HS Observation Day One

Nashua High School North- Day 1

Katrina Fisher

Julie Oliver- Choir(Kristin Olsen- Band)

05/13/14

- I would normally be observing Julie Oliver, the Director of Choirs at North, but she is out today due to a family emergency. I am observing Kristen Olsen, Director of Bands at North.

Block 1- Music Theory

• Ms. Olsen started off the class by having students go into the Keyboard Lab and practice their melodic minor scales for about fifteen minutes.
• After this, she introduced melodic dictation for the first time to the students, and played two dictation exercises.
• Afterwards, she spoke to the students about the importance of music theory, and how the concepts they are learning and grasping are different than any other class they will take in high school.
  • Because it's so different than anything else they are learning, it's okay that it might not be as easy for them as they'd like it to be. Dictation is a concept that truly only gets better with doing it more often, and that is what she plans to do with them.

Block 2- Freshmen Band

Because there is such a large freshman class, they are split up into two groups, each having band every other day. Sophomores, juniors, and seniors have Concert Band fourth block every other day. They work on the same music, and perform together in all concerts
• She starts off by having them run their parade music, which is for the Memorial Day Parade on May 26^th.
• They try running the piece, and Ms. Olsen stops them and works with the trumpet section, and then the flutes to fix some particularly difficult/fast sections. She slows down the runs until all of the notes are played (mostly) accurately.
• She has the drumline run their cadence numerous times, as this is what they will play between the medley for the Parade. There is one particular portion that is giving them trouble, and while trying to break it down realizes that the snares simply don't know their part as well as they should, as opposed to it being a group issue. She tells them to go home and practice that one section until it is engrained in their heads, because they lead the band with that cadence and it needs to be strong.
• She then begins to work on their music that they will perform on their trip to Philadelphia next week, and will play in a workshop at Temple University.
  • Their first piece is American Flourish, by Robert W. Smith. It features portions of numerous patriotic songs.
• One of the best qualities of Ms. Olsen is her balance in temperament with the students- she is strict, but has such faith in her students. She pushes them because she knows what they are capable of.

Third Block- Freshman Choir

•   Last night, Ms. Oliver texted me and asked if I could lead her Freshman Choir because she already knew she would not be in school.
• They have a Spring Concert coming up, so after I warmed them up we immediately started working on the pieces they'll be performing.
• I gave them little breaks in between each one, because an hour and a half working on all concert music is a long period of time, in my opinion.
• They are doing a piece from "Pitch Perfect", so I took that opportunity to speak to them about singing a cappella in college, and just about the experience as a whole.

Fourth Block-Honors Choir

• I also ran Honors Choir. After warming them up, we also worked on some concert pieces, and really fine-tuned some particular sections in some more difficult pieces. I didn't work too much on expression/dynamics etc, because I didn't really want to step on anyone's toes. However, I think it was definitely productive.