I'm a music educator and jazz musician who speaks with Billy Bob Joe, my 105 year old saxophone. Together we help you realize that - although you may be scratched, dented, and abused - like Billy Bob - God can still use you to play a beautiful symphony to the world.
If you’ve ever opened a piece of sheet music, you’ve almost certainly encountered Italian words such as allegro, andante, forte, piano, crescendo, or ritardando. Whether you’re a beginning band student or a seasoned conductor, Italian musical terms are part of the language of music. But have you ever wondered why? Why not English? Why not …
Less is More – Focus on performing two songs really well rather than filling the time with three songs. In many cases, less time on stage will also result in more clinic time (for festivals that do a clinic afterwards). Not too easy; not too hard – Select repertoire the students are able to make …
Read more “Try These 16 Tips To Make Your Next Festival Performance Better”
12 Rehearsal Room Hacks Mark The Floor With Tape for Easy Chair Set-upI like my rows of chairs neat and orderly, but I don’t like to reinvent the wheel each time I set the chairs up. I often mark the floors with tape. Not the entire floor – I usually just put one small piece …
Read more “From Chaos to Control: 12 Hacks to Transform Your Rehearsal Room”
There’s an old Newhart Episode where Dr. Switzer is seeing a counseling client. He offers her profound words of wisdom for her problems. “Stop It,” he says. That’s my advice to you. Earlier in my career, I often found myself comparing myself to other teachers. Look at their facilities… I wish I had their students… …
I’m now closer to 100 than I am to 1. I can remember the days when teachers were respected almost 100% of the time. Parents always had a teacher’s back. Admin always supported the teacher. It was a trinity of leadership to support making the young person a better human being. Although we no longer …
Read more “How to Instill High Standards Even When Facing Resistance”
Air Will Get You There In 90% of cases, brass players are either not using enough volume of air or are not using a fast enough air speed. Check those two things first. Sirens Demonstrate a siren sound on a trumpet mouthpiece (you can obtain these for cheap here). Have brass students perform these in …
Read more “9 Practical Tips to Help Brass Players Master Partial Changes”
Why do I call it classroom structure and management and not discipline? The word discipline implies that some things are going wrong. I once interviewed for a job where one of the questions was, “It’s the day of the spring concert. Students are running around acting the fool. Nobody is listening and there is complete …
Read more “Why Structure and Management Work Better Than Discipline”
These tips were developed at a Title 1 school where my classes were very large and the students did not have a good culture of behavior in their other classes. They behaved in mine, but I had to work at it. #1 Pray I’m not kidding! I pray for wisdom on an almost daily basis. …
Read more “Top 10 Tips For Managing Large Groups of Beginners”
Getting More Parent Participation We all want more parent participation. It’s going to look different depending on where you teach. You can change the culture, but it will take time. There’s no magic fix. It’s a process. If you’re new to a program, give it some time. At the start of the year, I send …
Read more “You Can Get More Parent Participation Using These Tips”
Repertoire Selection Tips Repertoire selection can make or break your performance! It can affect student focus, enthusiasm, motivation, and it can even affect your classroom management. Repertoire selection can help musicianship or it can hinder musicianship. If the students are too focused on technique and getting the right notes, they’re not going to be focused …
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In 2005 I was a new teacher at a high school with about 50 students in band and no marching band. Everybody was required to play in pep band during football games. We grew to 80 students the 2nd year, then 100, then more than 100. I was trying to do everything myself! It was …
This technique worked really well when I taught marching band. Like many great ideas, I stole this one from my colleague Keith B. You divide the technique into learning and rehearsing. Learning You will find that if you do this, you’ve gone through each set 9 times! It sounds like a long amount of time, …
Read more “Unique Drill Rehearsal Technique for Marching Band”
Repertoire selection can make or break your performance! It can affect student focus, enthusiasm, motivation, and it can even affect your classroom management. Repertoire selection can help musicianship or it can hinder musicianship. If the students are too focused on technique and getting the right notes, they’re not going to be focused on musicianship. It’s …
Read more “Repertoire Selection. The Hardest Thing About Teaching Band.”
It’s often easy for percussionists to become unfocused and unengaged if you’re not careful in picking the right repertoire and thinking about different things that pertain to percussionists. Do teachers who are percussionists find student percussionists easy to deal with? #1 – Pick Good Repertoire – Pick repertoire that utlizies them. Somne grade 4-6 songs …
Read more “Ways To Keep Your Percussionists Focused, Engaged and Happy.”
I wish there was a quick fix to playing in tune, but there’s not. It’s a long process of training the ear. The process never ends. As a pro musician, I ALWAYS feel like I’m out of tune and striving to fix tuning. It’s a journey. Here are a few tips to help in that …
Read more “Is Your Band Out Of Tune? Try These Tips. Warning – It’s Not a Quick Fix”
You may be surprised to find out just how much time I spend on fundamentals. The longer I teach, the more I focus on fundamentals, scales, breathing, warm up exercises, and more. When I first started teaching a 45 minute class would consist of 10 minutes on fundamentals and 35 minutes of working on the …
Jazz is my forte. Yet in my entire career I have worked with small – sometimes tiny – jazz bands. I have started jazz bands from scratch several times. Here are four strategies for working with a small jazz band. #1 – Jamie Aebersold Play-AlongsThese have been around at least since the 1980s when I …
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It’s normal to make mistakes. Here are the Top 13 Mistakes Director’s Make – and I’ve been guilty of all of them. #13 – Not Planning Enough: You need to plan, plan, plan, have a calendar, whatever works for you. I need a visual calendar showing me a month at a time. I plan the …
We hear so much about doing the proper score study to prepare for instrumental ensembles. In my earlier years of teaching, I really struggled with it. No time. No energy. Through the years, I found a way to make it a little bit easier. I sit down with my scores, a pencil, and a notebook. …
Read more “Score Study Revisited – Make Lesson Planning Easier”
I soon tired of finagling with grades and trying to account for everything! Pencils, participation, pejorative looks. Can you keep up with all of that? If so, great. It seemed too time consuming to me. My system has evolved over 26+ years of teaching and is VERY simple. The “old” way of doing things is …
Read more “Rethinking the Score: Radical Grading Approaches in Band Education”
Marching Band should be a part of the program at all high schools. Do you agree or disagree? Why? I have found that many who disagree have been hurt in the past by a school that has abused their time and led to burnout. Marching band adds to students’ lives in so many ways. I …
Read more “Marching Band Is Needed Now More Than Ever Before”
Add Some Spice To Your Rehearsal Spices take something that already tastes decent and makes it just a little better. That’s what these ideas can do for your rehearsals. Don’t try to incorporate ALL of these ideas in one day. You’ll drive yourself crazy. Try one a week, or one a day, or one a …
Read more “Spicing Up Rehearsals: Flavorful Techniques for a Better Band Rehearsal”
8 Strategies For Surviving I absolutely love teaching! I love teaching music! But there have been MANY times I thought of leaving the profession. At those times, I had to dig deep and remember my calling. I’ve had to look at other jobs and think, “What would those be like,” ultimately deciding that I didn’t …
Read more “Teaching in the Trenches: How to Survive the Stress Bubble”
Spend some time on your resume’ (but not too much). Some of this may depend on what point you are at in your career, but generally speaking, prospective employers don’t care that… They might care that… What they care about the most… Have an expert look at your resume’. When I say expert, I mean …
Read more “It’s Easier Than You Think To Land That Next Teaching Job”
Guest Post by Gary Barton Though heterogeneous beginning band means that all instruments are being taught simultaneously in one room, the scenario may not be the same from school to school. Some schools have mixed instrument classes but more than one teacher may be assigned. I have seen classes with just one teacher, but other …
Read more “Teaching the Heterogeneous Beginning Band: The One Person Show “
In 1986 I attended the Army School of Music or – as we affectionately called it – The Pool of Mucus. It was a great time for me, although it was also a very busy time. I started school in October 1986, was married in December of 1986, and was determined to “advance out”, to …
Read more “Cockroaches in the Coffee, Tablecloths, and Music”
Three community members in a two month period! A couple of years ago, we lost the district superintendent. She was hit while riding her bike – and many in our community witnessed it happening! Shortly after, a student was killed in a car accident. Soon after that, a student committed suicide. WE got the word …
Warning! Don’t try to change everything when you are new to the position. Listen to the “why things are done this way” of your community. There may even be a reason to keep a “bad” tradition for a time. When I started at my 2nd school, I noticed that there were absolutely no traditions to …
Teaching a Brand New Drum Major The first and most important thing is to teach the drum major how to sound a roll off, usually in conjunction with the drummers. Here’s a decent example of a roll-off. Have your drummers learn a cadence. When the drum major wants the band to play, he/she will blow …
Read more “Advice For Leading Your First High School Parade”