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
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,
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
“Listen!” yells the conductor as the students struggle to find the right pitch. It’s true; listening is important, but what exactly do we listen to? Do our students know what we mean when we tell them to listen? Do we
We’ve all experienced it. You’ve felt the frustration that comes when the violas missed the C sharp yet again, even though you’ve gone over it at least a dozen times. You’ve cringed through those elementary or middle school concerts –
You’re on the stage of the most beautiful concert hall you’ve ever played in, the same stage where world-class musicians play almost every week. You sit in nervous anticipation of the concert that will start in just a few minutes
The music you choose for your orchestras to learn makes a huge difference in how they sound when they perform. Selecting repertoire is probably one of the most important things we do as music teachers. With thousands of pieces to
I’ve never been strongly attached to the traditional orchestral seating arrangement, and in my 10+ years of teaching orchestra I’ve gone through just about every possible seating arrangement with my students. Each arrangement brings its own set of pros and