Kids who play in tune...

Why must we believe that kids can do anything, especially when it comes to music education? 

Earlier this year I attended a clinic featuring Bruce Pearson, the renowned American Band Director and Author. Bruce had a wealth of knowledge and experience to share that in itself was worth the ticket price. Overwhelmingly though, what I most appreciated was his ability to communicate with us effectively. Bruce knew his audience, and was able to present information in a way which was accessible, understandable, and (crucially in a clinic setting) usable.

About halfway through the seminar, when Bruce was talking about how he worked on tuning and intonation with school bands, someone raised their hand, exasperated that they just couldn’t get their band to play in tune, and was hoping Bruce could provide some help. Bruce responded; “Guys, seriously, little kids HATE playing out of tune!” then expressed a heartfelt belief that the very youngest students instinctively knew how to play in tune, if only their teachers could help them understand what good tuning was. Some of the participants seemed taken aback by Bruce’s attitude, as if this wasn’t obvious until he’d said it. Of course, if you’ve got ten+ performances a year, one rehearsal a week and so many deficiencies to respond to, sometimes simple truths can be easily lost. 

The clinic got me thinking about how powerful we can be when we genuinely believe in the abilities of our students, not just on an enthusiastic, superficial level, but as the fundamental plank in our approach to teaching music. We must see our roles not merely as instructors who ‘fix’ student deficiencies to make them better, but as active conduits between the potential and actual abilities of our pupils. From this standpoint, we can construct a mental frame which equips us to deal with any musical or pedagogical difficulty that comes our way.

There are many approaches to improving intonation and training the young ear. Undoubtedly, a good choral conductor understands the role of singing in the development of aural skills, and there are so many wonderful music teachers who set-up young people for success with good early ear training.

Band though, presents a unique challenge in the blend of instruments, the different capabilities of students, and the competing priorities of private teachers. Here is a relatively simple exercise that addresses tuning and intonation in the band room, where so many children will take their first steps in making music with others.

The Problem

…I can’t get these kids to play in tune, they have too much to worry about. I’ll help them by using a tuner and adjusting their instruments, but surely focussing on fine tuning - that’s for later on?...

Kids, little tiny kids, can play in tune in an ensemble, regardless of their ‘natural’ ability or prior training. They may not understand the science, or intellectually discern the degree of difference between playing sharp, flat or somewhere in between, but fundamentally they are as highly evolved as you and I. Like all humans, they have physical and emotional switches which will respond when they are exposed to consonant or dissonant harmony. These ‘responses’ will peak with greater and greater satisfaction, the closer that harmony is sounded to it’s ‘truth’ (ie. In-Tune).

So if they have some sense of tuning ‘built in’ already, then why do kids play out of tune? There are so many obvious factors at play, but fundamentally, I believe it’s because they don’t adequately know how to identify when, how, or why these physical and emotional responses are happening. As an esteemed colleague puts it to me, "kids need to understand exactly what 'out of tune' is".

That’s where you can come in and earn your keep as a teacher – by putting your students closely in touch with the skills they'll need in order to succeed at this.

The Exercise

Take two saxophonists and stand them in front of the band. Get them to hold a nominated pitch. Unless they’re already in-tune, you’ll of course get that jarring, whirring sound, as the sound waves lap over each other. It probably pays to prepare for this exercise by making reasonably sure that to start with, your two chosen players are not in tune!

Talk to your band now. Ask them what feeling this gives them. Encourage them to think in emotionally expressive terms. What we’re trying to achieve is a bridge between the sound they can hear, and the physical, emotional response it elicits. This is where it gets really exciting for you. You probably already know a few things about kids, like the fact they’re (generally speaking) naturally in touch with their emotions, physically healthier than adults, and have much clearer hearing, even if it hasn’t been fine-trained yet. Before they hit puberty, they’re also comfortable expressing an honest opinion about something. So, they’re very much ‘at one’ with the senses they need to make this activity work – more so than the average garden variety adult!

Here are some responses I got at this stage of the task, when I did this activity with our year 3 band at Turramurra North Public School in just their 8th week of playing; 

“Feels like I’m being crushed!” - Will

“It sounds like one note is scraping against the other” - Amy

“OMG I can never be ok with this!” - Lara

“My ears are like, it’s hard to say, they’re not really being nice” - Flynn

Let the kids go a bit. Get them to build up a lexicon of language and emotion around the idea of ‘playing out of tune’. Have fun! Let them spin themselves into a position where they’re convinced the out of tune sound is “just DISGUSTING!” 

Once they’ve had this opportunity, you can teach directly to them. Go to town. They have just built up an arsenal of thoughts, words and feelings which are tipping the whole idea of playing out of tune firmly towards the negative. What they need now, is for you to confirm this! Be dramatic, be inventive and be creative. Conspire with them to seek out and destroy bad tuning and intonation. Frame it as something you’re all going to do together. Laugh hard, often and evil.

So far, what you’re working on identifying is intonation. The students are using their skills and instincts to identify discrepancies in pitch. Next, you can take the students through the process of instrumental tuning, which can be defined as the way we physically manipulate an instrument to best assist with good intonation.

With your two students still stood at the front, take a tuner and choose one of the students to be tasked with playing in-tune with the tuner. Their job is to monitor the sound and ‘stick to the needle’. If you have an app like ‘Cleartune’, this may be an ideal way to use it. Kids who respond highly to visual stimulus will appreciate the colour as the tuning needle snaps in-tune. If you have a smartboard or projector, you can connect your device to it and show the tuning screen live to the class. This use of visual technology should be seen only as an interesting ‘hook’ though, as the point is to train the ear, not the eye.

Alternatively, don’t use a tuner at all. Get your first student to simply align to a note played on the piano, or by you on your own instrument! As a great director told me, “I’ve never met a student I couldn’t teach to play in tune without using tuner!”

Now get the other student to use their ears then adjust their instrument to match the exact pitch being produced by their partner, without looking at the tuner. At this point, people may ask; “But what if they can’t” or “They might try, but what if they don’t get it right”. Well, be prepared to fail first time, and try again later, but do not do the work in adjusting for them. If you’ve taught well, remember that you’ve already built up an understanding about playing out of tune. The students should now want to find good tuning, because you’ve together created a strong disincentive to playing out of tune. It’s OK for the student to struggle, and to yank their mouthpiece in the wrong direction. Give them time to find where the note is and make mistakes along the way. Their inner ear will develop when you offer support, without fundamentally interfering in the process.

Just like we experienced when our Saxophonists played out of tune, so too will there be an instinctive reaction to when your two players get their “bullseye” and play in-tune.

Here are some responses I’ve had for this segment, when we stop to dig in to our emotional reactions to ‘good’ intonation;

“Wow – the sound is bigger!” - Lizzie

“The boys (saxophonists), like, they’re doing better now” - Jon

“I believe the pain has now gone” - Max

“I’m happy now” - Chloe

If they’re unsure about articulating their feelings at this point, a smile and a nod from the teacher will encourage them. You also need to confirm what they now overwhelmingly suspect is true – that playing in tune is the positive outcome we’re seeking. Foster an emotional connection with the sound they can hear. Once that ‘discovery’ of good intonation has been made, our role is to confirm, contribute to it, and strengthen it. As most good classroom teachers will tell you, learning is at it’s most potent when students take charge of their own education, and are thus able to ‘own’ their discoveries.

You can use any wind or brass instrument, but I find the particular timbre, ease of production, adjustability, and sonic resonance of the alto saxophone makes it the most suitable instrument to use.

Returning to our lesson, over an intensive 15-20 minutes, in order, we’ve covered these three crucial understandings;

What is bad intonation?

What is tuning?

What is good intonation?

How you frame and dispatch this lesson for your students is of course dependant on who you are and what works best for your group, but I would argue it’s crucial to make sure students understand tuning and intonation as closely related, but separately understood concepts.

When you’re working with very young students, the language you use in the classroom is critical to their success. Be very careful, as one slip of the tongue can blow up their entire understanding of what is at it’s core, an incredibly simple set of concepts. Let’s say you’re in the heat of rehearsal and the second trumpets have warmed up and are in tune with the firsts so far, but can’t align on one particular note. You call out ‘fix your tuning’ innocently enough. If you’re 9 years old, you may just reach straight for the tuning slide, and exacerbate the problem. ‘Listen to the firsts and fix your intonation’ might be a better thing to say.

The activity has its difficulties, must be well planned and thought out, and needs to be taught with charisma and imagination – but that’s one of the reason’s you’re there!

The Upshot, and Maintaining an ensemble that plays in tune.

Once you’ve built an awareness and understanding, it’s your responsibility as the ensemble’s leader to be vigilant. We must be so careful though, and never inadvertently disable the student’s ears! If you repeatedly tell your flautist that he or she is flat/sharp and tell them what to do to adjust, they’ll soon have no use for their own ears. If however, the comment from the podium is ‘are you out of tune?’ or if they really aren’t getting it, ‘you are out of tune’, followed by an instruction to ‘fix-it’, then your ensemble will learn to think and play on it’s feet. 

The overwhelming feedback from my peers and mentors, is that teaching something like this exercise in and of itself is useful, but pointless without sustained attention to ensemble mechanics and ear development. Essentially, this is an activity that isolates and focusses on the problem of tuning and intonation, and it must be used in the context of a consistent effort from you as leader to keep attention on these crucial concepts.

My personal approach, is to make sure I do a targetted 'mini-lesson' like this at least once a term. I'll also always begin each rehearsal with a chorale or hymn-tune activity which allows an explicit focus on tuning and intonation. This is complimented by a constant peppering of the students in each and every rehearsal to 'listen, listen, listen'.

When I put pen to paper on this subject, I was reflecting a lot on a wonderful time I spent in June, conducting the Wind Orchestra at Moriah College (Sydney) and observing the work of Russell Hammond, who was conducting the College’s Symphonic Wind Ensemble. Russell’s work, as so many are aware, is somewhat of a gold standard in ensemble quality for the rest of us to follow. Throughout Moriah’s camp week, he was at pains to remind us staff that our job is not to solve problems for students, but to stay on their case as mentors and motivators so they’ll discover how to fix things for themselves, even in their very first weeks of learning. This is surely what true empowerment means. If you find a way to let them, kids can do anything!

Ben Crocker

October 2015

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Ben Crocker is Head of Bands at The King's School, Sydney. He is a three-time winner of the NSW State A Grade Band championship, as conductor, consecutively between 2013-2015. Ben works throughout Australia and overseas as a guest conductor and workshop clinician, in both performing arts and educational sectors.