Creating Independent Musicians

One of my goals as a music educator is to foster musical independence. In other words, when my students graduate and no longer have the benefit of a music teacher to guide them, I want them to still be able to make music and enjoy it as part of their adult lives. To that end, I try to incoporate student projects from time to time that develop the skills necessary to become independent musicians who can perform, arrange, and compose their own music. These past two weeks have been full of such actitivities.

Last week, the Wind Ensemble students performed in the District 113 Solo and Ensemble Festival, along with our friends from Highland Park High School. Back in December, each band member was assigned to a chamber group of 2-7 musicians. They chose a piece of music to rehearse, and then once a week during class, they worked together to rehearse and perfect their performances. Instead of just being performers, they also had to critique themselves, manage their time, and solve musical problems on their own. The unit culminated last Friday with ten wonderful performances that were adjudicated by local music educators who also provided input and suggestions.

This week, the music theory students are presenting their latest compositions. Their assignment was to write any kind of music they like, provided they used four different seventh chords, which he had been studying in class. Their work has run the gamut from jazz vocals to classical piano to rock music and many other genres in between.

The DHS Jazz Band has been meeting as two smaller combos to arrange and perform "standards." In the early years of jazz, musicians would often take songs from Tin Pan Alley or Broadway like "I Got Rhythm" or "All of Me" and play them in a jazzy style with improvised solos. Over the past 20 years, musicians have begun to mine other sources to define new "standards." In February, the band played a Beatles tune, "She's Leaving Home," as interpreted by pianist Brad Mehldau in the 2000s. Now the students chose their own "new standards" and performed them in the front hallway before school. One group did their own version of Gnarls Barkley's "Crazy," while the other combo did Sufjan Stevens' "Casimir Pulaski Day." Both ensembles were very creative with their renditions.

The Symphonic Band has been playing Ralph Vaughan Williams' English Folk Song Suite and discussing the original songs that he used as his melodic material. We learned the melodies and read the lyrics and talked about how these timeless tunes were the basis for his work. Then, the students worked on four Anglo-American folk songs, "Clementine," "Barbara Allen," "Skip to My Lou," and "Billy Boy." They gathered in groups of about ten and created their own arrangements, just like Vaughan Williams did. As you can see from the pictures below, we spread out all over the fine arts wing, and the students did a great job of staying focused and coming up with very creative ways to play them. Here are the finished products, after only two and a half periods of work.


Woodwinds and horns playing "Clementine"




A mixed ensemble playing "Skip to My Lou" in a quasi-reggae beat




Another mixed ensemble playing "Billy Boy" in a canon




Sophomore boys playing a medley




The percussion section playing "Skip to My Lou"