'Tis the Season...Part III

Well, the dust has settled, or maybe I should say the puddles have dried, but here we are finally at Christmas Eve. With the tree trimmed, the pies in the oven, the presents wrapped, the dog bathed, and still some time to clean the bathroom tomorrow morning (TMI?) I have a moment to sit and reflect on the amazing concert my students put on last Tuesday night. Is it bragging? Maybe, but I can't help it. They blew me away.

The fifth grade band at Sierra Madre is comprised of seven flutes (one of which appeared at the concert in her soccer clothes telling me she had a tournament that night and wouldn't be staying for the show), a clarinet, a couple of alto saxes, a trumpet plus a couple of ringers from the middle school group playing percussion. We like to say they are a small-but-mighty group, and they really played well on Tuesday night.
They were followed by the fifth grade strings which is about 20 strong and includes a cello and a viola, as well as a third grader and a couple of fourth graders. The strings also sounded great. Together these two groups are the future of the middle school orchestra, and if Tuesday night is any indication, then we will have a strong middle school program for the next several years.

The evening was topped off by the middle school PAK Orchestra- (should I change the name, as we have talked about to the SiMa Philharmonic?) and all the detailed preparation we had done last week really paid off. They listened to each other, they watched me, they minded the pitfalls they had discovered and thought about, they waited for cutoffs, they even crescendo-ed! What a show! The principal was very complimentary, and I have gotten lots of positive feedback from parents. The kids themselves beamed when it was over, and the audience clapped and clapped.

The success of this concert has prompted me to do something that I have wanted to do for a long time. I think this orchestra will go to the Forum Music Festival this year, in May. We will play for an adjudication, and then spend the rest of the day at Magic Mountain. This group is up to the challenge, and deserves the fun such a trip would give them.

Now for a couple of weeks of rest. After the holidays we dive into preparation for the All-District Festival, which happens in February. But for now, pumpkin pie, family and lots of sleep!

Happy holidays, everyone!

'Tis the Season... Part II

It has been quite a week. It started with the "strolling" musicians of San Rafael Elementary, and ended with packing up a good chunk of the music room at Sierra Madre Middle School to move it to the elementary campus where the auditorium is.

The Monday morning stroll was fun for all. The classes we visited seemed to appreciate the music as much as the break in their routine. The musicians stepped right up to the challenge and did their best. The one surprise came from the kindergartens where several children in each room covered their ears upon hearing the first notes of the flutes. Now, the two boys playing flutes did a good job; the covered ears are no reflection on their skill or ability. Rather, I think it just had to do with the fact that most people these days are not accustomed to live music being performed in close proximity. This is another reason I love the strolling option for school performances.

The Middle Schoolers at Sierra Madre have been putting the finishing touches on their repertoire for next week's all-instrumental program. This is the first time in the 15 years I have worked at that school that the instrumental musicians will be featured on their own concert. I am really excited about this, and while the show is going to be short, it is going to be very sweet.

A couple kids in the orchestra asked me last week if we could do something we had done last year. I had forgotten about this activity, though last year when we did it, it had been a big hit. It is an activity that consists of several parts. First we play through one of their pieces. Then we play through it again and record it. Right after the recording the kids take a minute to reflect on their own performance and write (on a grid sheet I make for this purpose) something they did well and something they need to work on. Next, we listen to the recording, and afterwards they write about their section (flutes, first violins, etc) and also the group as a whole. When they are finished writing, a few kids can talk about their observations. Of course, I get to throw in a few as well.

I'm not sure why they love this activity so, but I'm really glad they do, and I will certainly do it again as we get close to their next concert. I guess it partly has to do with hearing themselves in the recording. They are both thrilled and horrified...if that makes any sense. They are amazed that it sounds as good as it does, and also shocked that is doesn't sound as good as they imagined. But the thing that's really amazing is how focused they get when it's time to write. They go right to work and are quiet in a way that they aren't at any other time except during tests. Their observations are usually astute and accurate. They are never cruel, and they understand their own part in the overall sound. If our experience from last year with this activity is any indicator, their performance at the concert on Tuesday will be amazing because of the focus on details in this stage of the preparation. But maybe the best part of this activity is the excitement it generates. When we ran out of time on Thursday, and couldn't listen to the recording they had just made of the Hallelujah Chorus, they let out a singular groan. Usually they are looking at their watches and telling me it's time to go. But they would have stayed late to hear that recording.

Another thing that has happened, coincidentally maybe, not sure... is that two of the kids who had till now been really not playing very well suddenly stepped up and were heard. One is my single trombone player. He has always been enthusiastic about playing, but this year as a newcomer in the Middle School group he had suddenly become shy and wouldn't play. Yesterday as we finished our last song, I realized I HAD been hearing the trombone, for the first time all year. And as I put the baton down I looked right at him and said "I LOVE hearing the trombone!" to which the entire class responded with a resounding cheer. Had they heard it too? Yes. Wow.

The other child, a sixth grade violinist who has been faking it since third grade, came in on Thursday excited that she had learned Canon (Pachelbel). "It's so easy", she told me. And as she sat in her chair warming up on her own, I could hear that she actually was playing the piece. And yesterday she came in saying she had practiced 60 minutes Thursday night, and had a practice slip to turn in as well. With this jump in skill level in both of these kids, I can say that we now have an orchestra with no "dead wood". This is a first for this group, for this school.

At Field Elementary the Beginning Band, all 40 of them, and the Advanced Strings took part in the Winter Assembly. It was barely-controlled chaos, as that school has only a cafeteria with a stage to service as an auditorium. It's not big enough to contain all the performers and audience, so traffic management is a big issue. Even so, it was a great show, and I was especially happy to see the giant group of beginners demonstrate their new skills. Putting the instrument together and blowing into it to make a sound is a huge accomplishment, and I was very proud of them and looking forward to their spring concert.

A few action-packed days to go, and then a nice break. How did we get HERE so fast?

And the Winners.....!

Last night was the second annual Pasadena Unified School District Band Fest. The four high schools presented their 2010 marching/pep band shows on the field at Pasadena High School. I love this event. Having never played in a marching band myself, I am always in awe of the kids out there playing their instruments while moving around the field into various formations.Last year's show was notable for happening at all, and it was a joy to see all the schools in one place. Last night's show exhibited bigger groups and better musicianship and is, I hope, a harbinger of years to come.

One of the reasons I like this show so much is that I get to see some of my "winners" from years past. For me, the endgame is to get a music student successfully plugged into a high school program. When this happens, I consider it a "mission accomplished" and feel high levels of satisfaction. At least four of the students in the PHS marching band are products of my programs. I love to see them in their cool uniforms, completely in control of their instruments, participating in what will be a memory-making event in their high school careers.



PHS Cirque du Soleil Field Show- Music arranged by David Miller!

 Last night one of my current eighth graders appeared in the stands with her dad. She's a clarinet player who has been a consistent, if somewhat lackadaisical, member of her school ensemble since the third grade. Her dad couldn't stay, and didn't want her there unsupervised, so she asked if she could sit with my husband and me. She's a busy kid: Tae-Kwon-Do, Japanese school and Art classes all compete for her free time. She never practices her clarinet, though keeps up with the demands of our orchestra music at school. I was happy to have a chance to hang with her. She really enjoyed seeing kids she knew from our orchestra in the band, and when the show was over, I asked her if she thought she would want to do that next year, to which she enthusiastically replied, "YES!" In my mind, I made a little check mark in

the Winners' column.

I reminded her that her attendance at the Band Fest was worth 100 minutes of logged practice time (toward a goal of 500 minutes for which she will receive a certificate worth $2.00 at our local music store) and that she can also earn those minutes by actually PRACTICING. This is a standing joke conversation between us: I say "why don't you take your clarinet home and play it?" and she always says, "I don't have time to play it".  I imagine she could actually go from being an adequate clarinetist to being a superstar, if she spent any time on it at home. This time she giggled when I made my usual pitch, and for the first time in two years replied that she WILL practice, once her art classes are over at the end of this month. Ka-chingggg!



More about winning and losing

Why is it that the ones who give music up are the ones I dwell on? There have been many who have gone on to play through high school and have become lifelong amateur musicians, and isn't this really the goal? I like to think so. I don't really care if my students end up in a major symphony orchestra or with a big record deal. What I really hope for each one of them is that they can find fun, solace, friendship, inspiration and community through music throughout their whole lives. And I recognize also, especially in light of recent research, that the act of studying a musical instrument engages the brain in a unique way, and is, thus, valuable no matter what the skill level achieved is.

This is why it was with a real mix of emotions that I heard the news from one sixth grade beginning violinist that he was going to have to drop Orchestra to take a Study Skills class. My first thought, if I am honest, was that things were going to get easier for me, and the orchestra would sound better. But following that thought, pretty closely on its heels, was a feeling of regret. This child had never picked up an instrument before this year. He had no musical training whatsoever, and he had plowed into a situation where he was surrounded by kids who had been studying with me in music classes since the third grade. He knew he was over his head, and we made arrangements to have small lessons after school a couple days a week. Each time we did this, his skill level jumped up a degree, and by the beginning of December, he was actually able to play along on some of the music, and not sound terrible. I knew he was struggling in his other classes, and he struggled in mine, but with the extra help, and support from his parents, it looked like music might be something he could really succeed at with time. I was also mindful of the fact that the work we did in his lessons was developing his brain in new, untapped ways.

I know that he really needs the study time to get his other subjects in hand, but I'm wondering if he might want to keep working on violin toward the day when he can rejoin the orchestra with new skills. I think I will see if he wants to do that. And thank you for reading my musings which help me to think through things!

Win some, lose some.

I have been thinking a lot lately about how kids come and go through my life. It seems that every year there is at least one student who, no matter how well I think I understand him or her, shows me I have a lot yet to learn.

On Wednesday I stopped into the office of my second elementary school of the day, and standing at the front desk with a first grader in tow was a young woman who greeted my back. "Hi Amy", she said. I am new at this school this year, so not many people know me at all, and certainly no parents know my first name, so it was with a puzzled look that I turned around to see who this was.

I recognized her right away as a former student who had played cello in my orchestra from 5th to 8th grade. She had been a pretty good cellist, though never really took it seriously. She had a twin sister who also played cello. They were like the opposite sides of the same coin. This sister, here with her own little boy, had been a congenial child, polite, who took naturally to the cello. Her sister, on the other hand, had had a foul temper, which could be turned into sweetness and light when she wanted something, and, though she might have actually been more passionate than her twin about playing cello, she struggled mightily with it, and never really understood what she was doing.

I had taken deep interest in these girls, as their home and family were dysfunctional at best, and borderline abusive at worst. I had had fantasies of them playing in their high school orchestra and using this skill as a way to open doors for themselves throughout their lives. That's not what happened, however.

The two girls occupied my psyche for several years, until in the middle of their 8th grade year, I had had enough. The more difficult of the two girls had come to take my kindness to them for granted and had developed an demeanor of entitlement. It's not that I expected to be thanked every minute for everything I did. I only really wanted the girls to have something positive and fun in their lives. And what I got in return was often very rude behavior, and "attitude". Finally, I stopped bending over backward to keep them in my program, and they both dropped out. I felt bad about this for a long time, and wondered how they were faring.

And here was the congenial sister, with her own child, now 6 years old. I did the math. After all I, her other teachers and counselors had tried to do, she had ended up being a teenage mother. We exchanged pleasantries. She introduced me to her son. We talked about how when he gets to 4th grade, he will play an instrument. She told me her twin sister also has two children. She seems like a good mother. She looks happy and healthy. Maybe that's all we can hope for. And I have to wonder how much of my own ego was wrapped up in "rescuing" these "poor" girls. As it is, at least one turned out all right, though not with the kind of life I would have chosen for her. I guess it's enough to know that as an adult, this young woman chooses to greet me and say hello.

'Tis the Season

The school year has an arc to it that I, like some creature with academic DNA, love and need. There is the first rush of the new school year, with all the meeting and greeting of new students, handing out instruments and finding those first sounds on them. Later in the year, we have our District Festival season, which has all its own excitement. Then there are spring programs, variety shows, graduations, the gathering back up of all the instruments, and the calm quiet of summer to regroup.

Right now, we are coming into the winter holiday season, a very busy time for all school music teachers. For those of us who travel each day to as many as three schools, fitting all the concerts in can be a real challenge. For some schools, the winter holiday program is a central part of the first semester of school. Much planning and rehearsing goes into the show, the date of the show is set in stone from the beginning of the school year and the instrumental music is surrounded by class performances of dancing, singing, reading and  play acting. At other schools, the holiday program is more of an afterthought, the planning of which happens on the fly, if at all, and instrumental music is low on the radar, since the teacher is not on campus everyday, and has almost no contact with the classroom teachers.

Often, my schedule flat out conflicts with the day and time of a show. When this happens, I have a couple choices. One, I can just blow off the holiday program all together. There is something to be said for this. Depending on the school, there may be only a handful of performers ready by December to play anything more than Hot Cross Buns. At such a school, I don't mention the program to the kids, and we slide on through the holiday season without much fuss. At other schools, there will be a critical mass of musicians eager to share their music with the school. More about this in a moment. At these schools, if my schedule does not permit full participation in the regular holiday program, we "stroll" from room to room, bringing a few moments of holiday cheer to the classes.

The musicians have a funny bi-polar attitude toward performing. When I ask them if they want to play the songs they have learned for the classes, they, without hesitation, enthusiastically say "YES!" But as we discuss the plan, and they start picturing themselves playing in front of, especially, their own classmates, they become more timid. They say things like "we're going to play in FRONT of them?! " or "Can we just go to the pre-K?" They are very nervous about playing in front of their peers. So we have more discussion about how hard they have worked, and they have actually accomplished a great deal, and that many of their classmates actually started playing when they did, but have since dropped, so what right do they have to criticize the musicians?

Almost without exception, after having this conversation, the kids are pumped and ready for the more intimate performance"strolling"affords. And then we go. We play the songs, we receive the applause, and then I get to have one of my favorite moments in the school year. As we leave the first classroom, and head to the second, there is an explosion of glee from the musicians. They fully brim over with the excitement of performing, and decide there on the spot that they want to do this every day all day. It's coming. Next week. I can't wait!