Student Composers & Conductors

Student Composers & Conductors

Ed Dumas

I am sure that everyone that teaches band will feel a tug of pride when a senior student announces that he or she would like to study music in post-secondary school somewhere. There is nothing that says that you have done your job well as much as one of your students who says they would like to carry on with what you have started in some capacity later in life.

Today the reality for most students that declare they want to study post-secondary music is that there are few opportunities to earn a steady income as a performing musician. Most professional musicians today have “Day Jobs” which means it is something they can do to pay the bills while they also play for pay after work hours for their enjoyment of music. For many professionals, this means something like teaching private lessons or musical instrument repair as their primary source of income. For some, though, it can be completely unrelated to the world of music such as being a healthcare provider or an engineer.

Many people who would like to become professional musicians also choose to teach in the school system as music teachers “during the day.” This just seems like a natural lead-in, and quite frankly, should be encouraged as there seems to be a growing shortage of available music teachers as more of us continue to retire. You can help these students into the world of music & education by encouraging them with student composing and conducting during their years in your music program. The sooner they get exposed to composition and conducting the more they will feel comfortable with it in the long run.

Student Compositions

With the advent of computers which are now really very good at transcribing a composer’s work into legible and playable notation, student compositions can be easily encouraged. These compositions can be started about as early as the first major scale is tackled on their instrument, and this can be done by simply asking students to write a short two-phrase composition which stays within the major scale. All that is required is a single computer loaded with one of the leading musical notation software programs, and access to a printer to create the paper that students will play from.

By creating an assignment like this, you will be reinforcing the learning of that major scale and its accompanying key signature, which in the beginning is quite often the key of Bb or Eb. But you will also be encouraging the correct use of counting in each measure, and keeping the phrases to simple 2 or 4-measure phrase lengths. I have found that creating a first composition assignment like this works best if you define tightly for the students what they need to do, such as dictate the time signature, the key signature, phrase length in measures, starting note and ending note.

I would also suggest that students, in the beginning, write only for themselves until they have enough experience to be able to transpose for the other instruments in the band. If you have only one or two computers available, you could take turns rotating through the class list over the year so that each week you hear just a few compositions from the class. Have the students play it for the class, and then have comments back from the rest of the students. Did the other students feel a sense of time in the composition, and did it stay within the scale? Did it end with a feeling of antecedent or consequent phrases? Make sure the student comments are respectful and include real criticisms for improvement, not just “It sucks!” which says nothing of value.

A small assignment such as that can be as early as the first year of playing a wind instrument or can be left until the band students are in more advanced years of musical studies. A simple little scale assignment for some can easily inspire them to consider writing something more involved, and maybe even encourage writing for the entire group. At that point, the writing will then have to include transpositions, conductor scoring, sections within the compositions, more advanced rhythms for interest, and some kind of direction to the composition and reason for its being created.

I have seen students write complex compositions for concert bands that were as worthy of publication as many of the works that I have purchased over the years. I have also seen students adapt orchestral transcriptions to concert band format so that we could perform them in one of our concerts. Of course, these were not normal assignments, but students that become inspired to do so can be capable of great things while still in your music program.

When students write a composition, even as simple as a major scale phrase, they are now learning the consequences of what they have put on the page. If the composition is not functioning well because something is missing, this becomes a great learning moment for the student composer.

For example, if a student has written a work that is in 4-measure phrases but has left the last phrase at only 3 measures long, it might feel a little “incomplete.” This is something valuable that they have learned. With a computer, they can now easily go back and make a change and print it again to play. Any so-called “unsuccessful attempt” is going to be very successful in teaching how to compose for a group of musicians.

Student Conducting

One of the most common reasons for allowing students to conduct in your class is to have someone, anyone, available to conduct the group when you are away ill with the latest head cold that is going around. No, I am not suggesting that the student will replace a Teacher-On-Call. There will still need to be a TOC in the room to be the official adult in charge. But more and more these days the TOCs that are available to lead a music class are not musicians. For these folks, I have always found it wise to have some senior students ready to conduct with the TOC taking care of all the “classroom management” items.

Sometimes you will get TOCs that are capable of leading your music classes, and that is just fine. But sometimes you will not have music specialist TOCs available, and for those days it is nice to have capable seniors to fall back on. The TOC that is assigned to your classes should be given the choice first, but you may find them grateful to have a senior student who can conduct for you when they are not prepared for the world of music.

You might even be able to have one or two senior students capable of leaving whatever other classes they may have that day to conduct the younger classes for you that the TOC will also have to deal with. Special arrangements like this are possible if preparation is carefully done in advance.

When students have stated to me in their final year that they are now going to be studying music after secondary school, I have often asked them if they would like to do some conducting for me before graduation. If they show an interest, I then suggest to them that I would like them to find a piece of music in the library that interests them that is not too hard to start conducting with, and then have the student begin the process of working it up with the band.

Now this can be a large undertaking for any senior student, so I remind them to not be overly ambitious about picking something very complex in the library just yet. They should, for now, keep it simpler than what the band is normally doing so that the student conductor can practice the movements as well as get used to leading the band instead of following. Sometimes I have sent students back up to the library to “choose again” because I kept approval authority and it was simply not a wise decision for a first choice to conduct.

There are advantages of having students learn conducting on their selection of music, instead of just once infrequently conducting what is already in the class folder. The biggest advantage is that the student is then responsible for everything that happens with that piece of music. If the student is just conducting something that you as the teacher have already worked up, the band will likely not follow the student conductor as much as follow what they already have in their head for how this piece of music goes. In cases like this, then, the student conductor becomes the follower of the band, rather than the leader of the band. This is not successful conducting.

To become the leader of the band, the student conductors will need to choose a piece of music and work it up from the very start to hopefully the performance at the end. This means if the band is playing too slowly, for example, the conductor will need to change and the band will need to adjust to that change. If the band is playing too boringly, the conductor will need to change as well to show the band what to do.

Now this does not mean that I have not at times stepped in and shown how a certain passage or a piece of music should be conducted. But if I did, it would be a short demonstration to the student conductor, and then immediately turn it over back to the student. It would not be wise for the regular classroom teacher to complete the preparation for the student conductor, as this may create the situation again where the student is no longer leading the group.

Under these conditions, I have found that students can be very successful at learning what it means to be the conductor of a large group of musicians. Many times, the works that students have led have been successful in performance as well. Even if the student does not feel comfortable with conducting the work in concert, the time has not been wasted as the group has usually learned how to compensate for more junior conductors, and the student conductor has begun the process of learning to lead.

Sometimes, I have even allowed and encouraged students to conduct their musical choice at a festival. These times have usually been extremely well received by adjudicators who are impressed that students are given an opportunity to learn the next step in their musical development. I do remember as well, one time when a student conducted his composition at a music festival, and to this, the adjudicators were simply amazed at the complex work of the student. In no way did this take away from the group’s success in the festival, but rather the adjudicators were so highly impressed with what a high-level music student can achieve when given the opportunity.

If you have not had your senior students conduct for you before but would like to make a small in-road into doing that, a good way to begin is to have the junior students attempt to conduct just a warm-up scale or two for you. By having the younger students attempt this, some will develop a desire for it and be more interested in leading a piece of music in their senior year. You can have a class of students rotate through conducting a set warm-up with the band as a place to begin student conducting. What they do with the motions will look more like just keeping time, but it gives them all a chance to just stand in front of the band.

To be fair, though, your junior students beginning conducting will likely not be leading the group, but following it. That is, the band will play the scale or small assignment like they normally do, and the student conductor will work to make the correct motions while the band plays. Likely any motions that the juniors make that are not correct will be ignored by the junior players.

Still, though, I have found that even when junior students are allowed to conduct just a short warm-up exercise, they begin to realize some interesting things. First, they find out how difficult and demanding the job of conducting is, and that they must significantly increase their mental sharpness while doing it! This realization has the effect of showing them that as a musician they have been depending on the leader to do too much for them and should be taking on greater responsibility for their music.

Junior students conducting also often begin to have much greater respect for the teacher of the class just for having the opportunity to try leading the group. There is nothing like walking a mile in someone else’s shoes to find out that those are pretty big shoes!

Evaluation of Composition and Conducting Assignments

Again, I would suggest keeping this simple, especially if you are creating student compositions and conducting assignments for the first time. If the entire class is rotating through a simple composing or conducting assignment, the evaluation could be as simple as just a completed checkmark. The students will still get the valuable experience of completing the assignment, but the necessity of “ranking” them with a number, say out of 10 or any other scale you choose, is just adding to your workload. Just a simple “completed” should suffice.

For senior students that are doing more advanced work in either composition or conducting, I would suggest some negotiation with the student in advance about a suitable reward would make good sense. While I would be happy to talk to these senior students about some bonus marks, it always seemed to me that the students were not asking to do a composition for the bonus marks. There were clearly other musical motives involved, and I respected those motives.

Sometimes the requests that students have made have been so notable that bonus marks on a concert band class grade are insufficient. For example, I have seen students complete a four-movement composition for senior band class at publishable quality, or transcribe an orchestra solo work for their instrument into concert band arrangement since none yet existed, just so that they could play the work with the senior band backing them up in performance.

In these cases, a larger more fitting recognition of their work is in order. This could be something like granting an extra course credit such as Music Composition Class. It could also be something as simple as just writing a letter of congratulations with a description of the work completed which is given to the student to add to their musical resume for their future.

Whatever you decide to do in cases like this, it is important to discuss this with the student and possibly the student’s parents in advance. It is also very important that the administration of the school should be included in or at least informed of the discussion afterward. Flexibility is the key here, with an eye on sufficient reward for the significant effort put forth by the student.

When your students begin to see their way to trying something a little more creative in your classes, such as composing something small or doing some conducting, this is a good opportunity to develop their musical skills beyond what is “normal.” Teachers should feel proud that students might request something like this, and you could encourage it by giving a small assignment in the junior grades. I would encourage you to support these student efforts and suggest lots of open communication with the students about the parameters of the assignment, and lots of flexibility in evaluating the completed assignments.

The first time you try student conducting or composing, you might feel a bit like standing on shaky ground. But in future years you will discover how truly satisfying and rewarding it is for both you and your students.

Ed Dumas is a retired band director who taught his entire career in the Maple Ridge-Pitt Meadows School District. Ed is now living with his lifelong partner Laurie in Parksville, BC.  Ed & Laurie also work as Mid-Island reps for Tapestry Music while enjoying making music in retirement.

You can find Ed’s other writings for the MusicED Blog at: https://www.tapestrymusic.com/news.aspx

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