How to Make First Chair - SBO Magazine Article

This article appeared on pages 66-68 in the September 2004 issue of the magazine "School Band and Orchestra" ( SBOMagazine.com ) and was entitled "Solo Success, Group Rewards".

Maximizing Participation and Success in Individual Events

by Chris Roberts

There is one very simple principal. As students practice individually, the ensembles that they are in become stronger. Events that include the regional or state auditions and the various solo and ensemble festivals give students opportunities for individual success. While the students are practicing for those events to any degree, they are becoming more experienced and developing knowledge and techniques that will add to the overall experience and technique of the ensembles of which they are a part.

There are students that will succeed regardless of the environment they are in. Those students make the job of teaching as much of a joy as the triumphs of those that have to work harder to achieve the same result. They are self-motivated and not intimidated by difficult music that may be placed in front of them. The challenge is to involve the other students that might be intimidated by music beyond their immediate grasp or even by the process of auditioning or performing on an individual level. There may also be those that may simply be afraid of failure. If it were possible to maximize participation in the individual events by helping students overcome any of these obstacles, the benefits to the ensemble would be immeasurable.

So how do we go about including all of the students from the top of a section to the bottom? Think about the basics of teaching. A teacher, regardless of the discipline, is challenged to present new material in a language that the student understands. If there is a complex topic that is not immediately understood, the teacher must guide the student to break the material down into smaller pieces that can be understood. It is common to think of an odd meter with 5 or 7 beats in a measure as a sequence of smaller beat groupings, 2+3 or 2+2+3, respectively (or variations thereof). Students grow as they break a more complex task into smaller tasks that they understand. The same idea of breaking a complex task into more digestible pieces can be applied on a mass scale within an ensemble with individual musical events. Every student will benefit from the process and that will translate to a stronger ensemble.

To give every student the best opportunity to succeed in an individual event, there are three things that can be done with the entire ensemble with minimal interference to the daily rehearsal routine.

The Practice Calendar

Planning for individual events will involve examining a three-month calendar with the students. Pass out the three-month calendar with the individual event occurring in the last week (see the notes on downloading a free practice calendar at the end of this article). Assist the students in marking scheduled ensemble rehearsals and performances in the three-months prior to the audition or performance ahead. If students have work conflicts, they can indicate them around the ensemble rehearsals and performances. Reserve the month immediately prior to the audition for “Performance Practice” sessions, reserve the month prior to that for “Metronome Overlearning” and reserve the first month for “Slow & Steady” rehearsals. The very first week should be reserved for studying the music according to “The Checklist” below. Have students mark the days for practicing their music on this calendar and encourage them to make those practice sessions a priority as other distractions creep in.

The Checklist

Make sure each student has his or her own copy of the music. Those that rarely participate in individual events will benefit the most by the musical element checklist (see notes for downloading a free musical element checklist at the end of this article). The checklist is a list of each element of music that may or may not appear in their music. This checklist includes elements such as: the form of the piece (repeats, prescribed cuts, da capo, etc.), time signature, tempo, dynamics, key signature & accidentals, articulation, musical terms indicating style, etc. Distribute the checklist to every student in the ensemble and have him or her complete it for a grade by the end of the first week without asking him or her to play through the music. By taking a slow, deliberate approach over the course of three months, students are much less likely to be intimidated and are more likely to participate. This initial approach allows every student to become comfortable and familiar with the music by examining the smaller elements before ever attempting to play it all together. This simple task will increase their chances of success once they do begin practicing it because they better understand each of the elements that make up the music as a whole. Each student will also begin to realize that, like other complex tasks, this music can be broken down into elements that they do understand.

Weekly Goals

At the beginning of each week, post the goal of the week regarding the approaching event. These weekly goals coordinate with the “Practice Calendar”. After the initial week of studying the music with a pencil and the musical element checklist, there is one month of “Slow & Steady”, one month of “Metronome Overlearning”, and one month of “Performance Practice”.

First Week : Study / Analyze

The goal of the first week is to go through the music with the musical element checklist. If you decide to use the musical element checklist as a grade, indicate the deadline and the degree of detail expected in the answers. For example, instead of just having them indicate the key of the piece, they may be required to spell the scale associated with that key. In addition to simply listing musical terms indicated, they could be required to define them.

Weeks in Month 1 : “Slow & Steady”

For the weeks in month 1, the students are asked to play through the music with zero mistakes, no matter how slow. Expect some of the students to have fun exaggerating what you have asked of them, but there is no problem with that at all. They must realize that tempo does not matter this month. Some of the advanced or more competitive students will try to play too quickly, but emphasize that patience is important and slow & steady is the only goal this month. This gives students one full month to play slowly and perfectly while concentrating on all the elements of the checklist. The checklist elements will be much of what eventually makes the performance more memorable to a critical judge’s ear – correct articulation, the observation of proper dynamics, performing style markings as indicated, and much more.

Weeks in Month 2 : “Metronome Overlearning”

If each student has analyzed the music with the checklist and has had one month of playing the music so slowly that they make zero mistakes, they can easily begin playing at that slow, perfect, base tempo. The goal for this month is for each student to play through the music three times perfectly at a tempo before moving to the next metronome mark. When performance tempo is achieved, encourage them to move the metronome back down to the slower tempos so that they begin to overlearn the music. Overlearning is the process by which you hardwire the proper things into your brain and move beyond mere mechanics and concentrate more on musicality. Overlearning will also help overcome distractions when under performance pressures.

Weeks in Month 3 : “Performance Practice” and “Audition Week”

One month before the audition (or performance), have each student recreate performance conditions. The goal for each week during this month is to have each student record his or her performance on a tape recorder, listen back to it critically and then use fundamentals to correct the problem spots. The overall goal has been to get more and more students into this month and keep them encouraged to follow through to the individual event. Maybe this approach just introduces new students to the process and begins raising their comfort level with it for future events. For all that have made it this far with the simple incremental steps, practicing these fundamentals to correct the problem spots is the gold. As they practice more and more fundamentals, they more than master that problem spot physically and psychologically. Even better is that they are ready for anything similar that comes along in their next piece of music, which may just be in their full ensemble -- mission accomplished!

If you would like an example of a “Practice Calendar” or a “Practice Startup Checklist”, free downloads are available online at http://www.HowToMakeFirstChair.com. How to Make First Chair also contains a music dictionary with 100 musical terms and provides many more details on each of the topics mentioned above. In addition, there are chapters on the audition day itself and on keeping competition in perspective. The How to Make First Chair DVD is a 43-minute movie suitable for viewing by all ensembles that features musicians, judges, and educators describing these How to Make First Chair concepts in their own words.