Directors' Corner

February 2008

Strategies for Sight-Reading

Dear Orchestra Students,

As you are all aware, a portion of most orchestra auditions (including the upcoming Neuqua orchestra audition!) will be a short sight-reading excerpt. The purpose of sight-reading in an audition is to demonstrate your rhythm and pitch reading abilities while maintaining a great tone. It is also your chance to show that you notice other markings in the music such as dynamics (forte, piano, crescendo) and articulations (staccato, legato, marcato). Your judge will be listening to hear how many of these elements you perform and how accurately you perform them.

When you come to the sight-reading portion of the audition, you will generally be given up to 1 minute of time to study the excerpt. The rest of this article will discuss exactly what you should do with your 1 minute. Having a great plan for this part of the audition will greatly improve the way that you sight-read.

The first key element of sight-reading is rhythm. As a judge, this is what I always listen for first. Rhythm, therefore, should be the concentration of the first part of your minute-long study. Imagine the tempo and begin to count “1… and… 2… and… 3… and… 4… and…” in your mind (You are subdividing eighth notes). Next, begin to imagine the rhythm written on the page. Do something physical to help you feel the rhythm like touching your tongue to the roof of your mouth with each note or moving your bow arm with each bow change. Finally, make sure to pay special attention to measures with ties.

When you are confident with the rhythm, it’s time to start thinking about the pitches. Look at the key signature to get information about major/minor, high 2^nd finger/low 2^nd finger, etc. Often, the key of the sight-reading excerpt is chosen specifically to expose which students look at the key signature and which do not. Expect to see an extra sharp or flat!

Look for patterns in the music such as scales and arpeggios. These are easier to sight-read because your fingers are used to what they feel like.

With the time you have left, quickly identify the most difficult passage in terms of fingering. It might be an especially high passage or, perhaps, a wormy, chromatic sixteenth-note measure. Whatever the case may be, feel free to slam your left-hand fingers around the fingerboard to work it out.

Eventually, you will have to grit your teeth and begin to play. Stay relaxed and set the tempo in your mind before you begin. Count “1… and… 2… and…” Take a breath in tempo and begin. Try your best to maintain the tempo you have chosen throughout the entire excerpt. Remember that very few people sight-read perfectly, so keep going even if you make a mistake. The judge understands that you are seeing this music for the first time.

Best of luck to everyone taking this year’s audition!

-Mr. Schwaegler

September 2007

New Orchestra Director
We now have eight orchestras with four hundred string players! To accommodate this, we have expanded to three full-time orchestra directors. Mr. Schwaegler and I ask all of you to welcome Mr. Brad Pfeil to our team. He is a bass player who has taught in Las Vegas since he graduated from the University of Michigan eleven years ago. Mr. Pfeil is directing Chamber Orchestra and the two Concert Orchestras. He and Mrs. Gillespie (formerly Miss Silverstone) are co-directing Wildcat Fiddlers.

The Midwest Clinic
Chamber Strings and selected winds and percussion from the Wind Ensemble have formed the Neuqua Valley Chamber Symphony. As previously announced, this group will be performing at The Midwest Clinic (www.midwestclinic.org) in December in downtown Chicago. We are honored to accept this invitation and have started work on the very challenging program. Mr. Staley and I are pleased and excited to welcome John Hagstrom, member of the Chicago Symphony trumpet section, as our guest soloist and Don Schleicher as guest conductor. What a wonderful experience this will be for these students.

NVSO
Because of the unique situation of the Chamber Symphony preparing for The Midwest Clinic performance (the need for evening rehearsals, etc.), the Neuqua Valley Symphony Orchestra will begin in January this year. The Chamber Symphony will be performing at the Spooktacular in October.

Europe 2008
The planning for our Europe trip is progressing well. The interest forms turned in last May were a surprise and a revelation. Because of the very large numbers received, some changes had to be made regarding who is eligible to be a member of the tour orchestras. Please see the letter linked under Europe 2008.

We welcome all of you who are new to the Neuqua Valley orchestras. You are members of an exciting and unique program and we all look forward to a wonderful year of making music.

November 2007

Let’s Practice with a Metronome!

The metronome was created in 1812 by by Dietrich Nikolaus Winke. The name was taken from the greek words metron, to measure, and nomos, to regulate. Beethoven was one of the first composers to indicate metronome markings in his scores. Beethoven even poked fun at this new invention by writing a parody of a metronome beat in the 2^nd movement of his Sympohony No. 8. The accuracy of early metronomes is still uncertain, but today’s digital metronomes are a very accurate and helpful way to rehearse our music individually and in large groups.

Part of the current goal of the technique classes at the gold building is teaching students how to practice with a metronome. The exercise has shown great results already in these classes. Households throughout Naperville are ringing with the clicking sounds of students practicing with their metronomes. If you do not currently own one, you can find a free one on-line at www.metronomeonline.com. If all Neuqua students worked individually at home with a metronome, it would greatly improve the playing of all of our ensembles.

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