reading.  The performer then uses his/her auditory skills to recognize that the pattern played doesn't fit within the tonality of the piece.[5]  The musician checks the music where s/he made the mistake and notes how it should be played next time.  Without this mechanism, a musician could make mistakes over and over and not notice any missed notes or rhythms.

            The mechanics of sight-reading are pretty complex and require a huge amount of concentration and practice to link all of the parts together cohesively to form an outstanding sight-reading performance.  Luckily, most of these functions are automatic, and with the exception of purposefully scanning ahead with our eyes, we usually don't have to even think about all of the tasks that are taking place when we sight-read.  Soon, I'll convert another section of my paper on how to improve sight-reading to give readers some tips on how to become better and more efficient at reading through music the first time.

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[1] Snell 1997: p31.

[2] Snell 1997: p. 33.

[3] McPherson (Autumn, 1994): p. 217.

[4] Snell 1997: p. 31.

[5] McPherson (Autumn, 1994): p. 229.

McPherson, Gary E. “Factors and Abilities Influencing Sight-reading Skill in Music.”

Journal of Research in Music Education, Vol. 42, No. 3 (Autumn, 1994), pp. 217-231.

 

Snell, Howard.  The Trumpet: Its Practice and Performance A Guide for Students.  Thie

            Grianagh: Rakeway, 1997.