Field Trip Observation Report

North Central High School is a school thriving on excellence in the arts and academics.
Located in Indianapolis, Indiana, the school lies between an urban and suburban area. North
Central is a special school, and considered one of the best, because of its diverse population and
student body, and diverse class offerings. The amount of music and arts classes offered on a day
to day basis is unlike most in the Midwest. With a total of nine choirs, four concert and jazz
bands, four orchestras, and classes such as keyboard labs, theater, and hand bells, North Central
is preparing their students to excel musically.
Each student in the bands and orchestras a required to have private lessons. However,
some students cant always afford to have lessons regularly. In those cases, North Central
provides financial aid and scholarships to allow those students to have lessons. The same goes
for students and their instruments. 80-90% of the students in band or orchestra do own their own
instruments. The school does offer and provide instruments to students who do not own their
own instruments.
The faculty at North Central is preparing all of their students for what lies ahead, and
hope that the students can take the education theyre being given and apply it to continue this
tradition of excellence that North Central is built on. This same tradition of excellence at North
Central greatly motivates the students to continue to do well, and go far with the resources and
tools theyve been given.
The first class I observed was one of the nine choir classes; Gospel Choir. The classroom
was not set up with desks or a chalkboard like normal classrooms would be set. The room had
mirrors on the front wall, and half on each side. The back wall was decorated with banners with
the names of the Concert Choir/Show Choir and the Gospel Choir. The students sat in chairs in

three rows, each row on a riser. The teacher was located at the front center of the room with his
(new) iPad and electric piano.
The class started out with a few announcements by the teacher, followed by a word of the
day presented by a student, and then straight to warmups. The different warmups conducted all
revolved around blending and finding that warm tone and quality as a group. As the students
sang on u and eh, the teacher would constantly remind them to keep their vowels tall and go
for that warm sound. This concept was brought back into play later on in the class when the
students sang gospel. The first piece they sang, though, Shenandoah, was one of a more
traditional chorale style. Before going straight to singing, the teacher had them sing staccato on
doo, to find a nice blend and discover that warm tone they were singing with in warmups.
After finding that sound, the teacher had them connect the tones and sing legato. All throughout
these small warmups, the instructor would tell and show the students how to fix their tones and
blend. For example, while the students were singing, he would mouth the words to the students
and mimic the vowel shape that should be created to produce the tallest vowel sound. As the
lesson progressed however, the objective of the lesson was to realize and apply the dynamics to
the pieces.
The teacher allowed the students to sing through the entire piece of Shenandoah without
any interruptions the first time around, and then pointed out places that need more dynamic
detail. After pointing out one spot in specific, he had demonstrated the way it should sound to the
students, verbally told them what to think of, and then asked them to sing it. During the piece,
when the students were singing, the teacher would also yell out, not too loud yet, to remind the
students of their dynamic. When it came to singing Gospel, the students had a good idea of how
to keep their dynamics on their own.

It was obvious that the students enjoyed singing Gospel much more than the other style
of choir music. The teacher let the students take the lead, as he told us he does so, when theyre
singing Gospel. Instead of having the students seated in their rows, the students all come and
stand around the piano where the teacher plays, and a student will stand in the center and conduct
and lead the rest of the group. The students who conduct the group did a great job of cuing the
other parts to come in, and had control of the dynamics of the song. A few times throughout the
Gospel lesson, the teacher would tell the group to create a rounder, warmer sound, and they
immediately complied.
During both styles of music, the teacher had good control and good focus from his
students. This focused attitude was not conveyed by a strict feel from the teacher at all. The
teacher was very fun, interactive, engaged, and relaxed with his students. Even when they had to
hone in on a certain section, he always praised them for their good work. When going through
the songs, there were steps I noticed he took when he wanted the students to change the way they
sung something in the music. He would allow them to sing, give them feedback after they sang,
modelled what he wanted them to do differently, and had them sing it again the way he would
like it. It showed to be affective as the students paid attention to what he had to say, and sang the
song the way their teacher wanted them to.
This choir meets everyday, but they do not rehearse both traditional choir music and
gospel on the same days. On Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, the choir rehearses gospel by rote;
on Tuesday and Thursday they sing traditional concert choir music and practice their sight
reading skills as well. The teacher informed us that it usually takes them 4 days to learn a new
piece by rote, depending on if the teacher has access to sheet music or not. It was completely
obvious that the students were enjoying themselves, and were very passionate about the music

that they were performing and conducting. Their sound was very powerful, and their engagement
was some of the best Ive ever seen. The teacher definitely had a huge role, in my opinion, in
keeping the students engaged, and creating a fun, relaxed, but hard working environment.
The second class I attended was the Wind Ensemble. The teachers strategies for
conducting included mainly modeling and repetition. To keep the beat, the conductor would snap
the rhythm and have a metronome keep time over speakers in the room. In one of the pieces that
the band played, the conductor wanted emphasis on a pickup eighth note. To show how he
wanted this note played, he would tap out the eighth notes while speaking the rhythm and
emphasized the beat that should be emphasized. On a more rhythmically challenging piece, the
conductor would count out the triplets with the students to make sure they understood and
internally felt the three against two meter. The woodwinds played triplets underneath the flute
players playing steady eighth notes.
Throughout the rehearsal, every student was participating and every section of the band
was engaged. At the beginning of the rehearsal, the first few minutes were dedicated to the
tuning their instruments. When warmups were conducted, each section would play together and
warmup together. While playing a scale in thirds, each section of the band would play it on their
own to tune and blend within their section, then would come all together again to play as an
ensemble. During the rhythmically challenging piece, some instrument sections wouldnt be
playing while others were. To keep everyone engaged and involved, the conductor asked the
students to count all of the rests out loud while the other students played, to keep track of where
they were and also keep the beat for the ones who were playing.
Repetition was a major strategy the conductor used in making sure the students were
blending and in tune together, and to make sure they correctly played a section of the music.

During warmups, he would ask for the students to repeat a scale or two before moving on to the
next, to get back into tune with everyone, and to make sure there was a nice blend between all of
the parts. Repeating sections of the music and then re-approaching that section from a previous
moment in the piece resulted in the students understanding what they need to do to prepare for a
more difficult section of the piece.
The conductor was able to detect tuning errors and rhythmic errors immediately. At one
point in the rehearsal, during warmups, the conductor stopped everyone to clean up the concert C
pitch, because it wasnt accurate. Along with detection errors, he gave precise, positive, and
some negative, feedback. Most of the feedback had to do with blending and not covering up
everyone else in the ensemble, percussionists in specific. Like the choir teacher, giving praise
was noteworthy feedback to the students. For things that needed to be fixed, that they did better
on, or still struggled with, the conductor would always praise them for the work they did. The
rhythmically and technically challenging piece was a piece that is harder than anything they have
played before. The students could become frustrated or find it hard, but to keep their spirits up,
the conductor told them that its not hard, its tricky. With that feedback, they pressed on and
did quite a remarkable job at putting together a couple sections of this piece.
The third and final class I observed was the Concert Choir/Show Choir called the
Counterpoints. This choir has competed in many regional and state competitions, and has even
won quite a few, adding to the tradition of excellence at North Central. This choir seemed to be
placed at higher standards due to the focus and unspoken rules laid out. At the beginning of the
rehearsal, before the bell rang, a student started counting down from five, signifying that the
students should get into their seats. Once warmups started, there was no talking, and no
disruptions from the students. The conductor would ask for the students to stand, and without

hesitation or talking, they would comply. It was a known rule that students must have a pencil in
hand to write down any instructions, tips, or notes the teacher would give for the piece they were
working on. When it was time to start singing, and the notes were played, the choir did not hum
their notes. It was silent as they were preparing their breath and sitting up straight to begin
singing. There were very few disruptions during the concert choir rehearsal, but if there were, the
disruptions were stopped by students shushing, of the teacher shushing if it started getting really
noisy. Other disruptions, such as laughing during a piece, were dealt with by moving forward and
moving passed it.
The students knew and understood what appropriate classroom behavior is for both
concert choir and show choir. If the students started getting rowdy, other students will shush
them, showing how focused and dedicated the ensemble is. Their teacher will ask the students a
question, and before asking for hands, the students would shout out. However, once the teacher
said he would like them to raise their hands, the students immediately quieted down and raised
their hands, waiting to be called on. When it comes to respecting the other members in the group
and understanding appropriate respectful behavior, the students listen to each other and the
teacher wholeheartedly. They listen to feedback, opinions, and instruction very well. The same
type of behavior is present during the show choir rehearsals, except with a much higher energy
standpoint.
After watching a show choir for the first time, and the level at which the show choir and
concert choir are held at, I would love to possibly conduct a choir of such at some point in my
teaching career. The energy and passion that I felt from these students really inspired me to apply
myself that much more to become a teacher for other students who wish to experience excellence
as the students at North Central High School, that may not have that opportunity at the moment.