If I had a dollar for every time I instructed an ensemble “to listen” in a rehearsal, I would be writing this blog on my private island in the Caribbean. Sadly, most of those times were the equivalent of asking the extremely bald band director writing this to grow hair. A great concept, but not the least bit helpful. However, by simply adding specifics of what to listen for to those instructions, everything changes. Now they have something to guide their listening. Something like: “Trumpets and alto saxes, listen to each other, because you have the same part.” “Bells, listen to the flutes. You are playing the first note of each measure of their melodic line.” “Trombones, can you hear the tubas? If not, you may be playing too loudly.” Any help at all is better than my silly request just to “listen.” Maybe I could have broken that habit earlier if I had simply trained my students to yell “listen to what?” when I said it!
Peter Loel Boonshaft, Director of Education
KHS America
The content of this Blog article or Banded Story is the intellectual property of the author(s) and cannot be duplicated without the permission of KHS America and/or the author(s). Standard copyright rules apply.
RECENT BOONSHAFT'S BLOG POSTS
#310. Rehearsals
T. S. Elliot stated that “the journey, not the arrival matters.“ I think we can all agree with that wonderful thought. As teachers, that is our stock-in-trade. It is what we dedicate our professional lives to. It surely describes the big picture of our time with our...
#309. Believe
As you walk into your classroom today, remember these words of Anatole France, “To accomplish great things, we must not only act, but also dream; not only plan, but also believe.” We can follow the advice of the remarkable sentiment: “To achieve all that is possible,...
#308. Why Make It Vivid?
When rehearsing an ensemble, one of the challenges is to convince our musicians that they must make the piece not only come to life, but do so incredibly vividly. The best way I have found is to ask them how many times we will rehearse a piece before a...
We look forward to the evolution of this exciting program, and welcome feedback on how we can further enhance the work that you do in music education.
We are excited to offer your program the opportunity to join the KHS America Academic Alliance today.