Page 14 - 2018 June BMR

Rehearsal Strategies Employing The Yamaha Harmony Director Keyboard

n Try to avoid using the drone function and their instrument, with all of the roots and fifths on notes
metronome function at the same time. Some students that are naturally quite stable.
may have a difficult time attending aurally to a fixed drone
and a metronome click at the same time. Instead, try
conducting, so that pitch matching is taken care of with the
sense of hearing and time reference is done with the sense
of sight.
n Assess your students’ ability to hear beats of
interference. Have students play one at a time or in small
groups against the drone. Alternatively, the teacher can
model on a wind instrument against the drone. Have the
students who are not playing hold their right hand at chest
level, and use the hand to show the speed of any beats
of interference that they hear between the drone and the
player(s). Make sure the students know that as the beats
become slower, the closer they are to playing the interval
in tune.
n Avoid overwhelming your students with
superfluous information. It may be fascinating that the
major third should be tuned 13.7 cents lower than ET, but
that fact itself has little bearing on playing the interval in
tune. Instead, try telling your students that they will need This chord should be refined by tuning each chord
to center that note lower than they would normally, and member against a drone from the HD, and then memorized.
then prompt them to make it sound resonant and beatless You can then place this exemplar chord next to any other
against the drone. chord that your band is working on in a “comparison

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Application # 2 The Exemplar Chord exercise.” The band should sustain the exemplar chord for
4 counts, rest for 4 counts, and then sustain another chord
Many ensembles play the note Concert F many times a for 4 counts, which can be taken from a band’s concert
day during rehearsal because for most instruments, it is a repertoire or chosen by the director for the sake of exercise.
note that is easy to play in-tune (with the notable exception The ensemble should strive to make the second chord as
of Alto and Bari Saxes) that can be used as a good example resonant, balanced and in-tune as the exemplar chord.
of ensemble tone quality. Band directors have often found
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success by referencing a problematic note (such as concert Application # 3 The Audiation Sequence with
B) against concert F, and prompting their students to try the Circle of Fourths

to achieve the same centered tone quality on this note that The term audiation was coined by music educator
they achieve on their concert F. Edwin Gordon to refer to the act of imagining a sound
It is also possible for the band to have an exemplar that is not physically present. The following sequence will
chord, which they can use as a good example to compare provide pitch internalization opportunities.
against other chords. Here is an example of a B flat major Step One: Teacher sounds a pitch for 4 counts on the HD
chord that I scored in such a way that it is naturally Step Two: The student audiates, or mentally rehearses
resonant and in-tune. All of the instruments playing the the pitch for 4 counts
third of the chord are on notes that are naturally flat on Step Three: The student sings the pitch for 4 counts

Bandmasters Review • June 2018 12 Texas Bandmasters Association