Monday, September 12, 2005
The PMC Quick Note is a
weekly service provided to all area directors. It is part of our mission
to support the lives of band directors across the
MUSICAL ACCOUNTABILITY – TEST IT! by Eric Matzat
In
order for our marching and concert bands to sound their best, every student
needs to contribute. The best way
to know if your band members can play their parts individually is to test them,
but who has the time? How can we
test every student individually and still preserve the precious rehearsal time
we have? During my years in
Branson, I was able to test every high school band member individually in a
matter of minutes. We held playing
tests nearly every week. At the
beginning of the year, I wrote the testing schedule on the board. On the day of the test, I would circle
up the band and everyone would play the test piece at the same time. I would walk around the circle with a
roster on my clipboard and listen to each kid for a second or two. If they were playing with confidence, I
checked their name off. If they
looked lost, didn’t play out, or fumbled through the music, they didn’t
pass. I would then re-test those
students in the same manner the following week. If a student passed the very first time,
they received an “A” for that test.
If they passed the second week, it was a “B”….the third week a “C”. The point is, I wanted them to continue
working on it until they could play it, not just fail them the first time and be
done with it. I also gave the kids
a safety net. If on testing day
they didn’t pass the test, they could always come in after school to play for me
individually to get a second chance.
This system gave me a way to keep all students individually accountable,
it kept them progressing on their music, and it gave me a concrete way to put
accurate grades in the gradebook.
Eric Matzat spent the
past nine years as Director of Bands for Branson R-4
Schools and now works for Palen Music Center. He can be reached via email at ematzat@palenmusic.com.
Online Interactive Scale Sheets from Sibelius
Music
The Sibelius website has wonderful interactive scale sheets that you can customize per instrument and print out. You can listen to the scale online, adjust performance tempos, and transpose for any instrument. The website will prompt you to install Sibelius Scorch, a free browser plug-in that allows you to view and listen to the notation files.
Click to view the treble clef scale sheets.
Click to view the bass clef scale sheets.
Helpful Web Links to
State Music Organizations
Arkansas Bandmasters Association (http://www.asboa.org)
Arkansas Music Educators Association (http://www.arkmea.org/)
Iowa Bandmasters Association (http://www.bandmasters.org/)
Iowa Music Educators Association (http://www.uni.edu/iowamusiceducators/)
Kansas Bandmasters Association (http://homepage.mac.com/bandbob/kba/)
Kansas Music Educators Association (http://www.ksmea.org/home/index.htm)
Missouri Music Educators Association (http://www.mmea.net)
Missouri Bandmasters Association (http://missouribandmasters.org/)
Oklahoma Bandmasters Association (http://www.okbandmasters.com/)
Oklahoma Music Educators Association (http://www.okmea.org/omndx.htm)
Coming Next Week
Marching festival
calendar – Check out
what special events are coming to your area
District band
materials and suggestions – Another helpful article in our
audition series
Music
advocacy – Information
supporting our efforts in teaching children about music
Web
spotlights – More
wonderful web resources at your fingertips
Contact Your
Can we assist you with anything? Please contact your local Palen Music Center school road representative for all of your music education needs.
Moberly (660) 263-0109 Clint Thompson
If you would like to submit material, make changes or corrections, give comments, or wish to be removed from this mailing list, please contact Casey Tillman.