Listening During A Rehearsal And Performance

The audition requires young musicians to prepare a solo piece, scales, orchestral excerpts, and to sight read a piece of music at the time of the audition. After auditioning, it will be determined by the conductor of the specific group whether or not one’s skill level meets the level of the group. The Memphis Youth Symphony offers a myriad of opportunities throughout the season for young musicians to connect and highlight their talent as a whole. There are four annual concerts along with several other events that allow students to acclimate into the community, while also enjoying a valuable learning experience. The Memphis Youth Symphony is a large discourse community with over 200 students from schools all across the tri-state area—I set out to conduct pertinent research to efficiently support my analysis of The Memphis Youth Symphony discourse community.

Musical conductors are individuals that help direct a musical performance. They will ensure that the band is in the right tempo and that each section of the ensemble enters the performance at the correct time. The conductors may use hand gestures or a baton in order to guide the band. Many people believe that musical conductors are beneficial and help improve a band’s performance. However, Russian composer Igor Stravinsky disapproves of the usage of musical conductors as he believes that they are useless. Through comparisons and sarcastic language, Stravinsky criticizes the egotistical personalities and deceitful nature of musical conductors.

Music should be understood, but not at the expense of the performer creating a “right result” and in turn taking away from the listeners enjoyment of the work being presented.

MacNamara, Holmes and Collins (2006) state that there are numerous similarities between performances in music and sport. Expert musicians and sports performers are more able to adapt to setbacks than lesser skilled performers, as well as experts having higher levels of dedication and motivation and can communicate more emotion through the pieces being played. Similarly to Chaffin et al. (2003) this communication of emotion may be related to the artistic image with both requiring focus and decision-making.

During a musical performance many elements to be looked are not easily recognized by the average critic. A musical performance has multiple interactions taking place between the music, text, performers, audience, and space that all can contribute to a great performance. Overwhelming majority of the audience does not realize so much can be looked at during a single performance. At a performance by the University of Maryland Marching Band I was able to analyze the Musical Sound, Contexts of the Performance, and Interpretation of the Performance.

* “when you speak with great educators, and look behind the test scores, the lessons learned in studying music, learning to play an instrument, playing in a band, learning to read music, all provide a richness to a child's education that will last a lifetime,” (par 1).

Through weekly private lessons, chamber, wind, and orchestra ensemble playing, and assiduous independent practice, I have improved immensely as a trombonist and musician. My work paid off when I was accepted into Boston University’s Tanglewood Institute. At this nationally competitive program, I spent six weeks with talented, dedicated students while rubbing shoulders with the Boston Symphony Orchestra (BSO). I had never heard elite musicians live before the BSO. Their concerts brought tears to my eyes and my drive to make music at the highest level grew. After receiving instruction from these musicians and hearing their own performances, I refined my technique and made more tasteful musical decisions.

Unquestionably, playing the trumpet in a diverse range of musical ensembles over the past nine years has led to experiences that have not only shaped me as a musician, but furthermore as a student and as an individual. As early as middle school “Black Dog Jazz Band,” I struggled with the confidence on center stage to perform solos, even with sheet music and the exact notes to be played. Progressing through high school, my skill and my perception were transformed, as improvising measures of music of my own creation were no longer a source of insecurity, but rather an opportunity to display my creative expression and capability as a musician. Fast and difficult chord changes and previously unheard melodies were now uniquely mine, and I perform with a self-assurance in my own interpretations. This composure stemming from years of soloing and jazz band undoubtedly seeped into my academic life, as the poise and self-assurance with which I similarly deliver oral presentations has been clearly and positively impacted.

In Mrs. Pollard’s room I witnessed several lessons that made me pay attention to the way they were addressing basic music competencies. For instance, there was one activity where Mrs. Pollard pretended to have a ‘mute button’ that she could press while the students were singing a song, at which point the kids would mouth

I look forward to learning this aspect of the arts administration field in graduate school as well as the management of other arts such as dance and theatre. During my studies at Ithaca College, I have gained an enormous amount of valuable knowledge and skills that can be easily transferred to my pursuance of a master’s degree and career in arts management. Planning lessons, teaching children of various ages and skill levels, and leading rehearsals has taught me tremendous organizational and time management skills. I understand the importance of conflict resolution and of keeping people engaged and interested. Teaching involves being adaptable, constantly assessing and reflecting on performance, and making the necessary changes to plans and actions to ensure success. I know how to measure performance, analyze data, and give proper feedback. By working with students from preschool to high school, as well as supervisors, cooperating teachers and colleagues, I have learned the importance of empathy and communication. Teaching requires the ability to look through the eyes of students of different backgrounds and experiences, sometimes those with special needs, and to communicate effectively with every individual.

After evaluating student’s responses, it is important to recognize that teachers and directors have different perspectives and views. Mrs. Grizzle, the director here at VCMS, and three students were asked a series of questions regarding how music can help them and other students. Furthermore, Mrs. Grizzle has said, “ I hope that I impact students to have confidence in themselves, constantly work for improvement, and accept everyone.” This shows us just how much

The three key best practices concerning listening when working with clients and their families are:

I plan to administer this assessment for my computer class through a recording like the ones I had made on Jing for you to listen to. I realize that the recordings are confusing because the window is so small, but I will have made the recordings and audio file rather than a video/Jing file like I did for this assignment.

The researcher used three phases to collect data for this study. Phase 1 of the study was a small focus group of instrumental music educators from the Chicago Public Schools. The focus group served to guide the creation of the survey questionnaire. Phase 2 of the study was the survey, which included questions similar to research questions #1-4. 59% of the surveys that were sent out were successfully returned. Phase 3 of the study, interviews and observations, took place concurrently with Phase 2. Four instrumental music educators from the CPS received a pre-interview, a one-day observation, and a follow-up interview. During the observation, extensive field notes and ensemble recordings were obtained.

With elaborative rehearsals main goal being that you actually understand information rather than just memorizing it, study habits should improve due to the fact you actually know what you are talking about. Retrieval cues are a good way to recall information. These cues could be a specific word or a phrase that triggers something in your head that helps you remember the answer to number 7 on your midterm exam. Organization helps you put information in order of priority in groups. Instead of having one big list you would have 4 categories of information that can be broken down even further to make it more understanding. This would hopefully make you retain the information better as well. I myself, have a hard time retaining any information these