Author Archives: Brendan F

Summer Camps for Strings!

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I’m excited to announce that I’m doing my Songwriting Camp for the third year at the Chicago Waldorf School, the week of June 16- 20.  The format will be similar to previous years: campers will have fun exploring basic songwriting techniques on their in’struments in a variety of styles, including folk, blues and classical.  This year we will learn a pop song together and write our own new pop song too! The camp will culminate with an afternoon of campers performing & recording their songs at Soapbox Music Studio. (For rising 5th graders and up / 11 years + up)
I also encourage you to consider other summer camp opportunities for your young musicians.  Summer music camps are a great social experience, and expose young people to the wide world of music!

Whitney

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Pulled out this Whitney Houston cello arrangement I started last year, to try to finish it up.  Her vocal line is ToUgH.  Syncopation within melisma? Check.  Double dotted rhythms?  Check.  Super-wide vibrato that morphs into metrical ornamentation? Check.  Good thing I’ve listened to The Bodyguard soundtrack so many times it’s second nature. 

 

 

Orchestra Rehearsal Warmups

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Been thinking about how to do better orchestra warm-ups, more consistently.  When a warm-up is good, it’s real good.  It establishes a good mental state: focus and engagement for rehearsal.  But when it’s bad, it’s real bad.  Boring.  Repetitive.  Reinforcing of bad habits.   Actually, when I think about my own practicing, often it’s the technical challenge of a warm-up that draws me in.   Although, possible post hoc ergo propter hoc, the warm-up is always first.  Either way, it’s gotta be interesting and worth doing! 

Orchestra Director and clinician Michael Alexander has some ideas here.

Thoughts from Yo-Yo Ma

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I should share something that Yo-Yo talked about at the open Civic Orch. rehearsal I went to last month. 
 
He addressed a concern among young musicians preparing auditions: along a continuum with traditional or ‘metrical’ performance at one end and total interpretive freedom / individualistic style on the other, on which side would it be best to land?
 
Yo-Yo’s response was that this dichotomy obscures the idea behind good practice.  Musicians should practice every passage traditionally and also with a *variety* of different stylistic approaches.  Freedom isn’t playing a piece differently than everyone else, but rather is the ability (gained through practice) to choose *in the moment* the best way to play a passage.  This is the root of expressive playing and musical freedom.