What makes a school year successful? How do you know you’re a good teacher? Can we just talk about this for a minute? It’s the end of the school year and the last few weeks have been a rollercoaster of
What Makes a Successful School Year?
What to Do When Your Students Aren’t Motivated
Do you feel like your students are just not very motivated, or does it seem like students are less motivated than they used to be? If so, you aren’t alone. Lack of motivation is one of the most common excuses
Warmups for Orchestra Part 4: Left-Hand Technique
Left-hand skills are the ones generally covered in method books, so it’s likely you are already teaching most if not all of these skills in your classes. Still, left-hand technique covers a lot of ground, so it’s good to take
Warmups for Orchestra Part 3: Right Hand Technique
I’ve heard professors say on multiple occasions that students are often two years behind in right hand skills compared to left hand skills when they get to college. I don’t have any evidence to back that up, but I believe
Warmups for Orchestra Part 2: Rhythm Exercises
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
Warmups for Orchestra Part 1: Why Do Warmups?
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?
Teaching Intonation Part 8: Fixing Intonation in a Piece
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
Teaching Intonation Part 7: Tuning Intervals and Chords
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,
Teaching Intonation Part 6: Using Tuners
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
Teaching Intonation Part 5: Using Drones
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