Perseus by Soon Hee Newbold

Ensemble type: String Orchestra
Difficulty: Grade 5
Recommended by: Giovanna Cruz, Director, Customer Services

“Perseus is a fast-paced, flashy, and fun piece that your advanced high school students will enjoy. Its rhythmic pulse and forward drive are compelling.”

Why did you choose this piece to perform with your group?

It was the end-of-year concert in 2014 and I had my students choose one of the pieces for the final concert from a list of grade 4 pieces. We were looking for something flashy and high-energy. They chose this one and had a great deal of ownership in its preparation.

What skills does it address or lessons does it teach?

Mixed meter, tempo changes, style changes, shifting.

What are some teaching strategies you would recommend to teachers who are rehearsing this piece?

Read the story of Perseus and how he slew Medussa to free his mother from Polydectes, and how he married Andromeda. This will provide context and imagery as you work on the different sections of the piece. Then teach the core repeated rhythms that appear throughout the piece, as well as any bowing patterns. Work on the underlying rhythmic equivalences when shifting meters to help students understand when the eighth note is the constant. Work on shifting into 2nd and 5th position for violins.

What memorable experiences did you have while rehearsing or performing this piece?

Seeing my students get so excited to practice this piece and then perform it. Because they chose it, they had a great desire to play it well. It was also one of the last pieces I conducted with my students before coming to work for MakeMusic.

How did SmartMusic enhance the rehearsal process?

The recording gave them a good model to follow. We used the assignment feature to help them practice and prepare the most challenging sections. The visual and aural feedback helped them improve and make corrections where necessary. Learning the notes was easier with the help of SmartMusic. In class, we focused on style, dynamics, and ensemble issues.

What sections or measures needed the most attention?

For all: counting in the vivace section starting at 101. Rhythmic alignment.

Violin 1: top part in the divisi from 91-101. Intonation m. 131-136 because of the high position. Tuning of octaves m. 168-171 and 176-182.

Violin 2: tuning of divisi sections. Rhythmic alignment. String crossings 168-172, 176-end.

Violas: 35-43, vivace section for counting, especially 111 to 121.

Cellos/basses: 35-57, 101-122.

Add Perseus to a playlist.

Click here to find more great SmartMusic repertoire with SmartPicks

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Vygotsky’s Theory

Vygotsky proposed the Social Development Theory. Its three major components are:

• Social interaction
• There is a “more knowledgeable other”
• Zone of Proximal Development

In Vygotsky’s view, social learning precedes development. This means that culture and community context affect cognitive development. Secondly, in all cultures and learning situations, there is a “more knowledgeable other;” a person who has mastered the task or skill being learned and from whom the child or student can learn it. This “more knowledgeable other” in most cases is an adult (a teacher or a parent), but can also be a peer with a higher level of expertise.

The Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) is the zone in between what the child can do on their own and what they cannot do unaided. The ZPD provides the space in which the social interaction with an experienced peer or adult promotes learning. It’s the space where the child can perform the skill or task with guidance. The ZPD provides valuable insights that can help us help our students learn more effectively.

Today I’d like to share a practical, real-world example of how you might use “scaffolding” to help students work in the ZPD and grow as musicians.

Scaffolding: The Theory Put to Practice

The process by which a teacher, parent or peer supports a learner to work in the ZPD is called scaffolding. The person providing the scaffolding has already mastered the skill and is able to model it for the learner.

One way to provide guidance and support is by breaking the task into simpler, more accessible elements. This is referred to as “chunking.” The learner, in turn, is able to “construct” the new knowledge or skill one step at a time. As the new skill is learned and the knowledge acquired, the teacher then gradually withdraws the support.

Scaffolding in the Music Classroom

It is hard to imagine that any music teacher would simply hand out a piece of music to their students and say “play.” Instead, it is very likely you are already using modeling and chunking as strategies in your music classroom to scaffold the learning for your students.

If you are a teacher of beginner students, for sure you are doing this: break each skill into small, easily achievable chunks. For example, the first thing you might teach to your beginner students is how to take the instrument in and out of its case, then you may teach them how to hold it. Next you might teach where to put each hand and finger. Now, why stop there? If you teach advanced students, they will clearly and easily incorporate prior learning, but they will still need you to provide guidance for the acquisition of new skills.

Social Interaction

A good music teacher doesn’t only talk about and explain how to perform each skill, but also demonstrates how to put the skill into practice one step at a time. The teacher provides a model. This social interaction, and the back and forth between the teacher and the student is the guidance that the student needs to achieve in the ZPD. Alternatively, a more advanced student can help the least advanced one as well.

Using Scaffolding to Teach A Specific Task

I taught cello in private lessons and orchestra in public school, so I will give you an example of scaffolding and you can use in your orchestra classroom. Though this example is very specific to cello and bass, I hope my experience will spark some ideas of your own. The original idea is not mine, but rather one of those pedagogical tricks that get passed down from one teacher to another.

Vibrato

As you probably know, vibrato is a skill that allows the musician to slightly change the pitch of a note to produce a richer tone. For string players, this is a skill that takes some time to acquire and should only be taught once a student has a strong foundation of intonation. I am going to narrow down the strategy further to cellists and bassists.

Step 1: Understanding the basic motion

1. Take a small empty prescription bottle and partially fill it with rice or small dried beans. Shake it to make sure it makes noise. Alternatively, you can use a partially filled Tic Tac box.
2. Hold the box or bottle in the palm of your left hand
3. Hold your left arm to the side and bend the elbow, so the hand is in front of your chest
4. With the arm in that position, shake the bottle up and down until it sounds like a maraca

Step 2: Practicing the basic motion

1. Find a rubber band and wrap it around your left hand, putting the bottle or Tic Tac box between the rubber band and the back of your hand. The palm of the hand should be free.
2. Hold your left arm to the side and bend the elbow, so the hand is in front of your chest
3. With the arm in that position, shake the bottle up and down until it sounds like a maraca

Step 3: Transferring the motion to the cello

1. Hold the cello or bass in playing position. The right hand should be resting on the right knee.
2. Place the left hand over the fingerboard as if you are going to play. Do not press down on the strings with the fingers.
3. Keep the thumb loose and slide your entire hand up and down the fingerboard about 2-3 inches, making sure you don’t press down on the strings or with the thumb. The bottle or box should still be making the “maraca” sound.
4. Slowly place the fingers in between the D and G strings and make the movement smaller while making sure you still hear the “maraca sound”
5. Finally, when the student has control of this motion, have him press down on the D string with the 1st or 2nd finger while keeping the motion and making the “maraca” sound.
6. Have students practice vibrato like this in the classroom/lesson for a few minutes each day.

Step 4: Putting the right and left hands together

1. Repeat all the steps above and once the motion has become natural, have the student bow on a different string from the one they are vibrating on. Sometimes incorporating the right hand will make the left tighten up.
2. Repeat this process several times and have students practice it at home and at school
3. Once the right hand can bow on one string while the left vibrates on another, try bowing on the same string where the left hand is vibrating.

Step 5: Removing the scaffold

1. Have the student practice all the steps above with the bottle/box and rubber band
2. Remove the bottle/box and rubber band and continue

Some more refinement of the skill and motion will be necessary, but if done correctly, consistently and without rushing, this exercise will set up your cellist or bassist to have a beautiful, loose vibrato from the start. To augment the impact of this scaffolding strategy and put it in the context of social learning, you could pair students who have mastered the skill with those who haven’t yet and let the more experienced one, help the other.

I’ve provided an example that is very specific to a particular task. The key was to break the process down to each of its individual parts and work on each one to help build the next. The key is practice and social interaction with an adult or a peer who’s already mastered the process. I hope the article provides some ideas that you can apply on your own.

The post Using Scaffolding to Teach your Students Vibrato appeared first on SmartMusic.

How I First Ran Auditions

When I was first teaching orchestra, I ran placement auditions at the end of the school year in order to determine who would be in each of the ensembles the following year. I did not have any assistants, and was trying to efficiently run the auditions while simultaneously providing classroom instruction. The first time through the process, auditions were blind and in person, but also recorded. I would remain in the classroom teaching the ensembles, while one student monitor called other students out to play their auditions. The auditioning student would go into my office and record, while another student would write down the ID number and the track number for the recording.

The process took about two weeks to get everyone through and unmeasurable hours of listening to those recordings afterward. All in all, the process was not particularly fair as some students had more time to prepare than others, and the whole thing took too much time.

In contrast, the band program had four directors and they ran auditions very differently: one year they listened to their students individually, and the next year they hired the private teachers to run blind auditions. When listening to students individually, they knocked the whole process out much faster because they had more manpower. When outsourcing the blind auditions to the private teachers, all it took was one afternoon!

Auditions with SmartMusic

I was already using SmartMusic to send assignments to my students. So with a goal of completing all auditions in one afternoon, the following year I started using SmartMusic for that purpose too. Doing so reduced the “data collection” part of the audition to one day and the listening process to perhaps two or three days. Even better, it made the process more equitable by setting the same deadline for every student. The audition had an objective part (percentages based on the red and green notes awarded by SmartMusic), and the more human part based on a rubric evaluation. That was a big improvement. Additionally, I had proof of how students had performed, and crises of the type “Why didn’t I make X ensemble?” where averted.

Audition Advice: Before the Audition

Before you ever hold an audition, you need to decide why you’re doing it. Will the audition determine chair or ensemble placement, entrance into a program, or scholarship recipients? Or is the purpose simply to make each student accountable?

Next you will need to determine your procedure. Consider whether to hold live or recorded auditions, or a combination. You will need to choose the repertoire. In doing so, consider the types of skills you want to see in your students when choosing the audition material.

You’ll have to decide whether to make the auditions blind, how many evaluators will be listening to the students, and what instrument they will be using to evaluate the performances.

As mentioned above, I found using rubrics to be very beneficial. If you choose to use them, you’ll need to determine the specifics. To help, here is an example, compiled largely from sources I found on the internet.

At the Audition

Consider the space where you will hold the audition. Will each student audition individually in an office, or will there be multiple students in the room, each waiting for their turn?

Set up chairs, stands, a curtain (if the audition is blind), and recording equipment (if applicable). If you have live judges, provide them with space, water, and snacks. Be sure to let everyone know where the bathrooms are. Share the procedures and rules, and schedule any breaks as necessary for the auditioning students and the judges.

After the Audition

Once the audition is over, the first thing is always to thank the judges and participants. Recognize their time and the effort they put into the process and help them feel that it was worth it. Then tabulate the results. With all the data collected, you should be able to rank the students. Share the results with the students and any other stakeholders. Last but not least, assess how the process went and make any adjustments necessary for the next round of auditions.

Download the Audition Checklist

I hope you’ve found these audition tips useful. If so, I’ve created a checklist you can use to check off the various audition tasks as you prepare. To download it, simply enter your email address below:

Additional Resources

• Streamline Your End-of-Year Auditions with SmartMusic
• Tips for Success at All-State Auditions
• Using the New SmartMusic for All-State Auditions
• Preparing Instrumentalists for Audition
  
• Archived Webinar: Creating Effective Assignments in SmartMusic

The post Running Efficient Auditions appeared first on SmartMusic.

The beginning years of instrumental music study are full on new experiences: making sounds, learning new skills, and playing a brand new instrument with a bow. In all the excitement, your string students will be tempted to do some strange things.

Here’s my list of 7 things they should never do with their bow.

1. Never use the bow as a sword or light saber.

As fun as it may look to fight like [insert your favorite Star Wars character here], the bow is made for playing on the string, not fighting battles. Unlike swords and light sabers, bows are made of wood, carbon fiber or fiberglass and are very fragile (and make poor weapons, anyway).

2. Don’t tighten the bow until the stick becomes straight.

The stick of the bow has a natural concave curvature called the camber, which gives the bow its flexibility and responsiveness. When tightening a bow, that downward curve always needs to be maintained, so don’t go too tight, especially to the point where the bow becomes straight. If you do so, the bow will eventually warp and no longer work properly.

3. Never put the bow on the floor.

If you put it on the floor, someone will step on it and break it. This is a given.

4. Don’t hold the bow too tight.

When holding the bow, keep your thumb and fingers slightly bent and flexible. Do not spread your fingers too wide or keep them too close together. A tight bow hold will prevent you from playing with nuance and can eventually cause hand pain.

5. Don’t put pressure on the bow, use your arm weight.

Drawing the bow across the string and producing a beautiful sound requires a lot of gross and fine motor coordination. Some students incorrectly assume that the more pressure they put down on their bow, the better the sound. Instead, it’s the natural weight of the arm, combined with the appropriate point of contact with the string (and the speed of the bow) that produce a beautiful sound; not downward pressure.

6. Don’t keep your elbow at the same level when changing strings.

No matter which string orchestra instrument you play, whenever you move from one string to another, your right arm needs to move to adjust to the curvature of the bridge. If you play cello or bass, your right elbow should be higher while playing on the higher strings and lower while playing on the lower strings. If you play violin or viola, your elbow height should be the opposite: higher elbow on lower strings, lower elbow while playing higher strings. Be sure to always keep your right shoulder relaxed, despite elbow height.

7. Don’t touch the hair.

Once kids learn that the bow has horse hair in it everyone wants to touch it; don’t allow it. The natural oils in the fingers will make dirt and oil stick and the bow will need a re-hair sooner than otherwise.  Like Tony Manero says below: “Watch the hair!”

I hope these tips help your students avoid bad habits from the start.

Giovanna Cruz is a cellist and music educator with experience as an orchestral and chamber musician, college and private studio teacher, and public school teacher. As orchestra director at James Bowie High School in Austin, TX from 2007 to 2014, she taught more than 120 students annually in four orchestras. Her varsity group earned sweepstakes at UIL Concert and Sight-Reading contest in 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2014 and performed in festivals across the country. Her other groups earned excellent ratings at the same competitions. She holds the degrees of Bachelor of Education from the Universidad Metropolitana in Caracas, Venezuela, and Master and Doctor of Musical Arts in cello performance from the University of Iowa. Today she is an Education Services Specialist at MakeMusic, for whom she presents SmartMusic at clinics and training workshops across the U.S.

Special thanks to Anthony Arnone, Carrie Beaderstadt, Jennifer McKeeman, Ellen Lucko Frazier, and Mary Kelly who shared their ideas for this post!

The post 7 Things String Students Should Never Do with Their Bow appeared first on SmartMusic.

Educators who are most successful in using SmartMusic with all their students typically share one thing in common: They buy SmartMusic for their kids. This approach ensures 100% implementation, and with all students using it regularly, SmartMusic becomes part of “how they do” band, orchestra or choir.

Perhaps you’re already convinced that SmartMusic would truly benefit your students, but don’t know where the money will come from. Do any of the following scenarios sound familiar?

• Your school/music program has a large percentage of students on free or reduced lunch, therefore they can’t afford the cost of the yearly subscription
• You think it will be hard to sell the idea of a yearly subscription to parents/administrators
• You are reluctant to ask parents to pay
• The school/music program does not have the funding to pay for an annual subscription fee

If you see your situation reflected on any of the statements above, I hope you see some potential solutions in one or more of the following SmartMusic funding options.

Option 1: Built-in Fees

The easiest solution is when parents can pay for the $29.99 yearly student home subscription. Some programs already have “fees” they charge at the beginning of the school year to cover program expenses that are otherwise not covered by the district/school budget. In these cases, the $29.99 subscription could be built into that fee.

Option 2: District and School Funds

Many schools and/or districts have technology departments for which funds may be available. Check with your local technology department and consider becoming a member of the technology committee to have a voice on what is purchased by your school/district.

Option 3: Fundraising

If fundraising is allowed at your school, this is another way to raise money to fund your purchase of SmartMusic subscriptions. There are multiple ways to fundraise which include traditional door-to-door sales of anything from candy to magazine subscriptions, to online fundraising including crowd-funding and donations.

Websites such as www.donorschoose.org  and www.gofundme.com  can help you raise the necessary funds to bring SmartMusic to all your students.

Option 4: Title I Grants

If you teach in a school where a large number of students are on free or reduced lunch, your school may qualify for Title I grants. You may want to check with your school administration to see if any of those funds could be available for purchasing technology for those students, or for school-wide programs that would benefit your music students. The Department of Education offers additional information on this page.

Option 5: Other Grants

Another option is to write a grant. There are multiple local, state and federal agencies as well as private foundations that have money available for educational grants. One initiative at the federal level that comes to mind is the President’s ConnectED initiative, unveiled in 2013, which “will provide high-speed Internet to every school in America, and will help to make affordable computers, tablets, software, and other digital resources widely available.” The 2016 fiscal year proposal includes a request of $200 million dollars for Educational Technology State Grants program that would “fund State subgrants to model districts to support teachers and leaders in using technology to improve instruction and personalize learning.” Learn more at http://tech.ed.gov/eett and/or download this letter to help you understand how to use federal grant funds that are part of the ConnectED initiative.

If you need some guidance in writing a grant proposal, these pages from the Minnesota Council of Foundations and Learner Associates are just two of the many sites that walk you through the process.

Other sources of grants available can be found in many places on-line including these pages from technologygrantnews.com, Calcasieu Parish Public Schools, grantgopher.com, and weareteachers.com.

Option 6: Awards

Here’s an example of another type of possibility you might find through a web search: “GRAMMY Signature School awards are given to high school music programs that are keeping music programs alive and well despite budgets and school politics.” In this case, these cash prizes can be as much as $10,000 per school, and to date approximately $800,000 in grants has been distributed to approximately 421 schools in almost all 50 states. Find additional information at GRAMMY Signature Schools.

I hope this list inspires you to explore some of the many options available.

Ready to get started with SmartMusic? Contact us for a free trial.

The post SmartMusic Funding Options appeared first on SmartMusic.

Today’s classroom music educators are incredibly busy. They arrive before school and stay after to plan, rehearse their ensembles and help their students individually. They might teach six out of eight class periods, and even travel between different schools. They need to be able to reach every student, hear them play, provide feedback and track their progress. Additionally, classroom teachers need to demonstrate to parents and administrators that students are learning, and concerts alone are no longer enough.

Today’s students are fast paced and easily distractible. They’re also digital natives: it is as though they were born using cell phones, video games and computers! Teachers in all academic areas are tasked with designing activities and providing tools that meet these students where they live – in a digital world – and engaging those students in new ways.

What technology can music teachers use that satisfies the students’ need for interactivity and feedback?

To many, the answer is SmartMusic.

“In this age of technology, the kids immediately respond to this program. They get immediate feedback where they can SEE what they played wrong and they can record and hear themselves. It frees up a lot of class time.”
– Kimberly Farrell, Choir/Orchestra director, Miller Middle School, Durango, CO

“Students are really excited about learning music when SmartMusic is involved. It is one of the most engaging, efficient, and versatile music teaching tools out there.”
– Asa Burk, Director of Bands, Cross Timbers Middle School, Grapevine, TX

Immediate Feedback, Individualized and Differentiated Instruction

SmartMusic is interactive music learning software that provides students with immediate visual and aural feedback. It allows students to listen to their performance and see the correct and incorrect rhythms and pitches onscreen. Students are also able to hear their part in context with SmartMusic’s professional accompaniment, giving them pitch and rhythmic references when practicing at home.

Educators send assignments to individual students based on each student’s strengths and weaknesses, and can better guide each student – after reviewing their submitted assignments – with the customized feedback needed to get better faster.

“SmartMusic has enabled my students to engage in their own individual practice sessions in a more meaningful way!  They are given a wealth of feedback and have a tremendous amount of resources just at the click of a button.”
– Jared Cassedy, 2015 Music Educator Grammy Award Winner, Director of Bands and Director of K-12 Fine Arts, Windham School District, Windham, NH.

“Parents have commented to me that their children have never practiced so much in their lives!”
– Carrie Provost, Orchestra Teacher, Franklin Middle School, Wheaton, IL

Student Home Practice

We know that practice outside of the classroom is integral to success, but without an educator present, it’s easy for students to practice incorrectly. In addition to the immediate feedback SmartMusic provides, educators can extend their reach into home practice, by sharing carefully chosen assignments with students, and responding with feedback when those assignments are submitted.

Effective practice requires that students break challenging passages apart, slow them down, repeat them many times, then speed up gradually. With SmartMusic, educators can guide this type of practice remotely.

Like a flipped classroom model, SmartMusic allows students to work on technical concepts necessary for performance outside of class, at their own pace, with support materials, and then do the “homework” in class with the teacher. When the students come to the classroom already knowing how to play the notes, this frees the teacher to focus on the finer aspects of performance, including interpretation, dynamics, and musicality.

Streamlined Teacher Workflow

With the click of a few buttons, teachers can schedule assignments from any piece of repertoire to any and all of their students. Once students complete and submit these assignments, they automatically appear in the teachers’ Gradebook. In the Gradebook teachers can SEE the rhythms and pitches the student played or sang correctly or incorrectly, and HEAR a recording of the corresponding performance. With this information, teachers can quickly discover each student’s strengths and weaknesses, facilitating their instructional response and direction.

“The SmartMusic Gradebook keeps the process organized and allows me the flexibility to weight my review of a student’s recorded performance vs. SmartMusic’s built-in assessment.”
– Brent Comeau, Director of Bands, Woodbury High School, Woodbury, MN

“The opportunity to hear my choral students sing individually is a very useful assessment tool. I am getting to know my singers strengths and needs so I can build a better program.”
– Tina Harris, Choral Director, St. Francis High School, Sacramento, CA

What’s more, the email feature inside of SmartMusic allows teachers to easily communicate with parents about their students’ progress.

Extensive Library of Titles

SmartMusic contains the world’s largest digital library of assessable third-party ensemble titles. This means that the pieces that educators want to program for concerts are often already in SmartMusic, and they report that students sound better and advance faster when they prepare their concert pieces using SmartMusic as a practice tool.

“My students who consistently use SmartMusic, progress much quicker and they are enjoying practicing and performing with SmartMusic.”
– David Hall, Band Director, Santa Fe Christian Schools, Solana Beach, CA

“I also use SmartMusic as an outstanding tool for collaborative learning while we meet as entire ensembles.  Whether this is through the use of rhythm exercises or practicing jazz improvisation, the program motivates the students to work as cohesive unit!”
– Jared Cassedy, 2015 Music Educator Grammy Award Winner, Director of Bands and Director of K-12 Fine Arts, Windham School District, Windham, NH.

Detailed Documentation

The SmartMusic Gradebook provides teachers with a detailed record of their students’ assignments and the amount of time each student spent practicing, providing objective data to back up their grades. (Teachers can even upload rubrics to make their grading criteria-specific and meet State Music Standards.) Educators can instantly display – to students, parents and administrators – which notes were played or sung correctly or incorrectly, and play corresponding student recordings. This non-subjective data makes it easy to chart student growth.

For musicians, nothing shows progress better than the concerts that take place throughout the school year. For administrators, however, it is really useful and valuable to see, in numbers, how a student has grown in the field of music over a certain period of time.

“It is worth the time, energy, money, or anything else that it may take to get your students involved in using SmartMusic.”
– Ben Jones, Band Director, Fort Johnson Middle School, Charleston, SC

SmartMusic Value

SmartMusic engages students, and helps them improve faster. It streamlines educators’ workflow and allows them to offer more individualized instruction.  Administrators and parents can better track student progress with the objective data SmartMusic provides.

Sometimes technology is embraced for technology’s sake. In the case of SmartMusic, the technology not only meets students in the digital realm where they live, but it also extends the reach of an educator in ways not possible before.

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