Teaching the “Wire Choir”

One of my goals is to help my students learn to listen as they play/sing. I want them to begin developing the ability to listen to themselves and the ensemble and respond appropriately to intonation, blend, balance, phrasing, etc. In short, all those elements that transform those dots on the page into something that communicates to both the player(s) and the listeners.

This is not a skill that develops overnight, it takes years of work. Therefore, I believe that learning to listen critically to oneself and one’s ensemble should be taught from the beginning.

A method I like to use is to regularly record the ensemble with my Zoom H2. A day or two later, the students listen to the recording and respond in writing to what they are hearing. Of course, I also expose to recordings of fine groups (orchestras, bands, choirs) so that they are developing a proper sound concept.

To help the students with their written evaluation, I have adapted our state’s music assessment forms (Orchestra Self-Evaluation Form; Chorus Self-Evaluation Form [MSWord document format]). We review the meanings of the various terms each time we do this exercise. After they have “graded” themselves, we discuss what they have heard and what they have written. The students are tough on themselves, but also are not shy about giving credit where it is due.

I would be interested to hear about how you help your students become listening and thinking musicians. Please leave a comment with your ideas.

A couple of years ago, TI:ME was featured at the FMEA Convention. The focus of the convention was technology in music education. During one of the seminars I learned about TI:ME certification. I have given some thought to taking some of the TI:ME classes. However, while I use various types of technology in my orchestra and chorus rehearsals, my middle school does not offer any music technology classes. Nor do I think we will offer any such classes in the near future. In a time of shrinking resources, I don’t know how equipment and teacher time would be funded. I know that a number of people have taken a TI:ME course or two. What were the benefits you (and your students) gained from the course(s)? Would you take the classes even if you weren’t teaching any music technology classes? Thanks in advance for sharing your experiences and thoughts.

At the beginning of this school year, I instituted something called “Music Monday.” Every Monday, I would play a recording of a piece of music for my students. They, in turn, would respond to the selection by writing a description the piece using musical terms. We would also briefly discuss the piece, including whether or not they enjoyed it and why.

After a couple of month hiatus, I resumed the practice this past week, but with a twist. Instead of just using a CD recording, I used a clip from YouTube. Using the YouTube download tool at Tech Crunch, I saved the clip to my portable drive and projected it on screen using my LCD projector.

This idea hit me when I was visiting Evan Tobias’s blog, “Catalysts and Connnections.” The funny thing is that his post really didn’t have anything with using YouTube in the classroom. His post (inspired by another music blogger, James Frankel) was focusing on music notation software. But at the end of his post, he had a clip of Anne-Sophie Mutter playing a portion of Vivaldi’s Spring, with Herbert Von Karajan and the Berlin Philharmonic.

As I watched that clip, the idea hit me to give my students the opportunity to see the music being made as well as hearing the music. One of my goals is to give students the opportunity to develop a sound concept for their instrument and the orchestra as a whole. I also want to expose them to string instruments playing a variety of genres. CD’s can certainly do this. But video allows the students to go one step further and observe the musician’s concentration, his/her instrumental technique and their very personal involvement with the music.

It was a huge hit! My students really enjoyed what they saw and heard. As we discussed the clip and Ms. Mutter’s playing, they talked about technique, intonation (one of my frequent rehearsal rants), balance in the ensemble, how the music portrayed or did not portray for them the idea of spring.

Where do we go from here? I plan to play YouTube clips for each of the orchestral instruments in a variety of genres. If you have some YouTube favorites that you think would benefit my students, I would appreciate it if you would leave a link in your comments.