Battling Going Through The Motions during Band Rehearsals

As the beginning of the school year excitement starts to fade, band directors and their students across the country find themselves surrounded in routines. Routines for entering and exiting the classroom, setting up and tearing down instruments, and restroom and other administrative procedures to name a few. Some directors also choose to establish rehearsal routines such as delivering announcements either at the beginning or end of class, tuning to the oboe or clarinet, having a student conductor lead warm up exercises, or choosing to warm up together, individually, or both. While establishing and maintaining routines are excellent practice for student and band success (Juchniewicz, Kelly, & Acklin, 2014), predictability in musical routines may cause students not to put concentrated efforts to play at their best, or simply go through the motions. As a result, when students are not putting forth maximum effort, bad habits of poor posture, weak air stream, or general poor technique start to form. Merely going through the motions can be detrimental to the music making and learning process. Band directors now find themselves searching for motivational strategies for the students to play well consistently instead of focusing on instructional strategies that impact the music making and learning process.

Some band directors also fall into a routine that can be unfavorable to the band’s success. Regardless of the level, hearing routine band sounds become problematic for teacher development. When band directors struggle to get students out of routine playing habits, at times they may settle for the present sound. Being trapped with the same sounds can cause teachers to overlookoriginal expectations and the countless instructional techniques to draw those sounds out from their students. The following strategies are for band directors to maintain routines while varying activities within musical routines for ideal outcomes.

1. Long Tones

As teachers, we already know the wonderful musical development long tones provide such as building tone quality, endurance, awareness of pitch, and much more (Juchniewicz, Kelly, & Acklin, 2014). When students are playing their daily long tones, be sure to emphasize fundamental technique between each breath. For example, if the students are sustaining 12 beats each chromatic tone with mm = 60, place four beats of rest between each semitone to ensure quality breaths and most importantly, provide meaningful feedback during the rest time. Reminders could be anything from better posture, deeper breaths, faster air stream, embouchure adjustments, or tapping their toe to the tempo. Routine musical exercises, such as long tones or scales, are typical activities where students tend to go through the motions. Teachers can capitalize on instruction during these routines and reinforce the importance of the activities by being fully involved. The active feedback provided does not always have to be verbal. As the teacher, conduct the students through long tones. Emphasize technique and air speed through conducting gestures. This way the students can focus solely on tone production and you can work on maintaining their focus through a vocabulary of conducting gestures. Being actively present in daily musical routines holds your students to the higher expectations you create with consistency.

2. Air

A large number of bands that I have worked with or adjudicated still show fundamental problems of tone production but tend to focus solely on the music being performed. Often students go through the motions in terms of focusing on tone quality the moment music is placed in front of them. In addition, directors may also feel pressures of upcoming performances or assessments that they too negate foundations in lieu of focusing on notes and rhythms found in the music. Remember, your job is to teach music to band students, not teach the band music to students. Reinforce foundations of air during rehearsal to vary rehearsal routines. Producing characteristic tone quality on band instruments comes first and students need reminders and activities to produce great tone quality. It does not matter how wonderful the piece if the sounds producing the music are not quality. Avoid allowing the students go through the motions when it comes to production of air.

3. Rehearsal

If you find yourself rehearsing the same section of music with the same unprepared students repeatedly, you and your students are probably frustrated with the predictable

By Susana M. Lalama

routine of the rehearsal. The bigger problem is that students tend to shift their attention to anything but playing with great fundamental technique and go through the motions during rehearsal. Vary rehearsal activities. Involve all students in learning the troubled musical sections.

Tonal. For musical problems dealing with note accuracy or intonation, create activities in which all students sing the troubled sections. Uniform singing builds confidence in the weaker musicians, allows more opportunity for repetition with a different approach. Involve all students — which keeps them involved in the learning process and avoids potential behavioral problems, and is ideal for strengthening awareness of pitch (Worthy & Thompson, 2009). For the students without the music in front of them, either transpose a section or have the students learn to play the problematic section by ear (Musco, 2010). For the struggling students, vary the routine by first singing the problem section, then sing while fingering through the section, and finally playthrough the section. Many students and teachers skip the middle step of singing while fingering through the section, which ultimately connects the physical with the aural skills.

Another idea that is helpful with learning and perfecting tonal passages is altering the rhythms before returning to the original. For example, if there are multiple sixteenth note passages that are problematic for your students, isolate five successive sixteenth notes and change the rhythm so that students rehearse two notes as sixteenth notes and the rest as eighth notes (see figure 1). By altering the rhythm, students are able to isolate the difficult connections without becoming bored by repetition. Varying the activities will help break the rehearsal routine while helping the students improve fundamental music skills that go beyond the music.

Rhythm & Articulation. When students are having problems understanding particular rhythms, verbalizing the rhythms is a common strategy. Similar to singing tonal music patterns, chanting rhythmic patterns aloud helps weaker musicians learn from others, builds confidence, and is a way to keep all students involved. However, if the same students continue to struggle with the same rhythms, perhaps varying the activity may do the trick. Have students create words to particular rhythms to help retain the patterns. This way, each student can contribute and avoids going through the motions in a counting system in which they are struggling to understand. Of course, do not forget to count or chant with the metronome. Students often omit this important step of counting or chanting the rhythmic patterns to a steady pulse which explains their struggle in understanding the placement of rhythms. the foundations of good musicianship. Teaching tonality and structure from the beginning will help students understand how to create shapes. If students learn that every phrase must be shaped from the moment they start playing their instruments perhaps a stronger foundation will be built.

For passages in which students struggle with articulation, either style or speed, have the students sing. If they can verbalize it, they will be able to articulate it. Many successful band directors use this technique but it only works if the fundamental skills are present (even in singing). Emphasize energy in air speed when the students are singing through rhythmic patterns and styles. Students frequently forget to use fast air stream when they are focused on an articulated problem. Regardless whether band students intentionally go through the motions or not, band students need constant reminders to perform with the quality fundamental technique to ensure strong and consistent musical outcomes.

Another way to build musicality for your students is to make your conducting consistently expressive. If your conducting appears to the students as going through the motions, the students will do the same in their practice and performance. Practice and adjust to refine your conducting technique. Student attention to the conductor will improve if there are a variety of gestures. Record yourself during rehearsal and turn down the volume to see the effectiveness of your conducting gestures. Perhaps you may find you have a limited vocabulary, not enough emphasis on style, or just bad habits. You will improve as a conductor, musician, and teacher,and your students will improve as musicians individually and as an ensemble.

5. Practice

holding the students accountable for performance improvements based on the checklists.The moment band directors assume students understand how to practice, frustration and disappointment are soon to follow.

Conclusion

Routines are wonderful for band students but only if the efforts delivered within the routine activity does not affect the integrity of the music performance skills. Students have tendencies to forget fundamental technique when distracted or bored of repetition;hence go through the motions. Keep the students involved by reinforcing fundamental technique through all portions of rehearsal, including home learning. Whether the students are practicing their instruments individually or in a group setting, create a variety of meaningful activities where you can provide feedback for student growth. Going through the motions is not acceptable practice for playing in band, so insist on avoiding it by reinforcing high musical expectations throughout the year.

4. Musicality

Every phrase in music must have a shape. If the musical performance does not have direction or shape, musicality is lost. I have witnessed countless band students play notes and rhythms well but lack musicality. Students have a difficult time creating shapes and end up performing just the notes and rhythms. Perhaps this happens because the students learn the piece without musicality in mind. Teachers must help their students in the learning process by insisting and reinforcing

While all of these above strategies may seem obvious to the skilled musician, students need varying activities with plenty of reminders to avoid playing through the motions. The most challenging part is setting up the band students for home learning success. Ideally, individual studio lessons would help instrumentalists with fundamental problems, but not all students come from families that have the means (or interest) to invest in private lessons. Home learning practice habits need to be taught in a manner where students can have a variety of routine activities for efficient home learning. Most students (when they practice) either play through the music continuously or only play the portions they enjoy (i.e. the part they can play well and that is fun for them)which is not the most efficient use of home learning time. Create a checklist of activities with specifics of what to listen for during student home practice. For example, routine long tones and scales can have daily variations on duration lengths and patterns. When it comes to portions of the music being rehearsed, isolate a particular section and give specific instruction on how to practice at home...and put it in writing!Students will not take practicing at home seriously unless the band director takes it seriously. Be consistent in assigning home learning assignments and

References

Juchniewicz, J., Kelly, S. N., & Acklin, A. I. (2014). Rehearsal characteristics of “superior” band directors. UPDATE: Applications of Research in Music Education, 32, 2, 35-43. 1177/8755123314521221

Musco, A. M. (2010). Playing by ear: Is expert opinion supported by research? Bulletin of the Council for Research in Music Education, 184, (49-64). www.jstor.org.marie.converse.edu/stable/27861482

Worthy, M. D. & Thompson, B. L. (2009). Observation and analysis of expert teaching in beginning band. Bulletin of the Council for Research in Music Education, 180, 29-41. www.jstor.org.marie.converse.edu/stable/40319318

Susana M. Lalama is Assistant Professor of Music Education and conductor of the wind ensemble at Converse College in Spartanburg, South Carolina. She is an active band clinician, adjudicator, consultant, and music education researcher.