ISOs - Instrument-Shaped Objects

Every instrumental teacher will know the objects I am referring to - those which sometimes come in colours quite dissimilar to their original specimens, the telltale white cotton gloves in the case, the cork grease provided with a flute, the cases with the terrible zips or clasps...

These often turn into objects that frustrate students who don't know if it's them or the instrument that's not working, instruments that lose their colour, that break in places and ways I've never seen before, that repair-persons refuse to work on.

There is absolutely no excuse for owning an instrument like this, unless it was an intentional experiment. I know many parents of students starting this year have tried to be proactive and purchase the instrument ready for the school year. I am not sure why anyone would make a purchase of several hundred dollars without asking the teacher first, or at least someone who knows the business, especially a purchase impacting your child's education.

I have seen more of these instruments at the start of this year than ever before. The number of times my heart has sunk in the last few weeks when a student mentions that their new flute is 'in the mail', or they pull out those gloves and start trying them on, or I see a spring falling out of a post ready to impale an unsuspecting pinky.

Instruments are not created equal. You get what you pay for. This was never truer than for the world of musical instruments. But there is still no excuse for hopping on That Auction Site and ordering a fluoro pink flute with gold keys because it is cheaper than buying a brand new Yamaha, as though these are the only two options.

Many of these instruments are made in factories that do not have the level of quality control that precision instruments require. The factories are often filled with underpaid (and sometimes underage) workers in terrible conditions, using outdated technologies and materials. There was a scare several years ago relating to toys which had been made in these kinds of factories with a lead-based paint. We are talking about instruments which make contact with your child's mouth. Reason #1 for not indulging in these abominations of instruments - do you really want to support this?

Aside from the moral and safety aspect, these 'instruments' are a hindrance to a child's musical education (Reason #2). The sound is generally compromised in some way. These factories have not poured years of research into creating an instrument designed for a beginner student the way big companies such as Yamaha, Buffet and Conn-Selmer have. Student instruments are designed in a way that means students get the best response and sound possible at an early stage of learning. The same goes for the tuning.

My first oboe was built in the 1960s, a French-made Cabart. I still own my first flute, a US-built Emerson. There is no way this is possible with these 'disposable' instruments. They often don't last a year (Reason #3). If they do, the metal is so soft that keys bend (or sometimes snap entirely) out of alignment. Springs aren't strong enough to do their job. Pads split and fall out. Metal plating turns grey and/or flakes off. Repairers often won't repair these instruments because they know the repair is futile - the instruments are so badly built they are hard to deal with, and the repair won't last. Students become frustrated because the instrument is not working as they are trying to learn. They are without an instrument if it is able to be repaired. Their progress is stifled.

My first experience with one of these instruments was with a student in a country school. She turned up at the start of the year with a purple clarinet. The clarinet lasted about a term before she turned up to a lesson one day, claiming the clarinet hadn't been playing all week. I took a look at it. There was no way it was going to play. Every single pad under the keys had split around the edge and had 'exploded', filling the gap between key and clarinet. Not a single key would move. The pads were of such poor quality they had lasted about 4 months. A full repad is several hundred dollars - more than the parents had paid for the clarinet.

Of all the musicians in the world, those who need the best quality instruments are actually the beginners. They need something that is guaranteed to work so that all they need to worry about is their own technique, and the instrument makes it easier for them.

Cost is not an excuse. Sure, the ISO may be a couple of hundred dollars cheaper. But used instruments can be found everywhere, often in quite good condition. The benefit of used instruments is that if you decide to upgrade or change instruments, you can usually sell the instrument for the same price you paid for it. ISOs are worth nothing when you have finished with them.

There are also plenty of music stores offering rentals, or rent-to-buy programs, to minimise the upfront cost of purchasing an instrument.

Brands to stick to? Those which are based in countries with good quality control, levels of technology, warranties and labour laws. Generally, instruments based in Japan, France, USA, England and Germany (although some manufacture elsewhere, these companies are based in these countries and subscribe to their quality control) are the better options. There are still higher quality brands, and duds, from these countries, but overall they are safer options than ISOs.

Here's a take on ISOs from an Australian store that has managed to maintain a sense of humour about the issue:
http://www.ozwinds.com.au/boston-clarinet-used-05060-p-2375.html

Moral of the story - ask your teacher or a trusted professional BEFORE purchasing an instrument.

And if you plan on buying a used instrument, either have it inspected by a repair-person first, or have someone play test it if you or your child don't yet have that ability!

Please don't support the ISO trade!!

Australasian Double Reed Society Conference 2014

Scotch College's music building

After the long haul flight back from the US just over a year ago, I finally steeled myself to visit an airport and get back on a plane so I could head to ADRS 2014 in Melbourne. It was a whirlwind trip - left Friday afternoon, returned Sunday night, but it was oh, so worth it.

I had a couple of goals - learn a little more about teaching bassoon, bassoon tricks, network with other double reeders, play lots of oboes and hope to purchase a few luxury items (mostly because I wanted to carry them home rather than pay shipping later on...yes, I am cheap...)

Discussing cors anglais

One of the most amazing things about joining the double reed community, besides being more in demand as a player, is the welcoming nature of it. There are other instruments or organisations that I have been associated with that can feel like it is a dog-eat-dog world. Oboists and bassoonists seem to recognise the fact that since there aren't many of us there is less competition, and we play instruments that benefit from being in a community due to the nature of reeds, needing to make them, all the variables that go along with that, and the finiky-ness of the instruments themselves. It was nice to put faces to names, and to spend time with people I had only heard of but never met before.

Highlights of the conference for me were:

*A 'teaching double reeds' presentation which turned into an intimate ideas-sharing session

Oboes at the Ozwinds display

*Two wonderful presentations by Anne Henderson/Claire Payne and Celia Craig about the use and success of 'junior' double reed instruments such as the tenoroon/mini-bassoon and the Howarth Junior Oboe. Really got the ideas machine in me ticking - watch this space!

*Playing ALL the oboes. In no particular order: Howarth XL cocobolo, XXL and XM, Rigoutat J series, Marigaux 901 and 2001, Yamaha 831, Buffet Orfeo and the new K.Ge series. My personal favourite was one of the Marigaux 2001s. I also played Howarth, Buffet, Loree and Marigaux cors anglais. It was a tie between the Buffet and the Marigaux.

*Purchasing a shiny new red BAM case for my oboe

Reed making equipment

*Purchasing a Reeds n' Stuff guillotine from Oboe Central. I have just been scraping tips and not finishing reeds just so I can use it!

*Double reed flash mob in the foyer!

*Playing 'side by side' chamber music, with everyone from Ken Furube of the New Japan Philharmonic to 12 yo students. Fabulous! Isn't that what music is about?

Proud to be a part of this community...and looking forward to many more ADRS events in the future!

Music - a language for lifelong learning

I read with interest (and, admittedly, an ulterior motive) this article, which appeared in The West Australian last Wednesday (23/7/14).

http://health.thewest.com.au/news/1508/music-hits-a-note-with-babies

I was pleased to see evidence of the benefits of music for children being presented by someone other than a musician or an educator - someone in the health sciences discussing solid research in favour of music for babies and children.

This particular line stood out for me:

Music is a newborn’s first language, and it remains a tongue that we speak for the rest of our lives.

Music is a newborn's first language...but why, for so many, does it stop when the vernacular starts? Surely with more and more research out there linking music to developing language, to improving memory, to enhancing IQ...why is music and the arts in general one of the first things cut when literacy results are less than satisfactory? Why does it seem as though the only ones fighting for music education are the music educators themselves?

It is a shame that music cannot exist for its own sake in our education systems, for its aesthetics, for the creativity it encourages and the communication it elicits. But even with the evidence pointing towards the benefits of music in other subject areas, and student wellbeing in general, it still struggles to survive in many schools, if at all.

I believe that even an incidental and informal inclusion of music from an early age, even prior to formal schooling, will help set children up. Its inclusion in schools on both a formal and informal level will benefit the student both academically and spiritually.

I hope there will be a day in the not-so-distant future when the music language of babies does not come to a grinding halt because they have learnt to speak, and the two can co-exist.

Rhythm for the visual learner (or those who just like pizza)

Teaching dotted rhythms is easy if you are teaching kids with strong maths brains. For example:

• A dot means we add half the value of the note to it's original length
• A quaver is worth half a beat
• A dotted quaver is worth half as much again
• Half of half a beat is a quarter, and a quarter plus a half is three quarters, therefore;
• A dotted quaver is worth three quarters of a beat

Completely logical and simple, right?

Not all kids are successful fraction-users. Or, in the case of younger students, they haven't even started fractions yet. We need an alternative strategy!

I thought of something which often gets divided into fractions that students would be able to visualise - pizza. (Feel free to turn this into cake, or if you're a health-nut, an apple).

We start with a whole pizza. This represents a crotchet, or a whole beat.

We divide it in half (I usually 'assign' each half to a student, or in the case of individual lessons, one half for me, and one half for them). This represents quavers, or half of a beat.

The student then needs to mentally cut one of those halves in half again. How big is each piece? A quarter.

I am going to give the student one of my quarters, and they will need to put it with their half. How much pizza does the student now have? Three quarters. A dotted quaver is worth three quarters of a beat.

You can use the food/visual analogy with a lot of rhythmic concepts. One which comes to mind, that young students often struggle with, is 6/8.

6/8 is counted in half pizzas (quavers). There are six half pizzas per bar.

How many pizzas in total are there in each bar? (Three! So, dotted minim.)

We are going to group the half pizzas into groups of three, which is how quavers are grouped in 6/8. How much pizza is in three halves? (One and a half! So, dotted crotchet.)

The basics of 6/8 (counted in half-beats, pulsed in dotted crotchets, and a full bar is worth a dotted minim) have been laid out in food.

This is a tried and true strategy of mine, and the bonus of this one is it will appeal to both the maths-savvy student and the visual learner. It also injects a little fun and distraction to an otherwise serious concept. Enjoy!

Philosophies of instrumental music teaching

There are many different approaches to teaching instrumental music, and there are as many different situations we can teach in. Over the years, I have formulated many different ideas to approach the teaching of instruments, and landed on a few that seem to suit most people. Here are a few of my ideas:

1. Children (and humans in general) are masters of mimicry.
This is not a trait to be avoided, but a trait to exploit, extend and use in a sub-conscious fashion. These days, educators sometimes avoid the concept of mimicry as it alludes too closely to 'rote learning'.

Many concepts in instrumental music can only be attained through repetition and memorisation. Think about learning note reading, new fingerings and sound production techniques. Even if you allow students to explore these concepts and work them out for themselves, they still need to be reinforced through some method of copying and/or repetition.

We can use the ability of humans to mimic to enhance aural skills. Learning a new scale? Create easy patterns that the students have to play back to you. Learning how to tune? Play a game of 'match my pitch' (i.e. don't use the tuner to enhance their visual skills more than their aural skills!)

One concept I find almost requires mimicry is sound production. I make it a point to play in every lesson in some capacity. Students need to hear what they should be aiming for on a regular basis. They are clever little devils. If they hear the sound, they will instinctively find way to create it.

A word of warning - students will sometimes try to copy everything, good or bad, just like a toddler absorbing and using their first curse word. If you play with poor tonguing and incorrect fingers, they will either call you on it or assume they can do the same thing.

2. Let them play music.
I was teaching a group of beginning flute students a few weeks ago. They had already had a lesson on making a sound, and I was showing them hand and finger placement so we could learn B, A and G. With those notes, they would be able to go home, make different sounds and likely try to work out songs such as Hot Cross Buns (aural training by stealth). The following group, students who had been learning for 1 year already, arrived early and could not believe that in the second lesson that these beginners already 'knew notes'. When asked what they did by the second lesson, they said they had spent the first five weeks on the headjoint only.

There are completely valid reasons for wanting to spend a larger amount of time on the initial production of sound. There is a chance that a higher proportion of students wind up with more 'correct' embouchures (IF the teacher knows what they are doing). But in this situation, where the students have been offered an opportunity they might not have otherwise sought out, we need to appeal to a greater audience. These students have come to learn music, and music they shall learn.

Mimicry will also feature here, because for the student who might not necessarily get a perfect sound out straight away, when they hear their peers getting sounds and notes, they will work just that little bit harder (sometimes subconsciously) to work it out. In 13 years, I have never had a student who didn't work it out after a few lessons. It tends to encourage a more solid practice routine early on, as students try to keep up with each other. Establishing a practice routine based on blowing the headjoint for five weeks cannot be an easy task!

And if you have ever considered starting the students in the first lesson with the headjoint/mouthpiece/reed and not putting the rest of the instrument together at all, consider this. Kids are innately curious. If you don't show them, once they have that instrument at home, they will try anyway. Wouldn't it be best if you show them straight away and avoid any damage that may get sustained without proper instruction?

3. Believe in your repertoire.
My students are completely used to the fact that I don't tend to follow books from beginning to end. I choose the most natural progression, and the one that fits my program and assessment. I am quite upfront about which pieces I choose to omit, and why. I often explain that the following piece has more educational benefits, or that I think the next one is 'fun' to learn. I don't simply follow the book aimlessly because I need to believe what I am teaching is always valuable and relevant.

I also make a point of explaining to students which pieces I really like, and why. 'Why' is another level of understanding, and it is good to encourage students to critique music with justification.

4. The kid you dismiss today...could be the only one who truly wants to be there.
There's always one that lags a little behind the others. Maybe their reading is not as fast, their fingers not as coordinated, their tone not as clear. They probably already know it. And with some encouragement, that kid could be the one who knuckles down over the school holidays and really takes to the instrument. Maybe they are a late bloomer. Or perhaps they are a child who enjoys the escape of music from whatever their harsh realities of life are, whether they are 'good' at it or not. And yes, there are some students out there with much harsher realities than you could imagine.

It is easy to wave these kids off, to not give them extra attention lest they are 'lazy' or 'stupid'. But you don't know what the future holds. Work out what it is that gets through to them. If it doesn't, well, you gave it your best shot. If it does, the student will remember.

5. Make the lesson fit the student, not the student fit the lesson.
Education research has progressed far enough now for most of us to realise that this is obvious. The idea is logical. The execution, however, can be a little more awkward.

In small groups of instrumental students, there are little ways of making sure each student is catered for.

• Know their names. I know it sounds logical, right? If you have a lot of students, try remembering something about them and associate it with their name. They will be grateful!
• Know one thing about them and use each student's 'thing' to relate to a concept. Most kids have out-of-school activities, other instruments, dance, footy, pets, etc. There is usually a way of linking them, even if it is loosely!
• Have multiple ways of explaining things, and be prepared to use at least two methods for each concept. If you have mathematical ways of explaining rhythm, and some non-mathematical students, make it visual as well (I use a 'pizza' analogy to talk about beats and fractions of beats).
• Some kids are happy to fly under the radar, quiet achievers if you like. Allow them to contribute in their own way, but make sure they know you do care about them and aren't ignoring!
• Vary lessons so that you are not just working on one concept, one piece or in one format within a single lesson. This way, you are catering for students who respond to learning in varying ways.

6. Keep it relevant.
In this age of the tunnel-vision focus on academics and standardised testing, students (and, more frequently, parents and schools) want to know why they should be doing something that is outside of these areas. Additionally, we are seeing a generation of students who, in my honest opinion, are conditioned to being entertained in some way at all times.

Relevance can be achieved by:

• Linking concepts back to other subjects (maths and language being common, but history/culture may also feature)
• Using repertoire that students both know and like (not for everything, but perhaps as a reward or a challenge, such as movie themes)
• Linking instrumental music to other areas of life, such as being a team, treating it as another subject to study and improve on, etc)
• Making technical work and concepts more 'interesting' (scale patterns, competitions, naming certain combinations of notes such as 'the ambulance', etc)

*                *                *

These are some of the areas I have come to realise over the years that fit in with not only my personal philosophy of teaching, but work in with our ever-changing education systems and expectations. Use some of my ideas, develop them into your own, completely go in another direction, it is up to you. Just make sure you are always developing and maintaining your own consistent philosophy. And don't forget to love your job!

Don't blame the reed!

"I'm sorry, that wasn't very good, I just have a bad reed today."

This statement just makes me want to throw a reed knife at someone, possibly in the hope they will use it. There are so many things about this that aggravate me.

Part of it might lay at the fault of educators (and the time we can spend with a student). I totally get that. Perhaps we need to focus less on educating the student to play the oboe/clarinet/bassoon/saxophone, and more on teaching them to BE an oboist/clarinettist/etc. Learning to play one of these instruments doesn't just mean teaching notes on a page, fingers on keys and forming a correct embouchure. Acquiring and maintaining your equipment is a huge part of it.

When a student claims to play badly because of their reed, they are actually saying:

• I don't know how (or can't be bothered) to look after my reeds
• I haven't developed the skills to play around a 'bad' reed

I feel, as a musician, if I blame the reed, I am actually blaming myself. It is my fault that I haven't got my reeds in suitable playing condition, or that I haven't catered for the change in climate. Part of my job as a reed player is the reeds themselves. It as important as playing the instrument; you can't have one without the other.

Don't point your finger at the reed - it will probably only point one back at you.

A student's guide to looking after reeds:
1. If a student tells me they have a 'bad reed', the first thing I will ask them is to try the other ones they have. If I had a dollar for every time the answer was 'I don't have any others', I would be able to teach pro bono.

ALWAYS have a supply of reeds with you in your case wherever it goes (and, additionally, extras at home). For clarinet and saxophone players, whose reeds often come in boxes of 10, at least one reed guard full of reeds, plus a couple of brand new ones, would be considered a minimum. For oboe and bassoon players, three reeds in your case would be the minimum. And those reeds should all be playable - four chipped reeds in a case is not a supply. These reeds should be of varying ages (you don't want them to all die at once) and for a variety of situations (i.e. have one slightly softer reed, one slightly harder reed, just in case of weather changes that might affect the cane).

2. Keep them in a case. A properly designed reed case, not the plastic holders they came in.

For single reed players, reed guards are a good, cheap method of keeping reeds flat and protected. Double reed players should use a closed case with ribbon style holders that is well-ventilated.

3. Know your reeds.
If you are a single reed player, use a ball-point pen to number your reeds, in a place where your mouth won't touch but not on the bark. After awhile, you will remember which numbered reeds are better than others (good for concerts) and rotate them more easily.
If you are a double reed player, you might have reeds with different coloured thread, which makes each one easy to identify. If not, you can mark them the same way as a single reed, or you might even paint a dot of different coloured nail polish on the thread of each reed.

4. Know how to adjust them.

These babies didn't make the cut...

This applies mostly to double reed players, but it is possible to adjust single reeds, if you are that way
inclined.

There are some great resources available in the web regarding adjusting bassoon reeds. For adjusting oboe reeds, there is some information on this blog. (you need to make sure you are adjusting for the correct type of oboe reed - short scrape, used mostly here in Australia; or long scrape, used mostly in the US). Double reeds are expensive, and there is no reason why a reed which doesn't suit you all that well should be binned.

Preparing for playing with a bad reed
If all of the above fails you, and you get stuck on stage with a reed that feels like you are trying to blow a brick wall down, it helps to be prepared. Many athletes, particularly those involved in airborne activities such as gymnasts, learn how to fall. This isn't to promote falling, this is to prevent injury in the case that they DO fall. We are preparing ourselves in the same way.

While it is important to practice making a beautiful sound, playing with good technique, etc, these things are much easier to achieve on our favourite reed. Have one practice session a week or so where you play on the worst reed in your case. Aim to make it sound as though you are playing on your favourite reed.

Learn techniques that you can perform on stage that might help the reed. In the case of single reeds, you can adjust the 'hardness' of a reed by changing its position on the mouthpiece. A reed placed higher on the mouthpiece will feel harder, and vice versa. These changes, naturally, need to be pretty small - a large deviation away from where the reed should normally sit on a mouthpiece and you will compromise all aspects of your playing.

Double reeds often have wire - you can sometimes manipulate the wire with your fingers enough to affect the feel of the reed. A more closed opening will make the reed feel softer, and vice versa. Use your fingers to manipulate the cane itself - be gentle and only touch the scraped parts of the cane.

Learning the lesson...
Not long after I had begun making my own oboe reeds, I had been practising in a university practice room. Once I started making my own 'playable' reeds, I refused to play on anything else. I turned up to my lesson, opened my reed case, and my three best reeds were missing. I had left them in the practice room. I looked high and low for them, with no luck. The only reeds left in my case were varying degrees of playable (read: not really). My lesson finished at 10am. Our oboe class was at 11am, and we would get randomly selected to present the orchestral excerpt of the week in this class.

I hightailed it to the reed lab and managed to make a surprisingly playable reed in about 35 mins, from tie to final scrape (note: I do not recommend this!) Lo and behold, I was chosen from the hat to present the orchestral excerpt that week, on my brand new, not played-in reed. Somehow I made it through, and did a much better job than I expected. But it was extremely stressful and the reed (probably as a result of being performed on straight after being made) never played properly again after that.

Lesson learned! I now try to retire my favourite, broken-in and stable reeds before they are dead, and move them to the end of my case. In their place, I put newer reeds. I know that if in a dire situation, those newer reeds don't hold up for me, I will always have my trusty backups. It also has the apparent benefit of making them last longer!

P.S. Flute players, don't think you have got off scot free - your lips are like your reed - look after them! The weather is cooling off, lips will start chapping and tone will start going out the window. Prevention is better than cure!

Practice Techniques, a.k.a. Stop Banging Your Head Against the Wall

It has recently been highlighted to me that a lot of students don't actually know how to practice. Specifically, they haven't been taught how to fix the bits that just aren't working.

Remember the 'head, meet wall' analogy? *smacks head into wall "That hurt...I think I'll do it again!" *smacks head into wall "That hurt...I think I'll do it again!" *smacks head into wall...

This, my friends, is not progress. But so many students practice as though 'it's going to work someday...maybe next time'.

Also remember that practice doesn't make perfect, practice makes permanent. The more times you practice it wrong, the more you are reinforcing the wrong-ness. There will come a point where it will be almost impossible to break the habit.

Tempo Control
I hope you own a metronome, or at the very least an app that does the same job. If not, you're going to need one for this exercise.

This is good for passages of constant notes, transitions between different note values (e.g. a passage of semiquavers followed by slower rhythms) and tricky rhythms. It can be tedious, but it is worth every second you spend.

1. Find a passage you just can't get right, or up to tempo. Reduce the tempo a large amount, even half speed. Choose a speed you know you are going to get it right at.

2. Play the passage at that speed with the metronome. Once you get it completely right without any sense of fumbling, bump up the tempo, usually between 5 or 10 beats per minute.

3. Keep moving through this process, never moving the tempo faster until you have got it perfect.

4. Always make sure you practice a passage like this slightly faster than your intended final speed at least a few times. If you intend to perform the piece, you never want to be performing at maximum capacity. If you are playing with a pianist or orchestra, you cannot control the exact speed they will play on the day. Additionally, adrenalin and anxiety will often have you playing slightly faster in performance than you would in practice. Be prepared!

Chunking part 1
Think of chunking like musical surgery. We are going to remove the diseased part, fix it up, then put it back in. Chunking is great for passages where you will require muscle memory (unfamiliar jumps, too fast too read, etc) or sections where your fingers are simply fumbling.

Identify your problem passage. Play it through slowly, then identify exactly what the problem is (work on one at a time).
Let's use this Stamitz as an example (mostly because I was using it with a student recently in this context). The problem was the constant reading of quavers in this passage. The student would get overwhelmed by about 5 notes in and not continue to read accurately.

We broke it down into groups of notes as dictated by the rhythm and separated them, so it wound up looking like:

We fixed up the problem spots within each group. Now, time to link them back up. Slowly, slowly! We don't want to work old habits back in! We linked the groups of three notes to the first note in the next group, like this:

Once this became easy, we could put the whole thing back together.

Chunking part 2
The following method is best when you realise there is just a small section that is messing the whole lot up. Let's use the Stamitz again. We will pretend for this exercise that we are having trouble getting into the first full bar. Our issue is the falling A to E, followed by the G and F#.

Let's isolate just those notes.

Then, let's progressively add notes on either side of this 'cell'. Do not add another note until you can play the previous combination perfectly. Your progression might look like this:

Change up the rhythm
Can't get the hang of notes in a run? Change the rhythm!

A lot of these practice techniques are simply us finding a way around the complexity that is our brain. We can learn 'hard' passages by convincing our brain that it is much easier than it looks. The rhythm technique actually in some ways does the opposite of the above techniques - it makes the brain realise how easy the original passage was by making it harder! It also gives you the chance to play certain combinations of fingers at different speeds than you were originally meant to.

Take this example:

The notes are not hard, but on some instruments, the finger combinations are not pretty!

We can turn it into this:

or this:

or even this:

Not only will you gain renewed flexibility in the passage, it might even make learning it more fun!

Hopefully this will make your practice more meaningful and efficient. Happy practising!