choral briefs midwest clinic performance anxiety - KBB Music

Do You Hear
What I Hear?
Michelle Flint from St Paul’s Collegiate School
traveled to the world's largest music education
conference in Chicago on the KBB Music Midwest
Scholarship in December 2011.
Michelle Flint
While there she was most inspired by clinician
Richard Floyd's seminar on Do You Hear What I Hear?
The ear can’t hear what the mind can’t imagine”
- Gunther Schuller
The Lion in the Rock
A man was carving a stone and a little boy was watching,
curious to see what the man was doing. “Sir, what are you
doing?” asked the little boy. “You may stay there and
watch”, said the man, “but you must not say a word”. The
boy watched the man carving away at the stone. Each
day he visited the man to see the progress he had made.
Finally, after many days, the carving was finished. The little
boy approached the man and did not say a word. “Don’t
you have anything to say?" asked the man. “You told me
to stay quiet”, said the boy. “Do you not have anything
to ask me about the work I have done?” replied the man.
“Yes”, said the boy. “How did you know that lion was
inside that rock?”
Richard Floyd
Richard Floyd, UIL State Director of Music at the University
of Texas was one of the most inspiring clinicians at the
Midwest Clinic in Chicago during my visit in December
last year. The conference offers a plethora of clinics,
concerts and rehearsal labs which offer outstanding
educational clinics, concert performances and an exhibit
hall that highlights all the latest “cutting-edge” materials in the
music world. With the assistance of the United States Army Band
the clinic, offered by Richard Floyd, focussed on the multiple kinds
of listening that are critical factors in determining the effectiveness
of rehearsals, offering strategies to refine these proficiencies.
Tuning
Richard began with a focus on tuning. He said that it is important
to instruct the ears to listen and that playing in tune is to ‘serve the
music’ not just for the sake of playing in tune, this is meaningless.
We all listen for different things and perfect intonation is virtually
unattainable, especially on a brass instrument. Musicians have
to constantly adjust (tuning slides etc) to ‘create the illusion of
perfection’. Rehearsals should begin with ‘Inclusive Listening’
using chords based on root “C”, so, C Major, C Minor, C Dim, C
Aug, all of the above plus an added 6th, 7th, maj, min, dominant,
diminished etc. When tuning the chord always tune the root first,
followed by the 5th and finally the 3rd. The goal is to move the ear
from ‘Unconscious Incompetence’ (not hearing) to ‘Unconscious
Competence’ (hearing it and doing something about it).
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