Norwell High School Music Department

1) Full Rehearsal today was very productive! Whatever we had for breakfast this morning needs to become a daily staple, because everybody was focused and productive. Mr. Schelvan mentioned to me how much fun he had and how good he thought you sounded. Note to trumpets: please double your Wheaties intake–there are a number of spots (especially the moments in Cloudburst when you must come out through the thick woodwind texture) where you must produce a lot more sound. Take care not to sound shrill, though! Heavy work with the vocalists for Cloudburst will begin with Mrs. Cortright tomorrow and continue with Mr. Cortright and me on Friday.

2) Expect an announcement tomorrow regarding a full rehearsal after school next Friday, March 9th.

3) Dave Neves, Matt Kwasnik, Gordon McGuire and Casey Tobin: please see me for brass quintet music.  You’ll also need to arrange a time with Dan Greene to meet and starting working on a couple of pieces in order to decide what you’d like to play for Small Ensemble Night.  Feel free to use the whiteboard or this comment thread to get in touch with each other if necessary.

Great work today, and let’s keep it up!

-Mr. O’Briant

1) Full Symphonic Band rehearsal tomorrow–Wednesday, Feb 28th during period 1! Also, be sure to check schedules to make sure next Friday, March 9th after school will work for our last full band rehearsal pre-Young People’s Concerts. Two people have already spoken with me to tell me they can’t attend, but otherwise we look good. I’ll make public my final decision on this rehearsal Thursday or Friday of this week.

2) I have CDs with the recordings of the District Jazz Ensemble, Orchestra and Symphonic Band for Kelly Fanning and Dave Neves. See me to pick one up. If anybody else still has yet to hear these groups perform, you can still do so over at the SEMMEA website.

AGENDA FOR TOMORROW’S FULL REHEARSAL: Peter and the Wolf (with narrator!) and Cloudburst. It’s time for us to finish dealing with notes and rhythms and to start performing.

-Mr. O’Briant

1) The Symphonic Band will have a full rehearsal on Wednesday during Period 1. Also, please check your calendars to make sure that a full rehearsal after school on Friday, March 9th from approximately 2-3:30 will work.

2) Jazz Workshop students are expected to turn in typed responses to the short-answer and discussion questions on the back of the Head Hunters listening guide by Friday, March 2nd. Period 2 students will get these questions along with the listening guide tomorrow.

3) Most everyone should, but if you don’t have music for Small Ensemble Night, see me immediately so I can get it to you. I’m still requiring all of the ensembles to arrange to have me observe some of your rehearsals before you will be permitted to perform on April 9th.

4) I’ve tried to be as relaxed as possible thus far, but I’ll be tightening up a lot on issues of preparation, respect and professionalism throughout the rest of the year. If the simple knowledge that you’re expected to be prepared and respectful in every rehearsal is not enough motivation, remember that the 40% of your grade that is devoted to attitude and effort suffers every time you forget an instrument or music, are disrespectful to classmates, fail to practice adequately or act in a distracting manner during rehearsal.

Great rehearsals today–let’s ratchet it up another notch tomorrow!

-Mr. O’Briant

I’m liveblogging today from one of Dr. David Zuschin’s History of Music classes at Radford University. I did graduate work at RU from 2002-2004, and after finishing my MA here, I stayed to work with the large ensembles, conduct chamber groups and teach privately until coming to Norwell this past fall. Dr. Zuschin taught most of the courses I took as a graduate student–he’s a wonderful scholar, a very forward-looking professor and an all-around great guy. I’ve attended his class twice this week to brush up a bit on music history and to watch him work. Today, we’re in the second part of a study of 19th-century opera and music drama, starting with La traviata by Giuseppe Verdi and contrasting it with its German counterparts (specifically today Der Ring Des Nibelungen and Tristan und Isolde).

It is absolutely necessary for teachers always to remain students ourselves, stretching and deepening our understanding of our field, and it’s been wonderful this week to be a student again, even if only for such a short while. I’ve refreshed my knowledge of 19th-century opera, of course, but I’ve also gotten to take a lot of notes on the art of teaching from a professor whom I greatly admire. Additionally, I’ve gotten to play in rehearsals with the fine musicians of RU’s Wind Ensemble and Symphonic Bands, and I was happy to be asked to observe and critique the conducting of a very talented undergraduate here in preparation for her grad school audition at George Mason University today.

“Going back to school” on my vacation might make me sound like an enormous music geek. For my part, though, I can’t think of a better thing to be called!

-Mr. O’Briant

By all accounts, the NHS Music website seems to be a success! In just over a month (32 days), we’ve crossed the 1,000-hit mark, which is impressive for a small blog with limited content. It’s also doing well in ways I didn’t initially anticipate, as well: in addition to being an informative resource for our students and parents, we’ve been linked to by other websites for our content and have actually been contacted by local media about some of the information we’ve posted. Not bad for just over a month!

That said, I must urge you to keep the traffic coming! While I will still be making announcements in class, anything I’ve said that’s of any significance will find its way onto this site. Therefore, if you are unsure of something I’ve mentioned and want to double check, you can do so here. Please bookmark this site and visit it as close to daily as you can to stay up to date on in-class expectations, deadlines and other important information. Thanks for helping make this a success, and let’s keep the ball rolling!

-Mr. O’Briant

When we started this website, I mentioned that we’d be soliciting content from students–after all, students are the lifeblood of the department! This video is Chuck Vermette ‘07 performing a song called “DR DR” by virtuoso guitarist Don Alder. I’ve always been impressed with Chuck’s work, and it’s clear that he’s put a lot into learning some of these very difficult licks. Bravo, sir!

Ironically, this video will not be viewable from NHS computers, but I encourage you to check in from home and watch this fantastic clip. Enjoy!

-Mr. O’Briant

This particular practice strategy isn’t in any way specific to music–it’s always a good thing to set goals for yourself.  I personally like to sit down at the beginning of the year and come up with about 30-40 goals that I’d like to accomplish over the course of the year.  Some of them look at first glance to be very achievable, but I put them down just so I have them in concrete form.  Some of them look a lot loftier–these I’ll often break up into smaller chunks that are more easily achievable, building blocks that’ll help me get to the final destination.  I end up revising them a lot over the course of the year, since my situation and opportunities are always evolving.  Here are a couple of ways that this idea can apply to music practice:

1. We often get bogged down in practicing being about learning a particular piece of music.  It can be about that, but it shouldn’t always be about that.  Spend some time figuring out goals based around more general musical skills that you’d like to develop.  Maybe it’s developing a better tone–so you ask around about some tone studies and exercises and work on them a little every day.  Maybe it’s double-tonguing speed, so you work out some exercises and try to make them a little more solid and fast every day.
2. Always try to keep track of your progress towards the goal.  People do this in a number of ways–a practice journal detailing what you were able to accomplish each practice session, recording oneself and listening to the playback at different stages of your development towards your goal, etc.  Which method you choose isn’t so important as keeping track in the first place.  It can be very daunting looking at a big goal at the very beginning–kind of like looking up a mountain and seeing just the sheer enormity of the thing.  If you can track your progress along the way, you’ll probably find the mountain looking much more manageable because you were able to break it up into smaller chunks.
3. Don’t be afraid to be tough on yourself and to push yourself, but also make sure to give yourself credit where credit is due.  A lot of musicians are perfectionists–and while that may lead them to good results, it often also makes them beat themselves up and get really down.  Be honest with yourself about your progress–but if you notice yourself improving, don’t be afraid to feel good about that.

I hope you all enjoy your break and get in a lot of good practicing!

-Mr. O’Briant

Since there were so many people missing today as a result of the weather or field trips, I thought it might be useful to post today’s happenings and announcements:

1) What we worked on. We did our best to run Childhood Hymn, Clowns and Peter and the Wolf. We finished up with some work on the beginning of Cloudburst, stopping around rehearsal letter E. There were some very nice moments, but a surprising lack of self-discipline which led to far too much wasted time.

2) What needs to happen next. Focus is still an issue for us–both focusing our minds and focusing the sound we make. The two seem to be related: if our minds are not consistently focused on listening to our own sound, the sounds of the people around us and what we must do moment to moment to play musically, more often than not we won’t be successful. We’ll be working on that in rehearsals after break. There are also some specific spots in the music that need attention–here’s a partial list:

1. Clowns: Upper woodwinds, mm. 17-20/25-28 (and corresponding passages throughout). Horn, offbeats–work with a metronome! Low brass/winds, mm. 69-77/104-112 for crispness and speed. Trumpets, crispness in the double-tongued 16th-notes.
2. Peter and the Wolf: Piccolo, mm. 14-25. Tutti, offbeats starting at m. 46. Melody instruments, mm. 92-97.
3. Gavorkna Fanfare: Trumpets, double-tonguing (use a metronome!). Trumpets, mm. 32-end. Low brass/woodwinds 35-41.
4. Cloudburst: Low brass, confidence and air support throughout–bump everything up a dynamic level! Trumpets at B, also pickups to E. Woodwinds, between A and B. Tutti, accidentals/key signature and phrasing/dynamics between F and I. SOLOISTS IN THE SENZA MISURA BARS–HAVE THESE SPOTS DOWN COLD!

BIG REMINDER: I’ve taken down the list of people leaving instruments here over break. If your name was not one of the six on it, I expect that your instrument and your music will go home with you this afternoon or tomorrow. As I’ve mentioned several times in class, failure to do so will be reflected in your grade. Practicing is the vast majority of your homework–let’s see more of it getting done!

I’m so proud of the progress we’ve made from the beginning of the year until now. Let’s keep the train rolling and keep hearing ourselves improve and make better music. Enjoy your break!

-Mr. O’Briant

SENIOR:

Congratulations to Dan Greene ‘07 (Euphonium), Maggie Hynes ‘09 (Cello) and Stephanie Sousa ‘09 (Flute) for being accepted into the SEMSBA Senior Symphonic Band and SEMSBA Senior Orchestra!

JUNIOR:

Congratulations to Connor MacDonald ‘10 (Clarinet) and, from NMS, Liz Allen (Horn), Ian Flesner (Trombone) Robbie Hynes (Viola) and Frank White (Baritone Sax) on being selected to the SEMSBA Junior Symphonic Band and SEMSBA Junior Orchestra!

Thank you for all your hard work and congratulations on your fine auditions.  Bravo!

Quick reminder to Symphonic Band players:

We have a full band rehearsal this week on Wednesday, during period 7.  It’s the second-to-last full rehearsal we’ll have before going to Cole and Vinal for the Young People’s Concerts.  Look forward to seeing you there!

Check the “Handbook” tab at the top of the page for a list of remaining full rehearsals and for what periods they’re scheduled.