"FUN"damentals

When teaching young musicians we must keep the end goal in mind at all times, making meaningful music. Young students cannot get to the point of true music making if a lack of fundamental skills is holding them back. Therefore it is our responsibility to make sure that fundamental training is the core of what we are focused on. However young students don't want to play long tones and scales. Why would they? They're boring. We must find ways to excite our youngest musicians over learning these mundane tasks. Much like getting young children to eat their veggies. We know they're good for them, but we have to make them exciting in order for them to eat them. Eventually eating veggies, or practicing scales, just becomes what we do.

Long Tones/Technique Drills
There is nothing more boring for a young musician that holding out the same note over and over again. We are trying to find the center of their tone, balance, blend, tune, etc. They are just bored.  A simple addition of added accompaniment to your long tone warm-ups can make them a little more interesting for students. Added drum beats from the Dr. Beat, GarageBand, or a drum beat app can help young students with pulse and make that Concert F feel like its part of a rock band. You are now able to get off the podium and walk around to listen to and assist students because they don't need your conducting to stay together. You can still work on listening skills by asking them to focus on the beat, even certain aspects of it, and by listening beyond the beat to each other.

Rhythm Studies
Students used to begrudge doing separate rhythm training more than any other aspect of rehearsal. It's not easy work, everyone can hear clearly when they make a mistake, and they don't want to count. A few changes to this aspect of my rehearsals have made it something my students are excited about. First I changed from clapping with hands to patting on the shoulder. We cross our hand over to the opposite shoulder. Crossing our bodies activates more regions of the brain as we engage both the right and left cortexes. It is also much quieter for students and they don't feel so singled out when they make a mistake, although I can still hear and see it. I also remind them when we begin each day "Everybody counts because everybody counts!" (They recite the second part with me.)  This is their reminder that we need everyone to participate and that each member of our team is valuable and responsible for learning.

What really excites the students is a little class competition called the Rhythm Race. Just a chart to track what exercise in our rhythm book each class is on so they can see and compare. I've seen much greater effort and focus in learning and passing off exercises since implementing this system. Several classes often end up neck and neck on the chart and they really try to get ahead. What's even more miraculous is that after awhile the students are the ones who decide whether or not they've passed off on an exercise. To do this they must already know what your level of expectation is, otherwise they could want to pass off just to be done with it. Once that is established, I've found my students to actually be harder critics than I am. They won't pass off an exercise until it's practically perfect.

Keeping things relevant for students is important. This year with the Pokemon Go craze I've decided to incorporate that into our Rhythm Race. Each exercise is now a different Pokemon that they will "catch" when they pass off.

Scale Study
Scales were always my least favorite part of learning as a young musician and I see this in my students as well. Scale tests used to be painful and long. Students were vastly unprepared and it would take an entire class period or more to hear them. In an effort to excite students more about scales, to hear them play more, and to spend less time over all we began Scale Wars.

It begins with a simple chart to track who has passed off on which scales, but there is more to it than that. Students sign up in a book prior to the start of class each day to pass off on specific scales. After we practice scales as a class the 3 students who have signed up play the scales they have chosen. They either pass or are asked to try again another day. When they pass they get a sticker, we clap for them and move on. If less than 3 students have signed up in a day I choose students by random (it used to be through popsicle sticks but is now on a Name Selector App on the iPad) to play. I can ask them to play any scale we've already learned in class. Usually students are lined up at the beginning of class to pass off. When they have played all the required scales for their class they can choose to join the Dark or Light side of the force. They get to sign the posters, we play the Star Wars music (Main Theme for Light Side and Imperial March for the Dark Side of course) and cheer and celebrate their accomplishment. It's a big deal to pass off on scales and they love it!!


As you're planning your classrooms for the beginning of the year you may consider how you can make some of your fundamental training in rehearsals more enjoyable for your students. You can all have more fun and you'll be surprised at how much more motivated your musicians can be during this part of class each day.