Rhythm practice is a daily part of my orchestra classes at all levels. Rhythm is one of the most basic music concepts, yet I’ve found that it requires more practice than just about any other aspect of playing for my
You step up to your podium, facing a classroom full of students ready to start playing. You finish your tuning routine and then think “Now what?” Shouldn’t you do some sort of warmup before you jump into rehearsing the pieces?
You’ve taught all the stuff, done all the exercises, and used all the tools. You are pretty darn sure that your students know what it means to be in tune and how to play it, but your groups still can’t
At the beginning of the school year I ask my students what they enjoy most about orchestra and what they look forward to. The two most common responses are always playing music with others and performing. Students love performing! It’s
Once students can accurately and consistently match pitch on their instruments, it’s time to start teaching them to tune intervals. This is where things get tricky! Matching pitch is pretty straightforward, even when matching different octaves. Tuning intervals and chords,
The beginning of a school year is an exciting time. New clothes, new supplies, new teachers and classes. As a parent, you want your student to be successful, but you may not always know what to do to help. If
When I ask my students how they should practice intonation, almost everyone mentions using a tuner. When I talk to teachers about using tuners, however, I get responses across the whole spectrum. Some teachers advocate every student having a tuner
My master’s project was all about teaching intonation to beginning string players, and as part of that I read a lot of books and interviewed a lot of teachers about their best practices. Over and over I heard the same
The second violins missed the D sharp again. It seems like every time you hit that note, it’s out of tune. You go to the piano and play the note for them. They play it back, still out of tune.
Any intonation training needs to start with pitch matching. Until students can match unison pitches, they’ll never be able to tune their instruments, let alone play in tune as an ensemble. Pitch matching should be one of the first things