Dear Colleagues,

Making progress that carries over to the next rehearsal and builds towards the concert is vital. Tangible progress is a great motivator. The good feelings it generates in your students about themselves and their accomplishment is sure to inspire them to reach higher and work harder.

I do hope some of the approaches and techniques I've shared in previous Tips have helped you develop in them a heightened level of concentration and sense of ownership. Once you have created this state, I know you'll find that real progress can be readily achieved. In fact, when the students are focused and personally invested, it's hard not to!

In this Tip, I'd like to share a specific approach to the music that, integrated with your own methods, can produce some pretty dramatic progress; I call it the "Access Point" approach.

Here's the basic idea. There are invariably a few measures - or a phrase - in the music you've planned to rehearse that contain most of the work's challenges. If you identify those spots in your preparation, then help the students hear, understand, and meet those challenges, you'll have provided the key to singing or playing most of the piece. Progress will be rapid and lasting since the young musicians will be thinking how to apply to the rest of the music what they've learned at the access points.

The second movement of Mozart's "Eine Kleine Nachtmusik" provides a good example of how this can work. Measures 19-21 provide a powerful access point.

If you look through a score of the whole movement, you'll see that these measures contain most of its key challenges. Solve them here and they'll be solved (with gentle reminders from you) everywhere.

Now, let's look at this access point in detail to see how it works. First, the two pickup beats:

Since two pickup beats characterize the movement's rhythmic pattern, this is a great access point for getting the students to feel an expressive forward motion that leads strongly into the next measure. The sixteenth notes in the first violins create direction by their very nature, and your comments will help that direction carry over to spots where the pickups are quarters.

Using this spot as an access point for creating forward motion is sure to succeed. Starting at the beginning of the movement, where the pickups are the intrinsically more static quarters, is less likely to program forward movement in the students' minds and muscle memory.

Progress won't only be made by the firsts. The other sections get to hear and feel that motion since they have rests. By the way, wouldn't it be nice if rests were called "wond'rous opportunities to listen - not rest and space out?!"

Now, on to the first full measure:

In the short space of four beats, this measure contains most of the movement's challenges, most of which are rhythmic. The rhythms are simple, but this measure clearly illustrates the challenge of playing notes of different length together. Getting this measure right pretty much means getting most of the movement right.

The seconds and violas must play their eighth notes (1) in the same tempo as the firsts played their pickup sixteenths. The same is true for the celli and basses (2), except that they have to listen carefully to the seconds and violas to be right with them.

The firsts will have to keep their pickup sixteenths in mind (subdivide mentally) during their first G quarter note if they are to play the dotted eighth and sixteenth (3) correctly. They'll then have to keep thinking sixteens during the G on the third beat (4) so their sixteenths on the last beat (5) are accurate. The seconds and violas will need to listen carefully to the firsts on the fourth beat (6) so they can match their eighths to the firsts' sixteenths. An effective way to rehearse this measure - and the entire access point - is to have everyone play all their notes as sixteenths until they're really together... then play the written values.

Here's the second measure:

This measure of the access point encapsulates so many of the challenges that fill this movement.

The firsts and seconds must decrescendo from the first beat to the second (1) to end the phrase gracefully, a delicate negotiation that runs throughout the movement. The violas and celli will need to hold the Gs (2) for their full length so that the harmonic progression is fully realized. While holding notes for their full length is, of course, vital in every piece, the transparency of this movement makes it even more essential.

If the firsts and seconds have continued to think subdivision, the sixteenths of the two pickup beats (3) will be in place and their forward motion realized. These joyful events can once more be noted and appreciated by the violas and celli (4) during their wond'rous opportunities to listen - not rest and space out (rests - remember?).

Ending phrases gracefully, holding notes for their full values, subdividing, maintaining forward motion: they're all here in just one measure of this access point!

On to the third measure!

You're right...it's a variation on the first full measure. But the changes - firsts ascending (1), not descending; seconds and violas descending (2), not ascending; celli and basses (3) leaping an octave - serve vital access point functions. They offer the students a chance to apply immediately what they've learned two measures before. They also offer you a great chance to point out how meeting challenges at one point can be used at another point!

And now, the last measure:

You'll immediately recognize the challenges in this measure of our access point. The firsts (1) need to continue thinking subdivision; the seconds, violas, celli, and basses as well. That way, they'll give their quarter notes their full due - so important here to create fully the tension of the dominant.

In the last two beats, the firsts finally have the opportunity (3) to apply the forward motion they created and felt when the pickups were sixteenths...to quarters (continuing to subdivide, of course). And the seconds can play their eighth notes (4) right in tempo with the firsts' introductory sixteenths since, yes! they were listening carefully during those wond'rous opportunities to listen, not rest and space out!

As you study your score, consider identifying access points that clearly present a work's challenges in a short span. The access point approach can help students meet those challenges and apply their solutions to the rest of the work. This is sure to result in the tangible progress that will inspire them - and you!

With All Best Wishes,



David Barg, Learning Center Director
The Classical Archives, LLC
email: david@prs.net