Bishop Druitt College's 20th Year - Music Celebration

Bishop Druitt College has turned 20 this year, and currently there are plans in place for a gala concert to be held.

The current head of music, Mr Dale Condon, has requested for as many musicians to make a return where possible.

“Could I please ask you to put your thinking caps on and let me know who the Orchestra players might be between the Years 1994 and 2006. I've got the past 8 years covered, as I've been here!”

To give a quick rundown of the history of the orchestra within the school...

• The orchestra was originally established in 1996, with a total of twelve musicians at the first rehearsal. An assortment of strings, winds, and few brass formed the first ensemble.

• The first piece the ensemble read through was a hand-written arrangement of “Under the Sea” from “The Little Mermaid”. Not long after this, scores and parts would be produced through the software “Logic” (yeah, old school on all you modern day Sibelius/Finale users!). It was no secret that this could be a tedious task, at times.

• The first rehearsals were held in the classroom known as “A1”. Rehearsals moved into “B Lab” where the science lab, under construction, was being shared as a music room before C Block would eventually be constructed. Rehearsals were eventually held in the auditorium performance space before the School of Music was established, and rehearsals would then be held in “M1” (with “the dome”).

• Rehearsals were held at lunch, and eventually transitioned to after-school hours.

• The orchestra was originally named the “Bishop Druitt College Youth Orchestra”, before changing names to the “Coffs Harbour Regional Youth Orchestra” in 2002 (I think, I could be wrong about the year), and eventually changing names to the “Regional Youth Orchestra”.

• Prior to changing names, students from other schools were invited to join in with the orchestra under its original name. Today, this tradition continues as students travel for early morning rehearsals.

The hunt is on for past musicians (yes, we will include singers as well). One of the pieces appearing to be cemented in the program is the overture to “Orpheus in the Underworld” in order to feature cameos of past and present students. It’s not clear what else would be required of musicians to perform, but it would be great to find out who would be available as a starting point.

There have been quite a few musicians who have continued on to have success at tertiary level and beyond as part of their musical journey, and this is definitely an opportunity to be able to catch up and share not only through words but performance as well.

“Wait, wait, wait. You haven’t even given us a date yet!”

The date would be Friday the 5^th of September. For alumni wishing to participate, they will need to attend the rehearsal on Thursday the 4^th of September where a meal will be provided for guest musicians.

“Who should be contacted?!”

• Musicians who took part in the orchestra and music programs ranging back from 1994 through to 2006.

• The former Head of Music, David Slater. Yes, we will try to find him, contact him, and hopefully have him in attendance.

Spread the word, and let’s hope for an immense gathering of musicians to celebrate the school’s 20^th year!

Crossing the first semester break (Term 1 Wrap)

Term two commences this week, and what a term that is set out before us. With so many different musical performances happening in the local area, it's going to be a challenge to keep up with everything.

However, last term was a case of preparing to deal with the upcoming deluge of performances. Not only that, but it was also an opportunity to try out some different approaches to teaching and technique for clarinet and saxophone. I couldn't have been anymore pleased with the results.

As teachers, we tend to fall into a trap of teaching and adhering to a syllabus or format of some kind. The reality is we need to determine what should be taught to the students, and how much we should encourage (and to a certain degree, enforce) what is being taught and not purely depend on a book to dictate what needs to be achieved. In fact, last term really encouraged students to over-achieve.

The first positive sign was seeing, and hearing, the lift in the quality of playing by students.

The second, the willingness to eventually embrace the harder work ethic. At times, this can be viewed as a dangerous aspect of teaching; push a student too far and they'll turn away, but encourage and support them enough and they will embrace and understand the value. The value of Richard Gill's speech, back in 2003, strikes again. Fun, and enjoyment, results from putting in the applied work ethic to achieve. These words still reign supreme in so many areas, and students are understanding this not only through their music studies but their other interests as well (including various sports, hobbies, video games, and other creative avenues to name several).

The third, my body absolutely crashed in the first week of the holidays. This, unusually, isn't a bad thing (this is normally an occurance after intensive work, or AMEB examinations). After a meeting with other music staff late last year, and taking on board some of past-student feedback, the holidays were an opportunity for me to sit down and really plan out what needed to be achieved in pushing the standard further. It was great being challenged to think further, and to see the response from the students as well as the outcomes. The downside was I felt absolutely lethargic for one day in the first week of the holidays, but it only meant I needed to rest. It probably doesn't help that my work schedule comes to a complete stop during the downtime.

This blog has been on the back burner during last term, a regret for me since I had various ideas and posts that I wanted to share. Two posts are currently in draft (near completion), as well as several other ideas to share. I am looking to rectify this over the course of this term, especially after putting into motion the different teaching approach (probably something further for me to share in depth).

May you have an enjoyable Term 2, and if you're in the Coffs Coast area make sure to get to one of the many musical performances occurring throughout the region. I hear there's plenty on!

Become the metronome! (Part One)

“The musician and the metronome” would have to be one of the most fascinating relationships within the world of music. The musician, contemplative and thoughtful as they work through a complex piece of music with great pride, then meets the metronome, a stubborn little beast that is adamant they are correct and that you must follow along with them. Yes, the complaints have been registered by most, if not all, musicians over the years.

However, there is a place or point in a musician’s practice when all of a sudden a metronome is not available (or suspiciously lying in several broken pieces conveniently next to a wall). A piece of music sitting on the stand is calling upon the musician to play a certain amount of crotchet beats per minute, and there is suddenly despair. “What if I play the music too fast?” “What if I play it too slow?” “Will the metronome magically build itself together and tell me I’m wrong and threaten to break me in several pieces for not getting it right?” “Arrrrrrrrrgh!” Drama ensues.

But then, the musician looks at their watch.

No, it’s not a look of “How much longer do I need to remain cooped up in this room?”, or, “If I look at this watch long enough the practice will mysteriously occur.” Instead, they begin to work out the tempo of their piece of music.

For my last entry, I criticised the proposed change of timetabling for students learning music so their learning is standardised along with their counterparts that don’t necessarily learn a musical instrument. This little series will exhibit pro-active examples of how aspects of maths are used in music, and how students can use this to (hopefully) overcome metronomic problems and establish a further understanding of rhythm.

In music, tempo is always a set ratio. When tempo is discussed in other activities, whether it be fitness, sports, games, or even home crafts, there is still an aspect of ratio involved. A tempo’s ratio in music is involved by calculating how many beats per minute, or the ratio x:m where the value of “x” is represented by the number of beats, and “m” is minutes (always being 1). Unfortunately, this is often where the ratio remains as we lunge for the metronome and look to it for answers.

It’s at this point that we need to change the ratio. This is where we need to change from the ratio of x:m to a new ratio of x:s. The value of “m”, where it was remaining static at 1, will now to change to seconds (s). As is usually the rule with ratios, the idea is to use whole values on both sides of the ratio and not decimals/fractions.

Let’s start with some basic examples. A tempo of 60 beats per minute (bpm), is quite logical to follow. Because there are 60 seconds in a minute, we end up with a ratio of 60:60. This reduces to 1:1 since 60, coincidentally, fits evenly into both sides of the ratio. When a piece of music tells us that it is 60 bpm, we look at the watch and count in time with the seconds ticking.

Another common tempo is 120 bpm. This is where we set our initial ratio of 120:60, and we soon discover that 60 is a multiple for both sides of the ratio. This reduces the ratio to 2:1. When we look at the watch, two beats will be counted for every second ticking. The tempo is asserted for 120 bpm, as well as the length of quavers at 60 bpm.

Not all tempi are going to reduce to a ratio of x:1, and this is where the rhythmic complexity starts to establish itself. A tempo of 90 bpm is the first example of this. With a ratio of 90:60 this will reduce to a ratio of 3:2 due to both numbers being multiples of 30. The rhythm to commence will be crotchet triplets across the two second ticks, three beats for every two seconds, and once the watch is ignored as we continue to tap/click out the beat the tempo of 90 bpm is established. What you may begin to establish after a while is how long the notes are by taking the ratio and turning it into the fraction s/x. Each of the notes, while the tempo is 60 bpm, will be 2/3 beat long.

How about calculating the tempo for 80 bpm? Yes, it can be done! First, the ratio of 80:60 needs to be reduced. Since both numbers are multiples of 20, the ratio will reduce to 4:3 – or counting four beats for every three seconds. Holy dooly, how are we supposed to count four notes evenly in the space of three seconds?! Let’s work out the fraction to determine the length of the notes. s/x = 3/4 is our resulting length, or the value of dotted quavers. This could be represented as the following...

These two bars appear different, but the length of note value for each of these bars is identical.

Once the tempo is below 60 bpm, the ratio will start to be in favour of having a greater value for the beats. For example, a tempo of 40 bpm is a ratio of 2:3, or 2 beats for every 3 seconds. The length of each beat calculated against the watch will be 1.5 seconds each.

There will be moments where a tempo marking is going to be ridiculous to work out. One of my students has a piece with the tempo of 112 bpm, and they began to wonder how they were going to calculate 28 beats in 15 seconds. Using some rounding, and saving them from a brain melt, a tempo can be established that will be slightly slower (27:15, or 9:5 = 108 bpm) or slightly faster (30:15, or 2:1 = 120 bpm). If worse comes to worst, the metronome can be retrieved to give a definite value of beat.

Give it a try! Establish and work out that counting without having the metronome automatically tell you. Give your brain a good rhythmical workout as you strive for improved counting.

For the next part of this series of metronomic proportions, I’ll be exploring how we can use the metronome as part of an alternate form of working through scales using a different form of calculation.