We tell our students to go home and practice, but do they know how?
Do you spend too much time rehearsing the same passages day after day? Are you students not progressing as quickly as you would like? We all want our students to practice, but do they really know how? This session will show orchestra teachers an arsenal of practice strategies that can help students become motivated, confident, effective, and autonomous practicers. Effective individual practice allows for more efficient rehearsals, happier students, and reduced stress levels. A variety of technology tools that assist with practicing will be demonstrated and shared via an online resource. Bring your instruments!
Improve the intonation of your string students through sight, sound, and touch
Pitch accuracy is one of the most important aspects of quality musical performance and especially critical to string students. This session will discuss some problems in and causes of poor string instrument intonation and provide teachers with practical teaching strategies along with a variety of resources that will help students make progress in improving their intonation.
It’s all about the bow! The best strategies for developing a beautiful tone in beginners and beyond
Proper bowing technique is crucial for a healthy tone. Unfortunately, the physical actions required for good bowing technique are often difficult for novice string players to fully comprehend. Laux will demonstrate how the complexities of right-hand technique can be simplified and reimagined so beginners can learn to play with greater confidence and with a big, beautiful sound. Bring your instrument!
How PURE is your orchestra’s intonation?
This session will discuss pure tuning in the orchestra classroom and how an ensemble’s intonation can be refined by transforming the way students listen. Students must understand their role within the harmonic structures of the music and be able to adjust pitch in order to purely tune chords. The teacher facilitates the teaching of intonation via critical listening rather than symbols, words, or gestures. A variety of teaching strategies will be demonstrated using traditional and technological tools. Specific examples from a variety of string and full orchestra literature will be shown. Bring your instruments!
Inspire, retain, and empower intermediate string students
This session will help you motivate the intermediate string students by incorporating appropriate musical and technical studies to refine musicianship while building confidence and excitement. A variety of teaching strategies and pedagogical resources will be explored.
Assessment Practices for the 21st-Century String Classroom
Accountability and data are the driving forces of present-day education. Teachers must use a variety of informal and formal assessments to collect data and measure student growth. This session will provide assessment practices utilizing mobile devices and cloud technology that will not only motivate student practice, but will allow teachers to record, quantify, and provide tangible, objective evidence of student growth in a performance-based course.
Setting Your String Students Up for Success: Diagnose and correct common technical problems to allow them to play their very best
This session will describe/discuss a string player’s technical set-up and how it pertains to successful string playing. Common technical problems including posture, right/left-hand position and their actions will be diagnosed and corrected, using best practices and multiple teaching strategies. Real-world scenarios and solutions will be showcased using student photos and videos. A variety of print and web resource materials will be shared.
The Essential Elements of the First Year String Player
This clinic will provide insight into the time-tested and proven pedagogy of Essential Elements for Strings. EE authors and master teachers will walk through the first year of string playing using the music and pedagogy from Book 1, as well as the ever-growing resources from the new Essential Elements Interactive website. Learn how to incorporate and connect the content from the book with the practice tools and technology from the EEi Online Classroom.
Automate and Motivate 21st-Century String Players with Instructional Technology
Motivating beginning orchestra students in the 21st century requires teachers to take a new look at the materials they use in the classroom. Learn how you can use technology to automate daily routines such as tuning and warm-ups and motivate students to quickly learn and internalize performance literature and reinforce a student’s sense of pitch, rhythm, meter, tempo, reading skills, and more. We will briefly discuss the role of the 21st-century learner and their defining characteristics. We will also discuss the role of the 21st-century teacher as a facilitator rather than a lecturer. Sample classroom scenarios and teaching strategies will be discussed and attendees will be shown how the technology can be adapted to fit into nearly every situation. Various hardware components and computer programs will be demonstrated. An online resource will be created that contains session information as well as hyperlinks to all of the items mentioned in the session.
Envisioning and developing the complete music program
What are the qualities of a successful music program? What are we trying to accomplish? What are the ultimate goals? Having a successful music program takes more than just good teaching. It requires teachers to go beyond the traditional program mold, and reach out for ideas that will help motivate and build students’ confidence in the teacher and his/her goals. The audience will be invited to participate/ collaborate to share their ideas.
Selecting Repertoire and Programming Considerations for School Orchestras
Selecting repertoire is one of the most important responsibilities of a school orchestra conductor and should help introduce students to new technical skills, reinforce rhythmic concepts, introduce musical styles, and more. This session will provide guidance, suggestions, and practical examples for orchestra directors of all levels.
It’s Symphony Time! Developing and Working with the Young Full Orchestra
Thinking about forming a full orchestra at your school? Where to begin? Some directors become fearful at the thought of forming a full orchestra, particularly at the beginning and intermediate stages. This session will show directors strategies for building and working with a young full orchestra to create a unique and rewarding experience for both the string and band students.
Audio Recording in the Classroom, Studio and Concert Hall
With today’s digital devices, creating a quality recording is affordable and easy! This session will offer the music educator practical advice in regard to capturing student performances, auditions, assessments, recitals, and more. Technical jargon will be minimized, and materials will be presented in a way that makes it easy for those who are not technology savvy. Laux will discuss different scenarios and some available recording solutions. Topics to be discussed include choosing the correct equipment, implementing correct recording and microphone techniques, and adjusting various ensembles and venues. A list of valuable resources will be provided.
Podcasting 101: Share your program with the world!
Podcasting has become very popular and is a fantastic way to disseminate important information to students, parents, administrators, faculty members, community members, and the world. With a podcast, your information is broadcast to the world quickly and inexpensively. This session will cover the required equipment and options for creating your own podcast. Laux will show the best ways to record a podcast, create a feed, and get it online on the popular podcast apps like Anchor.fm, Spotify and Apple Podcasts.