Sight Reading - Hand out a piece of music and tell the students they have 5 min. to be able to play through it and be graded on it. Also try with 10 min. To be able to play through without mistakes.
Technique - it's difficult for us to know what situations we will come to in the future. Having good technique better prepares us for those situations. It's easier to build a tv stand if you already know how to measure and saw from making a shelf. Technique could be described as the mean line on a graph. While it isn't necessary to be exactly on it, trying to be close will ensure you aren't considered skew. Proper technique has been passed down and refined over many years. It should be taken seriously.
Consistency /Accuracy (horn player mentality) - getting the ball "close" to the hole isn't good enough. Neither should be getting "close" to the note. Strive for perfection.
Endurance - When trying to increase endurance, think about the root of the word - endure. You have to endure a lot of difficult playing to achieve the glory of endurance.
Other Resources: The Inner Game of Tennis; Also Sprach Arnold Jacobs; The Art of Musicianship
Talk about frequencies too when I introduce how to play pitches. The frequency of a pitch doubles as it goes up every octave. Cents are a different measurement, where there are 100 cents between every semitone. Use next few links
Ear Training Curriculum/Syllabus
Slight Pitch Change Test - After explaining and determing if they can tell different pitches, try smaller cents changes
A Practical Guide to Music Composition
Pop songs chord analysis - can use to guide students to what chords they could use
Can also show videos from YouTube on how to compose
Compositional Devices
Articulation
Augmentation/Diminution
Cadence
Changing Modality
Contrast
Counterpoint
Dynamics
Instrumentation
Meter Change
Modulation
Motives
Ornamentation
Repetition
Sequence
Solo/Ripieno Group
Suspensions
Text Painting
Variation
Varying Texture
Some Ideas
Have students compose a piece like a mad lib where I leave spots blank for them or tell them to use a certain rhythm, pitches, number of notes, or just give them a couple beats to fill-- maybe after first doing a couple of the others and building up their confidence. Can use actual song for the template or compose my own. If used actual song, possibly too many students would try to make it sound like the song.
Have students make a composition with a certain number range of instruments using a beat maker like beatlab.com and also they will come up with ideas using instruments they choose. Just simple, nothing is ever fancy on the first try. Then enter it using the beat maker, and later try with notation program and ask which is more valid.
Then after composing, perhaps as seniors, or just a separate class, learn to use the whole drum sampling and mastering setup with aviary music makers. Then use the audio editor to record more voices or melody and put it with the backgrounds.
They make chord progressions in garage band and we also play them in band. Would also have to show them how the different orchestration and inversions change it, and offers it infinitely more possibilities.
On a test and offer a few options for them to answer--annoyance, anger, uncertainty, etc. A friend of yours is feeling annoyed by another student. He/she is feeling creative and rather than complaining about them decides to write a piece of music to get their feelings off their chest but doesn't know where to start. What are 5 things your friend could do to express their annoyance? Think about rhythm, melody, harmony, timbre (which instruments and how they are played), texture and layering, and other expressive qualities like articulation, dynamics, phrasing, and tempo. THINK OUTSIDE THE BOX!
Pick a certain song or style, or section in a piece and they have to make one similar, with similar texture, instruments, rhythms, kind of melody, etc. Can work in groups or alone.
See Jazz for more information.
Start with improvising on one note while a member from each section plays an ostinato on Bb F Bb, or just a drone.
Record a drone or ostinato in GarageBand, then loop it and play over the top of it. Can record it and pick out sections that sounded good.
Play over the top of grooves on a keyboard or in GarageBand.
See the attached "How to Write a Musical Analysis"
Sounds, Rhythm, Melody, Harmony, Form - Fundamentals of Music
Descriptions and examples of music elements -
http://www.wmich.edu/mus-gened/mus170/RockElements.pdf
Music Elements with examples - http://www.studybass.com/lessons/basics/the-elements-of-music/
Music Elements Listening Examples - http://lrs.ed.uiuc.edu/students/yyang/html/prj.html
Music Educators' Toolbox - http://www.carnegiehall.org/toolbox/
Podcast on each element, with quizzes - https://sites.google.com/view/listenupquiz/for-teachers?authuser=0
Form is the pathway you take towards a destination. Where do you want to take the listener and what kind of a journey do you want it to be?
The structure of a piece, what is its purpose and how is it built?
(Ex. ABA) - Shows what the piece will look like. In buildings - whether it's a school or house.
Form also comes into play in a melody or section of a work.
Phrase form - most phrases have a rise and fall motion or climax and resolution. A full phrases has an antecedent and consequence phrase, or call/response, or question/answer.
Motive form - no real form. Whatever the mind finds catchy or memorable.
Timing - Have to LEARN to anticipate it. Show someone going through a gauntlet or the person beating mario in 11 minutes. But you have to get good enough, and do it enough, where you don't have to actively think about it.
Accellerando -
Ritardando -
Rubato - The most expressive
Beat -
Tempo - Use tempo to find a running pace. Go outside and find the tempo people jog at (work with a partner). Then have them listen to something at that tempo so they can really feel it, then increase and decrease their speed and tap a woodblock or metronome with their feet or. Tell them to breathe at half tempo or 1 every 4 beats, etc.
Tuning - similar to balance - when a crew team all goes at exactly the same rate, they go even faster (sound gets louder, or is amplified- maybe talk about how speakers work here (or with dynamics)) and it also looks cooler, like a marching band or military unit. (it sounds
Range - human hearing is 20 - 20,000 hz
Frequency - every substance (solid, liquid, or gas) has a resonating frequency that is determined by density, volume, and other characteristics. When struck or the molecules are excited (by application of force or other waves) it resonates and begins to dissipate and return to their resonating frequency. The reason it returns to it is the molecules are bonded and so have nowhere to go which causes them to spring back and forth into one another and end up in sync. If the molecules did not sync up, the substance would morph and possibly break apart.
Tone (Color) (intensity, color spectrum, sonority)
Blend - similar to tuning and balancing, but rather than dealing with pitch and volume, it deals with tone. The last thing to master before working on small details is matching tones.
A baritone or trombone is to a euphonium as a flugelhorn or cornet is to a trumpet. Compare it to the math equations A is to B as C is to D. Can make test question out of that.
Takadimi rhythm approach - http://takadimi.net/documents/Takadimi%20short%20guide%20for%20Web.pdf
Rhythm - rhythm is felt with the body. It isn't until we practice rhythm that our mind learns how to anticipate it. You must FEEL it before you can know it and reproduce it.
Greatly affects the mood. It is the most emotional and expressive element of music.
Crescendo - Have something visual and auditory like maybe people coming into a room. It starts quiet and as more people and sound trickle in, it becomes a roar of people and commotion.
A crescendo should start subtly and increase exponentially (like an exponential graph instead of a straight line)
A <> (cresc./decresc.) often sounds more like a bell curve than straight lines. Or pendulum - read a part of "The Pit and the Pendulum". Or car driving past you.
Decrescendo - Dying away
ppp - fff can be spoken in terms of 1-10 (so can stick heights for percussion).
Air control is always a most
Dynamics are used in phrasing a melody or line. Typically (not always) as the melody goes higher, the volume gets louder and vice versa. The climax of the line will always be the loudest.
Can make up own text to match or change the mood
Musicianship (beauty, shape, interpretation, emotion, style, mood) - Just like skill, people have natural abilities. But we can all learn. Musicianship shows itself when we invest ourselves in the music, and we've practiced enough where we no longer analyze and judge ourselves. It's what turns skills into music.
Phrasing - A phrase is a section that is easier to remember as a section and hard to go any further (or you would forget the insides). It has a clear beginning, (main words) and end.
When talking about phrasing, also have to talk about motifs first.
Articulations (staccato, marcato, accents, legato, tenuto, slurred) (Percussion- flam, roll, drag)
-How each note is treated
-Involves the attack, center, and release
-We articulate in speaking with our tongues and lips. Try speaking without using consonants to see how it is when we play without articulations.
-It is about the fine details. To articulate a message clearly, use little details. Have students write a short story including many little details. Have them compose a piece using articulations
Balance - Fit perfectly and complimentary together to accomplish something greater that neither could have done alone. Music rings louder if players are in tune and balanced. Chords are a product of balance-if one sticks out more than it should, it could topple the whole thing (like balancing jenga or a tower of Oreos). The leaning tower of Piza didn't have enough support underneath it, so while it didn't fall, it doesn't quite sit right. Just like an ensemble doesn't quite sit right with the ear if it is unbalanced. A crew team, tandem bicycles, and two-person halloween costumes are some more examples. Notes played individually can mean something but when put together, can mean something completely different and even be more powerful in their conveyance. - Maybe they have to find or create something that only works if all the parts work cohesively together. There are things in your life that you must balance. Ask them for examples of balance or working together for something greater.