Texas Bandmasters Association
Bandmasters Review • April 2016
14
fingerings and/or embouchure. Again no opportunity is
provided for the students to learn to adjust the pitch of
their instrument by simply using the human ear. Why do
we do this? Well, it is faster and easier. Faster and easier,
yes, but where is it we are going in such a hurry?
What we should do is slow down and guide the
students in the ensemble to patiently discover
the greatest musical instrument of all time…
the mind’s ear.
Use the technology yes, but use it
in addition to the lessons of fundamental ear training
needed to hear and adjust to pitch. Allow the students to
tune first without the use of a turner. Have them tune to
a reference pitch or pitches.
Tune to sound, use the ear.
Then have the students view
the tuner if necessary.
By doing this we are
empowering the students
with the skill to hear and
adjust to pitch by using
their own external and
internal ear. When we rush
this process we are enabling
students leaving them dependent on
someone else’s ear or a tuning device
of some type. As the old parable states:
if I give you a fish I have fed you for a day,
if I teach you to fish I have fed you for a lifetime.
Most of us would agree that the two primary elements
of music are time and pitch. Indeed one of the standard
definitions of music is the organization of sound and
silence. So the next logical area to explore in the teaching
of an old art form is time. Music is after all a “temporal
art”— it is governed by time. Again the methods by which
we teach the elements of time in music can either empower
or enable our students. The methods we choose to teach
and feel time in music should be done to enhance the
musical awareness of our students. As with teaching pitch,
rhythmic development should reflect the rich traditional
educational value that can come from the study of music.
The metronome is a wonderful device. Like the tuner
it is a tool that all of us have come to appreciate and use
within the framework of music education. However like
the tuner it too can be over used and indeed misused.
Again the primary objective should always be to develop
the student’s internal and in this case external feeling for
time. We must be very careful not to use the metronome
as a substitute for what should be done with the human
mind and body. As a species we can feel time and we can
be taught to feel various lengths of time. We can also learn
to concentrate on keeping a steady feeling for the passing
of time. Indeed the internal rhythms within our body’s
organs keep us alive. Time is
already in us.
There are many ways in
which to help our students
develop a sense of time.
Allow me to offer one
simple and fun exercise
that will help your students
discover
their
internal
metronome. Ask your students
as an ensemble to listen carefully as
you tap, clap or snap a steady tempo.
Start with a medium tempo. Then tell
them as they are listening to the pulse you are
generating to count silently to eight at the same
tempo. Tell them that they are to start counting when
you stop snapping, tapping or clapping the pulse and that
when they reach the number eight to say it out loud. (You
may need to say “one two ready count” and then stop
generating the pulse.)
You will see heads bobbing, feet tapping and various
levels of concentration as they try to maintain the pulse.
Then to your surprise, and their own, a self-discovery
moment happens when they may or may not all arrive
at the “eight” together. Give them a moment to enjoy
the outcome and do it again at the same tempo and to
the count of eight. After they achieve some success as a
group try a slower tempo. They will discover this is harder
Teaching an Old Art Form in a Modern Age
