The repetitive nature of scales often leads to a monotonous appearance of notes, rhythms, and articulations that make it more likely for students to lose their concentration over the course of three octaves and eventually get lost. Students get lost during 3-octave scales. When all students participate, all students can learn.Ģ. Adding rehearsal letters can also make starting points clearer for students. Repeating the tonic will give students a solid new beginning and offer a clear starting point, making it easier for less advanced students to repeat lower octaves as needed. To engage all learners, try reformatting the scale by repeating the tonic at each octave. While scales provide a straightforward means to develop technique, the top octave of a 3-octave scale requires a readiness to learn that may fall outside the ability of some students in the class. School orchestra string sections typically represent a range of student abilities, complicating the process of instruction.
Not all of the students are ready for the upper octave. Here are some common hurdles, as well as ways in which you can overcome these hurdles with your students.ġ. Sound Innovations: Sound Development for Advanced String Orchestra,īob Phillips and I identified several everyday hurdles to teaching 3-octave scales in heterogeneous string classes. An experienced high school string teacher once remarked to me, “A lot of the kids, you know, kind of get stuck in the upper half playing light and fuzzy.” Similarly, a studio teacher shared that she encourages students to “hear below the ‘string veneer sound’ in a pitch,” adding: “When they hear below the surface of the overall pitch, tone and intonation greatly improve.” In the scale layout for Too often in school ensembles, each ascending shift seems to shrink the bow into ever decreasing lengths until the student has only the upper third of the stick left. For the right hand and bow arm, the process of playing in upper positions necessitates that students manipulate the variables of sound-bow lanes, weight, and speed-to produce a clear tone quality. Teaching the upper octave of a 3-octave scale and arpeggio routine to a heterogeneous string class can benefit string students in developing a focused tone and lead to improved intonation in all registers.
0 kommentar(er)
