Conducting in the morning sucks. No, it does. Every early morning feels like Monday and the colder it gets the worse it gets. If your rehearsal space has windows anybody near those windows is freezing and the pitch is all over the place.
Just imagine going to your favorite holiday sale and everyone is bundled up and when the employee opens the door they look not-so-enthused. You know why? They're hurting too.
Now change that story around. You're the employee and the players are the shoppers. They rush in (because they typically have more energy than you anyways) and you get trampled.
Think about it this way -- no two rehearsals are the same. They're just like snowflakes. Were I you I'd do the following things:
1. Start your early rehearsals a little late. Let everyone warm-up and practice on their own and warm-up the room. Bodies make the room warmer and the use of air to play instruments produces latent heat which will warm-up the room. Even if you've only got 45 minutes you'll spend the first ten minutes being cold. Spend those ten minutes letting the people warm the room up.
2. When you get on the podium fake it like there is no tomorrow. You can acknowledge THEIR tired state, but not yours. Act like you're hopped up on coffee and any other stimulant that doesn't seem completely illegal. Trust me, it holds their attention.
3. Kick them in the face. Hard. Work them harder than they've ever been worked. If the room is warm and you're looking like a maniac you can usually get anybody to do anything early in the morning (even if it's four million below zero outside.)
That's the beginnings of beginnings. No drudgery. No yawning. No complaining. No wasted rehearsals.
Just hard work and a little room to breathe before you start the day.
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
Tuesday, December 14, 2010
On Conducting: How Much Help To Give?
Well, as cute as that is, don't you think you have to show the kids what you want? There's got to be some wiggle room given for the conductor to show the ensemble what he wants. Period.
The only route to independence is being told over and over what good musical decisions are. If you're conducting every little nuance of the rhythm or the melodic line you're teaching the kids that each note has meaning. If you act like a badass and give the ensemble nothing they might be able to play all the right rhythms, etc. However, they won't be able to play those rhythms and notes with any meaning behind them. With any feeling.
Yes, even the most mundane rhythms from a rhythm exercise book like Grover C. Yaus' "101 Rhythmic Exercises for Band" can be musical. If you help long enough you'll hear a change in the way the kids play. You can't just pump out "right" stuff and expect it to be good enough. Being right only gets you so far.
Do you know how many "right" renditions I've heard of scales and exercises that sound completely vapid? It happens everyday. We can play them right, but making them into an "exercise" that is not conducted, poorly conducted, or simply "passed over" isn't helping. Sure, it breeds order, but it doesn't breed improvement.
That's why middle school bands in Japan play Grade 6 literature. They don't screw around like we do here.
Let's just say I teach very young kids. They play band instruments and our best group plays repertory from Grade 6 pieces. They play very difficult music. Not all the time and not in mass quantities, but they do play it. However, they are playing what kids that are 3 years older play all the time. We don't mince notes in our band.
In four or five years we'll be doing nothing but playing major literature. Why? Because we don't waste time. Oh, and I help out. I conduct every single little thing.
When I can't fit something in I tell them, "I can't conduct every single little thing", but they can handle that. They learned how to make musical decisions whilst being given every little musical detail from the podium.
The podium looks great for most people because they love power. That's not what the podium's for.
It's for good. It's to help. It's for music.
A Setup Is Just A Setup
You've got two choices when you put your setup together. You can:
A) Buy all the expensive everybody on the message boards says you have to buy is you're "serious".
or
B) Get stuff that works for you.
Hard reeds are not a red badge of courage. Closed tip mouthpieces are not the mark of a true professional. And expense is not the hallmark of good equipment.
You know that nasty stock mouthpiece that comes in a rented instrument? It works just fine. Charging $250 or more for a mouthpiece does not make the mouthpiece maker an "artist", "craftsman", or even good at his job. It just means his mouthpieces are exorbitantly expensive. Too bad a good reed and a similar mouthpiece that is half as expensive or less would play almost exactly the same way. Mouthpieces only matter in your mind's ear (and my mind's ear is not comfortable spending $500 on a mouthpiece.)
You know the relatively soft reeds you started on in middle school? They work just fine too. In fact, they'll work for a really long time until your embouchure is strong that you just can play the soft reeds anymore.
What about that plastic instrument that's a little leaky? It plays just fine. If everyone started playing on a $10,000 horn then no one would have any real skill at playing the instrument. You have to build character playing instruments that aren't perfect.
That's why you hear about pros going to gigs and finding their horn doesn't work. They aren't used to playing on unregulated equipment and a tiny little leak stumps them. All that time you spent on a leaky horn will pay off when you need it most.
I'm going to hand a young student a plastic Bass Clarinet that's never been overhauled, never been regulated, that has been rained on, snowed on (just once), marched all over the place, been subjected to drastic temperature changes, with a stock mouthpiece and some soft Gonzalez reeds tomorrow and that kid will play the horn just fine.
Why? Because they don't care if the horn is nice or not. They just want to play. To them:
A setup is just a setup.
A) Buy all the expensive everybody on the message boards says you have to buy is you're "serious".
or
B) Get stuff that works for you.
Hard reeds are not a red badge of courage. Closed tip mouthpieces are not the mark of a true professional. And expense is not the hallmark of good equipment.
You know that nasty stock mouthpiece that comes in a rented instrument? It works just fine. Charging $250 or more for a mouthpiece does not make the mouthpiece maker an "artist", "craftsman", or even good at his job. It just means his mouthpieces are exorbitantly expensive. Too bad a good reed and a similar mouthpiece that is half as expensive or less would play almost exactly the same way. Mouthpieces only matter in your mind's ear (and my mind's ear is not comfortable spending $500 on a mouthpiece.)
You know the relatively soft reeds you started on in middle school? They work just fine too. In fact, they'll work for a really long time until your embouchure is strong that you just can play the soft reeds anymore.
What about that plastic instrument that's a little leaky? It plays just fine. If everyone started playing on a $10,000 horn then no one would have any real skill at playing the instrument. You have to build character playing instruments that aren't perfect.
That's why you hear about pros going to gigs and finding their horn doesn't work. They aren't used to playing on unregulated equipment and a tiny little leak stumps them. All that time you spent on a leaky horn will pay off when you need it most.
I'm going to hand a young student a plastic Bass Clarinet that's never been overhauled, never been regulated, that has been rained on, snowed on (just once), marched all over the place, been subjected to drastic temperature changes, with a stock mouthpiece and some soft Gonzalez reeds tomorrow and that kid will play the horn just fine.
Why? Because they don't care if the horn is nice or not. They just want to play. To them:
A setup is just a setup.
Pushing The Limits: Playing Loud
Playing the Bass Clarinet isn't a mystery, but so many people make it out to be harder than it really is. Case in point:
I teach a private lesson and the kid tells me, "So, everytime I try to play out it's out of tune." Well, how do you know that?
"The Director told me it sounded wrong."
Did you director give you a solution?
"No."
Before I say this please remember that I AM a band director:
Stupid band directors!
Every band director on the planet wants more from their low woodwinds, but very few of them actually know how to get it to come out. When you're playing louder on a Clarinet the pitch goes through the floor. On Bass Clarinet this drop in pitch is only accentuated by the size of the instrument.
So, what should your band director know that they don't?
You can't just "play louder" you have to "play broader". If you're listening to the lower parts and riding the wave with them it's easy to bring the color of the Bass Clarinet out without playing massively out of tune.
This means you're listening. Listening is good.
What if it's still a little off? Then you're going to need to adjust your embouchure. The softer your lower lip is the more flexibility you have to move the pitch up and down. Keep the top of your embouchure strong, but let the lower lip rest so it can push the pitch up and down.
The reed is huge and it doesn't take much, but you can make small changes without trying that hard.
That, my friends, is something most band directors have no clue about. They think you're supposed to use a Clarinet embouchure. Not so. Soften the lower lip and you'll be amazed at what you can do.
The next time you're sitting next to the Tuba and Timpani just remember that adjusting the pitch and "playing broader" makes your tone color jump out of the band. It's the best sound you can imagine.
Go, blow your conductor away. I mean it, go! We'll talk soon.
I teach a private lesson and the kid tells me, "So, everytime I try to play out it's out of tune." Well, how do you know that?
"The Director told me it sounded wrong."
Did you director give you a solution?
"No."
Before I say this please remember that I AM a band director:
Stupid band directors!
Every band director on the planet wants more from their low woodwinds, but very few of them actually know how to get it to come out. When you're playing louder on a Clarinet the pitch goes through the floor. On Bass Clarinet this drop in pitch is only accentuated by the size of the instrument.
So, what should your band director know that they don't?
You can't just "play louder" you have to "play broader". If you're listening to the lower parts and riding the wave with them it's easy to bring the color of the Bass Clarinet out without playing massively out of tune.
This means you're listening. Listening is good.
What if it's still a little off? Then you're going to need to adjust your embouchure. The softer your lower lip is the more flexibility you have to move the pitch up and down. Keep the top of your embouchure strong, but let the lower lip rest so it can push the pitch up and down.
The reed is huge and it doesn't take much, but you can make small changes without trying that hard.
That, my friends, is something most band directors have no clue about. They think you're supposed to use a Clarinet embouchure. Not so. Soften the lower lip and you'll be amazed at what you can do.
The next time you're sitting next to the Tuba and Timpani just remember that adjusting the pitch and "playing broader" makes your tone color jump out of the band. It's the best sound you can imagine.
Go, blow your conductor away. I mean it, go! We'll talk soon.
I'm baaaaaaaack
Someone commented that I had kind of wound it down. Well, I'm back.
We're doing weekly updates on "Zen and the Art of the Bass Clarinet".
Come back very soon because we're going to have some pretty cool things going on here. I've got a lot more to say!
We're doing weekly updates on "Zen and the Art of the Bass Clarinet".
Come back very soon because we're going to have some pretty cool things going on here. I've got a lot more to say!
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