Rereading Old Textbooks

As I'm preparing for an interview in which I'll be teaching a portion of a conducting class, I'm rereading some old texts about conducting.  I'm skimming them, really.  I am so passionate about conducting pedagogy and how the gesture should be an effective teaching tool, and not a deterrent, to the music.

There is one book (what I received is more of a manuscript, but now I think it is in book form) in particular I love rereading.  It is from my Choral Methods class from undergrad.  The teacher?  None other than Mr. Weston Noble- huge inspiration and a true delight to learn from.  Instead of expanding on one topic in this post, I would like to share some quotes as I come across them. Some of them are close and personal to me, as I subscribe to them as basic principals in my choirs.  Some of them are good reminders.  Some- well- I just think it's good teaching so I'm including it.

"What a gift we give to our students if we give them but ONE moment of wholeness they ill remember in the course of their four years."

"Only 30% of communication is the words.  70% is HOW we SAY those words."

In my manuscript, there is discussion about how some people believe to be very stern for the first semester with students.  While I believe in setting high expectations, this doesn't mean being a teacher that is hard to connect with (forgive that I'm ending with a preposition in this sentence).

"Be proud of your love of classical music... Instead of starting a piece of music by saying, ' I know some of you probably won't like this' try 'I love this piece and I'm anxious for you to learn it.  I know it's difficult, I also know you like a challenge...'."  I have used variations of this when I teach.  For example (relating to my last post), when I led the tenors and basses the other day in learning a portion of the Mozart Vespers, I stopped about 2/3 of the way through the rehearsal, took a moment to look at all of them, and said," I know Mozart can be difficult.  We are focusing a lot on notes and rhythms right now and that's not always the most exciting, plus it's not easy.  You are doing a great job, and I wanted to let you know I'm excited to hear the way you are starting to catch on to some of the nuances of this music."  In reality, I know some of them could dislike the Mozart because it doesn't sing as easily as "Sing Me to Heaven" (which they just did on a concert).  But I think they could love it.

"A carefully planned rehearsal is vital."  YES.  I plan my rehearsals, and I reflect on them rehearsals after they are finished.  On that reflection, I take the initial outline of my next rehearsal and shape it based on the rehearsal before.  Yes, I plan out about three rehearsals at a time- the first one being the most specific, and the second two giving specifics but allowing for flexibility to be shaped based on the previous rehearsals.

"Any choir encounters 'slumps.'  One must understand the reason why this has occurred."  The paragraph goes on to say to consider all things that could possible be affecting your students or your rehearsal.

There is a section about teaching using the three domains: Cognitive, Affective, and Kinesthetic.  I consider these three domains all the time when I'm planning.

"Space between singers is a basic rubric!"  Yes- when my singers spread out, they are stronger.

"How did Robert Shaw imbue this basic ingredient of rhythm into his choral music and musicians?  Count-singing was the result."  And then... "Counting can be counter-productive if a high tessitura is present."  I always encourage my singers to switch to an easy syllable/vowel in the extremes of their registers.

"Then he (Robert Shaw) went on to say: 'You directors spend so much time trying to achieve vowel uniformity and then you never arrive at the vowel together!'"

I am not sure if this manuscript was published.  If so, I will edit this post with the book title.  If it was published, I am not sure how different the book is from the manuscript.