Week 7 - Progress!

This week we have begun to see some major progress in class in regards to the Yamaha Harmony Director Keyboard.  We have been consistently using the keyboard for the past 6 weeks and the students are adapting to it, probably faster than me. In my opinion the consistent use of the keyboard for daily tuning and tone quality has improved the sound of the band immensely.  I had the opportunity at the KMEA conference a few weeks ago to talk to some of my colleagues who use the keyboard on a regular basis and I was able to discover some tricks that they use to continue implementing the keyboard into my daily lessons. Some of the suggestions I received were to use the keyboard for modeling, for example I will play a rhythm on the keyboard and have the students play it back in a call & response style. This not only gets students to listen to what I am playing and repeat it, it also allows us to work on balance and blend, one of the key aspects of producing a quality sound.  Another suggestion was to use the keyboard to play "pass the pitch" around the room. This exercise requires instrument groups to match the sustained pitch on the keyboard and once they are satisfied with the intonation they "pass the pitch" to another section.  This is just  few fun ways to mix up the rehearsal pace and get students engaged in their own progress.