Building an Audience

Building an Audience

         Music is a medium that is meant to be shared in real time between the player and the audience. There is nothing like the thrill of a successful performance in front of a live audience. It is a chance to show off. Furthermore, it is a test of everything that your students have learned in rehearsals. 

          The issue with any performance that isn’t by a major group like the Rolling Stones is filling the seats. It is a common problem faced by every performer especially while they are building their career. There are many ways to help build an audience including posters, getting ads on the local radio stations, newspapers for the town and making announcements at school. It can be very helpful to link your performance group to the community and a sense of civic pride. Have your students perform during a 4th of July celebration. If your band travels they may pick up more concert goers who would not otherwise go into a school for a performance. Take your students to a local senior center and have them perform there. I happen to know someone who works as senior center activity coordinator and she is always looking for performers especially free ones. If there is a new library, town office, super market opening or a new movie theater, or mall in your area call and ask to perform. Local sports teams including any Triple A ball clubs will have a built in audience as well. Make sure to draw connections to your band and the community at large. Invite local civic leaders and the mayor. People who may come up for election always need to be seen as part of the community. 

          Furthermore, if you can get together a booster committee they can be helpful too. Selling raffle tickets in front of a local store doesn’t just raise money but it also raises community awareness of your performance group. Also, these boosters may be willing to provide food for after the concert. Many people will attend an art opening just for the wine and cheese. They will stand around and chat, have some yummy food they may even tell their friends about this wonderful event they attended. You may not be able to provide alcoholic beverages but a slice of homemade blueberry pie and some cookies with punch and coffee may leave your current audience with a stronger desire to come back.

         Bottom line is, become a part of your community. The greater the connections and visibility, the more people will want to attend your concerts.

Science of Sound Waves Lesson plan -Should be a high school unit plan instead

Student Teacher: Amy Braica_ Grade Level: 8

Date of lesson: March 31, 2014_

Institution _University of Bridgeport_   Length of lesson_10 minutes___

Topic/Title: Science of Sound Waves

 (A)  Relevant State and National Content Standards

  Music content area 6. Analysis, 8 Connections to other disciplines

 (B)  Learners’ Background 

Regular music classes, some are also singers, band members and and or take piano lessons.

 (C)  Student Learning Objective

Students will be exposed to the science of sound waves including pitch, frequency, volume and introduced to the beginning of harmonics.

(D)  Materials & Teacher-developed Resources 

Powerpoint presentation, computer, projector, flute and other instruments.

 (E)  Learning Activities (Teaching and Learning Strategies with an Approximate   

        Timeline)

(1)  Initiation

Students are greeted. Teacher explains the reason for the lesson. Many of you have been interested in sound waves and how they work. This is a lesson about that. We will have some additional lessons on sound and how it works in future classes but this is just a beginning.

(2) Development

Classroom Organization/Grouping Patterns.

Students will be seated in their assigned seats facing the board.

Student Learning Activities (Note: List the sequence of student activities and forms of 

class participation.)

Students are free to ask questions and listen to the lecture. 

Teacher Modeling Behaviors- Teacher will give lecture and perform on the violin and flute. If other instruments are in the classroom brought by the students then they may also play for demonstration of an A-440.

Guided Practice for Students- Students will have to answer questions from the teacher reiterating what the teacher has just said.

Questions to Promote Learning and Studying- Can anyone tell me what is pitch? Frequency? Volume? What is timbre?

(3)  Closure

Summary of the Main Points of the Lesson

Reinforcement of the Purpose for Learning- I will tell them that they need these basics before we get into the science of composition.

Homework: Write a paper about these things you have learned today and come back to school tomorrow with written questions about the science of sound.

 (5) Independent Work (optional)

 (F)  Evaluation of Student Learning

(Describe the formal and informal assessments you will use for students to demonstrate their learning and mastery of the objective(s).) 

Students will demonstrate their knowledge through their interactions with the teacher, summing up what they have just learned,

 (G)  Modifications for Individuals Needing Differentiated Instruction

Handouts of the powerpoint if necessary. Privately going over the classwork between classes or after school.

Individuals Needing Differentiated Instruction: Describe 1 to 3 students with learning differences. These students may be special or general education students and need not be the same students for each lesson.  Students may represent a range of ability and/or achievement levels, including students with IEPs, gifted and talented students, struggling learners, and English language learners.

Note: Differentiated instruction may not be necessary in every lesson.  However, over the course of the student teaching placement, it is expected that each student teacher will demonstrate the ability to differentiate instruction in order to meet the needs of students with learning differences.

Notes from the pre-conference

 (H)  Teacher Reflection

See Post-Observation Reflection Form

Supplemental Information (if needed)

Lesson plan in sound waves reviewed

My evaluation of my work in class teaching a lesson on the Science of Sound Waves

I believe that I did a poor job. I spent a lot of my time talking and showing slides which were boring. I also tried to cover too much information in my 10 minute time frame. I should have stuck to teaching students that sound comes in waves and teaching amplitude and hertz. I should have shown a vibrating string on a violin and had students play with a guitar. 

Students need to have a few key ideas to take away with them and instead I gave them about a dozen including the overtone series and the basic functions of the human ear. This was all too much for a 10 minute lesson plan geared towards middle school students.

I overreached and that is why my lesson plan went so poorly.

Choral warm up

Student Teacher __Amy Braica         Grade Level_High School 

Date of lesson_3/7/2014

Institution _University of Bridgeport Lesson Plan   

Length of lesson: 10-15 Minutes Lesson Performed in Class (5 Minutes)

Topic/Title: Choral Warm Up Lesson

 (A)  Relevant State and National Content Standards

        National and State Music Standards 1: Singing, Standard 2: Evaluating Music and Music Performances

 (B)  Learners’ Background 

           Varied. Some learners can already read treble clef to some degree when prompted. Others are more advanced and sing with private instruction, may play instruments at home or in band class.

 (C)  Student Learning Objective for the 5 minutes

The student will be able to breathe properly for singing. Demonstrate proper posture. Relax muscles of the body in preparation for singing and warming up the voice in preparation for rehearsal.

(D)  Materials & Teacher-developed Resources

             The piano is necessary for pitch matching.

 (E)  Learning Activities (Teaching and Learning Strategies with an Approximate   

        Timeline) 5 minutes and then 35 minutes for the full lesson

Greeting students for the morning, have students put away their things and get to their places and sit down. Body warm ups are performed as lead by the teacher and then singing warm ups. 

Each successive initiation will include going over the homework and any difficulties students had and reviewing basic concepts about breathing, posture, care and holding the instrument.

(3) Development

Classroom Organization/Grouping Patterns –student will sit in a chair facing the teacher. The teacher have students stand up roll their necks and gently roll their shoulders forwards and backward

Teacher Modeling Behaviors-Teacher will model warm up of muscles while facing the students and then play the piano and give verbal prompts as to what the teacher wants the students to sing during the vocal warm ups.

Guided Practice for Students-Student will practice proper breathing, relaxation of muscle warm ups and vocal warm ups. They will do neck rolls, shoulder rolls, stretches, imagine etthat you are smelling a rose and then while touching toes they will slowly roll their body up to standing position. Students will do lip trills. Students will sing up and down a 5th on one long continuous La. Then an octave. Then arpeggiated chord tones. Then super bubblegum and superdouble bubble gum. Then students will sing a round on solfege with each each voice part singing in unison against the others.

Questions to Promote Learning and Studying: 

Listen to your bodies: Does anything feel painful to you? If so you are overdoing it with your neck rolls. Don’t sing anything that hurts. Do you feel a strain? Does everyone feel warmed up?

(3)  Closure

Students will be told to sit down and open their music folders.

                Summary: Students will be physically and mental prepared to sing in rehearsal.

Reinforcement of the Purpose for Learning- Teacher verbal corrections.

              (4)  Students should do this to warm up before they practice music at home.

Independent Work (optional)

 (F)  Evaluation of Student Learning

(Describe the formal and informal assessments you will use for students to demonstrate their learning and mastery of the objective(s).) 

Teacher will listen to students performances and watch visually their physical engagement.

 (G)  Modifications for Individuals Needing Differentiated Instruction

Students unable to perform all warm ups will modify for themselves.

Individuals Needing Differentiated Instruction: Describe 1 to 3 students with learning differences. These students may be special or general education students and need not be the same students for each lesson.  Students may represent a range of ability and/or achievement levels, including students with IEPs, gifted and talented students, struggling learners, and English language learners.

Note: Differentiated instruction may not be necessary in every lesson.  However, over the course of the student teaching placement, it is expected that each student teacher will demonstrate the ability to differentiate instruction in order to meet the needs of students with learning differences.

 (H)  Teacher Reflection

See Post-Observation Reflection Form

Teacher will keep a mental note of the pitch matching of the group and abilities with solfege.

Supplemental Information (if needed) -None

Funding for the arts in our classrooms...

I have recently been asked the question, “Should we have to rely on parents and fundraising to run a modern BOJC program?”

           That is a very complex question that has numerous factors to consider. One school district are we talking about? In one school, I have visited recently basic textbooks have not been purchased for years while the school got grants for an expensive computer based reading program. I think many people would like to believe that schools always find a way to get the basics for Reading, Writing and Arithmetic but that is a myth. The federal government has grants and so does the private sector but they only have so much money and many needy school districts requesting the funds. While speaking to colleagues currently working in inner city schools I have learned quite a bit about the more impoverished inner city schools. In these poorer districts, students will not get the books they need to study history, buildings that are freshly painted when necessary, working intercoms in every classroom as a safety procedure, nor even special education paraprofessionals for every student who would benefit from their care. 

         One of my professors at the University of Bridgeport, Prof. Frank Martignetti has told members of the UB Master’s Degree program that some of the more affluent Connecticut districts allocate $25,000 for a musical each year. Another professor from my university Prof. Brandt Schneider has told those of us in his class that a good sound system may cost $50,000. Through my own personal research on the website: band shoppe.com, I have seen that the marching band jacket cost $104.95, shirts $42.95 and pants 34.95 and this is per student. This does not include hats gloves and matching shoes so the figure is easily $200 per uniform and you are assuming that the students will only wear one uniform per year in both hot summers and cold winters. One website that has published a sample budget put the yearly cost of their band at about $20,000. http://wumethodskr.wordpress.com/instrumental-program/sample-band-budget/  While choruses can be cheaper to run as the instruments are internal and many teachers choose to have students wear all black or black and white outfits there is still the matter of memberships to various competitive organizations such as Allstate $500 and transportation by buses to various performances a few hundred dollars and music purchases: over $1000. 

         Music programs can save children. I have heard many adults, former students from various schools approach me when they found out that I was a music teacher. These adults have reminisced about their days in the chorus, band or in the high school music and told me how important their music teacher was. Some have even said that without music they would have dropped out of school but they didn’t want to miss out on music classes. Also, music and the other arts are the culture of a society. People may live by technology but they live for the vital emotional connections that are part and parcel with culture. How can we give that up?

         The question about funding music programs through local tax money versus fundraising takes on whole new meaning. In districts that are affluent I think that it is entirely reasonable to have the school put appropriate amounts of money for music programs into its budget but in poorer districts this doesn’t seem practical. In a cruel system of financial inequalities, which types of deprivation educationally do we want our poorer children to suffer from? Freedom from poverty will always take higher precedence over the arts in our classrooms. If we can keep our cultural heritage alive through private fundraising then we must do so.

Technology in Music Education

                                    Technology in Music Education

         Technology is changing music education. Today we have apps for our phones that act as metronomes, A -440 pitch tuners, key transposition apps that make the life of the music teacher and music student easier. Music theory software is also teaching our students about music theory and is especially helpful in teaching students who do not already play an instrument. Students can just put on headphones run the programs and answer music theory questions that are also played so that students can hear their answers in real time. 

         Music technology has made recording music cheaper and accessible to everyone. Youtube would not exist without cheap recording software. This website is filled with garage bands, amateur singers and even choreographed musical numbers in schools. Music technology now affords our students to feel like real musicians by putting on their own music videos that can be seen by millions of people world wide. Students are engaged in real performance art and can see for themselves just how difficult it can be to create a polished music video or studio audio recording. This gives them a greater appreciation for the work of the artists that they already know and listen to. Furthermore, video and audio recordings do not just create more excitement and engagement in classroom work but also allows students to see and hear their own performances and to correct their own errors.

        I think though that the biggest change caused by technology is in composition. Today composition is a more real and viable element in music education. Students can work on projects online potentially using dozens of instruments that they would not have access to in the classroom nor would they likely know how to play. Now we have access to composition programs that allow students to create their own music and to hear it in real time. Two excellent free online composition programs are Noteflight and Muse Score which can be found at http://www.noteflight.com/login and musescore.org respectively. Noteflight has the advantage of being able to share your music with other users of the website. More sophisticated programs that required students to build their music from the ground up include Finale which has a limited free version, both can be found at www.finalemusic.com. As a first step some students are introduced to music looping with the product Garage Band from Apple but this is more music sampling and requires less musical thought as compared with the previous products.

         For blog sights that you can research for more information, I suggest visiting http://mustech.net which has online classes, reviews and explanations of music tech programs and http://musicianswithapps.com which gives reviews elementary school music play apps.

A Review of the Film: Young @ Heart

Young @ Heart: A movie that shows the social impact of choral participation

              Young @ Heart is a choir that performs rock and pop music by senior citizens. This film is a documentary directed by a British filmmaker Steven Walker who first came into contact with the Young @Heart Chorus while it was touring Europe. His film follows the group and interviews some of the individual members while they are preparing for a major tour. 

             The average age of the singers is 83 and the minimum age requirement is 73 years old. The Young @ Heart chorus is based in Northampton, Massachusetts and is directed by Bob Cilman. The films shows the interrelationships between the music, the singers, their families, their communities, their health and emotional welfare, the relationship with their audiences and with their choral director as well. Two members of the choir who are struggling with health problems die during the filming process and another singer Eileen Hall dies shortly after the filming of the movie.

             One man in particular whose heart is failing is singing while on oxygen and the other participants including the musical director Bob Cilman talk about the importance of having him perform with the group. Wives and other family members of failing members of the choir speak about the importance of the choir on their loved one’s lives. For some, getting better after a bout with cancer or heart disease means struggling towards a recovery that will include the chorus as part of their lives again. This is a goal that is important to them in their healing process and it is also important to the other members of the choir. Many members had never met each other until they sang together in the choir. Many members had never heard music from such artists as Coldplay but they learn with time to interpret the music and sing it well enough to thrill audiences. For this to be an authentic musical experience for these singers musical director Bob Cilman chooses music with emotional depth and doesn’t pull any punches, insisting that his singers learn the music. There are no excuses such as I’m old and I have never heard this type of music before. Everyone is there to learn the music and everyone has problems including health and personal problems they must overcome to learn the music and show up for rehearsals every week.

          I cannot help but think that part of the charm of hearing and seeing them is that they are showing all of us that you can still be vital and relevant to the world around when you are old. The positive and aggressive take no prisoners attitude of the members is encouraging to anyone who has thought about growing older and still having something to say to the world and to have purpose. As a future choir director, I don’t just think about the music as an art form. I think about the relationships that will be forged and how lives will be changed by having a positive group experience while working towards real and challenging goals. My own best memories of choir practice have been a mixture of hearing our group perform challenging music well and the caring community that we and the director had created for ourselves. The film, Young @ Heart shows the viewer exactly why choirs are so important both artistically and socially to everyone involved.