Nerves and How NOT to Feel Them

Author: Josh Warren

If anyone knows me or sees how I am on an almost daily basis, they will know that I am usually stressed or nervous about something going on in my life.  What I am nervous about is usually something music-related.  I get nervous for voice lessons, for aural skills exams, for piano-playing tests, for presentations--I especially get nervous for juries.  I have realized since coming to college that I get so nervous because I am afraid of failing, afraid of letting people down, especially myself.  I hate feeling like a failure, like I have messed up somehow.  A lot of people know that I am a perfectionist and everything I do has to be correct one way or another; there are no excuses.

Over the past two years, since I've been at Clarion, I have gotten some great advice on how to not be so nervous about things.  I have learned that if I practice as much as I can and do the work required of me, I will go into these lessons, exams, playing test--whatever the event may be--and simply blow the professor away with my abilities.  As long as I am confident in what I am doing, I will have nothing to worry about.  I have also learned that while it is good to have such high standards for yourself as I do, it can also eat away at you eventually.  It can get kind of "dangerous" to continue to push yourself to the limit, such as pulling "all-nighters" for almost an entire week as I recently did.  I have learned from this mistake and will not make the same mistake again.  Sometimes we just have to take a step back and not raise the stakes so high.

I know that while I continue my college career at Clarion University, I will keep learning about myself and the things that will make me more successful.  I wish the same thing for everyone else in this music department, and anyone else in another school's music department.  Success will come to those who take the right steps along the way.

Paths to Becoming a Music Teacher

AUTHOR: Joe Bazzone

There are many reasons someone might want to be a music teacher.  A person could have had a great experience in a musical ensemble or just generally like how music is made and structured.  There are different kinds of people.  Some have been involved in music for many years in multiple ways and others are studying it but both probably enjoy playing and listening to music.  I’m sure some would like to know what it’s like to teach people about music and how to become a musician.  There are challenges of trying a new piece and working at it to make it sound as it should but in the long run it is worth it.  It is interesting to learn about composers and other figures in music history.  Some want to know how to create music and share it with others.  Writing music is interesting and arranging another piece is a way to put yourself into a piece you already know and probably enjoy.
           
Some people gained their fascination with music came from high school music teachers.  All music teachers truly love what they do.  They try to portray the passion that they feel for music.  They will inspire you to want to learn more about music and to work hard for it.  These people have gone through school and know what it is like to work for their passion and can help you by talking to you about what they had to do to get to where they are today.

Music is Beneficial

AUTHOR: Amanda Clendaniel

There have been many acclaimed studies that show that music education has a correlation to academic achievement in fields such as spelling and to a lesser extent reading. Playing an instrument requires a high level of cognitive skills. One example is a study that shows that playing an instrument can result in an enhanced vocabulary. Musical performance demands focus; visual, auditory, and hands on sensory abilities. There is a link between musical training and language abilities since musical training in childhood influences the development of auditory processing in the cortex. Playing a musical instrument also works to improve the auditory and language skills of your students. There is also a correlation between musical ability and the aptitude for learning a second language. People who played a musical instrument were more inclined to be successful when acquiring a second language.  The link between playing an instrument and spelling is evident, whereas the link between playing a musical instrument and reading is not as clear cut. The benefits to spelling are stronger and more prominent. It therefore stands to reason that students who struggle with spelling and/or reading have a lot to gain from playing a musical instrument. These concepts in themselves are reasons that music should be kept in the public schools.

Music education is also important because without music the quality of life that people have would be less. Music provides vitality and energy into life. Music also represents an important difference between existing and simply living. Music enriches life and brings added meaning to it, by providing a creative outlet for expression. The importance of music in today’s world is demonstrated in movie soundtracks. Movie soundtracks set music to the background of the scenes of everyday life.

There is a great need for high quality musical instruction. Music education should involve much more than a little singing and superficial listening, just like learning math requires more than just learning to subtract. The students need to be engaged and involved actively in the lessons. Music has to do with thinking and experiences that are richer and often have more effect on people than rational cognitive thinking. Music is also one of the only subjects to involve intellect and emotion.

Glee Club Singing in the Shadow of "GLEE"

AUTHOR: Bernard Green

The show seems loveable, right? The underdog nerds of the high school against the rest of the school, a role most of us would agree that we’ve been assigned. The plot would make so much sense if every character in the glee club wasn’t absolutely gorgeous. They all have perfect voices that make no mistakes. They almost seem too perfect right? Well thanks to the magic of Hollywood editing, we now have a nifty feature called auto-tune, which perfects any pitch flaw that a person may have. This is one of the many reasons why Glee is ruining contemporary a cappella music.
          
In a high school glee club, a certain amount of students get together and choose to sing a cappella music most of the time. Glee stays true to this tradition. Where it goes wrong is that every single song on Glee is a solo. In a typical glee club the aspects of teamwork and group cohesion are usually what the main goal of the group is about. In Glee, it highlights the competitiveness within the ensemble to have the solo. This is teaching high school kids that you’re not important unless you have the solo. Rather than being a choir, you end up with 13 soloists. The main point of a solo is to stand out and “be the star” of the show, not be part of the bigger picture all together.

Another thing that is detrimental to the a cappella experience is the amount of effects used on the voices. Not only are the actors lip syncing, they are also lip syncing the product that is hardly their own voice. With different effects anyone can have a different voice, so there is no way of knowing if the actors on the show can sing. I think it is a horrible thing to try to convey an a cappella group while the songs are hardly performed a cappella. Even the songs that aren’t a cappella are effected and completely studio done.

Now you may think I am being a little harsh on a sitcom, but Glee is so iconic to young people and is changing the idea of what a glee club is. It is losing what most would argue is the heart of a high school glee club, which is being in a group and singing as a group. There is a time for individualism in a cappella, but it is not all the time. Glee encourages our kids that you need to try to be a pop singer even when being a part of an ensemble which solely relies on the transformation of many voices into one voice. Even when the song is not a cappella glee club should be about the group itself, and not the individuals within the group.

Assisting Out of Tune Singers

AUTHOR: Chelsea Patterson

How do we assist students who sing out of tune?

1. Teachers have to eliminate common causes that cause  students to sing out of tune. Such as: head colds, partial deafness, altitude changes (such as long flights), tiredness, overexposure to loud or industrial background noises, and inability to sing a melody accurately due to problems with the voice box.

2. Have the student open their mouth and drop their jaw, trying to remain very vertical. They should not let their mouth go horizontal when singing it affects tone quality, which, in return, affects pitch.

3. Teach them to use proper breath support while singing (The students at Clarion University are taught that the breath should be pushed out by the muscles in our backs as well as the diaphragm.)

4. Try to get students to relax their neck muscles and remove the tension. A technique I often hear is to make them sway like see weed, allowing their heads to gently flop from side to side as they sing. This helps reduce the tension from their necks. If their neck is tense it could be making them sing out of tune and ruin their tone quality.

5. Have them practice in the range they are most comfortable singing in. If they do not have a very broad range, do not worry about it. You are not trying to improve their range just yet. Focus on improving their intonation.

6. Build ear training: Listen to pitches and determine which is higher and which is lower. Also, listen to two different melodies and determine whether they are the same or different.

7.  A) Use pianos or your voice as a guide. Try to get the student to match the pitch perfectly. Play a note on the piano that is in the student’s range and have them match it to the best of their abilities. B) If the student extremely struggles with matching the pitch try a new tactic. Instead of having them match you, have them sing a pitch of their choice and you match them. This allows them to feel and hear how matching pitch works. Just repeat this technique with them, having them sing different pitches for you to match. Then, slowly incorporate section A (from above). When they have these skills down play a melody and have them try to sing it back.

8. Students must also become more sensitive to sound, which will help with ear training. When they are performing they should not only focus on their own sound they are producing but also focus on the piano or instruments playing in the background. This helps the performer to stay in pitch.

9. Practice, accurately, singing whole steps and half steps. Use the piano; play a note and see if they can sing the whole step above before hearing the pitch and do the same with the half step. Make the wheels in their heads spin.

10. Have them learn and utilize solfege (moveable DO is generally easier on children) as a guide, understand the DO, MI, SOL, DO relationship and use them in melodies. I use solfege to successfully make it through some of my scales without fail.

You as a teacher do not have to follow the order above. The list is versatile and can be manipulated to fit the student’s needs. Another thing to keep in mind when working with a student; if you do not have time as a teacher in a public school for one on one time with a student during the day, have the student come in before their first class and spend any amount of time working on something. Even just one minute a day would help in the long run.

PMEA Conference 2013 - Reflections

AUTHOR: Brian Miller

This past week (April 18th through the 20th), I attended the PMEA Conference in Erie, PA with my PCMEA chapter here at Clarion University. This was my first conference so I was very excited to get to Erie and explore all of what conference had to offer. The first day we arrived early and waited outside the exhibited area until it was time to start. I was excited to be around so many lovers of music and to see all of these talented musicians gathered in one area. I was also excited to see a lot of high school students getting ready for performances.

After we walked into the large room where a good hundred booths were waiting to be explored, I grabbed my mouth piece and reeds and started hunting down different alto saxophones to play. I was very excited and got to try out at least 10 different saxophones throughout my trip. I was also lucky enough to try out multiple other instruments such as the P-Bone, the Alto P-Bone, the Pocket Trumpet, the recorder, (which I had never played before!), and some other percussion based instruments. This whole experience with all the different ‘toys’was very exciting and I loved the exposure to the variety of different horns and such.

Along with the many instrument booths there were multiple fund raising companies with booths to help advertise. They had free samples (an added bonus) for possible customers to taste test. I was very pleased with the food and grabbed a few pamphlets for future reference. Some of these places included Joe Corby’s Pizza, Stanganelli’s Italian Foods, and Pine River Wisconsin Classics. I found this a great opportunity to find fundraiser ideas for future endeavors of my professional career.

A fair amount of University’s attended this conference and I took this opportunity to start building up ideas for my future education. Even though I’m still a freshman Music Ed. Major; I find it doesn’t hurt to be prepared. I went around with my fellow PCMEA Chapter members and we explored the different stalls for the many University’s booths. A few we stopped to look at were NYU Steinhardt, University of Delaware, and Messiah College. This was a great chance to see what other schools had to offer for my future education in a Master’s program.

In between exploring the exhibits, we had multiple workshop opportunities. Plenty of college professors and other great musicians had a large number of varying workshops that we were able to attend to help further our knowledge. A few I attended were a saxophone improve workshop with a great jazz saxophonist. He gave out great advice to teachers and students alike, and his playing was phenomenal. Another workshop I attended was one on Building a Model Student Leadership Program in your classroom. The speaker running the workshop taught us all about keeping students active in the classroom, and helping them to bring out the leadership skills within them.

Overall, this experience was outstanding and I surely plan on attending future PMEA Conferences. Not only did I learn a lot musically, but it helped me to bond more with my fellow PCMEA members. We had great bonding experiences playing Who Wants to Be a Millionaire: The Board Game, going out to eat, and just relaxing in front of a TV. I will never forget my time at this conference and I hope to make many more memories with them. I will never stop furthering my knowledge of music and plan on using PMEA as a guide for that purpose.

Leadership in a Musical World

AUTHOR: Andrew Ortega


I have recently been put into a position in my life where I have to step up and be a leader for the marching band at Clarion University. I was announced drum major this past fall semester and I was ecstatic when I found out, I could believe it. At that time I didn’t realize the responsibilities that would fall on my shoulders, people suddenly asking me questions on what do with practicing and rehearsal techniques. “What do we do?” that question was asked so many times I felt like I wanted to crack. I stood my ground and really looked into how to be a better leader.

I had started reading more online sources and books on what it takes to be a leader, and I realized how much I had already learned in my past. I had just been too worked up with the fact that I actually am drum major. I had started with a meeting the first month of the spring semester, organizing and putting the meeting together was not really a problem; what went on and what needed to be discussed was the harder part. I was worried with how our recruitment process would work out, so we discussed what we felt was necessary and where we should go. It actually worked out well and I had a discussion with the director of bands about it.

Every meeting since has been handled with care. I had taken into consideration what needed to be discussed and why. I even appointed someone who was willing to be our secretary. With this opportunity, I feel like I will learn to be a better leader and educator if I ever get put into a leadership again.