Why Music Is Important To All!

There are few things in life that all personality types enjoy like music. In fact, to say that we all just "enjoy" music is really not a sufficient description of the power of music. Most of us in fact NEED music in our lives. We listen to it for various reasons. Some of us listen for focus, ie. background music while we work. Others listen to experience the strength and energy communicated through music. Many more listen for the pleasure of experiencing the art of music for music's sake.

For those who perform music, listening and taking part in music first hand creates an experience like no other. This experience is of course very personal, very individual. As musicians we must remember that while music plays into our lives to a great extent, being a musician does not mean we alone appreciate music and as I stated above -- NEED music in our lives more than other -- this is not really the case.

Could music ever stop? Could there be a day when music instruction is so scarce that generations of humans have limited music options due to a lack of musicians? Some would argue that this will never happen. Humans are resourceful, finding ways to keep innate desires alive. Is music an innate desire? I do believe it is. But this thought offers little credibility to our lack of musical arts support in our world. We seem to want to test our own resolve by pushing more and more music out of schools. By doing so, we put more and more faith in the natural selection theory of musical survival.

For those who feel "I don't perform music", or "My child is not in band or chorus" is a reason to not support music in our schools and communities should think about how their lives would be affected by turning off the music. Imagine your world with no radio, no iTunes, no MP3s playing in the car, no XM. What would your world be like?

Supporting music does not mean we all need to be musicians. We just have to imagine our world without music. At times, we will have to fight for what we want, like now. Budget cuts are creating opportunities for schools to be rash and cut programs. State level programs are at risk (see my post regarding the PA Governor's Schools). We are at a point in history when available funds will not come easily. Innovation must take place, support must be consistent, communities must be creative and insistent, and individuals must step up and be heard.

I believe music is important to everyone who reads this. Do your part to ensure you and the next generation can enjoy music. We do NEED music!

Musical Motions

While music is not a visual art in the purest sense (ie - witnessed through our eyes), musical motion and expression does create a sense of motion in our mind. The evidence is simple. Listening to music makes most of us MOVE. The music creates an internal motion that is transmitted throughout our bodies and converted to real, physical motion. While performing music, most great musicians experience this same sensation. Can great musicians separate their musical performance and physical motion? In other words, can great musicians limit their physical motion to only what is necessary to play their instrument? I tend to think not. The visual aspect of performance is both necessary and critical to a vibrant performance, even if hear only through a recording.



The video is a pretty good NON-EXAMPLE of how motion and music are connected. While the robot had to have the movement programmed in, we as humans do not. We react to music! We INTERACT with music! Whether we are actually seeing a musical performance or not, moving to the music while performing seems to enhance the actual music (without even seeing the performer).

Musician performance movement is a debated subject. The debate is often tied to "how much movement is appropriate?" Rather than debate, lets set the scale to include all motion and leave the debate to another post. Many movements are incredibly subtle, an eye brow lift, a knee bend, a slight turning at the waist. Some motions are huge, like explosive dancing motions. For this post, motion is motion, no matter how small or large.

When teaching, I teach motions such as breathing and cuing. They are great places to start a young musician. Teaching a player how to establish a "mood" with something as simple as their breathing, is really empowering. For example, lets say a player has just finished a beautiful lyrical passage. The entrance following this section is a much more dynamic, rhythmic section. If the player breathes using a slow, subtle intake method, we may assume the next section is going to be just as lyrical. And more importantly, as a player, they may not really be "feeling" the rhythmic drive and energy they need to begin the section. Breath is a movement. We have to physically move our bodies, big parts in fact, to take a breath. Engaging all of the parts of our bodies to take a "proper" breath, in the mood of the section we are about to perform connects us internally, mentally, emotionally and musically. Our music performance will benefit from all of those senses, motions and emotions being in sync.

Cueing is another great exercise for a young musician. The goal is to get the player comfortable with physical motions other than those to just play the instrument. This can be incredibly difficult for a young musician (and adults). I use cuing because, well, here is the secret, "Cuing is actually pretty tough, and this one action alone can help lay the foundation for simpler motions." My logic is, start with something pretty hard, but make it seem easy. Once a young musician gains some skills in cuing, they start to free up in terms of other more subtle movements (and thus, free up musically). I start with cues such as cut offs. These are taught in the context of working with an accompanist. Younger students don't have to be working on solo literature with a live accompanist to practice this. We can all practice cut offs with ourselves, with programs like SmartMusic or with live accompanists.

Musicians of all ages benefit from connecting music and musical motion. As players, motion adds another dimension to our connection to the music. Allowing ourselves to FEEL the motion and act on that feeling through real, physical motion, will elevate our musical performance level.

Vibrato Instructional Videos

As a followup to my post re: group Vibrato, I posted two videos from "YouTube University" on saxophone vibrato.

Video 1: Timothy McAllister



Video 2: Jerry Bergonzi



Vibrato instruction is pretty complex. If left to ourselves, we come up with tons of ways of producing a "vibrato-like" sound, many harmful over time. Also, saxophone converts, those of us who play(ed) other instruments and now play sax, naturally want to apply vibrato techniques from other instruments to the saxophone. The direct application of vibrato techniques from other instruments can also be more harmful than artful.

As an ex trumpet player, I was taught 3 ways to vibrato on the trumpet alone.

1. Diaphragm -- early cornet style vibrato often used diaphragmatic vibrato.
2. Lip -- Creates a heavier, jazz oriented vibrato
3. Hand -- a more controlled, less intrusive to the airstream vibrato approach

Applying any of those techniques to the saxophone would be pretty detrimental to, well, just about everything. Imagine using a hand vibrato on saxophone :-) The reasoning behind specific vibrato techniques however, can be similar. For instance the hand vibrato for the trumpet, the technique I ultimately found home in my tool box, is used so the air stream and embouchure details can remain consistent and unchanged. This allows for a good sound first with a vibrato added for warm and expression on top. That principle is the basis for the jaw vibrato on the sax. The jaw vibrato allows for a consistent airstream and embouchure. The end result is a good saxophone sound with vibrato added for flavor.

Enjoy!

Quartet Vibrato

Reading "The Art of Quartet Playing, the Guarneri Quartet" has given me some really powerful insights including how to think about vibrato in our quartet. Vibrato can easily fall victim to becoming a "routine" component to making music rather than a fundamental nuance, artistically integrated into the overall performance of the tune. Routine vibrato is the kind of vibrato that is always the same, same speed, same degree - all the time, no matter the musical style, ensemble mixture, dynamics, or..... Approaching vibrato as a fundamental nuance to performance immediately challanges us as a quartet to thoughtfully integrate vibrato into the score.

So the challenge is laid out - Integrate Vibrato, be Thoughtful about Vibrato, Have a Plan (and justification) for Vibrato Use, Ensure Group Involvement in Applying Vibrato. Sounds easy right?

I've taken the material from the book and developed the following list for consideration.

• Ensure all members of the group have a fundamental understanding of vibrato production.
• Ensure members feel confident in their own production of vibrato -- ie -- all have applied the fundamentals of vibrato to create variations in vibrato, including speed and degree and application at various dynamics.
• Recognize that vibrato is not standard. The amount and degree of vibrato WILL vary for the group and for individuals.
• Recognize that vibrato is not ALWAYS ON. A non-vibrato passage can be very powerful.
• Recognize that mixing non-vibrato layers with vibrato layers can help bring out musical priorities.
  
• Recognize that vibrato can bring emphasis to a lesser important musical line (this is a negative thing :-)
  
• Recognize that vibrato should be discussed, decisions made and marked into scores and parts.

This seems like a lot to think about... and it is. In the book, this topic takes several pages with examples, and additional converations. I've just brushed the surface. Our art and our desire to better our performance requires indepth study of the elements. Vibrato is one of the elements worth dissecting and understanding.

Wii Music

I am going to do a little cross posting. My other blog Virtical Education covers my Instructional Design/Technology thoughts. Of course, music and IT cross paths often in my life, thoughts and activities.

Our KSQ mission is to promote music for life in our communities. This mission I take seriously and look for ways to expand our knowledge of what is going on in the great musical community. By doing so, I feel we can develop not only an understanding, but an appreciation for the role our group plays in the overall musical community. Certainly, an area of interest for me is music education.

As we think about the future of music education, it is my thought that we have great opportunities to learn how we learn, how our kids learn, what motivates us to grow (and learn), all driven by new technologies and approaches to learning. The Wii MUSIC game is a pretty good example of how to mainstream music learning. Music has been held back from the masses for most of our countries history. While in ancient time, music was revered as a necessary academic subject for all.

I just started working with a talent, young Saxophonist from a local school district. She has access to the school's technology resources including Smart Music and recording equipment. My business partner also shared a recent story about a band director, while attending a PMEA festival, was able to continue testing his students at school by using SKYPE to listen to their scale assessments that were due. And, if you have not tried Wii MUSIC and read about the support of the MENC, this is a good opportunity to catch up on what is going on. Technology and music education offer a truly powerful way to connect students to the subject, and to talent teachers. My own venture, viaAcademies relies on this premise and promise of the two working in harmony.

Does Wii change the way I think about saxophone and saxophone quartets. No! Appreciating it helps me in a broader sense though. KSQ's mission requires us to be diverse, and to expand our view past our immediate musical contribution. I think all great groups who strive to influence the growth of the art of music should do the same.

Please visit my other blog and read more about Wii MUSIC.

Thinking "Quartet"

The first 30 pages of a book recommended to me by James Berrera are history. The book, The Art of Quartet Playing: The Guarneri Quartet. Readers should note this book highlights the wisdom and musical genius of the Guarneri STRING Quartet. What we as Sax Quartets can learn from this book is that instruments aside, great ensembles are first and foremost great MUSICAL ensembles. So a book such as this can be an amazingly powerful tool, much like best selling books on Leadership can help Leaders from a variety of organizations. As a side note, the quartet after 45 years will be retiring. Check out this link to learn more.

It may have been the environment when I was reading the book (I was listening to the WSO Symphony rehearsal in preparation to play the American in Paris), but the first 30 pages spoke to many of the questions I have had regarding how our quartet can establish great rehearsal habits. So, over the next few posts, I will be highlighting the thinking, tips, hints, methods and practices outlined in the book. I should first say nothing replaces reading the book. The book is jammed full of advice. In fact, the conversation around the first 30 pages easily filled the 45 minute ride home for my wife and I after the Symphony rehearsal. So, the posts will be high level take aways that may entice you to read the book for yourself.

A key takeaway from the first 30 was a great conversation regarding quartet leadership. The quartet believes in a shared leadership model, ie - not uber leader. Leadership is defined as the ability to inspire others to join in on a mission, to inspire others to WANT to follow, support and push towards a common, attainable goal. Notice that leadership does not have as part of the definition a statement such as "following 1", or "Obeying the commands of an individual." Leaders are among us each day, we all can and should be leaders. But leaders come in levels. My role in our quartet for example is to do what I am doing here. I hope my words inspire our own group to think hard about how we work together and how we can better ourselves. So, for this effort, I do consider myself a leader. But as we start to rehearse, new leaders will and should take on their roles. As the book states, a group with a single leader will musically take on the desires of that one individual and only that one. In this case, the group will become followers and not participants. I think we would all agree, this is not the intent of any great musical ensemble.

The approach of "Leaders in All" can be a very personal issue for groups. I know in talking about this with my wife, the philosophy is not one that traditional musicians grow up with. Many of us come from backgrounds where the "Director' or "Conductor" model is applied to all we do musically. I would go so far as to say we are ingrained by the Authoritarian model of musical leadership to expect 1 person to surface and lead us to greatness. The advice from the book clearly points the advantages of thinking past those constraints and building group leadership in each performer.

One idea mentioned in the group to build a groups application of "Leaders in All" is to have each member take a tune or movement of a tune and work to build their own leadership skills. Through this effort, the members will start to experiment with what they can empower the group to perform -- ie -- how can they express, both verbally and non-verbally what they feel the group should do?

I feel like I could write forever on this topic in order to really flesh out the details. But, this is a blog and blogs are meant for idea sharing and conversation. The main point I will leave is for groups to be great -- they must build "Leaders in All" for themselves.

This is post one from what I am sure will be a great book. It will take me time to read this book as my life is pretty full of research, business, and teaching right now. So, stay tuned. Or, grab a copy yourself and join in.

Practicing -- Redefined

I recently read a post from a college friend of mine.

Amateurs practice until they get it right,
Professionals practice until they can't get it wrong.

This quote is actually very profound.

I have also recently reviewed "the basics" with an ex teacher. He reminded me that practicing is not about pounding through passages until they are tenderized. Joe Murphy, Sax Professor from Mansfield, has a pretty neat rule -- 4 times! While I may be interpreting this differently than intended, 4 times through with no success -- you are doing something wrong. Today, I tried this on a defined passage -- it works. Before playing a note, preparing the passage includes various activities. Then, play. Then, hone the passage, then play, etc. The 4th time through should be fairly up to your tempo and musical goals. If not, the piece may be too hard.

So, combining these two principals, being a professional means that after four times through, if you can't play it -- you will not be viewed as a professional. So, being professional is not about playing a certain level of music. It is about practicing so that you can not get something wrong, in a set amount of time, at a certain level.

We can all aim to be professional - it is in our control. We just need to redefine our practicing according to solid, proven philosophies.

Sax Blog Tour

It is time for a Blog Tour.

Please check out "The Sound of Sax" by James Barrera.

A post of note is the review of this year's Music Teachers National Association (MTNA) Performance and Composition Competition. I won't give away the exciting news - but a hint -- some great news for the saxophonist.

Have fun!