Midwest Reflection

This past week, I attended the Midwest Band and Orchestra Conference for the first time.   Wow-so much to discuss and talk about.  

The first observation I had was how large this conference is. 17,000 attendees makes this conference the number one instrumental music education experience in the country.  I was amazed at how many people whom I have always viewed as "heavy hitters" in our profession were present because they find it important too.  

The second observation I had was the quality of performances that I experienced.    Not once did I hear a wrong note, wrong rhythm, intonation inaccuracy or something that made me cringe.  Everything was so pure and it definitely "cleaned out my ears" to what is possible in an ensemble setting.

Thirdly, it's clear to me that this event should be an annual event.    The timing of Midwest is impeccable.   The conference gives you an opportunity to go through all of these clinics and events at the time of year when you really need a bit of a break and an opportunity to recharge the batteries.


Now for what I learned and moving forward....

I really appreciated several of the sessions that i attended.  However, Gary Hill from Arizona State University affirmed my notion that one of the best aspects of a well developed ensemble classroom is to "get out of the way" of your young musicians.    All too often we as conductors base our ensembles achievement exclusively on how well we can break down specific instructions and have our ensemble respond accordingly.   Dr. Hill affirmed what I had been exposed for some time from a research perspective. Significant chemical differences in the brain are found with students who experience ownership in their ensemble versus those who don't.   The process of giving students a voice in the decision making process is far more effective then giving students instructions from the podium when they are not engaged.    I need to remember to keep developing strategies to foster student growth through their own participation in the ensemble.

Another great session came on Thursday morning where I had the opportunity to hear William James, an up and coming percussionist.   William has a great way of communicating the best ways to get sound production from percussionists.  My conclusion is that I need to spend ALOT more time maintaining my percussion equipment.   I let things go way too long before I even begin to touch percussion equipment-I sort of just take percussion instruments for granted-but need to make sure I get on a maintenance and purchase schedule of my percussion equipment.  I also need to have some diversity in mallets for mallet percussion.

Finally-many sessions that I went to this year were on tone quality.  This is a particularly difficult thing for me because I forget so many things about what is a commonality in wind teaching and what isn't.  I heard Lynne Jackson give a great session on the commonalities of all the instruments.   Along with that I heard Dr. Mary Ellen Cavitt from Texas State give a great presentation on teaching tone using a method of Heuristics. She stated that the first priority in teaching any aspect of playing an instrument is tone quality.  

I hope to make Midwest an annual appearance.  I met so many new people from all over the country with the same passion for delivering a high quality music education to every student.   I look forward to next semester-implementing the ideas learned in this clinic.   I WILL be back for 2016!