This session will address foundational skills that contribute to excellent tone quality. Pedagogical strategies for tone production will be addressed, including posture, body movement, bow hold, bow arm motion, bow distribution and articulation. I will show video and notational examples of the techniques I am describing, and provide participants with warm-up exercises they can use in their classrooms and studios to help their students develop high-quality tone.
Michael Hopkins
- Biographical Information
Michael Hopkins is Professor and Chair of Music Education at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, where he teaches courses in string techniques, instrumental methods, research methods, and the psychology of music teaching and learning. Prior to joining the U-M faculty, Hopkins was the conductor of the University of Vermont Symphony Orchestra, the founding director of the Burlington Chamber Orchestra, and director of middle and high school orchestras in Colorado, Michigan, and Vermont. He has been a guest conductor at orchestra festivals throughout the United States, and has presented at many conferences in the United States and Canada on various topics in string education. He is the author of The Art of String Teaching, a pedagogy resource published by GIA. Hopkins’ YouTube channel contains 100 videos on all aspects of string technique and has over 10,000 subscribers. He has composed and arranged over 90 published works for orchestra, and has published articles in the Journal of Research in Music Education, International Journal of Music Education, CRME Bulletin, American String Teacher, String Research Journal, the Music Educators' Journal and The Instrumentalist. He has served on the executive boards of the Vermont and Michigan chapters of ASTA and has served on several national ASTA committees.