Dr. Christopher Selby is a 30-year veteran public school orchestra teacher, and he is the lead string author of the Habits of a Successful String Musician method book series published by GIA. He is an active clinician and conductor, and has presented sessions at numerous Midwest Clinics, American String Teacher Association (ASTA) National Conferences, and state conferences across America. Dr. Selby currently directs the high school orchestras at the School of the Arts in Charleston, SC. His orchestras have performed at the Midwest Clinic and have twice won the top award of Grand Champion at ASTA’s National Orchestra Festival.
Dr. Selby earned a music education degree from the Hartt School of Music, and a Masters and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees in Orchestral Conducting from the University of South Carolina. He regularly guest conducts Regional and All-State Orchestras across America, and he has held state and national leadership positions in ASTA and NAfME. In addition to the Habits string method book series, Dr. Selby is also the author of Habits of a Successful Orchestra Director, Music Theory for the Successful String Musician, and a contributing author for Teaching Music Through Performance in Orchestra, vol. 4 and other books published by GIA.
CHRISTOPHER SELBY BIO
BREAKOUT SESSION 1: 10:30 AM - ED 1007 - habits of a successful beginning string teacher
Kids sign up for strings because they want to have fun making music. The challenge for us is balancing all of the skills they need to learn with without overwhelming them. In this session, teachers will learn strategies for grouping skills together in ways that help students learn faster, count and read better, and make more music in their first year of strings. Attendees will learn how to
· Teach new finger patterns, new strings, as well as new rhythms and articulations using new exercises and melodies from around the word.
· Use familiar melodies in different keys, on different strings, and with different articulations to help students focus on developing a better intonation, tone and articulation.
· Use sight-reading exercises to help students count and perform rhythms more accurately, and also to read better on the G, C and E strings.
· Amplify student learning at home with supplemental programs like MakeMusic and MusicFirst, and videos of professionals playing the exercises they are learning in class
· Teach with pictures of hand/instrument positions from the student’s perspective that help students visualize the notes on the staff with fingerboard maps and pictures of fingers on the fingerboard.
Come join us as we lay the groundwork for students' musical journeys in ways that shapes their proficiency and passion for years to come.
BREAKOUT SESSION 2: 12:15 PM - ED 1007 - TEACHING STUDENTS TO LISTEN AND TUNE NOTES AND CHORDS LIKE PROFESSIONAL MUSICIANS
Playing in tune is not magic, but it is hard to do and even harder to teach. In this session, attendees will learn new exercises that dramatically improve left hand skills, how to teach the relationship between tone and pitch, and rehearsal strategies that teach students to slow down, listen across the ensemble, and tune all notes and chords. Specifically, attendees will learn how to teach students to:
· Tune their instruments better at the beginning of class with “tuning tone” and effective cross-tuning strategies
Develop better left-hand skills, and correct technique problems that impair good intonation; learn a variety of left-hand exercises that address finger patterns, velocity, shifting and fluency.
· Learn new strategies for teaching cellists to play in keys with three or more sharps and flats, and for teaching all students how to play across their instrument with greater fluency. Also learn a new time-saving approach to teaching scales that improves key-related intonation problems faster and more effectively.
· Listen to others in their section and also across the ensemble, and tune their notes to other players the way professionals do; use tuning canons, chord warm-ups, and chorales to teach students the relationship between tone and pitch, and how to apply these lessons to concert music.
· Slow down and play in tune. Learn powerful rehearsal strategies for correcting the toughest intonation problems in concert music
When we are tired or unsure of how to correct intonation problems, it’s easy to give up on good intonation altogether. The solution is to have accessible activities, exercises and teaching strategies that we can easily incorporate into daily orchestra rehearsals. Teachers will leave this session with the optimism of believing that great intonation is achievable, and also with the knowledge and skills to teach students how to listen and finely tune their notes the way professionals do.
BREAKOUT SESSION 3: 1:30 PM -ED 1007 - RHYTHM, RUSHING AND THE RIGHT HAND: TEACHING ARTICULATIONS, RHYTHMIC LITERACY AND ENSEMBLE AWARENESS IN ORCHESTRA
Robotic left-hand precision is nice to see in our student orchestras, but how much of our sound is the domain of the right hand? In this session, attendees will learn strategies for teaching tone, articulation, dynamics, rhythm and tempo control. And we will uncover new strategies for teaching students to listen across the ensemble to dramatically improve their ensemble skills related to all of these right-hand elements. More specifically, attendees will learn how to teach students to:
· Develop right-hand technique and the skills to produce a beautiful tone that can both project well and blend with the rest of the ensemble.
· Perform advanced articulations like marcato, staccato, spiccato, and control these articulations that often rush.
· Count, read, decipher, and perform rhythms independently, learning to read music better and faster, so you can focus more on music making in your rehearsals and performances.
· Perform complex over-lapping rhythms and learn to listen across the ensemble to correct rushing and dragging problems caused by different bowings and articulations.
Come learn the central importance that the right hand plays in superior string performance, and how to incorporate right hand warm-ups and skill study into your daily orchestra rehearsal in a thoughtful way to improve your students’ accuracy and artistry in orchestra concert music.
