The Norm, Not The Exception

Another one to add to my Why I Love Solo and Ensemble list:

At Solo and Ensemble on Saturday, a seventh grader's duet partner failed to show up for unknown reasons. Her mom made the trip to hear her even though she was in a wheelchair with a broken leg. Her younger sibling's birthday party was rescheduled so she could play. She dressed up and had her hair in an intricate braid with a fresh flower pinned into it. She waited over an hour until she was the last student left in the warm-up room. And she wasn't going to get to perform. 

Rather than let that be her first Solo and Ensemble experience, the judge I was working with played the duet along with her before taking a little extra time to work with the student who was our last performance of a long day. She walked out smiling and feeling pretty important for getting to play with the judge when just 30 minutes prior had been near tears and uninterested in playing. 

That is what teaching is about. Don't ever tell me that teachers don't care. Stories like this aren't the exception. They are the norm. I love my job.

Adventures in Chamber Music

Great crowd and great music!#leadwithHART #RCSarts #musedchat pic.twitter.com/gvStmw8J5U

— Hart MS Bands (@HartMsBands) May 20, 2016

What a night we had on Friday!  After months of work, our students performed at our first ever Chamber Music Night! It was not without its bumps, but there are just some things that have to try first to get a feel for the best way to make them work. 

Friday's event started about a week after I got the job this summer. I was meeting with my new teaching partner, Lauren. She is the band director at the high school across the street and also teaches one of the four sections of sixth grade band at the middle school. We were sharing ideas for where our program would go and she started telling me about some of the very cool composition and chamber music projects her students were doing. This turned into:

• What if the high school students could actually hear their compositions performed?
• What if the middle school students played them?
• What if the high school students had a culminating event to share the music they'd been working on?
• What if we did one big blow out event?
• What if we did it at the park downtown in the spring?

And so Chamber Music Night was born! Lauren's student created their midterm compositions with the middle school students in mind. About six weeks ago, we shared a folder through Google Classroom with all of their compositions for the middle school students to start going through.

The whole process was as student driven as we could possibly make it. Students created the music, students selected the music and chose their own groups, students practiced together with minimal teacher intervention, and students performed. It was absolutely wonderful witnessing students as young as sixth grade having musical conversations. As we grew closer to the event, they even had the opportunity to perform for their classes and receive student (and some teacher) feedback.

We had a beautiful night! Families came prepared with picnics, set up on the hill, and enjoyed the performances. But while the preparation and weather went pretty smoothly, the event itself admittedly did not. Our sign up list was set up on the minute within a three hour block. Students with longer pieces signed up for multiple time spots in a row, however with all of the middle school and high school student participating in at least one group, we ran out of sign up spots. We started at 5PM and quickly ended up about 30-40 minutes behind the schedule. For those who have experienced it, the situation felt much like running a Solo and Ensemble room that was running late.

Most families were very understanding, but some were very justifiably frustrated, especially those whose students had selected a specific time because of another event that evening. We worked hard to keep things moving (which they really did, as one group left the stage another was coming on. No down time.) but the last performers didn't go on until about 8:40 when we were supposed to be done at 8:00.

Now that we've done it here are our alterations for next year's so far:

• Sixth graders will double up on parts (duet will be four people, trio will be six, etc). Even though we were really going for the responsibility of individual students on individual parts, this will help both their confidence for their first small ensemble performance, and it will be a big help on time.
• Keep high school performances to three minutes or less.
• We need more pieces composed for groups larger than two. Many of the pieces written were duets so we needed more groups to allow for all students to perform.
• Pieces composed by the high school students cannot be longer than 16 bars (in 4/4).
• Possibly start earlier and end a little later.
• Plan some breaks into the performance schedule so that we have a chance to get caught up if necessary.

The work that went into providing our students an authentic performance experience was well worth it and we're already excited for possibilities next year's Chamber Music Night will bring.

Suggestions for keeping things running smoothly? Ever done something like this before and have words of wisdom?

Why Solo and Ensemble is My Favorite #MusicEd Event

Yesterday was middle school Solo and Ensemble (S&E). I'll admit that I don't always look forward to this time of year or the day itself.  The weeks leading up to S&E involve a lot of early mornings and late afternoons meeting with students.  The day itself is a long and hectic Saturday.

But then I get there and start checking kids in, and the magic of the day hits.  It's not perfect, but when approached correctly, S&E can be a great display of everything that's right with music education, and here's why:

• Watch two seventh graders, who have often been playing their instrument a year or less, select music on their own and collaborate over the musical interpretation. Hearing things like: "We have to do more with the crescendo at 9." or "Careful not to rush the eighth notes at the end." makes my music educator's heart ridiculously happy.
• The sheer number of adults it takes coming together to make an event this size successful is just nuts. There were thousands of students performing yesterday and to keep that running, there were teams of parents directing traffic in the lot, boosters selling concessions, volunteers at every turn pointing people in the right direction, accompanists hand writing scores to help out a student who forgot theirs, teachers giving pep talks to students so nervous they were crying, and adjudicators cramming as much wisdom as they possibly could into a three-ish minute window. 
• Want real evidence of good teaching and student growth? Spend a few minutes in the warm-up and performance rooms.  While all teachers work with individuals and groups, there is not enough time in the day to rote teach parts. Much of the responsibility is on students and without some good teaching to set them up, they won't have the background needed to put together a musical performance on their own. 
• It's so much more than a rating. Students are assessed individually or as a part of a small group. They receive feedback from a specialist on their instrument (my flutist advice to a horn player or percussionist can only go so far...). When I taught in a rural area, that was one of the only times all year my students could get to work with a specialist since we were so far from easy access to private teachers. I even learn something new every year working at S&E from reading score sheets or listening to the verbal feedback from the judge.

What else makes Solo and Ensemble great?  Or do you have a different contender for your favorite Music Education Event?  Please share in the comments!