ASTA AZ: American String Teachers Association

"Love Your Work and Never Work a Day in Your Life" - Confucius

 by William "Bill" H. Engelsman

    It has been a wonderful journey since that nine year old violin student got on the street car every week in Chicago to travel to his lessons and withstood the gauntlet of remarks like “ what have you got there, Sonny, a tommy gun?”
    At 81 years of age, after 40 years of teaching in various schools from kindergarten thru grad school, I still love it. I continue to have a class of private students and do a lot of local work with high school orchestras, as well as adjudicating festivals and Regional and All State auditions. It is such a joy to observe the wonderful growth and improved quality of orchestras in Arizona.
    Modern methods of violin and string teaching have contributed greatly to the quality of the individual playing. We all know the orchestra is no better than the weakest player, so whatever can be done to improve the quality of individual playing makes a great contribution to the whole. The use of CDs and the “listen and play” methods have many advantages especially in large classes. However, to create competent musicians for the recording studio, symphony orchestra, or even for rock and roll and fiddle playing, there is a strong need to read and understand the construction of music.
    The majority of my students in the years since my retirement in 1992 from the Mesa Public Schools have been teenagers from the 7th to 12th grades. Quite naturally the biggest problems that seem to occur over and over are: 1: counting, 2: intonation and 3: bow control. It seems that students are overly encouraged to listen to the music on CD or YouTube to learn how to play it. That system requires very little reasoned thinking on the student’s part. If they succeed, they become automatons and when they are presented the very same problem in the next piece, they have not a clue how to solve it unless they find another CD or YouTube presentation. Ultimately the musicians must develop an “inner beat” and learn to make the music adhere to it. Obviously every student and player must be responsible for his or her own pitch and the orchestra teacher, burdened with large classes, has precious little time to devote to individual pitch production. This is one of the really big jobs for the private teacher. Bow usage is always an on-going study for all stringed instrument players. Some directors used to see and hear my orchestra play and remarked that they knew I was the leader because the players all used lots of bow and played near the frog when appropriate. I always took that as a wonderful compliment.
    
    Thus, that is my teaching “Hobby Horse” that I ride constantly and it seems to pay off. My simple philosophy of teaching music is that “you owe it to your future students to raise yourself to the highest musical level possible, because they will never play better than you.” Therefore, I still practice some every day and keep exploring new literature, techniques and teaching methods.
    
    In addition to the teaching philosophy perhaps you would enjoy a few insights into the great teaching experiences I have had. If you are interested in the details of my positions etc., go to my website: wmhengelsman.com. Along with some of the statements made above, I would like to share a few experiences that proved to be very useful. During my college years and at the encouragement of my mentor, professor of violin, Horace Jones, I spent many Saturdays in the shop of a luthier named A.J. Vance in Denver, Colorado. He loved to have me come play the instruments he had just worked on and I got to play many instruments of various qualities all the way from “student to solo professional.” He would casually discuss with me the workings of the instruments, the adjustments and the work of a luthier. That knowledge has served me very well in all kinds of ways throughout my teaching life. This turned out to be most important when I took over a High School Orchestra in North Dakota. The previous teacher had not a clue how the instruments were put together and the nearest repairman was 600 miles away. I made bridges, adjusted sound posts, fitted pegs and rehaired bows. Thus I know what I need to know.
    
    In the Mesa Schools where I spent my last 26 years of teaching, we had one really great thing going for us, “ATTITUDE”. The community, the superintendent, and the administrators all wanted music in the schools, including orchestras. Floyd Denton, the music supervisor at the time, made it a point to have a string specialist in every school starting in 4th grade. In addition, one of my greatest joys working in Mesa was the wonderful working relationship with the band directors. In a very non-competitive way we always supported each other. That kind of cooperation does nothing but lift everyone up.
    
    I must confess to doing one competitive act, but it paid off for everyone. I kept wondering how I could create some excitement in the fall to match that of the marching band. The thought came to me that I had personally played many “strolling jobs” and why couldn’t I apply that to a “special” select group in the schools? Thus, in 1968, I started the Kino Strolling Strings and later took that concept with me to Westwood High School. Those two programs went on for many years after I departed. When I left Westwood, the strolling group went out to perform 60 times a year and the monies they brought in allowed them to go to music camp, purchase instruments, and take private lessons.
    
    With the Westwood Orchestra, a scheduling situation was available for a number of years that probably can never happen again. Because of large classes the Band and Orchestra teachers worked as a team each one assisting the other in their respective classes. In addition, we were able to have full orchestra, with woodwinds, brass, and percussion, 5 days a week and these players were required to play in one of the bands also. Can you imagine the wonderful opportunities for refinement and interpretation? In addition we were fortunate enough with the quality of the players that we were able to play music of great composers and few, if any, “arrangements”. For me, this was a great gift that allowed the program to reach a pinnacle that is still talked about amongst string teachers to this day. I can’t say all days were perfect. Of course there were problems, but in the large picture it was a very “special” time and I am fortunate to have been a part of it.

Mark Wood Electrifies Our Program

by Terry Alexander, Mountain View High School, Tucson, Az

Mark Wood delighted our three hundred plus orchestra students and parents with a sell out concert last February in the Marana Unified School District.  The two teachers from our high schools; Terry Alexander and Rachel Vega and two teachers from our Middle Schools; Diane Abrams and Mary Case worked together to plan this extravaganza. 

How does it work?
 Much of the information can be found on his official website,
MarkWoodMusic.com.  Mark’s dates fill up very fast, so you may need to plan at least a year ahead of time.  The next item is to secure a down payment to hold your date.  Then Mark will send you specific directions and his arrangements you will rehearse before his arrival.  In our case, we decided to take our first experience altogether.  He worked with our middle schools in the morning and high schools in the afternoon.  We all combined for a grand finale number.  We had a packed stage and a packed house.  The students were very excited to play their first rock concert with Mark leading them. We chose a logo for the T-shirt as well as hired our digital arts club to record the concert. 

What are the Benefits? 
Our event created quite a stir and put our string programs in the spotlight.  At the end of our first day of rehearsal we had two news teams waiting to interview us.  Little did we know at the time how timely our media coverage would be.  Our Arizona funding for education was short funds and many programs and teachers would be faced with cuts in the coming months.  Our students spoke from their hearts right into the news camera and said, “Cutting any of our music classes is like cutting out our hearts”.  “This is a part of us”. After many phone calls and community forums, our administration was happy to inform us no music programs would be cut. 

On a final note, I would highly recommend Mark’s Electrify Your Strings program. I believe it is important to use whatever means possible to bring students to study music.  They need to feel that what they are doing is real and relevant.  Maybe beginning with Bach is hard for them to grasp at first, but if they begin with something like Stairway to Heaven perhaps they can get there by what is familiar to what is not so familiar.  A good bow hold and left hand shape is required in both cases.  We plan to expand the program this year and do two concerts.  Middle School Concert will be March 23 and the High School concert will be March 26th held at Mountain View High School.

Daniel Swaim - ASTA Arizona's Outstanding Studio Teacher of the Year

Dr. Daniel Swaim, professor emeritus of double bass, Arizona State University, was awarded ASTA Arizona’s Outstanding Studio Teacher of the Year at the annual Fall Workshop, Saturday, September 19 held at Westwood High School in Mesa.  The standing ovation upon announcement of his selection testified to the respect and admiration ASTA Arizona has for him.  During his career, Dr. Swaim has taught at the collegiate level for four decades and continues to impact the world in his private teaching, clinics, and writing.

After Dr. Swaim’s formal training at the Cinncinati College Conservatory B.M. and Indiana University MME with performance certificate, he began teaching at Wichita State University and later completed his DMA at North Texas State University. During this time he also taught strings in the public schools of Dallas and Richardson Texas, and performed in the Atlanta, Dallas, Phoenix, and Wichita Symphonies, along with the Arizona Opera. Jazz performances round out his performing interests.

Dr. Swaim arrived at Arizona State University in 1975 and immediately began impacting the quality of bass teaching in Arizona. Dr. Swaim’s generosity with his time and talent is evident in the numerous clinics and workshops he has given. His work with Suzuki bass students opened all of us to the reality that young students could play bass and play well. Dr. Swaim is a regular presenter at many, many conferences for the Suzuki Association of America, Music Educator’s National Conference, International Society of Bassists, and American String Teachers Association in the United States and abroad.

His national clinics for ASTA have included, “General Technique for the Younger Bass Student” and “How to Integrate Bass Pedagogy in the Heterogeneous String Class,” Tempe 2002; “The Double Bass Workshop” Kansas City 2006; “Building Bass Techniques from Scratch” Albuquerque 2008;  “Solos Your Bass Student Will Love” coming in 2010 in Santa Clara.

Publications for the ASTA Journal, Suzuki Association of America, International Society of Bassists, and School Musician are numerous. Of note, too, Dr. Swaim was editor of the Suzuki Bass books Volume I and II. Additionally, Dr. Swaim has arranged many works for bass, including “A Suite for Double Bass” transcribed from a work by Marin Marais.

Arizona ASTA was fortunate to have Dr. Swaim’s leadership as president of Arizona ASTA in the late 80s and we continue to benefit from his active participation in Arizona ASTA. Hardly a year goes by that Dr. Swaim has not had a student win an award in our solo competition.

Probably the greatest testimony to Dan Swaim’s quality as a teacher lies in the legacy of his students. No less than fifteen of his students perform professionally in the Cleveland Orchestra, Atlanta Symphony, U.S. Marine Band, New Mexico Symphony, Phoenix Symphony, Arizona Opera, Hawaii Symphony, and others. Many more bass lovers and teachers have studied with Dan and benefitted from his gift for teaching. These are just some of Dr. Swaim’s accomplishments, but who he is as a friend, mentor, colleague, and supportive teacher is the greatest measure of his outstanding teaching, not only in Arizona, but in all of the United States and beyond. 

Amongst the many very outstanding studio teachers in Arizona, Daniel Swaim rises to the top.  ASTA Arizona is delighted to recognize S. Daniel Swaim as our Outstanding Studio Teacher of 2009.