I am going to start off with the big news from the weekend. As you know, I decided to work with the Temple University Diamond Marching Band this semester. As it happens, this past weekend was my first live college football game since I graduated undergrad back in 2005. And, boy was it a doozy! Temple went into the game a 7 point underdog. As the marching band marched through the sea of Penn State fans in the tailgate, they sure made us feel like the underdog. Most of the crowd was well-spirited. Though there were a few choice fans that made giant asses of themselves by yelling insults and taunts at the band. To the band's credit, everyone handled it perfectly well. The first quarter was all Penn State, scoring 10 unanswered points against a Temple squad that looked like they forgot there was a football game that day. And then Temple decided to bring it. And bring it they did. The rest of the game was all Temple, resulting in a 27-10 Temple victory!
What's more is that one of the Temple touchdowns came right through the side of the endzone where we were standing. That's right, folks if you were watching ESPN on Saturday with a magnifying glass trained on the lower left hand screen of your TV, you saw me cheering on the team as we crushed Penn State.
...wait, you weren't watching with your TV zoomed in enough to see me? Let me help you out.
You still don't see me? Maybe this will help.
Anyway, the Temple band's approach to playing in the stands is very different from my experience at the University of Maryland. At Maryland, we had flip folders, filled with stand tunes, in the stands. This allowed the band to play a large repertoire of music in the stands. Tunes were called up a few plays ahead of time so the band could be ready to play when the opportunity arose. Temple, on the other hand, has a smaller selection of stand tunes, but they are all memorized. The smaller selection, though necessitating the repetition of tunes during a single game, allows the student body to get to know the tunes and become participants in the music making experience. Because the music is memorized, they need less time to get ready and can call up tunes in the moment in direct response to the action on the field. I am not sure which I like better. Both have their merits and their shortcomings. But, it was an interesting comparative experience.
Speaking of interesting experiences: I have been spending a lot of time in the copy room at school making music copies for Night Owls. And because I have been parked in such a high traffic area, I have gotten to overhear some very interesting conversations. My favorite from this past week was between two dance teachers. It was unclear whether they were actual dance professors or TAs. Regardless, the one teacher was complaining about her students, saying that she couldn't stand her classes. They didn't pay attention, they were always on their cell phones, they came late to class, etc. It reminded me of a conversation we had back in Teaching Music in Higher Education about how many college professors are not trained teachers. And I think it is a crying shame because of situations like this. This particular "teacher" was struggling with a disconnect with her students. She couldn't figure out how to teach the material in a way that would connect her interest in it to her student's perspective on it. I wish universities had systems in place to identify and aid ineffective teachers and give them the support and training they need to do their work.
In conducting class, this week, Dr. T. said something that made me harken back to a conversation I had with a music teacher colleague a few years ago. She said that conductors often talk too much and that it is a sign that the conductor does not have the gestural language to say what needs to be said without using words. I think this is true to a point, but not completely. For me, the truth of this statement occurs when the conductor is having an artistic "conversation" with the ensemble in real time. Gestures can be used to show shape, direction, tone, tempo, style, and more. It can be used in creative interchanges. But, the statement does not hold true for me when the conversation needs to be one regarding music literacy (mastery over the declarative and procedural knowledge necessary for the participation in a musical paradigm). In this case, the conversation must be driven by explanations, models, metaphors, and other teaching tools. It is the same issue I have when folks posit that music classes need no curriculum other than the literature being prepared for a concert. That is all well and good if your students are receiving literacy curriculum elsewhere. But, in the case of so many music educators out there, our curriculum must be a hybrid of creativity and conceptual mastery. If you want to hear more on this topic, come to my session at the NAfME conference this October!
Conducting class was a very eye-opening experience this past week. Remember how I was telling you about Dr. T.'s dissatisfaction with undergraduate conducting courses? Well, she was totally right. Everything (well, really almost everything) I "know" about conducting needs a paradigm shift. My conducting plane is too high. My grip in the baton is wrong. The way I form my left hand is distracting. My pattern (I was apparently taught "focal point" conducting) is not the standard one. Gaaah! Why am I just finding these things out now! Well, better late than never. I will be putting in some solid conducting practice over the course of this semester.
We have been working on independence of hands - that is to say, making the left and the right hand do completely unrelated things at the same time. Think patting your head with one hand while rubbing your stomach with the other, but a million times more difficult. Many of you know that when I was a youngster, I had to be in "special gym." Yes, folks. That is the class for kids who are too uncoordinated to do real gym in school. Well, this week felt like a return to special gym. My lack of coordination was in full effect. Crap.
Research was fun this past week. In pairs, we presented to each other on various research paradigms. My partner and I had Quantitative Experimental Research. And our presentation went over pretty well. A number of my classmates remarked how much they liked our presentation. I like to think that my disdain of reading from the powerpoint, use of color, and liberal employment of clipart makes my presentation style unique and entertaining. Plus, we gave out candy. I have a habit of making up words, which can sometimes be an endearing and fun quality and at other times be a little embarrassing. During discussion in Research class, I used the word, "ideosyncraticies." Yes, I made up a word because I couldn't think of the word, "idiosyncrasies." And Dr. C. totally called me out on it.
I am still working out my feelings on the Gordon Music Learning Theory. More to come on that later.
Notable quotes from the week:
Dr. B. "Remember that every time you perform, it is someone's first time seeing you."
Dr. T. "What feels good for you is not always what is best for your musicians."
We have been working on independence of hands - that is to say, making the left and the right hand do completely unrelated things at the same time. Think patting your head with one hand while rubbing your stomach with the other, but a million times more difficult. Many of you know that when I was a youngster, I had to be in "special gym." Yes, folks. That is the class for kids who are too uncoordinated to do real gym in school. Well, this week felt like a return to special gym. My lack of coordination was in full effect. Crap.
Research was fun this past week. In pairs, we presented to each other on various research paradigms. My partner and I had Quantitative Experimental Research. And our presentation went over pretty well. A number of my classmates remarked how much they liked our presentation. I like to think that my disdain of reading from the powerpoint, use of color, and liberal employment of clipart makes my presentation style unique and entertaining. Plus, we gave out candy. I have a habit of making up words, which can sometimes be an endearing and fun quality and at other times be a little embarrassing. During discussion in Research class, I used the word, "ideosyncraticies." Yes, I made up a word because I couldn't think of the word, "idiosyncrasies." And Dr. C. totally called me out on it.
I am still working out my feelings on the Gordon Music Learning Theory. More to come on that later.
Notable quotes from the week:
Dr. B. "Remember that every time you perform, it is someone's first time seeing you."
Dr. T. "What feels good for you is not always what is best for your musicians."
Well, folks. I think that is it for this edition. Until next week,
Future Dr. Mitch, out!
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