The Patriots
West Suburban Home School Band
The PatriotsWest Suburban Home School Band
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Wednesday Additions 3-17-04
SEC – Many thanks to all those who helped make the Third Annual Solo and Ensemble Contest a huge success. Special "Thanks" go to *Mrs. Herbst, for arranging use of her church and for assembling an excellent team of support people to run the event; *Mr. Borow, Mrs. Wiesner, Mr. Jim Pardy and Mr. Kochel – for their help in keeping the event on schedule; *The Lutheran Church of the Master and their pastor, for sharing their facility with us. *Our contest judges *All our students and their families for getting to "church on time" and for all their diligent work on the solos/ensembles, which produced beautiful music. *We hope that this was a good experience for all and that much musical growth resulted from the event.
Overall, all three judges were impressed with the level of maturity, seriousness and professionalism of our students. Musically, they thought that we as a group were doing fine work and should be commended. That was very nice to hear. After studying the judges’ sheets, I noticed that certain judge’s comments came up quite often. They are noted below and are areas that we, individually and as a band, need to take into consideration and work on: 1. Dynamics – we need to improve and increase the range of dynamics that we are able to produce. In other words, our "pp" should be extremely quiet, while our "ff" should be extremely loud. When music is marked so, this should be reflected in the volume. A. Practice playing one note pp, then play it again ff; repeat this procedure, over and over, to develop volume contrast. B. Practice playing one note, while holding it at pp, building slowly to ff. Then do the reverse. Practice this over and over. 2. Balance in the ensembles. When working on ensembles in the future and in your own instrument section, try to match the sound qualities and volume levels of your ensemble partners, especially the principle player (first chair). 3. There were a lot of comments overall on tone. This is not easy to work on. Listen to yourself playing by making a tape or video of yourself playing. Play it back and listen to the quality of your tone. Does it sound pleasing to you? Is it even? Is it full or airy sounding? How can your tone quality be improved? 4. Phrasing and Articulation (how you tongue notes). For it to be right, it must be exact. Tongue the first note of a slur or phrase, then just finger the rest until a new slur or phrase begins. Staccatos should be tongued with a "tut" instead of a "ta" motion of the tongue. Staccato notes should be played short and spaced. Legato on the other hand, is a gentle, slight tonguing, which barely separates one note from another. To be able to do this in the right way takes practice. Again, books such as the Rubank series or Unisonal Scales books offer many pages of exercises to practice this musical element. Try practicing the scales at the end of the EE books with and without tonguing. 5. Intonation: This area included how "in tune "you were. This does not only mean how you tuned up before playing your piece, such as tuning to the piano or to your ensemble members. It also includes how you play your instrument as you move up and down the register. For example, as a flute player, I know that my high E is always sharp. I don’t know why, but it is. This means that I must slightly rotate (roll) my flute mouthpiece "in, towards me" when I am going to play that E. If you own a tuner, play a scale with it and see how your pitch (intonation) changes as you go up and down the instrument. Learn how to adjust to your instrument and embouchure as you play, to get yourself in tune with the band and /or others. These are not all the comments but the ones that appeared the most in the judging sheets. Hope these suggestions help as you continue to strive to improve your skills as a musician. I also have a lot of judges’ music. Please see me to get it back this next practice. Judges sheets will be ready to be handed back at this week’s practice. Again, congratulations to all of you.
You will be practicing at Mrs. Pfauth’s house during our usual band rehearsal for a group sectional. Contact her for all the details.
Home Educators’ Conference Ensemble: When: Friday, March 26th, from 1-2 p.m. Those who arrive early are welcome perform ensembles, if the room is still unoccupied for us. Where: Sheraton Hotel, Arlington Heights Directions: Take 355 North, to where it turns into rt. 53, past Woodfield Take the exit called "Euclid East. The Sheraton is about ½ mile down on the left. Go to Conference entrance on West side at Registration. To the right and downstairs will be the "Performance Room". There is still time to sign up to participate in the volunteer ensemble that will be performing at this conference. Some additional music was distributed. Those still interested should see Mrs. Wiesner to get the necessary music. Note: all participants must bring their EE1 books as we will play out of them (see below). Students who are still interested in joining this volunteer ensemble to perform at this event, please sign up this Thursday. Tentative line-up for the Home Educators’ Conference is as follows: Old Hundredth – played by all present New World Symphony - played by Concert Band members
Cadets will have their normal rehearsal, but will end at 6:50. Those participating in the Home Ed. Conf, will need to immediately pull up the following songs for a brief, but concentrated practice on Magnificent Seven, Colonel Bogey, and Woodchoppers’ Ball. If we are able to complete these before 7:10, we’ll move into the EE1 songs listed above. About our Winter Concert CD……Again, I’d like
to encourage the purchase of the CD by band families not only for your own enjoyment but
also for the learning potential it offers. Parents, know that it can help your
students if they listen for their parts and analyze what they hear for stronger and weaker
areas. Some band members have already noticed that the dynamics, or lack thereof,
were more apparent in listening to the recording than they were while playing.
This is especially true of Concert and Symphonic, for which more
attentiveness to these areas is expected. Overall tonal quality, attentiveness to
time, accuracy and ensemble playing (that is, the ability to play exactly together, as a
unit) can be self-critiqued by listening to this CD. It trains the child to listen with a
more critical ear. This is a great exercise to practice.
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