Instrumental Music as Physical Education

Most public school music ensembles spend 95 percent of their classroom time preparing for public concerts. It takes many hours of repetition of the music in order to program the body to perform the music accurately. Band and orchestra directors basically run rehearsals for a living and become very good at  providing the repetitions necessary to program the physical movements required to perform the music accurately.

When I begin writing articles for my website, I focused on sharing music practice tips. The majority of these were strategies designed to help maximize practice routine efficiency, garnering more successful repetitions of the music. What I have only recently realized, however, is that the majority of time and effort spent practicing a musical instrument has more to do with  programming the mind to physically control the instrument accurately and reliably. There is more “physical education” involved in instrumental music making than actual “music education”.

In most traditional high school bands and orchestras, the vast majority of rehearsal time is spent drilling the music in order for ensemble members to develop some level of physical proficiency in performance. Teaching basic musicianship concepts like reading notation, audiating pitch, and so on is left to the elementary music teachers to handle. High school ensembles focus primarily on ensemble techniques such as pulse control, section and group intonation, balance and blend, and so on. Those concepts are touched upon and then drilled, drilled, drilled until the ensemble can perform them accurately.

The Marriage Between Physical And Aural

One of the amazing things about studying music performance is that it elides the physical skill of operating a musical instrument with the mental skill of perceiving and instantly processing and reacting to sound. Singers do this as well, but the need to physically train the body is quite different. Instrumentalists spend a great deal of time simply becoming proficient at manipulating the contraption that makes the musical sounds happen.

Students of music have to not only become proficient at the physical movements, they also have to use their aural skills to assess their own physical performance. The actual musical part of instrumental performace is all mental, and it requires training and skill building just like the physical training of operating the instrument.

Over-Programming The Physical Part Of Performance

Because it takes so much time and repetition to program the body, musicianship and listening skills often take a secondary role in many school performing ensemble classes. This is compounded by the fact that many high school band and orchestra directors choose repertoire that demands a high level of technical proficiency on the part of the performers. Technical wizardry (those fast sixteeth note runs, screaming high notes, rapid tonguing or bowing passages, and so on) are engaging and exciting to listen to, and many directors want their students to have the experience of performing exciting works with a lot of technical fireworks.

The trade-off, however, is that technically demanding repertoire often consumes the majority of available class time simply to get the ensemble performing proficiently. Even then, traditional band and orchestra programs lean on the students with the higher music aptitude and skill development to carry the weight while their peers hang on for dear life or fake their way through the difficult passages. Add to that fact the more important consequence – the students rarely have time to improve their musical skills in favor of improving their physical skills.

Audio Gym Teacher?

If ensemble directors, for whatever reason, continue to program technically demanding works that constantly stretch the boundaries of what the students are capable of, they are providing their students with more of an “audio physical education” than a “music education”. Technical ability is only part of what makes up an effective musical performance. It is far better, in my opinion, to choose repertoire with easier technical demand that can be mastered in a shorter amount of time, leaving room towards the end of the preparation period to work on ensemble playing techniques, expressive phrasing, and communicating the intent of the music to the audience.

Quite simply, if by concert time students are not able to look away from the sheet music for more than a brief glance at the baton in order to be able to perform the piece, the technical demand is probably too high.

There certainly is a need for repertoire that “pushes the envelope” and gets students to reach for a new level of technical ability, but I have seen too many band and orchestra programs that try to stretch the ensemble with every single piece they perform. Slaving away on demanding parts is enjoyable for only a minority of students – most are turned off by such hard work, especially if that level of demand is constantly upon them.

Physical training in the band and orchestra is a major component of instrumental performing music and is constantly being addressed. There needs to be a balance, however, between the physical aspects of instrumental performance and the mental aspects of listening, audiating, and understanding music as an art form.

Thanks goes to Thomas J. West Music for letting us use his blog!

Thomas J. West is an active music educator, composer, adjudicator, clinician, and award-winning blogger.
thomasjwestmusic.com

7 Steps to a Killer Music Program

By Caleb Chapman

Starting a Music Program from Scratch
Back in the fall of 1998 my wife, Alison, and I went for a lazy Sunday drive that changed my life. I was an undergrad student at Brigham Young University in Utah completing a music degree with plans to pursue an MBA. On that drive, Alison suggested that instead of me pursuing a business degree, we should open a music school. To me it seemed like a crazy idea with little chance of success, but I learned a long time ago to listen to my wiser partner. So, just one month later, without much experience, without money, and without any significant business training, we opened a tiny music school in Utah.

Onward and Upward
Today that tiny music school has grown into a program with 13 ensembles and close to 200 top-notch young musicians, ranging in age from 10-18.

Our flagship group, a jazz ensemble called the Crescent Super Band, has received international attention, thanks to the program’s 22 DownBeat Awards, and appearances at venues from New York to the Netherlands. In fact, the band has been named Utah’s “Best Professional Ensemble” in any genre by Utah Best of State for 8 consecutive years – pretty amazing for a bunch of high school kids.

In a very short period, our graduates have landed significant scholarships in many of the nation’s top music schools – Berklee, North Texas, Miami, USC, the New School, and many others. In fact, each year our 20-30 graduates from the program rack up well over $1,000,000 in scholarship offers.

I just got word that an upcoming show for the Crescent Super Band at Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Dizzy’s Club Coca Cola has already sold out and our headlining debut at Carnegie Hall has almost sold out a month before the concert. I had to pinch myself when I got this news! How did we go from that Sunday drive in 1998 to having a full house at one of the world’s most famous concert venues?

A Recipe for Success
As I took a moment to reflect, I realized that there are several key philosophies that have served us well. They are not genre-specific and I am confident that the success our program has experienced can be duplicated anywhere when these principles are implemented. And, while none of them are “groundbreaking,” when combined, they provide a powerful recipe for a successful music program.

1. Keep music fun
As soon as studying music becomes something our musicians have to do—a chore—we have lost the battle. And this isn’t true just for our students; music needs to remain fun for the educator as well. Think back to what sparked your own passion for music. How can you instill that in your students?

2. Instill pride in the product
Music programs are cool! How can this be communicated properly, and the pride shared with the students and community? It comes from a mix of culture, programming, recruiting, professionalism, and other aspects. It starts with the way you, your students, and the public view the program. What can you do to position your group as a cultural resource to your community?

3. Remove students’ perceived limitations
Young musicians don’t know what the limitations on their ability are until you tell them. Don’t be afraid to set the bar high and keep notching it up. You will be amazed at the results!

4. Practice (and rehearse) for perfection
You already know that when a student practices while allowing mistakes, all he is doing is getting better at making mistakes! Create a culture that strives for as much accuracy as possible in rehearsals as well as performance and select the repertoire that will allow you to do that. What motivates your students to strive for perfection?

5. Empower your musicians with clear guidelines for learning the repertoire
It’s the old “teach a man to fish” analogy. A good educator can teach students how to play any piece of music. A great teacher will educate those students on how to accomplish this on their own. This approach allows them to learn new music during their individual practice time and not just when they are in rehearsal. For example, something that worked great for my jazz students was establishing a set of “rules” for articulation, which they apply to every piece they sight-read or play, whether in class or at home.

6. Surround yourself with a powerhouse team
Start with mentors for yourself; assemble an all-star cast of musicians and educators that have the skills that you want to develop who are willing to coach and guide you. Then, build a dream team for your students—clinicians, a network of private teachers, parent volunteers and boosters, and a staff of specialists. We’re all in it for the same reason: the students. Let’s help each other succeed.

7. Listen. Listen. Listen.
Encourage your musicians to learn the language of music through active listening. Provide information on area concerts in all styles, not just the one they are focused on in the classroom. Assemble listening recommendations and a forum for them to share their current interests and artists they have discovered.

As an educator, I love hearing about how other educators help their students succeed. What are your tips to helping your students achieve their best? Share in the comments below.

Caleb Chapman is an award-winning performer, author, music educator, and producer. His new book, The Articulate Jazz Musician co-written with Grammy-winning saxophonist Jeff Coffin, was released by Alfred Music in 2013. For more information on Caleb’s projects and educational innovations, visit CalebChapmanMusic.com.

Teaching Appreciation and Encouraging Curiosity of Classical Music in Your Orchestra

By Jonathan Glawe

The experiences we bring to our students define their understanding of our class, and in turn their understanding of the breadth and potential of our art form. With the repertoire we choose as music educators, we expose our students to different styles, cultures, and techniques. A memorable performance may introduce our students to new ways of interacting with music, allowing them to find a more personal connection to the art form. The future of the Symphonic Orchestra is entirely dependent on engaged audiences. The end result of a diversified focus on music appreciation in orchestral music education is the development of future music enthusiasts who are capable of enjoying and sharing the positive messages and powerful emotions that are created through an orchestral performance.

As a high school orchestra director, I teach students who come from a wide variety of musical experiences and technical backgrounds. In my teaching situation at Pioneer High School in Ann Arbor, Michigan, I am fortunate to have a core representation of students who have been heavily exposed to classical music since early childhood. For these students, selling the idea of playing a classical musical selection is not a challenge, but the problem of course lies in the larger picture of the orchestra program. For every one student in the program that shows a strong appreciation for classical music there are two or three others who need a positive experience to get them excited about classical music for what it truly is: a beautiful and proven art-form that is to be celebrated for withstanding the test of time.

As a teacher, to promote appreciation you must first demonstrate how to do so with consistency. One of the first strategies I employed when I arrived at Pioneer was to implement an environment of appreciation for all students in the ensemble. The appropriate use of the sentiment “thank you” became a daily routine for anyone in the ensemble who ever did you a positive service. Also, students who tended to blend in with the crowd were acknowledged for noticeable improvements in elements of musicianship and organizational skills, both by their peers and myself. These simple changes led to the beginning of a trusting relationship, something that helped the students to become more positive contributing citizens to the culture of the ensemble.

As trust began to build, my next order of business was to take the curriculum currently in place and begin promoting it to the students differently. Pioneer was no longer going to perform independent concerts, but we were going to build an “orchestra season,” similar to what the Detroit Symphony Orchestra does. This meant we would put on a variety of concerts for our audience to attend. Our season would begin with a strings only chamber music performance in the fall. In December, full orchestra works by traditional classical composers would be featured. In February, the city-wide showcase concert would occur with a guest conductor. In March, the concerto concert would feature soloists from the senior class. Finally, in May, the program would put on a POPS concert, which would showcase the eclectic string skills developed over the course of the year.

The first few years of this implementation were not met without hesitation from students or musicians within the community. I found some of my top skill level players who enjoyed classical music were not keen on the idea of the POPS concert, and many of the rest of the orchestra students were not invested in the classical concerts. It is when these discussions come up that the director must continue to send a consistent message that through any style of music, you can learn appreciation and deeper understanding. You won’t win the understanding of all of your students, but if you are consistent, eventually your message of educating all of your students about the diversity of music will begin to pay off.

After 3 years of implementing the “orchestra season” approach, a few important things really began to happen. The number of students continuing to play from middle school started to increase. In addition, the diversity of the students within the ensemble started to grow. Students in the high school who had stopped playing years ago started knocking on my door wondering if they could return. Students started to make enjoyable transitions from one style of music to another, and before I knew it, we were talking about the difference of rhythm and groove found in a Beethoven Symphony and pop music. I remember having a nearly 20-minute conversation with one of my classes about how the bow strokes in a Brandenburg Concerto were different than that of what great jazz violinists do. You may be thinking that I led the conversation, but rather, some of the most reserved students were the ones leading the discussion!

One last element to discuss in regards to this topic is that of quality of instruction. It is impossible to educate yourself to be a master of each musical style that you present. However, students do appreciate watching their teachers grow, modeling how to learn. If you hit a roadblock in teaching classical music, or any style for that matter, it is okay to tell your orchestra that you need to research the issue further. Students like to see you humble about what you do and do not know. By investing time in maintaining the quality of classical music yourself, you are constantly confirming the students that you are teaching to the authentic nature of the musical selection and not from your opinion. This takes the responsibility off of you and reminds students that together, you have an obligation to a composer to perform any piece of music in front of you to the best of your ability.

Students learn best through modeling, and the best way to sell them on classical music is to treat classical music with the respect it deserves. It is important to remind your students that it is all around them, and that in the music they listen to today, famous classical melodies are often quoted. Play those quotes. Bring in artists who specialize in classical music. Show YouTube videos of young people performing outstanding works by classical composers. Contact your local colleges or universities and promote their concerts. Take advantage of communicative technology, and set up a Skype lecture or coaching with a classical composer.  Have your students compose a 4-bar melody and help them harmonize it in a variety of ways. Perform those written melodies at a concert or a recital. Show old cartoons and talk about how classical music relates to the story or the character movement. Have classical music playing when they are unpacking or packing up in your classroom. Talk about the life of composers and their motivation for composing. Most importantly, listen to and perform classical music, and deepen YOUR appreciation for it. What you are curious about, show excitement for, and grow to appreciate, your students will tend to do as well. Be patient and consistent. It will eventually pay off!

© 2012 Jonathan Glawe

Jonathan Glawe (from Waterloo, Iowa) is currently the Director of Orchestras at Pioneer High School in Ann Arbor, Michigan. He holds a Bachelor of Music Education from the University of Kansas and a Masters Degree in Music Education from the University of Oregon.

Currently in his 5th year at Pioneer High School in Ann Arbor, Mr. Glawe has played an important role in the their return to the GRAMMY Signature School list as presented by the GRAMMY Foundation, in which the Pioneer Music Department was honored as one of the top 3 music programs in the nation in 2010, and has earned the honor of being the National GRAMMY Signature School in 2011.

Mark Williams Tribute

Mark Williams was one of the premier composers for school bands and orchestras. Co-author of the Accent on Achievement band method, he had over 200 published works to his credit. As a clinician and guest conductor, he traveled to 34 states, 5 Canadian provinces, and Australia.

Mark was a warm, kind, generous, and brilliant human being and he will be greatly missed by all who knew him or experienced his great music.

Personally, I only met Mark Williams once at the Midwest Band & Orchestra Clinic in 2007. With that short time, I saw a hard-working man with a great sense of humor. He even helped tear down our booth Friday evening and joined us for our tradition of deep dish pizza that night. He opted to walk back to the hotel afterwards, which surprised me because it was freezing cold and we weren’t what I would consider walking distance from the hotel. I had no idea that had been my only chance to get to know Mark, as he passed away on January 3, 2008.

As we are preparing for Midwest 2012, I couldn’t help but think back on that night, so I asked a couple of folks who knew him to write a few words about him…

Victoria Meador
Marketing Project Manager
Product Line Specialist: Concert Band, Marching Band, & Sound Innovations
Alfred Music Publishing

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Mark Williams was more than a uniquely talented composer and teacher. After all, each of us aspire to be unique in our approach to teaching and composing. Rather, Mark created and thrived in his own league as a composer and teacher. His compositions helped every elementary and middle school level teacher to take their bands or orchestras to a higher level of performance and enjoyment. Every one of his clinics—and I attend ended many of them—inspired every band and orchestra director to discover the fun and educational value of letting their students play the music that they enjoyed playing, while learning important techniques that helped them to replicate the fun that they had playing his compositions and arrangements.

Mark rejoiced in the art of discovery! He had fun in discovering new ways to bring classical treasures to life. He truly enjoyed motivating experienced teachers to discover unique ways to energize their approach to teaching, and to truly enjoy that special feeling of discovery when their students really felt that they owned a new way of expressing their musicality.

I miss having the opportunity to experience Mark’s creative spirit on a regular basis. I rejoice in the many opportunities that I had to be a small part of his tremendous talents.

Danny Rocks
The Company Rocks
www.thecompanyrocks.com

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One of my proudest achievements during my 35 years as Alfred’s Editor-in-Chief was the discovery of Mark Williams. Mark’s first publication was “Greenwillow Portrait” which was an unsolicited manuscript just like the hundreds of others I received during those years. It was such a special piece, and I immediately picked up the phone to tell him we would publish it the following year. That was my first conversation with Mark and his enthusiasm and excitement about band music was immediately apparent.

From that day forward I always called Mark as soon as I received what was to become an amazing string of hits that made a major impact on the success of the Alfred Concert Band catalog. I was honored to have Mark as my co-author of Accent on Achievement. Some of my fondest memories are related to having Mark stay at my house for extended periods as we planned and ultimately wrote what we both felt was the most practical and creative band method ever written.

John O’Reilly
Co-Author of Accent on Achievement

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I was lucky to work with Mark Williams at Alfred for nearly 20 years. We attended many shows and enjoyed many laughs together. Mark was the closest thing to Mozart for school music that I could think of. He was such a genius at really understanding all the intricacies of each instrument and the challenges that beginners face. That’s why his music was so popular—he wrote it in a way that made every student successful when they performed with their band or orchestra. Luckily, we still have his body of music to share with the world for generations and generations. Mark was a kind, loving and generous human being and he will be deeply missed by all of us in the Alfred family.

Andrew Surmani
Senior Vice President
Managing Director, School & Church Publishing
Alfred Music Publishing

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What Should Graduating Seniors In a Performing Arts Program Be Able to Do?

By the time a student who is actively involved in a band, chorus, or orchestra program graduates high school, what skills should they have? How are music education programs designed for these self-motivated, team player individuals? What should their “exit interview” sound like?

For me as a music educator finishing his 13th year in the profession, the answers to these questions have changed several times. Honestly, my goal when I started teaching was to build the highest quality concert and marching band performance program I could, focusing on bringing the ensemble members a broad and deep exposure to great musical literature in search of that ever elusive “summit” moment when an ensemble plays something so excellent, so moving, that everyone witnessing it is affected by it.

While these are admirable sentiments, and certainly do leave long-lasting impressions on the students who have those kind of experiences, I realized that those “summit” moments really weren’t for the students – they were for me. “How great of a music teacher am I that I can open their eyes to such an aesthetic experience?” I got into music teaching because I wanted to keep having those “summit” experiences, and being a teacher allowed me to share those experiences with young people so that they too could have their lives shaped by music performance.

Do I still want them to have those summit moments? Of course, but it’s no longer the solitary focus of my performing ensemble programs. The pursuit of performance excellence has been redefined and altered in proportion to make room for the pursuit of musical creativity. The “buzz” of a great performance is only one way to experience what music has to offer the individual.

Giving Students The Tools to Be Life-Long Musicians

My goals as a music educator are much broader and long-term than just giving them a great high school experience. By the time seniors leave my program, they will:

Be able to play their primary instrument proficiently. This includes playing all twelve major scales and arpeggios, natural minor scales and arpeggios, and be able to sight-read music of a grade 3 level. They will understand the music theory behind all of those goals and will be able to handle transpositions for their instrument (if applicable). For vocalists, it means having full control of their instrument in all ranges, singing with pure vowel sounds, proper support and phrasing, and singing a wide variety of styles.

Be able to improvise melodies over simple chord changes on their primary instrument. This is not limited to jazz music. This includes the music theory behind common tonic, sub-dominant, dominant, tonic chord progressions, and the construction of melody lines.

Be able to write a quartet in four-part harmony for their primary instrument. This obviously includes skills obtained from all of the above skills, plus the music theory necessary to write effective voice leading. Along the way, the study of musical form is incorporated into performing repertoire, sight-reading, and improvisation, leading to the student making their own creative decisions about writing an original work with a logical form.

Be able to record, edit, mix, and master their own music. This is a new goal for me, and one that has not become a reality yet. My vision is to give every one of my students the ability to write their own music, record it, give it a basic editing and mixing job, and be able to upload it to SoundCloud or YouTube. By the time my current middle school students reach twelfth grade, this goal will be a reality.

A Culture of Creativity

One of the greatest things about America as a culture is that we allow innovation and individualized thinking to exist. It’s okay in our culture to speak your mind, chart your own course, create your own destiny. American culture and government makes it possible for creative ideas to grow and the originators of those ideas to be monetarily compensated. I could easily diverge at this point on how copyright law no longer benefits the artist directly, but that is another article. For the purposes of this writing, it is the pioneering spirit of America combined with today’s modern communication tools that make it more possible than ever for artists of all kinds to find an audience.

It is no longer enough, in my opinion, for high school graduates to simply play an instrument or sing in a large ensemble. With as much personal growth as they receive from being a member of a band, chorus, or orchestra, the average American high school ensemble member does one of three things after high school: perform in similar groups in college, then quit, find community groups to continue their hobby, or become a professional musician in some fashion. Of these three, the vast majority quit performing music after high school or after college. Why? Work and family, of course.

I believe that more graduating seniors would continue music making into adulthood if they were better equipped to make their own music. If all they can do upon graduation is play their part in a concert band piece, or sing an alto part with the help of a section leader feeding them their pitches, their chances of continuing to make music are slim. Imagine how much more art, music, dance, and theatre would be out there if high school graduates were better equipped with the skills to exercise their own creativity.

If music improvisation and composition is nurtured in primary and early secondary grades, students are less likely to develop inhibitions to creativity, becoming more expressive and communicative. More original intellectual property can do nothing but good for the individual, our economy, and our culture.

The future of our internet-powered society is in more individuals trading their talents and ideas, collaborating to produce amazing results such as Wikipedia, Whitacre’s Virtual Choir, and many more. Our music education programs in public schools, I believe, need to continue the strong traditions of our performing ensembles, but need to make room in their school year for the parts of the study of music that make student more capable of being individually creative.

Thanks goes to Thomas J. West Music for letting us use his blog!

Thomas J. West is an active music educator, composer, adjudicator, clinician, and award-winning blogger.
thomasjwestmusic.com

Keeping Your Eyes (and Ears) On the “Prize”

Around this time of year most high school programs are in the thick of their competitive marching season. Rehearsals during the week are intensifying and weekends only exist for Saturday rehearsals and competitions.You’ve spent months preparing for your band’s 12-minute time slot to perform your show for an audience and the judges. The band performs its best show of the year but does not earn the score that you think they deserve. What now?

This happens all too often in this sport called marching band. That’s right, I said it, marching band is a sport. Hours and hours of rehearsal time are spent practicing and perfecting a drill set or a musical run, all for everyone to end up disappointed at the competition. We have to remember why we do marching band or music at all for that matter. It’s not for the thrill of winning a trophy, or taking the top score. Music is fun. It’s fun to listen, dance, sing, and play. And not to mention march to!

Art is subjective
Unlike other sports, where you have more control over whether or not you earn enough points to win, marching band is a judged competition. You can tune every chord, align every form, nail every transition and still not get the score you were hoping for. Music is an art form. Art is not created to be judged and/or critiqued.That being said, I do believe unbiased feedback is essential in getting the best out of your students and staff to help them improve throughout the season. It’s ok not to win. Competition is a great way to motivate students to do their best and to encourage them to learn how to deal with the end results, no matter what the results may be. But the most important thing is: If you perform your best, you win!

Take pride in your work
In a high school setting, playing music for fun isn’t quite enough. We have to help the students take pride in the work they are putting in. Yes, music is fun, but you know what’s even better? Sounding and looking your very best. The hours and hours of rehearsal time should not be geared at winning the competition or beating the cross-town rival. The goal should be to perform the best show of the season every time the band steps on the field. One thing or another will most likely go wrong at a show, but if the band takes everything the staff has given them and plays and marches their very best, that is a successful show and season.

Most students will not remember what score they received, place they took, or what trophy they won (which will most likely be covered in dust on a shelf in the band room), but what they will remember are the times they spent learning, practicing, and performing music with their friends to the best of their ability. That is something to be proud of. So as you are starting to go to competitions this season, and with championships on the not so distant horizon, try to remember why we learn (and teach) music: It’s fun!

Do you have any “fun” ways to motivate your students? In what ways do you motivate younger musicians to do their best? Please share your thoughts and insights below!
Good luck and have a great season!

Danny Ursetti
Music Caption Head, Royal High School
composer/conductor/educator

The New “Super Heroes” Are Band Directors!

By Victor Lopez

Due to the significant changes in public school instruction system in America, it has become extremely challenging for a band director to have an outstanding band program. The changes mean students will have more customized options tailored to their particular needs and interests.

The amount of challenges affecting the band program is overwhelming. Let us consider some of the most recent ones: Academic achievement was set as a priority in public education with stricter attendance rules; adoption of a no-pass, no-play rule prohibiting students who were failing courses from participating in sports and other extracurricular activities for a six-week period; and national norm-referenced testing throughout all grades to assure parents of individual schools’ performance through a common frame of reference; school choice programs; grade level configurations; and, the push to increase the number of students enrolled in advanced placement courses. Additionally, many band directors work in high poverty area schools where they experience the following: high student mobility rate; diminished pool of talented students; lack of equipment; limited feeder programs; declined attendance at performances; and, the shift of program funding from the school to other sources, just to name a few.

These challenges, one way or another, have been in existence for several decades and many band directors continue to face them on a daily basis. It does not take long to realize that it is a tug-of-war between the band program and the rest of the school, not to mention the personal life of students. However, year after year, these new ‘Super Heroes” manage to have quality programs despite the hurdles they face. Above all, they have a passion for music and the band program, provide musical direction, find scholarships for the students, accommodate special needs students, implement differentiated instructional techniques, support district mandates for raising student achievement and closing achievement gaps, are responsible for fund raising activities and yes, in many cases have become community leaders.

Overcoming all of these challenges is certainly not an easy task. We must continue to be strong advocates fighting to keep music alive in our schools.  We must continue to promote music and communicate to policymakers the value of what music education can do for a child — whether it’s academic, whether it’s social, whether it’s emotional — so that they understand the benefits of music education.”

To our Super Heroes, I say … keep the music playing!!!!!

Are there ways that you are advocating to keep music alive in schools that would be helpful to share with others reading this?

Magical Travel Tips: Traveling Efficiently

By Elizabeth Geli
Posted June 2011
Courtesy of Marching.com

Traveling with hundreds of marching band students can sometimes be a headache, but with proper preparation and communication, your trip can go smoothly and without hold-ups. Band Director Matt Lovell from the Burlington (Mass.) High School “Red Devil” Marching Band shared some of his tips for efficient and speedy travel.

Evaluate Your Students 

Before he even starts to pick a trip location, Lovell carefully evaluates that year’s band — including the students’ level of maturity, behavioral history and the strength of the student leaders.

“That’s the key to it: the first thing is you have to make sure that the band you go with is a band that can take the responsibility of a trip,” Lovell says. “I know them at their best, and I know them at their worst. The question is not how they are at their best but how will they be at their worst. If I know that they will fulfill their responsibilities even when they’re not ‘on,’ that’s a group that can go.”

Find a Travel Planner

Once Lovell has decided to go ahead and take a trip, he looks for a good travel planner or student tour operator related to the trip location, in this case, one with personal contacts at Walt Disney World and Boston Logan Airport.

“Travel has gotten a lot more complex since 2001,” Lovell says. “We used to be able to be pretty happy with putting the trip together ourselves, but now we go with a travel planner who works specifically with bands, and it was much more successful.”

To read the full article, please visit Marching.com.

Cool Tips

By Vince Gassi

 

You’ve made it. You’ve reached the end of another busy, productive school year and it feels good to be on a well-deserved break. As you wind down during the summer months, you may find yourself occasionally thinking ahead to next year. It’s ok…just breathe. However, the ideas that occur to you are worth remembering, so be sure to keep a mobile device close by so you can record them immediately. It’s good to think back over the past year and assess: what worked well, what needs improvement, etc.? Are there any initiatives you need to implement or things you want to include next year? Your projects don’t need to be epic; they just need to be worth the time to implement. This article is meant to offer two ideas that you may wish to consider. Perhaps you’ve got the engine running smoothly and are ready to try just one new idea to up your game.

 

Cool Tip #1 – The Long and Short Game

Choose your performance repertoire by asking yourself all the usual questions regarding the number and types of performances (festival, holiday, etc.)? Then, for the long game, choose one piece that will be an all-year project. A few years ago, in September, I introduced a piece to my young band that was just a step beyond their ability. In fact, at the time, I was afraid it might have been too difficult. I certainly didn’t want to discourage them but at the same time, I didn’t want them to become too complacent. To reassure them, I told them that we were just trying an experiment and that we weren’t necessarily going to perform this “challenge” piece. It was just to see how much progress we could make on it by the end the year.

Each week we would just play through sections of it that I thought were “attainable”. Since we weren’t really going to perform it, there was no pressure. After two months, I began to notice that much of it was sounding fairly good, but it still wasn’t ready for performance. Besides, we had other repertoire that was definitely going to be performed. Their progress by December was amazing and, to my utter astonishment, we performed it at our Christmas concert. I’m not one hundred percent sure why they took so well to this challenge. Perhaps it was the non-threatening way in which I introduced or it was simply fun to play; whatever the reason, I was grateful. We performed it again at a festival in March at an even higher level. Even if my band had never performed that piece, they still benefitted from all the hard work.

Now for the short game. Consider selecting a number of pieces from your music library that your students haven’t seen before. Any style will do, in fact, the more variation the better. Introduce only one new piece each week. You are only going to play it once. Keep forcing your ensemble to read new material. Their sight-reading will improve greatly and they won’t be bored. Your rehearsals can consist of a warm-up, then once through the “new piece”, and then finally the remainder of the rehearsal could be spent on rehearsing the music you’ll actually perform (of course if you are playing “the long game” you can run through the challenge piece as you see fit). The rule should be that, as an ensemble, they have to play the sight-reading piece from beginning to end without stopping, NO MATTER WHAT!! Even if some or most (or even all) students get lost, keep conducting and count every bar aloud as if they were still in the right spot. It may not seem productive initially, but if you do this every week your students’ musical awareness will improve greatly. Eventually your students will be able to sight read all the way through a new piece with fewer mistakes. At the end of the term, your music folders will be really thick but your students will have far better sight-reading “chops”. As a bonus, you may actually move some of those pieces from the sight-reading column to the performance column. But that’s all cool stuff for next year. Now go have a great summer, rest up, and see you in September.

Stay Tuned for…

Cool Tip #2 – The Mini Road Trip

Twitter for Bands and Public Relations

The following is the presentation from Joe Pisano’s TI:ME/JEN clinic on Saturday, January 7th, 2012 held at the Galt House in Lousiville, KY. The presentation was titled Twitter for Bands and Public Relations.

Twitter for Bands and Public Relations

View more PowerPoint from Joseph Pisano

Thanks to Joseph M. Pisano, Ph.D and http://mustech.net for letting us reference his presentation! Follow him @PisanoJM!

Also, follow Alfred at @BandOrch!