MTNA
MTNA
MTNA
7 www.mtnaejournal.org
From the
Editorial Committee
Expect The Unexpected
Volume 8 Issue 2
Editorial Committee
CHAIR
Andrew Hisey, NCTM
Indiana UniversityPurdue University Indianapolis
Indianapolis, Indiana
Linda Christensen, NCTM
Gaithersburg, Maryland
Linda Essick Cockey, NCTM
Salisbury University
Salisbury, Maryland
Andrea J. McAlister, NCTM
Oberlin Conservatory of Music
Oberlin, Ohio
Stephen Pierce
University of Southern California
Los Angeles, California
STAFF
Publisher/ Editor-in-Chief
Gary L. Ingle
Managing Editor
Marcie Gerrietts Lindsey
Graphic Designer
Brian Pieper
The MTNA e-Journal [ISSN 2152-7210] is a peerreviewed online periodical published by Music
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Poster Sessions
Lightning Talks
Reported by Ivan Hurd
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Communications Associate
Teasha Fowler OConnell
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Teaching Improvisation:
Where To Begin
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Poster Sessions
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Poster Sessions
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Poster Sessions
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Making Connections
Piano Repertoire And Improvisation
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n this session, Christopher Azzara demonstrated how pianists can use standard repertoire to teach improvisation. For Azzara,
the importance of improvisation in creating
well-rounded musicians cannot be overstated. He made a strong case for including
improvisation in students curricula by drawing comparisons to language acquisition,
challenging the audience to consider what
traditional education would look like if children were not taught to speak. One would
never teach children how to read without
also providing them with the opportunity to
express themselves spontaneously through
talking. He posed the question quite simply:
Why should music education be different?
According to Azzara, singing provides the
best medium for teaching improvisation.
While improvisation is often an unfamiliar
and overwhelming skill for students, Azzaras
philosophy is to move from the familiar to
the unfamiliar. In this case, the familiar is
our standard repertoire. To demonstrate his
point, he led the audience through a variety
of interactive singing activities based on the
opening four measures of Bachs Prelude
and Fugue in C Major, BWV 846. The first step
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segment, he was able to conduct the audience in an improvised series of four measures
using Bachs chord progression as a harmonic
outline.
When zooming in, Azzara focused on a
different level of scaffolding. Here, he emphasized the need to recognize groups of notes
instead of individual notes. Azzara compared
the concept of reading note groupings to
reading words, saying, You dont spell when
you read. Instead, you recognize groups of
letters as words. He chose four volunteers
from the audience and asked them to sing
improvised words of music based on the
chord progression I-V7-V7-I. Each word consisted of a three-note idea. While the chord
progression was familiar, the notes each person sang were unfamiliar. Gradually, Azzara
paired volunteers until all four sang together,
producing an improvised four-part texture.
The level of complexity and spontaneity he
elicited from only two harmonies reinforced
the notion that one can create an endless
variety of music by juxtaposing basic tonic
and dominant triads.
While these exercises involved singing,
Azzara stressed the need for piano students
to play common note groupings when practicing their improvisation skills. He encouraged
pianists to transpose a pieces harmonic scaffolding to all 12 keys to familiarize themselves
with the voice leading and gain technical
fluency. While the Bach prelude might be
appropriate for advanced musicians, Azzara
suggested using pendulum songs that alternate between tonic and dominant harmonies
with beginners. Students must be able to
hear the root of each chord when it changes.
If students cannot aurally process a songs
chord changes, the piece is beyond their ears.
He referenced Lev Vygotskys zone of proximal
development, which establishes a need for
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tional model, students never learn to recognize the underlying patterns that exist among
the pieces they are playing. As teachers, our
goal is to help students transcend notation
and become one with the music. He summarized his advice for teachers: If you want to
transcend notation, start without notation. If
you want to transcend solfge, start without
solfge. In many ways, his comments echo
Frances Clarks sound before symbol philosophy, which emphasizes hearing and internalizing concepts before visually recognizing
them.
Azzara also emphasized the need for all
musicians to compose. He humorously
refuted the notion that The only good composers are dead composers. Not only does
composition provide musicians with a time
for reflection, but it also corresponds to the
way children learn their native languages.
Azzara warned that preventing students
from composing teaches them that we are
uninterested in their musical ideas. He summarized his point by saying, For everything
you read, you should write. By the end of
the session, the audience gained valuable
insight into the creative process of a masterful improviser, and they left with practical
steps for including improvisation in their
students curricula.
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Lightning Talks:
Creative Teaching Ideas
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The presentation concluded with a meditation exercise through the following steps:
1. Adopt an erect, but comfortable posture
2. Sit on the edge of a seat to support the
spine
3. Plant both feet on the ground
4. Close eyes
5. Focus attention on the breath
6. If the mind wanders, bring attention
back to the breath
7. Take one last deep breath, and gently
open eyes.
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Lightning Talks
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2. Find the easiest and most reliable manner of executing the skill.
3. Create the most musical rendition of the
chosen aspect of the musical passage.
Marks showed a series of five short video
segments of a student working on Stephen
Hellers Study Op. 45, No. 16, in which the first
four videos were examples of live self-modeling.
The piece features a melody in the left hand,
which simultaneously plays the bass line, and a
flowing right-hand accompaniment. First, the
student played the left-hand melody alone,
followed by the left-hand melody and righthand accompaniment. In the third segment, the
student played the lower parts with two hands,
the melody in the right hand and the bass line
in the left hand. The left hand was played as
written in the fourth video, and the fifth video
demonstrated the passage in its original form.
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Listening
Look for and think about patterns. Take
advantage of what method books, textbooks
and repertoire give you. Take advantage of
the repetition of rhythm patterns inherent in
method books. They can be used to solidify
rhythmic skills, become the basis for improvisation and improve sight-reading skills.
Quick Reactions
Move from one activity to another
using verbal, aural, visual or tactile cues.
Dobrea-Grindahl provided an example of one
way to execute this strategy:
1. Choose two rhythms from a piece; students clap one. On the signal change,
students clap the other.
2. Repeat, this time performing the
rhythms on the instrument. Once this is
mastered, incorporate another layer by
using a different cue to indicate playing the pattern in another octave or in
another key and so on.
3. At the piano, play only the right hand
of a piece and then on the signal
change, play the left hand, then
together for hands together. Use the
signals for anything. You know your
students strengths and weaknesses,
and exercises like this can help you to
zero in on challenges in a fun, inventive
way.
4. Use touch, especially when teaching a
difficult rhythm or passage.
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Time/Space/Energy
Use the principle of time/space/energy to
help teach technique. Remind students of
their experience in Eurhythmics or create the
experience in a lesson, and let it guide them
in small or large locomotor movements at the
instrument.
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cited www.dalcrozeusa.org for more information about training, curriculum content and
the Dalcroze Society.
According to Dobreas summary, ideal creative teachers of Dalcroze Education (a) are
open to respect unusual ideas; (b) allow students to do things without being evaluated;
(c) create an environment of trust; (d) help
students resist peer pressure to conform; (e)
allow time for creative thinking; (f) use failure
as a positive; and (g) motivate students to
master factual knowledge as a basis for creativity, not as a means to an end.
Q&A
Is it important to use the same patterns in different tempi in the Eurhythmics exercises?
Dobrea-Grindahl (DG): Yes, it is very
important. It changes the character of a class
so I change tempo and key. Also, its physically important because the way that you have
to control your body at different tempi varies.
There was a lot of improvisation involved in
the exercises at the session. Any suggestions
on developing improvisation skills on piano?
(DG): Being simple is important along with
finding patterns that work for you. Improvising with tonic and dominant is very good.
Also, structure what you are doing so that it
is clear. Improvisation needs to be systematic,
but simple.
What type of spaces can you use to conduct
Eurhythmics exercises?
(DG): I used to do a lot of sessions in
small spaces. You can do a lot of things
even with kids sitting at desks. Instructors can stand while students sit at desks,
or push the desks to the side to create a
central space, with half the group moving
while the other group claps while sitting.
You can also do many listening activities.
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Possibilities, Opportunities
And Entrepreneurship:
Taking Creativity Beyond The Studio
Presented by Jeffrey Nytch
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Customer Focus
This is a hot issue for musicians who dont
focus well on audience needs. Entrepreneurs
are 100 percent focused on customers and
ask, How can I help you meet your goals?
Resourceful
Nytch encouraged us to ask, What are
the resources I have right now to get this
thing started? Entrepreneurs are savvy at
creatively leveraging existing resources and
partnerships to get things off the ground.
He also discussed entrepreneurship as a
PROCESS during which we should ask the
following questions:
1. What do I have to offer, and what am I
passionate about?
The process can be a set of actions
resulting from asking the above two
questions and also What makes me special
or unique as a musician? This can be nonmusical skills such as the ability to cook,
garden or use technology. He recommended
we take an inventory of our non-musical skills.
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Making Connections
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Skills used by music educators and professional musicians overlap some, yet each
discipline requires a different set of skills.
Music educators often use skills such as harmonization, score reading, sight-reading and
accompanying. It should be noted that different tracks within music education, choral
or band for example, require slightly different
abilities. For professional musicians, their
most needed skills include harmonization,
sight-reading and accompanying, but also
transposing, playing scales and playing by
ear. There is an utmost importance for the
professional musician to have these skills, but
a number of them had learned most outside
of piano classfrom conducting or other
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quality teaching, student teaching experiences under supervision, and if you have time,
lectures, readings and assignments not covered in other classes. This is all very time consuming, and it requires creativity on the part
of the instructor.Jacobson had many learning
experiences while establishing her program.
At the institution where she was teaching,
piano pedagogy was low on the totem pole
with only a required two-semester sequence.
However, after four years, she had developed
a four-semester sequence of pedagogy, a
bachelors degree in piano pedagogy, and a
performance and pedagogy degree as well.
She used the National Association of Schools
of Music (NASM) guidelines as leverage to
form the degrees and build the program.
Many of the professors Jacobson talks with
have only one or two semesters of piano
pedagogy. As a solution, she proposes that
students should have more classes in pedagogy that are worth fewer credits so they
spend more time on the topic during their
undergraduate studies.
To start the initial program, Jacobson
piggy-backed on a music education program
that brought in young students to teach. This
collaboration worked for the initial year, but
she needed to charge more to keep the program alive. When she pulled away from the
collaboration, she had to do all the administrative work herself. This caused an exponential increase in effortdeveloping lesson
plans, observing lessons and the like, but she
believed the effort was worth it.
Ideally, piano students would come from
outside the university setting. Each week,
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The Entrepreneurial
Teacher
Presented by Jeffrey Nytch
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After deciding the target market, entrepreneurs connect to the customers through
channels. Channels are a means of reaching
out; e-mail lists, websites, flyers and online
social networking all are valid channels
through which the producer can advertise.
If the customers do not know what is being
offered, the business simply will not thrive.
When channeling to customers, it is also
necessary to understand the nature of the
relationship with the customer. Is the business
personal or impersonal? In his explanation of
customer relationships, Nytch provided a few
examples of businesses with slightly different
customer relationshipsAmazon, concert hall
management and individual music lessons.
When a customer buys something through
Amazon, the entire process can be done without actual interaction with the customer. It is
impersonal by design. In a concert hall, there
may be physical interaction between the
people attending the concert and the concert
hall managers/performers. Although concert
hall management may be physical in nature,
there may not be enough personal connections to be considered a true personal relationship. With teaching music lessons privately, however, personal connections can easily
be made between the teacher and student.
Adam Mayon is pursuing a doctor of
musical arts degree in piano performance at the University of Cincinnati
College-Conservatory of Music. He has
taught collegiate group and private
piano classes at the Eastman School
of Music.
Key Activities/Partners/Resources
When both the value proposition and the
customers are established, the entrepreneur
must determine the method(s) of delivering the
value proposition. On the left side of the model
business canvas lie the key activities, resources
and partners of the business. Nytch discussed
these from a music teachers perspective.
For a music teacher, key activities could
incorporate practice time (for the student/
teacher), teaching, going to meetings, performing, setting up recitals and the like. Key
partners can help guarantee success for the
music teacher. They aid in obtaining resources, help reduce costs (for instance sharing
studio space), lower risk/liability and offer
other forms of expertise. Key resources open
a broader spectrum of categories:
8 Physicalstudio space, machinery,
piano(s), tools, website for studio
8 Humanother artists, designers
8 Intellectualcopyright for compositional material, proprietary knowledge
8 Financialloans, reliable credit and so on
Costs And Revenues
The last piece of the canvas involves costs
and revenues. Is a salary allotted? What exactly
are the costs to finance the business? When
thinking in terms of revenue, the entrepreneur
must determine how the business will make
money. Is the business non-profit or for-profit?
Who will pay for the product/service?
Conclusion
Nytch ended the presentation on a motivational note by saying that becoming a successful entrepreneur means going through failure.
He mentioned that mistakes are inevitable, but
through mistakes, new and effective ways to
reaching goals can be discovered. He also
made a point to say that we as musicians
feel the need to do everything for ourselves,
such as mastering our own instruments
alone in a tiny practice room. This does not
have to be the case! Creating a team of
motivated individuals who work together
can be extremely beneficial to all entrepreneurs/musicians in search of building a solid
business.
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Mary Dobrea-Grindahl is on
the faculty at Baldwin Wallace
University where she teaches
piano, Eurhythmics, solfge and
a newly designed course in creativity. She regularly performs as
a solo and collaborative artist.
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Brian Shepard
Chief Operating Officer
ext. 241
[email protected]
Tonya Schauer
Meetings and Member Services Manager
ext. 245
[email protected]
Melissa Curtice
Membership Processing and Certification Manager
ext. 237
[email protected]
Sandy Greeb
Office Support Assistant
ext. 221
[email protected]
Jennifer Thomason
Executive Assistant
ext. 235
[email protected]
Diana Viltrakis
Executive Coordinator
ext. 229
[email protected]
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Brian Pieper
Graphic Designer
ext. 233
[email protected]
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Gary L. Ingle
Executive Director & CEO
ext. 226
[email protected]
7 MTNA Leadership
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Officers
Rebecca Grooms Johnson, NCTM
President
3125 Mt. Holyoke Rd.
Columbus, OH 43221-2225
(614) 579-9450
[email protected]
Scott McBride Smith, NCTM
President-elect
1006 Avalon Rd.
Lawrence, KS 66044-2504
(949) 378-2960
[email protected]
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