For string players, intonation can be boiled down to a basic concept of knowing which finger to use and where the right spot is on the fingerboard. Intonation is first a feeling. Yes, we should know what the right sound is, but practically, as we play, we first feel the intonation and then the ear determines the accuracy of the note. This clinic gives teachers practical bits of advice and best-practice strategies on how to teach good intonation to young string musicians.
Matthew Spieker
- Biographical Information
Matthew H. Spieker has been a music educator for over 30 years. He taught all levels of orchestra and general music in two different U.S. school districts and internationally at the John F. Kennedy Schule in Berlin, Germany. Currently, Dr. Spieker teaches music education courses at Ball State University.
Dr. Spieker also conducts honor ensembles and adjudicates festivals throughout the United States and around the world, from Alaska to Florida, Arizona to New York, and in cities abroad including Brussels, Vienna, Geneva and Beijing. Since 2000, Dr. Spieker has been a co-conductor of the “Internationales Orchester Camp” in Lüchow, Germany.
As a clinician for music educators, Dr. Spieker has presented at many state music education conferences and nationally at the American String Teacher’s Association (ASTA) National Conference, Society for Music Teacher Education (SMTE), Desert Skies Symposium, and at the Midwest Clinic in Chicago.
Finally, Dr. Spieker is an Educational Clinician for Conn-Selmer, Inc. (http://education.conn-selmer.com/en-us/education), an adjudicator for Music in the Parks, Past-Chair of NAfME Orchestral Council, Advisor for NAfME’s Teaching Music trade magazine, director for the Youth Symphony Orchestra of Eastern Central Indiana, and teacher of Ball State’s New Horizons Orchestra.