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Hammond Music Service - A History of Songlearning Systems™
Gary Hammond, a life-long musician and music teacher, was determined to find a tool which would provide his choral students a way to continue learning their notes, intervals and rhythms those elements which form the nuts and bolts of learning new music at home as homework. He reasoned that the instrumental students practiced their music at home, and students were expected to do homework on all their academic subjects, but he knew of no system or tool which allowed choir members to do homework on the music they were studying in class.
In 1980 he began researching ways to provide students with a homework tool that wasn't a rote-learning device one that wouldn't destroy all the sight-reading skills he was attempting to teach in class. He reasoned that if the tool required the student to have their score in their hands and follow along with the music, and that what the student heard was similar to what they heard in class when he was playing their part on the piano as singers in the other sections were humming along softly on their parts, then the tool would be a legitimate reading and note-teaching aid rather than a rote-learning device a distinction which he felt was important.
In 1985, after five years of experimentation he felt he had developed a tool which fit both criteria: it would help his high school choral students rehearse their music at home as well as avoid the stigma most music educators associate with rote-learning devices. Each choir student heard their part being played on the piano in the foreground, with all other voice parts, accompaniment and soft metronome in the background. It worked like a charm!
During the next five years (1985-1990) he provided every choir student in all of his four choirs with a tape of all their repertoire and found that students who used this method faithfully and correctly — reading from their scores as they followed the music on the tape, (which was almost exactly as they learned their music in the choir room) actually improved their reading skills. Just as any instrumental student sharpens his or her skills at reading notes by daily practice at home, choral students were similarly benefited by daily homework — reading their music as they listened to the tape. He found the student's use of the rehearsal tapes to be a valuable adjunct to the daily work in the classroom, and realized that he had developed a legitimate home study tool.
In the late 80's the word got out, and nearby churches, community choirs and colleges began asking him to prepare Songlearning Systems for the Handel Messiah, Mozart Requiem, Faure Requiem, Brahms Requiem and many other major works. An idea which he had developed specifically as a classroom tool to help students learn their music faster and more accurately soon began to help many choirs in the surrounding communities. Directors commented repeatedly how much faster and more accurately their choir members learned their music with the aid of Songlearning Systems than with traditional rehearsal techniques. They found that by using this system they could learn more difficult and challenging major works than was otherwise possible with their limited rehearsal times because they could concentrate on nuances instead of playing parts.
In 1990 he started advertising Songlearning Systems™ monthly in the ACDA Choral Journal and his catalog of major works soon exceeded 100 (currently the number is approaching 600 and growing all the time). He also found a natural marriage of his tapes (now CDs and MP3 downloads) with the organizers and conductors of all-state and honor choirs. Typically, all-state choir members are asked to learn their music within 6-8 weeks after being informed of their acceptance in the choir, and the CDs help them learn their music through independent homework so they can arrive at the first rehearsal with the mechanics (notes, intervals and rhythms) down pat. All-state conductors are always happily surprised and delighted when their choir members arrive with all the nuts and bolts learned, ready to progress right to the nuances and make beautiful music without the stress of having to teach notes and rhythms in their precious few rehearsals.
Gary realizes perfectly well the limitations of rehearsal CDs. He knows they are not replacements for excellent directors and teachers whose direction and teaching is invaluable to the learning of choral music. Nor do the CDs entirely supplant the need for sectionals, which provide valuable opportunities for sections to learn the nuts and bolts of their music in a group setting (although Songlearning Systems are often used to lead sectionals where multiple pianos are not available). While our CDs observe the nuances of tempi changes including ritardi, rallentandi and accelerandi, they do not have dynamic changes on them. Singers who use the CDs need to hear their part prominently in the foreground. Years of research has proven that if the loudness of their part on the CD dips suddenly to reflect the dynamic changes in the music, their part tends to blend in with the other parts being played in the background, and they will lose their place. They can and will adjust dynamics from ff to pp during sectionals or full ensemble rehearsals, when those dynamic changes are asked for by the conductor and heard, felt and expressed as dynamic changes within sectionals or the choir as a whole. To summarize: the CDs are not a substitute for good teaching and directing, just an adjunct a helpful tool which allows choir members to continue practicing their part at home.
Songlearning Systems are simple, valuable tools to assist independent homework on the nuts and bolts of learning new music: notes, intervals and rhythms. Once these basic elements are learned, directors can get to the nuances of expression, dynamics and rubato quicker because they don't have to struggle with correcting wrong notes and rhythms in rehearsals.
At present Hammond Music Service is helping thousands of choirs around the world, including 50+ regional, all-state, honor, and school choirs learn their music quickly and accurately. We strive to maintain the highest quality of accuracy and musicianship on our rehearsal CDs and MP3 tracks, and are always searching for new ways to improve them.
Gary Hammond
Gary Robert Hammond — born to Alexander Sinclair Hammond and Wynne Davis Hammond, both professional singers in the Hollywood movie and sound studios in the 1930s who then became music teachers in the 1940s — grew up in music. He played piano at an early age, turned to trumpet through high school, college and a 2-year stint in the 49th Army Band in Italy, then went on to graduate from San Diego State University in 1963 where he was active in the Phi Mu Alpha Glee Club, the orchestra and the choirs under his mentor, J. Dayton Smith.
In his high school years he enjoyed leading his Palm Springs High School tennis team to a county championship in his senior year, and graduated in 1955 with the Bank of America Music Award, while the choir director (his father) looked on proudly.
He was fortunate to know, at the tender age of 16, that he wanted to become a music teacher, and that deep conviction sustained him when people would try to tell him, "He would never make a living as a music teacher!" Ha! He had to exam out of his final year of college early because of a job that was urgently calling him.
After a year and a half of teaching band and choir at a private high school in Idyllwild (above Palm Springs in the mountains), he and his wife, Ann, and their family of what would eventually be three boys and a girl moved to Vista in north San Diego County and began his 30 year teaching career in public education in nearby San Marcos. He felt that the next five years of teaching bands and choirs in a small, rural community were definitive as he traveled between four schools building a small band program into a large, prospering one, and creating a vital choral program where there had been none. He felt that he learned how to teach in those five years, and was ready, at that point, to move on to bigger challenges in the Vista Unified School District.
After 10 years of teaching both bands and choirs, he had an opportunity to switch to teaching only choirs while at Lincoln Jr. High (7-8-9) in Vista, and took it. He truly enjoyed his years at Lincoln, where he began experimenting with the idea of rehearsal tapes. He has special memories of teaching and directing the Honor Glee — 40 outstanding 8th & 9th grade girls who gave their hearts and souls to the production of beautiful singing. He also appreciates the mentoring and friendship of his principal, Paul "Red" Brostrom, an excellent leader of teachers.
The last 9 years of his 32 year teaching career were spent at Vista High School, where he enjoyed the challenge of maintaining the quality that his friend and predecessor, Don Bursvold had built up over many years of earning Superior Ratings at festivals. Gary remembers with great fondness the many happy times with the Meistersingers — his small ensemble of 24 hand picked Juniors and Seniors who sang 40-50 gigs a year for community groups, as well as the Panther Choir — the Jr./Sr. choir which sang Mozart and Brahms so beautifully at festivals.
Along the way he found special enjoyment in singing the baritone roles in the San Diego north county oratorio scene. His favorites were Elijah, Carmina Burana, and The Messiah, which he sang with the larger churches in the area (notably the First Presbyterian Church in Oceanside, under the capable baton of William Atkinson and the talented musicianship of his organist and wife, Charlotte Atkinson) as well as the nearby community college music departments (most often with Mira Costa College under the able directorship of Jeff Sell, then later with good friend Jim Shepherd).
He also enjoyed teaching private lessons on brass instruments early on, and then private voice lessons during the many years that he specialized in teaching choirs. In 1990 he switched emphasis from teaching private voice lessons to further developing his growing catalog of major works for Songlearning Systems™.
The education scene was changing in California, with the University of California system annually demanding more and more academics for college bound students, to the extent that the arts suffered losses of its best and brightest students who were forced into taking more languages, math, etc., in place of choir and other electives. This began taking its toll on the quality of the choirs at Vista H.S. As time wore on, Gary saw the writing on the wall and took the option of early retirement when it presented itself. Fortunately, at the same time his Songlearning Systems™ were in larger and larger demand, so that when the time came to hang up his baton, his next major shift in emphasis was already humming along in high gear. Although he misses certain aspects of his teaching and choir directing career, he truly loves the new challenges of providing quality rehearsal CDs and MP3 Tracks for the many choirs who use Songlearning Systems™, and looks forward to many more years of helping choirs learn their music in a faster, more accurate way!
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