Transform Your Rehearsals By Sharing The Score


Marjorie LoPresti


East Brunswick High School marjorielopresti@gmail.com


along with you. Band and orchestral students typically rely on the conductor to make sure the parts fit together properly. Choral students generally have the advantage of seeing all of the parts in octavo form, but do not always make use of this information. The strategies presented here can benefit all in- strumental and vocal ensembles. This article is intended as an introduction only; a detailed follow-up is planned for a future edition of TEMPO. The first few times you display your score, students may not understand the arrangement and alignment of parts. Band students may be confused by seeing multiple key signatures and transpositions. All students may need some practice read- ing in other clefs. It will be well worth your time and effort to teach them about important elements in the score and the interaction of parts. One strategy to get students follow this score is to play a


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recording of a piece you are rehearsing, and display the score while the music plays. Use a ruler (ideally, a translucent one) to help students follow. Once you spend a few minutes teach- ing how to follow the score, students will begin asking to see how parts interrelate. In rehearsal, they know when things aren’t going well. Giving them the visual and auditory under- standing provided in the score will increase engagement, and will give you another dimension for musical discussion and reflection. Mid-rehearsal, you can point out the problem areas of the


piece and show the score. Ask students to read & diagnose. If you have been recording the rehearsal, play back the recording and ask students to listen critically and detect areas with pitch or rhythmic errors, missed articulation, or other expressive el- ements. Choral students will benefit from taking the time to examine tricky areas of the score as a whole, rather than zoning in primarily on their own individual voice parts.


Getting Started: To share the score with the ensemble,


your rehearsal space will need to be equipped with some sort of projection system that can connect to a computer or tab-


TEMPO 32


ith some basic tech tools, you can empower your students to take greater ownership dur- ing rehearsal by viewing the conductor’s score


let. Be sure that your projection space, whether a wall, screen, whiteboard, or Interactive Whiteboard, is large enough and positioned so that students can see it.


Strategy 1: Document Camera Whether simple or fancy, a document camera enables the


teacher to share any printed material to a large screen in real time. Simply put your score under the camera, and the stu- dents will be able to see what you see. Most cameras have a zoom feature, so you can focus on important details.


Added benefits: If you need to demonstrate a fine motor


skill or write music on manuscript paper, the camera can proj- ect that too! Be sure to install the software for the camera on the computer that it will run through. Ask your principal or IT support people about document cameras other teachers are using. You may even be the lucky recipient of a hand-me-over from another department.


Options: IPEVO Point 2 View or Ziggi Cam-


era. The price is right, but the resolution is just OK. It has a small footprint on your desk or podium, but not too many bells & whistles. This little IPEVO will get the job done, starting under $50.


HoverCam Solo 8. Fabulous camera with a built-in light and video recording capability. Comes with a green screen in case you or your students want to get creative producing music videos. Small footprint (4”x4”) and nice price too— starting around $300.


ELMO is the industry leader in document cameras. Consider the MO-1, starting around $400. Higher-end cam- eras go for well over $1000.


JANUARY 2018


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