PDA Summative Reflection

Max Claycomb
For my observations this semester, I saw the Williamson and Westminster Choirs, and I
observed a strings group lesson. In addition, I ran nine hour-long rehearsals with Soulfege as the
Vice President of the Group.
For Williamson, I observed every rehearsal from April 2 through April 16 mainly
because I love the group itself. Williamson has an amazing sound that personally I cannot quite
put to words, but it feels right to me. Williamson is held in Bristol Chapel at 4:30 on Monday,
Wednesday, and Friday and is run by Dr. Jordan. Dr. Jordan teaches in a way where he rehearses
with the group after the graduate assistants warm the group up, and directed the group in Mealor
songs and the Annelies by Whitbourn. In terms of what was taught, Dr. Jordan worked with the
group in acquiring specific sounds throughout the pieces, to really dive into the text to better the
music being made, and allowed the singers themselves to talk amongst themselves to fix small
issues. He would work with sections on sounding a specific way in different movements so that
the text fit the music or to unify the sound more which only created a greater sound every day.
Also, I liked how Dr. Jordan allowed for the students to fix the small things like vowel shaping
and notes amongst themselves as it benefitted the sections greatly, benefitted the section sound,
and it took less time out of the rehearsal as people would fix mistakes or make changes on the
fly. Rehearsals seem to be laid back and create a very warm atmosphere however progress is
made and the group is very productive. Everyone came prepared to every rehearsal, and another
nice thing was that no one would take rehearsal time for the bathroom or any excuse. Rehearsal
time was strictly rehearsal time. Watching Williamson allows me to see what I would like to try

with my choirs or groups in the future with how prepared and actively engaged students are in
rehearsal and how the environment I feel really helps the learning process.
For Westminster Choir, I observed an hour on April 18th and April 25th which is run by
Dr. Miller in the Playhouse. With Westminster Choir, the group is preparing for the Spoletto
Festival which they will leave for soon. In rehearsal they were working on the El Nino, which
seems like a very intense piece of music. The music is very repetitive making their memory work
very difficult and the music seems very vocally taxing as well. The group starts with a warm up
working on sound quality, resonance, and more and then dives straight into the music. Everyone
is very serious in the rehearsal with barely any time for joking, talking or anything. No one is
unprepared, no one leaves rehearsal for any reason, and any sort of mistake is own within a
second of it occurring. While rehearsing, the group works on memory as the piece seems very
difficult to memorize, while working on Spanish text and interpretation as well. Dr. Miller would
also work with specific sections to make sure that notes and rhythms are correct and then piece
the music back together slowly. I like how rehearsal is run so efficiently where everyone in the
room is serious at all times. This allowed for a huge amount of growth in a small period of time
while still learning the entire work still. Also, the memory is done by notecards, so people come
prepared having reviewed the music prior to a point that memory can be done with the
information put on a small notecard, which does not allow for much. In addition to Dr. Miller
teaching, the Spanish pronunciation is provided by Magdelena, who speaks the language
fluently, which works well as they are able to use a primary source for all of their Spanish text
and learning. The learning in this group is very methodical and Dr. Miller directs the group in a
way where he rehearses, reviews, rehearses, and so on, constantly improving and working hard,
which I appreciate as someone who likes to work hard. I would like to take this idea into my

teaching because I feel that the harder a group works in rehearsal, the better the group will sound
and the more fun the group will then have. Everyone seemed to be happy, and I feel it is because
everyone works so hard to sing this music well.
For the Strings group lesson, I observed my strings professor Colin Oettle who runs
groups lessons from 4:30 to 6 on Fridays and in Cottage 1. It was interesting to watch a strings
lesson as someone who does not play a string instrument. The class included young children of
ages maybe five to seven and the children stand in an arc and review songs and learn technique
and have fun as well. Each student had their repertoire memorized which was amazing, played
with great intonation, stood with correct posture, and behaved well for the most part. Mr. Oettle
was able to rehearse pieces that the students learned in their individual lessons, and then apply
techniques within the group lesson, like bow circles. Students even critically listened to each
other to see if their fellow students successfully completed the tasks. One thing that I really liked
about this rehearsal was how students knew what they were doing and enjoyed playing. They
each had songs they wanted to play and everyone could play them well, not including notes
alone, but phrasing, dynamics, pizzicato, and intonation. Another thing I learned from the lesson
was how patience was important. These were young students and when two of the students
wanted to play around and not follow directions, Mr. Oetlle responded very appropriately and
remained calm and tried to settle these students down and maintain the class. This worked very
well, as he challenged them in a way where he bet that they could not do what he asked of them,
and being that the kids liked challenges his idea worked perfected as he got them to behave. I
think that is something I would really like to incorporate into my teaching is how to work with
kids well and to grow in my patience skills.

Finally, this task came as a surprise but I have now been running many of the all-male a
cappella group (Soulfege) rehearsals. If elections go well for next semester, I will hopefully be
the music director of Soulfege where this semester I am the Vice President. The Vice Presidents
job is to hold all music that is necessary for rehearsals including extra copies of music, as well as
assume the Music Directors role when he is not available. I was told toward the beginning of the
semester that Soulfege would be under new direction next year, and that the Music Director and
the Assistant Music Director wanted me to start running rehearsals as they wanted me to take the
position next year. I began running rehearsals in mid-March until now, and we have worked on
recruitment for the group as well as two new songs for the majority of us in the group, arranged
by students on campus. In these rehearsals, we began with trying to learn the notes and rhythms
for most of the music. Much of the pieces we are learn have syncopated rhythms or strange
melodic lines for each part, so we would spend time breaking down the music by parts and then
piecing the sections back together. Then, we would run large sections of the music, and go back
if we needed to fix anything else or if we wanted to solidify what we worked on. Once we started
improving in the first song, we then added the Soloist which added difficulty with another line to
listen and balance with, and now we almost have that piece performance ready. Then, we
repeated the process with the second arrangement of Havent Met You Yet, which is also pretty
difficult, so we broke down the piece the same way as More Than Words. I have the solo in the
second piece, so it was easier to gauge when it was appropriate to add the solo line into the
music, but we went through the same process to learn the second arrangement like we did with
More Than Words.
I learned a lot about how difficult it is to run a group. I was constantly plagued by people
showing up late or unprepared, not having music or forgetting a pencil. I never realized how hard

it can be to remind a group of these basic things that we need to run rehearsal efficiently. Also,
keeping the group on track while having fun can be very difficult. We as a group want to have
fun; however, we also need to effectively run rehearsal and improve in what we sing. Finally, I
have also started to realize how I need to improve my piano skills and open score reading skills
so that I can hopefully play parts well and accompany the group when we run into issues with
parts. I can read a single line or two lines without much issue, but three and four gives me
problems, and as someone running rehearsal, I have to have that prepared and ready to do at any
time. Things that I know I want to work on for when I truly am in charge of the group as Music
Director is having great communication skills to avoid the issues stated earlier, to improve in my
teaching so that efficiency within the group becomes consistent, and my music reading and
playing skills grow stronger. Also during the summer I will need to look at ways to recruit as we
will lose some members next semester. Hopefully, we can recruit freshman into the group who
are excited to sing in an all-male a cappella group and then keep the interest going strong as well
find and work on new arrangements for the following years to come. I believe that I will become
a stronger teacher through Soulfege, and I feel that the more time I have, the more I will see what
I need to do, what I can do, and now how to complete those goals.