Publication: Spring 2017
Here are preliminary chapter drafts:
Get Them Watching!
The Power of Posture
Get Them Marking!
Rehearse Attention with Everything You Do
Keeping everyone involved (while working with only one section)
It's Experience that gets Results...not Information
The Conscious Warm-Up
Woodshedding: Drill it Slowly into their Muscle Memory
Get Them Watching!
The Power of Posture
Get Them Marking!
Rehearse Attention with Everything You Do
Keeping everyone involved (while working with only one section)
It's Experience that gets Results...not Information
The Conscious Warm-Up
Woodshedding: Drill it Slowly into their Muscle Memory
I'm writing this book so that more teachers of music ensembles can make thrilling music that inspires them and their students. Many others will find substantial value in Ignite Response, as well.
For ensemble leaders, Igniting's emphasis is practical and hands-on, providing new tools and approaches that enhance their abilities to:
You will also find tested, step-by-step techniques for specific responses; for example:
Background
I started conducting youth ensembles some twenty years ago. After a while, teachers told me that they were amazed by the level of playing and the amount of improvement that was achieved in so short a time. They consistently asked me how I achieved these results.
What was I doing?
The key to what I was doing came to me when a teacher sitting in on a rehearsal said I spent almost no corrections. Instead, I led the students to experience ensemble participation as a personal journey...and helped them realize that the rehearsal process was as much about them and their personal growth as it was about the music. It became clear that real growth and the highest level playing was only possible when students were fully engaged.
Researching the needs of music ensemble leaders and learner-centered education (LCE), and with the invaluable help of Dr. Anne M. Fritz, I learned that LCE - despite its proven pedagogical superiority - was rarely applied to music. LCE then became the lens through which I viewed working with young musicians and their teachers.
The Challenge of Engagement
Relying totally on the music to engage, as many teachers do - asking for more expression because the “music is so beautiful,” or louder playing or singing because “the forte is right there on the page...” rarely works. Similarly, telling students that Beethoven's music is noble, that Duke Ellington was great, or that Maslanka is inspiring, is unlikely to engage deeply.
Why? These things just aren't important to many of today's young musicians – even if we feel they should be. This is especially true given the significant difference between "in-school" and "outside-school" music, as well as the growing complexity of students' lives and carnival of demands for their attention in both the real and the cyber worlds.
For ensemble leaders, Igniting's emphasis is practical and hands-on, providing new tools and approaches that enhance their abilities to:
- Raise students’ concentration, engagement, and commitment;
- Get the students to take full responsibility for playing every mark on the page, especially dynamics;
- Sharpen their listening to the music other sections are playing
- Keep the young musicians quiet when we stop rehearsing, and have them listen when we speak to another section;
- Have the students watch their conductor and observe his/her gestures;
- Bring pencils and mark their parts all the time;
- Inspire students' thinking about the music’s imagery and message so they are inspired to play with real feeling and compelling rhythm;
- Study scores from a rehearsal planning approach (in the context of teachers' limited time);
- Lead rehearsals that build in intensity and focus - and deliver noticeable improvement - from the minute students arrive to dismissal;
- Maximize rehearsal efficiency so there is enough rehearsal time!
You will also find tested, step-by-step techniques for specific responses; for example:
- Tempo-related issues, including: no rushing or dragging, taking our tempo, subdividing, ritard and accelerando;
- Expression-related issues, including: observing dynamics, crescendo and decrescendo, accents.
Background
I started conducting youth ensembles some twenty years ago. After a while, teachers told me that they were amazed by the level of playing and the amount of improvement that was achieved in so short a time. They consistently asked me how I achieved these results.
What was I doing?
The key to what I was doing came to me when a teacher sitting in on a rehearsal said I spent almost no corrections. Instead, I led the students to experience ensemble participation as a personal journey...and helped them realize that the rehearsal process was as much about them and their personal growth as it was about the music. It became clear that real growth and the highest level playing was only possible when students were fully engaged.
Researching the needs of music ensemble leaders and learner-centered education (LCE), and with the invaluable help of Dr. Anne M. Fritz, I learned that LCE - despite its proven pedagogical superiority - was rarely applied to music. LCE then became the lens through which I viewed working with young musicians and their teachers.
The Challenge of Engagement
Relying totally on the music to engage, as many teachers do - asking for more expression because the “music is so beautiful,” or louder playing or singing because “the forte is right there on the page...” rarely works. Similarly, telling students that Beethoven's music is noble, that Duke Ellington was great, or that Maslanka is inspiring, is unlikely to engage deeply.
Why? These things just aren't important to many of today's young musicians – even if we feel they should be. This is especially true given the significant difference between "in-school" and "outside-school" music, as well as the growing complexity of students' lives and carnival of demands for their attention in both the real and the cyber worlds.
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How, then, to Reach the Young Musicians?
The IgniteResponse approach identifies students' developmental needs as a prime motivator for young musicians to become fully engaged. When they do - and when ensemble participation supports the development of self-confidence, self-image, willingness to take risks and go beyond comfort zones - and when young musicians begin to experience their unlimited potential through the rehearsal process, there's virtually no limit to what can be achieved. |
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These experiences need to be delivered by expert caring hands; Ignite Response (to Your conducting) helps those hands be ours.
Veteran Music Teachers' Top Professional Development Needs
I focus on engagement and responsibility in professional development workshops I lead. They're the keys to meeting veteran music teachers top four PD needs: 1) How to have their gestures watched and followed; 2) How to get the young musicians to sing and play expressively and observe printed markings; 3) How to keep them quiet, and; 4) How to rehearse to create noticeable, lasting improvement.
Ignite Response (to Your Conducting) will provide both the theoretical framework and the step-by-step approaches and techniques to engage students, end the struggle, and create musical and personal growth that will inspire everyone!
I invite you to enjoy comments from students, teachers, parents, and administrators that attest to the results that this approach has created...and can create for you, as well.
Veteran Music Teachers' Top Professional Development Needs
I focus on engagement and responsibility in professional development workshops I lead. They're the keys to meeting veteran music teachers top four PD needs: 1) How to have their gestures watched and followed; 2) How to get the young musicians to sing and play expressively and observe printed markings; 3) How to keep them quiet, and; 4) How to rehearse to create noticeable, lasting improvement.
Ignite Response (to Your Conducting) will provide both the theoretical framework and the step-by-step approaches and techniques to engage students, end the struggle, and create musical and personal growth that will inspire everyone!
I invite you to enjoy comments from students, teachers, parents, and administrators that attest to the results that this approach has created...and can create for you, as well.
Ignite Response will be available in print and e-book formats in Spring 2017; in the meantime I'm sharing excerpts from the book on this website so you can try them out. I can make the book as useful as possible if you would kindly let me know what works for you and what doesn't; I'll be so grateful for your feedback.