AFFILIATE MEMBERS COLUMN...
Hear Ye, Hear Ye - Changes Are In the Wind! Valerie Bell, MO-ASTA President
Happy fall! As much as it seems school is coming closer to year- round status (starting in mid-August and ending in June), this can be a glass half-full in many ways. There are real advantages to our students and ensembles when they perform with more consistency and less time off. Think of the improved retention when students have shorter breaks, less aural and technical atrophy, and less down time to forget all we work so hard to instill in drill-driven classes.
Thoughtfully choose repertoire before school starts so that you spend some time reviewing basics, then look for new concepts to teach, so that students grow as musicians. In retrospect I should have done much more with rhythm and counting in string classes. We
CRAWFORD, from pg 43
“Great and Powerful Oz” experience. We played through his piece and he had great things to say. My students loved getting to meet the composer of the piece and learned a lot.
Some disadvantages: • His speakers were not high quality, so he was not able to get an accurate account of tone.
• There were some instances the session would freeze up, but he got the gist of it.
• Nothing beats having the clinician there in person!
Some advantages: • The students had a face to go with the composer!
• Though he may not have heard perfectly, he gave us some
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get fixated on intonation, which is understandable, but with today’s modern compositions the rhythms are becoming more complex and diverse, and rhythm exercises and diagramming can be beneficial for all grades.
SIGNIFICANT change occurs this year in the seating process for Tan- Tar-A. Auditions are still held in the standard format at the UM-C Union on December 7th
2 basses. These students will audition for Principals from 7 p.m.- 8 p.m. Wednesday, January 22. The uninterrupted rehearsal will begin at 8 p.m. with all students. All students will receive folders on December 7th
with chair numbers, . However, the
present system of students leaving the Wednesday night rehearsal at the January conference for chair auditions has changed. The board voted unanimously to implement the following format. Students are seated by audition chair from the December 7th
audition EXCEPT for
the top 4 violins in each section, top 3 violas and celli, and top
standard contest preparation advice.
• Errata: there were at least ten errors in the score/parts that we changed because he had them marked from previous performances.
• Questions: we could ask him his intention of certain parts of the piece and the students received great insight into what was happening in their music.
• He did not charge us for the time, so we just simply sent him a thank you note!
When we finished, my students said this was the most meaningful experience they had in a rehearsal, and honestly, it was probably the most meaningful experience I had in a rehearsal.
and those who are expected at 7 p.m. at TTA for “Principals auditions” will receive a folder stating, “top 4, 3, or 2.” The MoASTA President and/ or Conductor reserves the right to move any student if he/she shows a lack of preparation, so everyone is still expected to PRACTICE the music!
Finally, please make sure you and your students read the information letters in the folders and visit
moastaweb.org regularly! Also if
see BELL, pg 45
Finally, I would like to say what a blessing it was to get to meet such an influential composer, conductor, musician. Seeing him at MMEA a few years back, I knew how inspiring Elliot Del Borgo was as a musician and person. When I found out in late May of his passing, I didn’t
know what to think. This man had influenced so many people in his life, and it was an honor that he took a couple hours of his time to sit with these young musicians.
If you would like to see a little bit of this session, visit:
www.jmcrawf.wix.com/ crawfordmusiced/ Click on the “Curriculum & Teaching” tab and scroll to the “Technology” heading.
MISSOURI SCHOOL MUSIC
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