A Happy Teaching Story in a Remote Learning World

Today I had a really wonderful teaching moment and I'd love to share it with you. I think I wrote in an earlier blog post that, in lieu of orchestra rehearsals since mid-March, my class has been doing a "deep dive" on the concerti that were programmed for our spring concert. In addition, every member of our Orchestra has been working on a concerto for their personal repertoire. It seemed like a good assignment for everyone since we are not able to do ensemble work as we finish up the school year. I have been so pleased with the way every individual in the orchestra has committed to this work. They have been practicing during our other two orchestra class periods each week and submitting videos for me to review and assess, as well as a personal journal entry for each class. I have really been impressed with my students work, reflection, and commitment to the project.

Last week I received an email from one of my violists asking me to give her some help with vibrato. I jumped at the opportunity to meet with her individually, assess her work to this point, and to give some tips for moving forward. We met today for about 30 minutes in the middle of the afternoon and had a wonderful lesson. I was pleasantly surprised with her progress and commitment to the tools I provide in some of my online videos. I was also pleased that she had done some personal research and found other videos to use in addition to mine. We took some time to talk about the calisthenic nature of vibrato practice and related exercises and etudes. As I said, she is well down the road to developing a nice vibrato and really just needed a little bit of encouragement and feedback. 

After the lesson, we spoke for a minute about the remote learning nature of the past several weeks and she gave me some feedback that really meant a great deal to me.  She told me that the opportunity to work on something for her own personal benefit as part of the orchestra class has really been refreshing to her. I imagine that she has primarily participated in ensemble work as her music and viola education in recent years. As a violist, we all know how that can mean lots of inner harmonies and rarely playing the lead part. She told me that her work on the concerto had been quite enlightning. I gave her some tips a few weeks ago about developing 16th note passages. She has applied those tips and is really seeing the difference in her playing and accuracy. That type of personal advancement, she told me, can be a little hard to see when you're always playing in the ensemble environment. She feels like she has advanced as a player throughout the course of the spring! Of course, she is also going to return to orchestra in the fall with a more fully developed vibrato. She will be a better violist in September than she was in March. This may not have happened if we were in our regular school and orchestra concert cycle and routine. She would have been learning the accompaniment parts to our programmed concerti, but perhaps not developing as a violist in the process. She also told me that the routine of practicing two times per week throughout the spring as part of our class has helped her to develop a habit that she believes will continue throughout the summer. Wow! What a side benefit to the remote learning environment. Of course, there was some accountability to those practice sessions. She had to turn in a video. She had to write a practice journal. So, in some ways we have developed the habit of practice and reflection as a by product this spring.  Anyone who hasn't read my thoughts on habits should head to that blog entry now! In the end, she found a cue, class time. She had some kind of routine, practicing during class time. And, finally there was a reward, her viola playing improved.

I can't tell you how happy this exchange made me. I am constantly trying to find little positives that grow out of our global pandemic. Hopefully we have all seen them from time to time. Some that I can think of off the top of my head include more family time, opportunities to record music, opportunities to write blog posts, and little teaching moments like this that have given me true joy in the midst of some difficult days.  My students have great timing.  This one came at just the right time!

I know that we all have had moments like this as part of our remote teaching environment this spring. Thanks for letting me share mine. I would love to hear about yours.

Peace.

Scott

Motivation in a Covid-19 World

A colleague recently asked me to spend some time in a Zoom class with her Orchestra students. She explained to me that her kids were a little low on motivation and asked me to speak with them about strategies for staying motivated in this time of social isolation. I was thrilled to be asked and decided to prepare for our meeting by bringing up the topic with my own students. This was the impetus for some vibrant discussion among my Piano and Guitar students and I was able to use some of the data I collected to develop concrete ideas to share with my colleague's class.

My classes are currently in their 5th week of social isolation and remote learning. I began by asking my own students to articulate their motivation on a scale of 1 to 10; 10 being highly motivated and 1 being struggling to get out of bed. Many of you know that my students are all enrolled in a school for academically gifted students who are have a strong interest in science and math. So, my classes are not necessarily a cross-section of all students. That said, I was a little surprised to find that the average stated level of motivation among my students was about 4.5. No response was higher than 6 and no response is lower than 3. Next, I asked my students if they had any recommendations for staying motivated in this social distancing atmosphere. They had a number of good thoughts which included the following:

• Trying to see the bigger picture
• Academic curiosity
• College preparation
• Keep a regular schedule
• Staying motivated keeps them in a good mood
• Be conscious of their momentum
• Avoid distractions like the phone or television
• Deadlines as a source of motivation
• Remember not to be content

I felt like many of their answers were quite thoughtful and I will expand on a couple of them later in this essay. In the end, I took their responses to heart but also shared some of my thoughts with them. Several students told me later that they truly appreciated the ideas and dialog. After all of this conversation, I really felt like I was ready to present my ideas to my colleague's class.

My thoughts on staying motivated are multi-fold. I think that there are definitely some actions we can all take that will impact our overall level of motivation. First, I do believe that it's important to recognize the differences between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. We all experience both on a regular basis. Humans are obviously extrinsically motivated in many ways. We go to work to earn a paycheck. A paycheck is extrinsic motivation no matter how you slice it. So, we get up in the morning, get a shower, and go to work everyday as a result of some sort of extrinsic motivation. However, folks like me, also develop a true sense of intrinsic motivation in our work and career. I have certainly learned during this period of social isolation that I am motivated to go to work not only for a paycheck, but also for the social interaction and the opportunity to interact with my students and colleagues.  This has been a good reminder for me that music education and perhaps all education really begins with relationships. I have stated this for years as a basic principle of my work and interaction with students, but this period of social isolation has certainly reinforced this concept in my mind.  So, with this as a guide for some of my remarks, let me share my thoughts.

First, endeavor to be a "creative" not a consumer. My thoughts here grow from a great deal of personal experience. I find that my motivation diminishes greatly when I am consuming someone else's creativity. This could include watching a television show, scrolling through Instagram, or playing a video game. All of these activities are primarily passive. There is no final product at the end of a period of time and truthfully, I find these activities to be more tiring than relaxing. I also notice that when I complete any of these activities or others like them, I am generally not happier than when I began. They may stimulate my brain at some level during the activity, but there is very little positive by-product afterwards. 

Rather, I would encourage folks to seek out activities where their imagination is strongly at play, their intellect is highly engaged, and there is some final product. This can take lots of different forms. While practicing and creating music is an obvious one in my life, there are certainly many others. Reading a book, baking cookies, trying a new recipe, drawing a picture, or even rearranging one's furniture in a room are all creative activities. We use our brain in a different way when we are creative. Last weekend, I built two awesome bridges in my backyard. I am not a particularly experienced woodworker or craftsman, but I went for it anyway. One of the great byproducts of creative endeavors is that we can admire our work after the activity. This falls into the category of intrinsic motivation. As I write this, I am sitting on my back porch looking at the bridges. I am proud of my work and satisfied that I spent my time well last weekend. When we read, we use our brain in a much different way than we do if we consume the same or similar material through a movie. We can sit back and admire the number of books or chapters we have read after that creative activity.  I remember as a kid I used to rearrange my bedroom quite frequently. There is something very satisfying, as far as I am concerned, in admiring one's handiwork after the work is done. So, consider painting a room, repairing something that needs a little updating at your home, make a great meal, or read a good book. All of these activities will certainly stimulate one's motivation.

A second recommendation is to make lists. The number of years ago I read a fantastic book by Atul Gawandi, called The Checklist Manifesto. The thesis of this book is essentially that checklists make us more accurate in everything that we do. I committed to this in my personal and professional life and can attest to the accuracy of that thesis. And, I would take it one step further. A checklist can be incredibly motivating. This, falls into the category of extrinsic motivation.  When I have a list of tasks to complete on any given day or week, I am significantly more likely to achieve completion of those tasks. And, I feel a great deal of satisfaction as I check each task off the list. I find this to be particularly important in the relative monotony of social isolation. I wake up every morning and make my "commute" to my office in my home and go to work. Everyday looks a lot like the one before and the one after. Checklists certainly help me to distinguish one day from another and help me to get my work completed.  Right now, every day I have a variety of tasks in front of me including meeting with my students, providing meaningful assessment for my students, administrative work for school, the number of recording projects, and maintaining my home life as well. It is easy to get overwhelmed with the number of tasks that needed to be completed. A checklist truthfully allows us to be more efficient in the way we think about the things we need to do on any given day or week. 

At the beginning of the social isolation, I created a list of some home-improvement tasks that needed to be completed. On a couple of occasions when I felt particularly down and unmotivated, I pulled out that list and was able to identify a short activity that I could complete without a great deal of stress. Completing these activities truly increased my motivation and as I finished one after another, I began feeling much better about myself and our current situation.  

Another way of thinking about the concept of lists would be to simply say don't lose sight of the forest for the trees. The small steps in our day and life eventually lead to large gains. This is been a concept that has always been easy for me to remember, but I do know that it can be difficult for others.

Another strong recommendation that I can make is to remain physically active. I have found that the extrinsic motivator of a step counter on my phone has been quite effective over the past several weeks. I am certain that there is a correlation between my motivation and happiness and the amount of physical activity that I get in a day. Yesterday was a low activity/high screen time day for me and it really showed in my level of motivation and mood at the end of the day. In fact, yesterday was probably my lowest day of the past six weeks or so. As I look back on the day, there were no creative activities and very little physical activity. Both of these factors contributed to my down mood. Fortunately today is a new day and even this blog post is representative of a new creative activity. Actually, Saturdays can be a little tough for me in this environment because the checklist of school work is a little bit lighter. I am quite aware that I need to create a list of things to do, even if some of the things on that list are relaxing activities. These might include taking a nap, going for a walk, reading a book, or enjoying a nice dinner with my family.

I want to come back to a comment that one of my students made about motivation. He mentioned that he feels there is a strong correlation between contentment and motivation. He suggest that when one is overly content, their motivation can certainly go down. He mentioned this in the context of school work and academic motivation. I certainly relate to his thoughts and wanted to share a personal anecdote. Back when I was 14 years old, I was very aware that my best friends were all better athletes than I. I, like many readers of this post I would imagine, was a musician and a very good student. But, athletics weren't necessarily a priority in my home. I was discontent with my level of physical talents and fitness. So, that discontentment led me to commit to a routine of push-ups and sit-ups in my bedroom every night. I decided that I needed to do 100 push-ups and 100 sit-ups every single day. Over a period of time, I got into really pretty good shape. I started looking a little more thin and a little more fit. And, through those small successes began to have more successes on a fitness level. I was never a scholastic athlete or a member of a sports team. But, I developed somewhat of a reputation in the weight room and remember receiving a lot of positive feedback from my athlete friends about my strength and also my cycling abilities.  As a young adult, I went on to live a vibrant life of recreational athletics. I became a very strong windsurfer in the 1980's and have also spent a great deal of time both mountain biking and road cycling over the years. My life in the weight room continued well into my 40's and I am proud of many of my athletic accomplishments. While I was never a natural athlete, I definitely achieved a great deal in the area of fitness and activities as a result of my early lack of contentment in this area. I guess the broad idea here is as follows: if there is some area in your life where you are discontent, take steps to change it. Start small. Make a list. Be creative.

I see a great example of this in my 17 year old son during this period. He is a baseball player and is currently missing his junior year baseball season. This has been really tough on him as he has really been pointing toward this season as a opportunity to attract the attention of coaches at the next level. He, like many other high school athletes, is not quite sure what this setback will mean for him. He has committed to physical fitness during this social distancing environment. He works on his batting in the batting cages several times a day, lifts weights everyday, and has started a routine of running as well. I guarantee that he is in the best shape of his life. I am excited to see what gains this level of commitment will manifest on the baseball field when we get back to playing games. I am betting that there will be a huge upside. His discontentment has motivated him to become better.

So, these are my thoughts on motivation in the Covid-19 social distancing environment. I am sure there are many other strategies for increasing motivation. These are just a few that resonate with me. I would certainly recommend The Checklist Manifesto and I would also recommend a book which I read recently called The Creative Habit by Twyla Tharp. This book gives many concrete strategies for staying creative. It has nothing to do with our social isolation age, but there are certainly many great ideas in the book.

I wish you all well in this new working environment. And, as always, I welcome your thoughts and reactions to my ideas.

Stay healthy and be well.

Peace.

Scott

Score Prep

I was recently asked about my process for studying and preparing scores for my classroom and rehearsals. I have seen many seminars and master classes on the topic of score preparation over the years and have always been impressed with the variety of approaches and detail with which conductors prepare their scores.  I always take something away from these seminars and apply it to my own work.

My answer to the question this week was necessarily shorter than the sometimes one hour or longer seminars I have attended on score preparation. This required more of a "quick hit" concise response do the question.

As I thought about it, I really came up with three important categories that I use for score preparation: Listen, Analyze, Play.  These three elements have become incredibly important to me as I squeeze score preparation into my already busy academic schedule. These apply to every level of score preparation that I endeavor. So, this would include string orchestra, full orchestra, Grades 3 to 6 and the standard repertoire. (These days I rarely find myself in the grade 2 and below setting but these concepts still apply.)

First, I typically begin the process by listening. I like to find a period of time where I can sit quietly with the score and a pencil in my hand and listen to the piece multiple times performed by multiple performers. At the beginning, I am looking for basic material: what voice has the melody? What voice carries the fundamental? Others include: specific entrances of winds, first entrance of every voice, tempo changes, meter changes, and other pertinent basic material. I try to clearly mark everything. As I become more familiar with the piece with the score in hand, I begin looking for places that I can make the score my own. Where does the tempo push, where does it pull?  What voice has the important rhythmic material at any given time? (Who is the rhythmic student and who is the rhythmic teacher?) Where do I need to be particularly conscious of any given voice or specific conducting techniques? This process of listening and marking the score is absolutely vital to my preparation. It allows me to be confident in rehearsals and frees up my intellect, permitting my imagination to move in different pedagogical and artistic directions throughout any given rehearsal. I would call this the nuts and bolts of score preparation for me. It is foundational and it is vital.

Second, in recent years I have spent a great deal of time analyzing a work. For me this includes form but is not exclusively form. Obviously, I want to have a clear vision of the various sections of the piece. I want to be able to articulate form clearly to students during rehearsal. Understanding form also allows me to be imaginative in my approach to phrasing, musicianship, and expression throughout the piece. But, in addition to form, I have been quite committed to harmonic analysis for the last several years. As I am preparing the score, I typically pick up my guitar and sketch out the chords, allowing me to really see inside the harmonic structure of the piece. This is a game-changer for me. By understanding the harmonic underpinning of a composer's ideas, again, my imagination can go in more complex directions as I endeavor to articulate function and meaning to my students.  In my early years of teaching I would skip this step. In fact, I really didn't even consider it. Now I understand how vital it is to teaching true functional musicianship in every single rehearsal. This process also permits me to step to a guitar or piano quite easily during a rehearsal process and explain harmonic function. It is so nice to be able to do this without analyzing on the spot. If I have done my homework, it is seamless and easy.

Finally, I play the parts. Those of you who know me well, know that I play in rehearsal rather than conduct during one out of three rehearsals per week. This process is vital to my score study. It informs how I approach technique, difficult passages, fingering, shifting, watching, and expression in profound ways. I find that I hear the score differently from within the orchestra. I hear mistakes more clearly with my instrument in hand. I am able to identify tricky sections in a significantly more holistic manner when I am playing with the orchestra. I am also much more able to articulate the performer's thought process when I have my instrument in my hand. Sometimes I sit in the front of the section, sometimes the back. I alternate between each of the stringed instruments. I'm not a very good cello player, so I often play cello parts on the violin or viola. It still makes a difference. A side benefit of this is that my students realize my proficiency at each of the instruments and (I believe) are the beneficiaries of my holistic thinking about ensemble performance and technique.

Obviously, there are more than just these three elements in solid score study. But, as I think about my top priorities, these hit them pretty strongly. I hope that you find these thoughts valuable and can possibly apply some of them to your own teaching and conducting.

What did I miss here? What are your priorities in score study and preparation? I would love to hear from you and add to the tools in my tool belt!

Peace.

Scott

Podcasts

Lately I have been speaking with a number of podcasts. in these days of social isolation, podcasts are a good way to spend some time for sure. These interviews deal with a range of topics including teaching, pedagogy, performance, electric violins, my history with Believer, and others. I thought I would put a list here so that anyone who is interested could find more specifically what you may be looking for. These are all a lot of fun and I'm really honored that folks have some interest in what I might have to say.

The Low 2 Show

Fuller's Music: Online Learning

Orchestra Directors: Beginning of COVID-19 Days

Rockstar Violinist: Believer

Music Ed Love: My Early Years of Teaching

Creative Strings Podcast: Functional Musivianship

Electric Violin Shop: My History With Electric Violin

I hope that you find something here that interests you and you find informative!
Peace.
Scott

tools in the tool belt

Over the past couple of weeks, I have had plenty of opportunity to think about this transition to remote learning that so many of us are endeavoring right now. I am completing my second week of the process today and have a few ideas to share.

It occurs to me that this process is quite similar to the process of doing odd jobs around the house. When it's time to get a job done, we head to our garage, grab our tool belt, and go to work on the project. The belt is is full of screwdrivers, wrenches, and probably a hammer. It doesn't have every tool we own, but it has the ones we use most commonly. We strap it on and go to work with a plan to get the jobs done in the most accurate and efficient way possible. This is much like the transition to daily remote learning. 

Every teacher has a tool belt full of tools. We have our skills as pedagogues, our technological tools that are housed within our laptop or phone, our basic routines, a prior relationship with our students, and a community of colleagues who are willing to help us learn how to do all of the jobs. We already have a very good feel for the job itself. Anyone who has been teaching for a little while nose how their students learn and what their general needs are for each class. In many ways, our course syllabus and course expectations define the job at hand.  Our problem is really choosing the right tool for the job.

Sometimes, we have exactly the right tools for the job. Perhaps a screw needs tightening. We grab our screwdriver, tighten the screw, and admire our work. For me, this was how things worked for my Music History class. I was already set up in Canvas. I had plenty of digital tools and resources prepared for my class. Moving to remote learning was pretty simple. We opened up Zoom and continued the class pretty much in the same fashion that we had been working prior to moving to remote learning.

Sometimes we encounter a job and we realize the tool we need is still out in the garage. We run out and grab the needed tool, perhaps a power drill or a circular saw, and get the job finished properly. We had the tool in our possession, we just didn't have it front and center. For me, this is how the transition went with my Guitar and Piano class. I already had all of the tools I needed to complete the job properly. But, my class was not yet set up in a Canvas course. I had to think about how I wanted to use my remote learning tools for teaching this specific class. It took a few minutes to set up, but the class is now running seamlessly with tools that I actually had in my possession.

Sometimes we encounter a job where we simply don't have the correct tools. In this scenario we either have to modify the job, or run to Lowes or Home Depot get some new tools and learn how to use them. There are a couple of good examples for this scenario. First, for my performance ensemble, Orchestra, I knew that I didn't have the proper tools to run a regular rehearsal. I was faced with a decision. Should I modify the job and change my syllabus, or should I go find a tool that would allow me to do the job as originally intended? I decided to change the job. I modified my syllabus and figured out a way to use the tools that I had at hand to provide my students a meaningful experience that is similar to a regular face-to-face experience. 

On the other hand, my wife who is a preschool music teacher, went the other route. She had never used Zoom before or any kind of video conferencing software. She decided to go get the new tool. She accessed Zoom and began experimenting with video conferencing for preschoolers and their parents. She had to access and learn how to use her new tool.  She sat in on several tutorials and leaned on me a bit to help get her up and running. After two weeks, she is feeling pretty good about the process. She is getting better at using Zoom and has really connected meaningfully with her students and their families. Everyone seems to really appreciate her efforts.

I have another colleague who took a look at his orchestra curriculum and decided to actually create a brand new project. He decided, rather than an ensemble experience, to provide more of a private lesson experience based on the tools he had at hand and the restrictions that his school place on video conferencing. After speaking with him earlier this week, I know that he is excited about his plan and feels that the students will really benefit from their time together individually.

As teachers, we are always adding tools to the tool belt. This is what professional development is all about. We are constantly seeking new ways to provide meaningful experiences and authentic instruction for our students. I believe that many of us view this unusual experience of the past few weeks and near future in that very way. It is our opportunity to add technology teaching tools to our tool belts. It is professional development in technology resources forced upon us, like it or not. That said, the process of learning to use these new tools should not be foreign to anyone in the teaching profession.  We do it all the time.

Sometimes, we see the need to invent a new tool to do a job properly. I recently had a wonderful conversation with my friend Jeremy Cohen. He and others are in the process of actually developing a new tool for remote teaching. It involves high definition audio and video in a web-based platform that is particularly useful for individual music instruction. I would encourage you to check it out at www.stringmasters.com. Like many other web resources right now, it is completely free during the COVID-19 crisis.  It provides capabilities that are unique and timely.  The technology is really wonderful!

In the end, we all have a job to do. Our job is to keep instruction going during this incredibly disruptive time in American society. We really need to decide what that should look like for each and every one of our individual classes. If you've read any of my other posts, you know that I believe our number one job is to care for kids. We must let them know that we care about them, we are concerned for their health and safety, and we are committed to keeping music in their lives during this of isolation.  Once that is accomplished, we get can get to the job at hand of teaching content. We all have a unique tool belt. We also all have a unique set of jobs to do. My hope is that in this time of crisis, we can all pull together and help each other approach our set of jobs with a well-stocked tool belt and an understanding of how to complete the job in the best way given our unique circumstances.

I hope this resonates with you. I certainly always welcome your feedback. I would love to hear how you are approaching your jobs and the tools that you find most useful for completing the tasks.

I hope you all have a great weekend. I encourage everyone to walk away from work for a couple of days. It will all be there on Monday morning. Get some exercise, breathe some fresh air, care for your family. We will attack our jobs with vigor and a full tool belt again on Monday!

Peace.

Scott

NCSSM Zoom Orchestra: Day 1

Hi friends.

I told you that I would post some thoughts following my first Orchestra class. We had our first meeting last night at 6:15. I was pleased to have about 40 students join me for orchestra rehearsal via Zoom last night. It was so great to see everyone's faces. In this post, I would simply like to outline my plans for orchestra for the rest of the term and provide some associated thoughts.

I began class with a welcome and a brief statement of my thoughts and philosophies regarding the class and ensemble's role for the rest of this school year. I truly believe that the orchestra community is significantly more important than any content I might be delivering or other work that we might do musically and technically. I wanted the students to know that my intention is absolutely not to increase their levels of stress or anxiety in this new online interactive video classroom world that we live in. I want them to understand that our role is to facilitate their participation in the arts and in aid in making them whole people through music. I think that message was well-received and it set up our class in a very good way.

This was the first time that I had been in a zoom meeting with more than 20 people or so. The first thing that I noticed was that in the gallery view, I could only see about half the class (25 per page). I quickly found myself toggling between the two pages of gallery view. We started the class by hearing every student's voice. I wanted them to say hello to me and their classmates and give a brief update on their situation at home. Sadly, the remarks mostly were very thin and centered around class work rather than mental state, positives in their lives, or funny anecdotes. It really wasn't exactly what I had hoped for. (It is an odd ting about my crew at NCSSM.  They are usually hesitant to warm up and trust me and their classmates with candid remarks when prompted in class.  It happens outside of class, but never seems to make its way into my classroom. I wonder if it is me?!) But, at least, every student's voice was heard.

Next, I wanted to make sure that I reviewed our modified syllabus and course expectations. Obviously, we will not have a live concert in May. So, I wanted them to know how I would arrive at a grade at the end of the term. Without too many details, grades will be based primarily on class participation (70%) with a significantly lighter weight on practice time (10%) and musical performance (20%). My ensemble has significant variation of experience and and playing level. So, I differentiate expectations based on there experience and preparation prior to coming to NCSSM. Everyone is welcome in the NCSSM performance ensembles regardless of playing level.

Next, I explained my plan for the rest of the school year. My class meets for 2 hours on Tuesday night, 90 minutes on Wednesday, and 50 minutes on Friday. We have everyone in the room for our Tuesday night rehearsal, but Wednesday and Friday are split into two sections based on academic schedules, and there are multiple students who have special dispensation to work independently in lieu of one of those two shorter rehearsals based on schedule conflicts. In other words, the only time we are all together is Tuesday night. We are in the midst of preparing for a concerto concert which would have featured six of our school's top soloists on a single movement of a concerto. We were scheduled to perform a movement of the Bruch Violin Voncerto, Saint Saens Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso, Brahms Piano Concerto No 1, Beethoven Piano Concerto No 1, Ponce Guitar Concerto, and Mozart Clarinet Concerto.

Next, I outlined my plans for our Tuesday evening rehearsals. During this time, we will take a deep dive into each of the works that were scheduled to be performe. I will have the soloists talk about technical challenges and practice routines for each of their pieces. There will be one concerto featured each week. (We will start with the Saint Saens next week.) During this time I also plan to lead guided listening of not only the movement we were scheduled to perform, but the entire work. I have also invited each of the soloists to encourage their private teacher to participate in their Zoom session as well. This activity is designed to maintain a focus on our planned repertoire. I feel like it is my responsibility to maintain the direction in which we were moving before we left school. While we only had two weeks of actual rehearsal prior to vacating the school, I still feel like it's important that we hold true to some aspect of our previously established curricular goals.

My challenge has really been how to handle the other two rehearsals during the week. I had a brief, enjoyable phone call with my dear friend and colleague Georgia Economou from Atlanta over the weekend. She suggested that I assign other concertos to the entire class so that everyone would have an opportunity to learn portions or all of a selected concerto movement. I loved the idea! So, I have selected three concertos of varying difficulty for my students to choose from. They will select a concerto and learn it over the course of the rest of the school year. I want everyone to engage in the learning process and do as much as they can, without overwhelming themselves or adding stress to their lives. I have encouraged my more advanced students to tutor their colleagues.  I am hopeful that this will be a positive experience for everybody.

For class today, I want each student to review the concerto options. At the end of their class., They will make a brief video to share their thoughts with me or perhaps a very little bit of sight reading. Videos must be under 3 minutes. I am also asking every student to submit a brief journal entry on their practice through Google forms. This will be my attendance record for the class. So, our Wednesday and Friday classes will be asynchronous independent practice sessions. But, I will be available in a Zoom meeting for anybody who wants to make personal contact with me for instruction, advice, or feedback throughout the class period. This will be the case for every day of class for the rest of the year. I am also setting up Flipgrid opportunities for students to share their successes, struggles, and ideas for practice with each other. I am not sure how this format will work, but I am excited to give it a try.

In retrospect, I would say that the number of students in the Zoom session felt quite unwieldy to me. It lasted about one hour and I could tell by about 45 minutes into the class that students were getting restless. I was also getting tired and overwhelmed.  Obviously, I wont be able to use the entire two hours like I normally would on a Tuesday night. I just don't think that is mentally or physically advantageous for them or for me!

I intend to send a note to students this morning, reminding them of their assignment for today. I will do this each Wednesday and Friday to simply keep everyone moving in the right direction.

So, there you have a quick overview of my Tuesday night rehearsal. I will certainly give updates on our progress with the concerto movements. I don't know if this will work or not. I would put my level of confidence at about 50%. I feel like it's a well-developed plan that might work. I do not have expectations of 100% success. Some students will simply be more comfortable and confident in this independent environment. But, if this provides some direction for my Orchestra students and serves as a bit of motivation to have their hands on their instrument, it will be a success. Also, those who seek assessment from me periodically will most likely have stronger levels of satisfaction, I believe.  In the end, I would be thrilled if particularly the less advanced students had a chance to play and prepare something of value and meaningfully add to their skill set and repertoire.

I would love to hear what you are doing to keep your kids motivated and playing! We are all in this together. When intentions are pure, good things will happen. Let's all care for these kids through music as best as we can.

Peace.

Scott

NCSSM Zoom Classes Day 1

This morning I taught my first NCSSM residential class of the COVID-19 emergency. Some friends asked me to outline my approach to online music teaching as well as some thoughts about how I am approaching music class Zoom  instruction.

My first class was Classical Piano and Guitar. This is a multi-level, individualized, residential music class that I have taught for nearly 30 years at two different institutions. About 15 years ago, I flipped this classroom before many, if any, other instructors we're moving in this direction. So, all of my instructional videos for beginning guitar, beginning piano, and music theory are already available on YouTube. They were originally made for a closed circuit video service we had at NCSSM and eventually found their way to YouTube. My more intermediate and advanced students are provided or encouraged to find performance videos or recordings to use as examples as they learn new repertoire.  Additionally, I have been operating in this quasi-online, flipped environment for so many years that it was fairly seamless to move to Zoom instruction this week.

Let me first outline my priorities for the class.

First and foremost, I do not want this class to add any extra stress to my students' lives. I will not lose sight of the fact that this is an arts elective and should be an happy enrichment for students.   That there are many new stressors for kids at this time and I don't want to add to that. The arts should be an area of safety, breath, and always a different kind of rigor.

Second, I want the class to feel as normal as possible. Our normal classroom routine is to arrive in class, greet each other, and settle in while I take roll and outline the goals for the day. After that all of my students move to their individual workstations where they can begin their guitar or piano practice and class work for the day. Since it is independently paced, everyone is at a different place in the curriculum. (Some students are beginners, some are more intermediate, and some are very advanced. Since the classroom is flipped, everyone can receive my instruction online whenever they are ready for it. Everyone is used to this environment and we will continue this environment in the online format. I will start the Zoom meeting with everyone in the meeting and give my opening remarks and take roll. Following my remarks, students may leave the meeting and begin doing their work. I will remain in the meeting and they can click back in when they are ready for feedback, assessment, or have questions. The class meets 3 times per week and I have asked the students to click in for feedback at least twice per week.  In our face-to-face classroom, we all come back together for the last 5 minutes of class for closing remarks and often a impromptu performance. My Zoom classroom will be exactly the same. I have asked everyone to set an alarm on their phone for 5 minutes prior to the end of class in order to to click back in for closing remarks.  This worked really well today and I anticipate that it will continue to work throughout the rest of the term. It was a very normal day.

Third, I want students to be conscious of their personal musical goals on a daily basis. Much of this course is built on my students' interest in either learning to play an instrument or advancing their skills on that instrument.  It is, in fact, an elective credit and everyone truly desires to be in the class. The course builds a minimum of 150 minutes a practice time a week into their academic schedule.  That said, if one's personal goals are not clearly articulated and galvanized, it is very easy to stray off course. So, I often remind students to consider their goals at the beginning of class and to make sure that every moment of the class is pointed toward achieving those goals. This will be vital in our Zoom format.

So, today went pretty much as planned. I spent a good deal of extra time at the beginning of class checking in on every student. I wanted to hear their voice. I wanted them to be able to articulate what the last week has been like for them. I want them each to know that they are seen and heard by me and their friends and colleagues in the class. The relationships, to me, are the most important thing; especially now. My intention is to lead with relationships and caring with the knowledge that the content will take care of itself.

Today, once everyone had checked in and I reviewed my revised course expectations and went over some Zoom basics for this class, everyone clicked out of the meeting and went to work. Several clicked back in in order to play a song for me or ask important questions. 5 minutes before the end of class everyone came back in and I was able to send them off with a good word and positive thought.

I feel great about the class and I am looking forward to my Music History class at 3:15 this afternoon.

I will write another post about that course as well as one about my Orchestra in coming days. I hope this is helpful to some of you out there. I would love to hear from you as you begin working in the zoom music class environment.

Peace

Scott