F.E. Blog 3

C.J Primary Observe

I was a little nervous for my first day of instrumental ensemble observation.  I have always been a choir kid, so orchestra and band are very foreign territory for me.  I have occasionally played piano for orchestra or a like ensemble, so I at least knew kind of what to expect with an orchestra class.  I was surprised about how young the orchestra teacher was.  She did not seem much older than I was, which was exciting because I could really see myself in her shoes.  I was interested to see how a music class would go at 8 in the morning.  The students were ready to begin class as soon as the announcements started.  They sat quietly and listened, which spoke to me about the policies of the teacher.  They began with rhythm reading, which I thought was a great way to start class.  It got students into "music mode" without being too difficult.  The students did really well with the rhythms and the instructions the teacher gave were very clear.  They moved seamlessly into the next thing that was written on the board.  Transition time seems to be one of the trickiest for younger students and these students stayed right on task. The students respected the instructions.  I think I expected a little more chaos in a middle school instrumental ensemble.  There were some very talented students in this orchestra, which I think helped with intonation.  As the students moved higher through the scale they had some difficulties with tuning, but I think this is common.  I was impressed that all of the students tuned their own instrument, and most of them did it really well!  Overall, watching this class only made me more excited to be a music teacher.  One often hears horror stories of unruly students and less than stellar intonation, but these students were nothing of the sort, which I think is the outcome of a well prepared, well respected teacher.