Personally, I always thought my path was clear. I knew from the moment that I held a baton at the age of 13, leading my school’s orchestra pit for a rehearsal of The Sound of Music, that I wanted to be an orchestra director. So I went to college to pursue music education, and I became a public school orchestra director. After teaching at a variety of levels, I realized that middle school was “my jam,” and I settled into what was to be my forever career.

But life often throws unexpected things at you … for me, it was a diagnosis of Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome which took me away from that clear-cut path. I was not able to sustain the physical demands of being a regular classroom teacher, but I still had the drive, creativity, and passion for music education. Luckily, during my years as a teacher, I started composing and creating music education clinics. This led me to a full-time career not only as a composer but also led me to jobs in the publishing world, of which I learned there are many.

Many Musical Career Paths

If you like writing music, consider a career in publishing: 

• Composers can have a variety of careers, from creating educational music to writing artwork for professional ensembles to working in Hollywood on film scores, video game music, or media outlets, writing for pop stars, and even creating theme park music!
• A Music Editor curates catalogs of music for school ensembles (and beyond), working with other composers to edit and publish their music.
• Engravers (otherwise known as copyists) format the music to make it look uniform, readable, and clear.
• Proofreaders proofread music before it goes to print and check for errors.
• Music Retailers like J. W. Pepper, Stanton’s, Penders (and many, many more) often hire people with musical backgrounds to be the experts in their field.
• Orchestrators take sketches of music and stretch them into music for full orchestra.

Maybe you have a zest for being hands-on with things. You might look into:

• Luthier / Instrument Repair – build and fix instruments
• Music Producer / Audio Engineer – record and mix performances
• Music Therapist – use music as a healing device for the sick, elderly, and children

Or maybe you have a more administrative side to you:

• Work for an arts/music organization or non-profit
• Own/work at a music store
• Work for a Professional Orchestra
  • Artistic Director – plans repertoire and guests
  • Music Librarian – manages music for a professional orchestra
  • Publications Editor – writes program notes (music history)

Educators and Performers

Even being a professional musician can have many paths:

• Concert Soloist
• Professional Orchestra Musician
• Conductor
• Chamber Musician
• Recording Artist
• Studio Musician

As a professional musician, you might have a regular orchestra you play with, or perhaps you are part of a chamber ensemble that tours. Beyond this, though, you will likely have side gigs as a studio musician where you record music for an upcoming film or project or work with a nonprofit that visits schools or hospitals.

As a music educator, there are many career paths:

• Teach Band, Choir, Orchestra
• Teach General Music
• Teach in Public Schools or Private Schools or an el Sistema program
• Teach Private Lessons
• Teach College/Graduate School

As a music educator, you might become an orchestra, band, or choir director or a general music teacher in schools. You might realize you want to train others how to teach and end up teaching collegiate or graduate students in higher education. Or perhaps you like working one-on-one and become a private teacher. Private teachers often also coach chamber music or sectionals in schools or other venues to round out their days.

The nature of a musician is that of a “creator,” and as such, even when I was settled as an orchestra director, that was never all I did. I also founded an adult ensemble that brought other orchestra directors together weekly to play music and share teaching tips and ideas. In the summers, I created a music camp for students to continue their studies. And then, in my free time, I composed music for my students. This is all to say that in the role of a musician, you might find many outlets for your creativity.

At the recent ASTA National conference, I had the chance to be on a panel of musicians discussing careers in music education. Though we all had different jobs, we all had one major thing in common:  none of us had a clear-cut path to where we were today. We may have started off in one career and ended up in another, or perhaps our career grew in ways that we had never dared to dream of. And that is what is exciting about life … there is always something new around the corner, and I encourage you to go after it and follow your passion.

For additional information about these and more careers, visit Berklee’s Careers Page.

The post Careers in Music: Following Your Passion to New and Exciting Places appeared first on MakeMusic.

When teaching rhythm, I have found success in explaining rhythm not only as a unit of time but of length. To get from the start of beat one to the start of beat two takes time, and that is a concept that can be tricky for some students. To alleviate their confusion, I came up with some visual aids and activities equating time with length.

Lego®!

To teach simple division of quarter notes into eighth notes and sixteenth notes, I use a childhood favorite: Lego bricks. A 1 by 4 brick equates to a quarter note, a 1 by 2 brick equals an eighth note, and a 1 by 1 brick equals one 16^th note. I printed out a mock-up of these units on magnetic paper and used the magnets to create rhythms on the board for the class to read and manipulate. We would make 16^th note and 8^th note combinations and compare them to the length of the quarter note “brick,” or create whole phrases on the board in Lego. The genius in using Legos is that the studs on each 1×4 brick show the subdivision of each beat–while the brick itself shows rhythm as a length in time.

Human

Another classroom favorite is to use the students themselves as the units of rhythm. When expressing that rhythm takes a certain length of time, I often first demonstrate by asking for volunteers to lay flat on the ground, head to foot, in a single line. I will then stand near Person A’s head and explain that Person A represents beat one. I will then move towards Person A’s feet and ask if I am still on beat one. By seeing that I am still near Person A, students begin to recognize that beat one has length, and we do not arrive at beat 2 until I get to Person B.

Using student volunteers is also a great way to show dotted eighth/sixteenth note combinations. Ask four students to stand in a row and give each a sticky note with a syllable on it designating them as either “1”, “e”, “&”, or “a.” If two people link arms, a la a tied note, they become an eighth note. When the first three people link arms, they become a dotted eighth note. The 1, the e, and the & still exist in space and time, but we only count the “1” and the leftover “a” out loud.

Algebra

For those who are a little more cerebral in their learning style, I like to express dotted rhythms as an algebraic equation: X + 1/2X = Dotted X By substituting a note value (such as a half note) for X, we work out the following in steps:  

We then take this concept further by changing X to a different value, such as quarter note or eighth note, and my math whiz students inevitably get very excited.

Ruler

Finally, one of the simplest ways to express rhythm as a unit of length in time is to show students a ruler. You are in your first inch whether you are at the start of that inch, or near the end of that inch. You can break the inch into half an inch, or a quarter of an inch, and equate that to eighth notes and sixteenth notes.

Putting It Together

I hope some of these tricks help your students visualize rhythm in a new way! As they explore the world of rhythm, feel free to use some of the following rhythm books and exercises found in MakeMusic Cloud (SmartMusic), along with each of the activities above. A bonus of MakeMusic Cloud is the wealth of resources that you can access, and since the focus is rhythm, you can choose from any instrument—not just the one(s) you teach.

Count Me In by Darcy Vogt Williams & Brian Balmages

This book is searchable by rhythm topic in MakeMusic Cloud and includes some counting and visual aids to help students subdivide.

Habits of a Successful…

• Beginner Band Musician: Part I—First Days Rhythm Charts
• Middle School Musician: Part III—Rhythm Vocabulary
• Musician: Part III—Rhythm Vocabulary
• Middle Level String Musician: Part V—Rhythm Vocabulary
• String Musician: Part VII—Rhythm Charts in Musical Context
• Choral Musician: Part IV—Rhythm Work

Each of these books contains a section on rhythm that gets progressively more advanced–don’t feel locked in to one book—they all have great material.

MakeMusic Cloud Exercises:  Rhythm

Progressive, free rhythm exercises are built right into MakeMusic Cloud in both simple and compound meters. Using MakeMusic Cloud’s interactive features will allow students to hear the beat, turn on subdivisions, and follow the line as it scrolls through each beat.

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After students have a good understanding of posture and bow hold, I address the concept of tone through what I call the “LAWS of Tone and Dynamics,” with LAWS standing for Lane, Amount, Weight, and Speed. These four terms help students understand how to create a characteristic tone and a variety of dynamic levels.

Lane

The location of the bow on the string plays an important role in the quality of tone that one can produce and the volume that will be produced. Different methodologies divide this into various amounts of areas, with the basic three being Sul Tasto, Sound Point, and Ponticello. The opening of Sound Innovations: Sound Development explores lanes in relationship to dynamic levels, with an explanation of where to play prior to each of the first six exercises in the book.

Generally speaking, students should play near the sound point, staying parallel to the bridge; however, allowing your students to experiment with different tone qualities is a great way to open their ears to what is possible. Using a simple tune such as “Mary Had a Little Lamb,” have them try playing in different lanes. You could even have them change up the name of the song depending on the tone quality—“Mary Had a Little Dinosaur” (for ponticello) or “Mary Had a Little Fish” (for sul tasto).

Amount

When explaining to beginners the role “amount” plays in tone quality, I simply say that “more bow = more sound.” We then explore the mechanics of how to use our shoulders, elbows, and even wrists to extend our bows from frog to tip and tip to frog. As they advance, they learn that tone development is a balance between location, amount, weight, and speed—so more bow doesn’t always equate to more sound.

To explore “amount,” check out the first few exercises in Habits of a Successful String Musician (or Habits of a Successful Middle Level String Musician).

Weight

I like to use the term bow weight rather than bow pressure because pressure infers tension, whereas weight has to do with gravity. Discuss with the students where this weight comes from (gravity and their scapulas, not squeezing their fingers).

Sound Innovations: Sound Development has a helpful unit that teaches students to experiment with different bow weights.

Speed

The speed of your bow does not always equate to the speed of the music or the rhythm. How fast you move your bow plays an important factor in the type of tone you produce when applied with different weights and different amounts. For example, if you use fast speed and large amounts with light weight, the sound might be wispy tone-wise, but it might also be loud dynamic-wise just because of the speed.

An entertaining example of this is having the students make a “light-saber” sound effect by drawing the bow, slow to start and fast to finish, on an open string (sorry in advance that you will now hear this sound at the start of every class period!).

Tilt

Once students understand how to use the LAWS, I add one extra letter… “T” for Tilt, and tell them they’d be “LAWST” (aka lost) without bow tilt. Tilting your bow with the hairs toward the bridge alleviates some of the friction created between the bow hairs and the string, and often results in a more resonant tone. For violin and viola, this means tilting your stick away from you and raising your bow arm slightly in response. For cello, this means tilting your stick towards you, which relieves some tension in your bow wrist and arm as well. For bass, there will be less tilt because of the necessity for some friction when creating a big bass tone, but you will at times tilt the stick slightly toward you.

Putting It All Together

I remember teaching Midnight Howl to my students one year, rehearsing the open 8 measures over and over. I was very focused on matching their bow lanes, amount, weight, and speed, so we could find a unified tone and match our articulation as well. Students started asking why we were going over this same spot day after day when they “knew it” already. They knew the notes and rhythms of course, but understanding all of the capabilities of their bow was another story, so we continued to work on it until they played and sounded as one. Setting them up with a strong foundation in these LAWS helped promote a very successful school year for that ensemble and I know it can for yours as well!

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An essential part of learning and playing a string instrument is understanding the geography and theory behind the fingerboard. When approaching this with students, I ask myself the following three questions:

Question # 1: Do the students know how to read notes on each string?

This is always a big hurdle for many incoming middle schoolers. Some students know all four strings, while others may only know the D and A string. Using a traditional beginning method book might be a great way to go back and teach these basic concepts, but some kids may feel that using their “elementary” book seems juvenile, so I try to present the material in a new way. For example, my composition Sky Suite has four distinct movements designed to introduce one string at a time (A, D, and then G). The goal is to allow the students to feel solid at reading and performing notes on each individual string, but doing so in the context of a piece of sheet music.

Another spin is to assign an exercise from a method book through SmartMusic. The benefits to this approach are a) you don’t have to pass out the whole book for just one concept, b) the students will likely not realize it is the same book they used in elementary school, and c) there are so many method books to access–you don’t have to stick with just one. For example, I might assign some G string review in Essential Elements Book 1 (#97 “Walking around” and #100 “The Low Down.”). Then I’ll have the students skip over to Sound Innovations Book 1 to play a G major scale, saying the notes out loud while we play.

Question #2: Do the students understand the chromatic scale, all of the notes available to them, and the concept of an enharmonic?

It is so important to get students to understand there are notes beyond the D major scale. To assist with this, I teach the chromatic scale early on in the year. I equate enharmonics to “nicknames” and have students practice saying and playing the notes. I use a method of “Say Play Play,” where they say the note aloud and then play it twice to give them time to really let the note name and finger position sink in.

Examples of Chromatic Scale Resources

• Sound Innovations: Sound Development, #229 Chromatic Scale (on D)
• Essential Techniques 2000 Book 3, #185 shifting chromatic fingering (1 octave)
• Habits of a Successful Musician, #185 two octave chromatic scale (starting on C)

Question #3: Do the students understand the different finger patterns they can play on each string and how the key signature affects their finger patterns?

Understanding finger patterns is an essential aspect of playing a string instrument. Chris Selby does a great job of providing exercises for understanding these patterns in Habits of a Successful Middle Level String Musician. For example,  #16 “First Two Finger Patterns” concisely shows the difference between playing F# and playing F natural, and then takes the exercise a step further by mixing up each pattern.  

To help students associate finger patterns with specific key signatures, you can go to Essential Technique Book 3, which has a collection of exercises based on each key and each string. (example #125 “Finger Patterns in A Major”).

For more advanced students, you might assign a solo that contains a variety of finger patterns. Check out, Sound Innovations Soloist,  a new series from Alfred Music which includes solos for all instruments along with preparatory exercises for each piece. Lauren Bernofksy’s Serenata (available for violin, viola, cello, and bass) is a great example of a piece that focuses on different finger patterns

You could also quiz the students by coming up with a SmartMusic playlist of examples in different keys and ask them what finger pattern or hand shape they will need to use for that exercise. Here’s a playlist I’ve curated that you could use as sight reading practice or just a written quiz.

Open the Playlist

Once the students have obtained the background knowledge of note reading, the chromatic scale and finger patterns, I find that they can tackle any future key signature or scale that may come their way, making them much more successful in sight reading and performance for the rest of the year. Of course, along the way we also must consider posture and all of the other aspects of playing, but with this solidified understanding of fingerboard geography, students will have a great foundation and framework for future study.

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