BLOG 8 - COLLEGE CREDIT

AMERICAN MUSIC ABROAD BLOG

BAND DIRECTOR - JENNIFER HODGSON

COLLEGE CREDIT

Eastern Washington University’s International Field Studies Department offers the chance to earn college credit in con- junction with the American Music Abroad trip. The courses available to you are:

World of Arts: An Introduction, Word of Arts, Comparing Cultures and Societies, Photography for Communication Experiences, Mass Media and Cultures, Exploring Cultural Diversity

All courses have pre-travel and post-travel work associated with them. They are designed to enhance the experience that your trip provides you, as you well as to create an additional avenue for your travel investment. By utilizing this program you will earn academic credit that can be included in your college applications and/or may be transferable to your current or future college!

You can go online at outreach.ewu.edu/amercianmusic for detailed course syllabi. You can earn up to 12 credits total but up to two for the American Music Abroad Trip. There are two easy ways to submit your course work. You can either post it to our online course site or you can submit it via postal mail. EWU’s credits are on a quarter system. To transfer credit earned on a quarter system to a college on a semester system, multiply the quarter credits by 2/3.
Registration is Easy
At the cost of $222.97 per credit, earning university-level credit by enrolling in this course is a wonderful opportunity!

PROJECT 6 - MULTIMEDIA - IMOVIE

A DAY WITH THE

DALLAS BRASS

On Wednesday, November 14th, the Southern Regional band students were given the opportunity to work with the World- renowned Dallas Brass! They six guys in the band spent the day with the students at the Stafford Township Arts Center giving clinics and working on music for the evening concert. That evening was one of the most unbelievable nights of my teaching career. I have never seen my students so enthusiastic and excited about music and it  has had lasting effects. 

Two weeks prior to the concert, hurricane Sandy hit the shore. This concert almost didn't happen. The hotel where they were supposed to stay was on Long Beach Island and thoughts were not on a concert. Thankfully, it all came together and was a needed break from the disaster for the community and students.  

For this project, I took pictures from the day and put it into an iMovie trailer. Here was the result:

Here are a few student responses on video about their experience with the Dallas Brass:

BLOG #7 - SPENDING MONEY/SHOPPING

AMERICAN MUSIC ABROAD BLOG

BAND DIRECTOR - JENNIFER HODGSON

Spending Money/Shopping!

Shopping

*Remember this is not a shopping tour and everything is really expensive. Get things you can’t get at home and when you can go see a castle-do that! We don’t tend to have castles on every corner. 

*Watch your money situation. Think early on, how much you will need each day for lunch, drinks and snacks. Divide it by however many days. Add a little to that. Then subtract that from what you have.

*Remember what you buy you have to live with in your luggage and on your seat with you. There is not room up top in the coach like we may be used to here in the states.

*You might want to collect something small every place we go. Stickers for your cases, spoons, pins. Inexpensive and you still have something to take home with you from every place you’ve been.

* Don’t buy large chocolate things that melt like 5 foot tall chocolate Toblerone bars.

Things to buy in some of the countries we will visit:

Westendorf, Austria-Not the best town to shop in but there are some cute stores. So many fun things to do that your better off renting bikes, or climbing to the top of a mountain and eating a picnic lunch with the cows. It’s beautiful but mostly you will find souvenirs. Traditional hats with feathers or pins, girls dirndls and lederhosen.

Salzburg- Mozart balls, music items but most music things you will find cheaper in the states. Lots of Mozart stuff since he was born there.

Rattenberg – Great glass and Swarovski items but they are breakable and you must remember you will carry it in your carry on the rest of the trip unless you mail it.

Dinkelsbuhl-Decent place to do shopping. If you buy breakables or large items, you may want to have them shipped. It’s usually not too expensive. Berkenstocks, Fritz’s-Ama discount, Down-cheaper at home. Cuckoo’s-really expensive, Steins, stuffed animals, x-mas ornaments.

Venice - Not so much on the bargaining thing but lots of great stores. masks, venician glass (ship) and the Murano glass factory.

Most of the places we go are very touristy and those are the type of items you will find. Don't forget to budget for those items you can't live without and want to bring home!

BLOG #6 - AUDITION RECORDING- MP3

AMERICAN MUSIC ABROAD BLOG

BAND DIRECTOR - JENNIFER HODGSON

SEATING - MP3 SUBMISSIONS

Since everyone is recommended by their band or choir director to participate in the tour, it is necessary that we find a way to fairly seat each musician. In past years we would have had students send in a tape or CD of their playing ability but now in this new age of technology, we are finding that most kids are capable of recording themselves and making an MP3. We then ask the student to submit their recording and it is then shared in a dropbox so that all the director's can listen and give feedback. This has streamlined the process and made it much smoother. 

These recordings are just a guide though. Often times during the first rehearsal we again listen to each student to make sure that they are in the proper seat or voice part. 

Here is the process:

INSTRUCTIONS FOR ALL TOUR PARTICIPANTS:
The 2012 Gold Tour Ensemble Seating Recordings will be submitted by email this year as an mp3 attachment. If you have a recording program such as Garageband on Mac or a similar PC recording program you may use that to make an mp3 recording. If you do not, here are instructions for you to download a free recording program to make your recording. You may search online for any number of recording apps that will work ranging from free to any number of inexpensive purchasable programs.

Audacity - Audacity is a free download recorder for Mac or PC that will allow you to make a .wav file recording. http://audacity.sourceforge.net/ After completing a recording, you will need to convert it to an mp3 before sending it. To do this, you will need to download an mp3 converter. LAME Encoder - http://lame.sourceforge.net/

Switch Converter - http://www.nch.com.au/switch/index.html

Please follow the guidelines below for the ensemble of your choice. Jazz Band will be an auditioned selection.
BE SURE TO START BY STATING YOUR NAME and INSTRUMENT or VOICE PART. Please submit a recording for each group you wish to perform.

BAND - Recording Guidelines   (please contain as a single continuous file)

CONCERT BAND WINDS:
1. Concert F Major Scale (1 or 2 octaves articulated)
2. Bb Chromatic Scale (slurred evenly)
3. Excerpt #1 - Moderate tempo and rhythmic variety (1min) 4. Excerpt #2 - Slow tempo, demonstrate tone quality and
musicality. (1min)
CONCERT PERCUSSION:
(Submit as much of the following as possible)
1. Snare Drum - closed roll (10 sec.) soft to loud to soft
Snare Excerpt - Moderate tempo - should include 8th&16th
note rhythms with rolls, flams & dynamic contrasts. (1min)
2. Mallets- 2 Octave F & Ab Major Scales, & 2 Oct. Chromatic Scale
Also Excerpt of your choice (1min)
3. Timpani - Roll starting pp and crescendo to ff and back to pp
(on B-flat and F tunings - low/high)

Also Excerpt of your choice. (1min) 

BLOG #5 - APPLICATION PROCESS

AMERICAN MUSIC ABROAD BLOG

BAND DIRECTOR - JENNIFER HODGSON

APPLICATION PROCESS

In the "olden" days all future tour participants would have to mail in an application but now everything is finally done online! All you have to do is go to American Music Abroad and click on Apply! It's that easy! You will enter the password at the bottom of the application that you recieved at the meeting. Enter your first and last name and e-mail and click Submit.  You will then recieve an e-mail with a link to continue the application process. If you don't get an e-mail back in 10 minutes, check your span filter or junk mail. 
Click on the apply now link on the email. This will load a new webpage in your browser for you to continue the application process.  Complete the personal information. Contact and login information sections. Fill out all phone number and contact information. Then fill out the instrument information section and select which tour you will be traveling on. It is the GOLD tour. Complete the miscellaneous section and then review your information and click submit. 
The last thing you need to do is email the completed application and print and sign the application and put it in the mail with the deposit and the bottom of the application your recieved at the meeting. 
This is a very simple process and I am so happy that it's all done online, until you need to sign and return in the mail with your deposit. 
Applying to go to American Music Abroad is your first step in the experience of a lifetime!

VIDEO REFLECTION #5

TEACHING MUSIC THROUGH SKYPE

This video shows how technology can really assist and even take over for person-to-person classes and lessons. We have already seen many online classes through colleges and universities, but this is a little different.  I had trouble at first imagining a private music lesson over Skype, but I think with some imagination it could work. This woman had to take this route to keep her private cello students when forced to move out of her usual teaching area. 

I still feel a private lesson has an entirely different feel. Not to mention, the sound quality of a live instrument playing verses one off of Skype is no comparison. Students learn a lot by listening and seeing their teacher’s sound and technique. I just don't think that this is a good long-term solution for teaching private music lessons. I do think it has its purpose and can be useful in the short term. 

I think it is also a great idea for students who want a lesson with a particular teacher or composer. I would love to take a lesson with a principal clarinet player of a major orchestra, but maybe not on a long-term basis. For long-term lessons, I highly recommend finding a good musician in your area that you can see on a regular basis. 

INTERACTIVE WHITE BOARD LESSON - INTERVALS

Interactive Whiteboard 
lesson for teaching intervals 
Music Theory

• Go to Musictheory.net
• Click on lessons
• Show students the four lessons listed under intervals
• Generic intervals
• Specific intervals
• Writing intervals
• Interval inversions 
• Go step by step through each lesson as listed on page on whiteboard
• Click on exercises and Interval inversion 
• Customize the exercise to both bass clef and treble clef, choose the second option for range, and begin on level 1. Keep all other options as already selected
• Have four students come to board. Two on one team and two on the other team. Each team will have two minutes (timer in upper right of screen on website) to answer as many intervals as possible correctly. 3 rounds each team. Make more difficult each round adding more complex intervals and key signatures. Students will touch box with interval answer. It turns green when it is correct and red when incorrect.
• Do this same exercise around the class picking four people at a time to come to board
• Students watching should follow along and try to guess each interval 

BLOG #4 - AMERICAN MUSIC ABROAD

AMERICAN MUSIC ABROAD BLOG

BAND DIRECTOR - JENNIFER HODGSON

                         AMA and FACEBOOK!

Facebook is a wonderful tool that we have recently started using for our AMA communications before, during and after our trip. This is something every tour member and their parents will want to join. We create a facbook page for each tour where students can begin to meet each other and sometimes even find their future roommate for the tour. It has been great watching the students as they get to know each other and learn about their future best friends. After the tour, the facebooking doesn't slow down! They are continually posting memories, pictures and are always wanting to find ways to see each other. Since the tour consists of over 80 different high schools, it is also interesting to see all the times throughout the year that they see each other. Everything from marching band competitions, football games, honor bands, and reunions.

During the tour, this group helps the parents to keep in touch and see what their children are doing. We post pictures every day of our trip and try to include as many faces of the students as possible. Many times the students do not bring cell phones and because of the time change and cost of calling home, it can be days or a week before their child has the ability to call home. Having this page for our parents has proven to sooth the nerves of the parents so they can see updates throughout the tour. Here are a few screenshots of last year's AMA Facebook page.