I thought that Tammy did a wonderful job this week explaining the readings and leading our class in group discussions about building intonation, rehearsal strategies, and the purposes of auditions and ranking systems. While the chapters addressed all these major issues that instrumental music educators have to deal with, I really enjoy having the forum of the class environment to be able to bounce back ideas off each other, and really talk in-depth about potential problems we might face in the profession. One of these key problems is intonation. What approach should we take to developing our students' ears? Should we make it a visual process as well as an aural process? Or is the visual element damaging in the long-term scheme of things? Are young children too immature and underdeveloped to cognitively understand the differences in sharp vs. flat? These are all wonderful questions for which I don't think there is a definitive answer. There are many opinions on the subject, but I think children should be introduced to intonation at an early age regardless of their ability to hear "in tune" or not. Like other subjects in school, the kids might not grasp everything right away, but exposing them to a complicated concept early on in their careers might spark learning and a long-term interest later on in life.
On Wednesday, we spent a great deal talking about the chapters on auditions and the process of ranking students. I mentioned in class that it is a "hot topic" in many circles right now to totally abolish auditions at even the high school level in favor of a "rotation" system. Now, I love the rotation system, and I think that no matter the skill level, each instrumentalist should have the opportunity to play the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd part in their respective sections. This works particularly well with the Horns and Trumpets, especially if you want you students to get through a concert! But I am NOT a strong advocate of simply doing away with the audition system altogether. I think there are many musical and non-musical benefits for students to experience the rigorous process of the audition. Musically, they are given an opportunity to play music only once for others that will be judging them. Extra-musically speaking, they will learn discipline and the consequences of hard work. Or conversely, they may learn the consequences of not working at all! Either way, this experience can be a positive platform for learning and growth, and we should consider all the benefits of such a process before deciding to throw it out once and for all.
Just a personal note: I was a little surprised that we spent so much time on transposition on Wednesday. Nothing personal, it's just that I've learned this concept over and over and over and over again in middle school, high school, college, theory, conducting, music history, pedagogy, brass methods, woodwind methods, etc... It seems like no teacher wants to be the one to say that they never taught me how to do this. But I will say that it is sad that so many people don't understand something that WE as music educators make so much more difficult than it needs to be. Honestly, transposition made sense to me when I was taught about the concept for the first time in 7th grade. Of course since then I've learned more about it. I'm faster at transposition, I've learned about additional instruments that transpose, and as a conductor, you need to know how to do this automatically. I just don't see why so many people think transposition is so difficult. Calculus is difficult. Quantum physics is difficult. Transposition is tantamount to addition and subtraction.
Beginners might not be able to distinguish between sharp and la, but they can hear the beats and elimination of beats to tell them they are in tune.
ReplyDeleteNot everyone has the ease of transposing as you do. And don't be surprised to learn that transposing is not taught in every high school program. You will find that some students will grasp concepts easier than others. Some will need repetition and intervention, others will grasp concepts very quickly. Even basics like articulations might create challenges for some students.