Band And
Joseph Ruszkowski
Band Director & Music Technology
Hawaii Pacific University
Technology
jruszkow@hawaii.rr.com
Pedagogical Recording
video of myself and realized that I say the that we were always busy preparing pieces
H
ow many times have you
stopped a rehearsal and told a
same words over and over, or performing a for the next concert or festival. But to say
member of your group,
distracting gesture repeatedly. It drives me that you don’t have any time to listen is
“Can’t you hear that! You’re playing too
crazy when I see myself do that! You may completely contrary to the purpose of
loud?” or, “Please tune up, can’t you hear
never realize how many times you say the making music. The great jazz pedagogue
that you are way sharp?” with the only
word, “okay” during a 45-minute period, or Jamey Aebersold says that practicing jazz is
response being a glazed looked from the
how often you have your eyes buried in the a 50-50 proposition. You should be playing
student you addressed? Have you ever
score. In the same way, a student may never 50% of the time, and you should be listen-
shouted, “ Sopranos, you are drowning out
realize how loud or soft he or she is playing ing 50% of the time. We need a 90-10, or
the altos!” then on the next run-through it
no matter how many times you stop and tell 80-20 proposition for our class music
is just as loud as ever! This is a common
them to balance their volume. They have no rehearsals. Perform 90% of the time, listen
occurrence in our school ensembles, and
clue from their point of view. In order to to our recordings 10 % of the time. When
many of us have been guilty of it ourselves
evaluate themselves, the students need to we listen to our own performance, we can
as performers. One of the main causes of
hear or see their performance and likewise hear the mistakes in a way that we can’t
this dilemma is the fact that the students
evaluate it from afar. while we are making music. Yes, listening to
truly cannot listen from the director’s van-
the playback of our performance does take
tage point. Anyone who was ever had the
Enter the Solution valuable time during a rehearsal. But this is
pleasure of playing third trombone in a
definitely not wasted time. Your students
band knows that it is very easy to hear the
Fortunately for music teachers, the art may learn more from listening to them-
rest of the trombone section, and not even
of recording and playback has been simpli- selves one time than they can by performing
realize that there are any flutes or clarinets
fied with the advent of some new technolo- the same part incorrectly over and again. If
playing at all. Though it may be helpful to
gies that most of us already own. Almost all they can correct their mistakes after one
bring the offending students up to the
of our computers, iPods, and cell phones hearing, your rehearsals have become more
podium to hear it from your position, there
have even a modest capability of making a streamlined and efficient. This could very
is a much easier way for all of your students
recording that we can use for educational possibly be the best three or four minute
to experience this all at one time. Making a
purposes. If people are using their iPhones investment that you can make during a
recording of your performance and playing
and Blackberries to capture recordings of rehearsal period.
it back during your rehearsal is a fantastic
car crashes, silly human stunts, and their
way to give the students the experience of
favorite celebrities acting badly, we can The Technology is Here
experiencing the music the way the director
employ likewise technologies to capture
hears it.
musical train wrecks, bad saxophone into- The technology that we need to record
nation, and tenors singing poorly. You and playback our ensemble is most likely
Why don’t they listen?
would be surprised at the reaction of stu- available to you right now. The most obvi-
dents when they can hear for themselves ous way that we can record and playback a
There is a reason why during our stu-
what you have been telling them over and performance is through the use of a tradi-
dent teaching experience our professors
over. Many times I have gotten a reaction, tional recording device such as a cassette
forced us to videotape ourselves on the
“wow, I didn’t realize I was playing so player. Many of us still have these in our
podium and watch it after rehearsal. This is
loud”, or, “you’re right, we are really out of band rooms. Many of my students have
because it is utterly impossible for us to
tune.” come up to one and said, “What is that?” or,
evaluate critique of our performance while
I have heard ensemble directors say, “I’ve seen one of those at my uncle’s house.”
we are performing. We need to judge our
“Recording the group is great, but we just One of the only problems that we
performance as a third-party observer. I
don’t have any time to listen.” It is obvious encounter with a cassette recorder is that we
can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen a
that all of our classes are one too short, and need microphones for sound input. This
TEMPO 62 MAY 2009
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100