Bulletin
Fall 2021 Volume: 62 • Issue: 3
CONTENTS CBDA Board of Directors ........................................................................................ 2 President’s Message................................................................................................. 3 Jeff Detlefsen, CBDA President
CASMEC Preview....................................................................................................... 4 Ali Gilroy Golden, CASMEC Coordinator
CAJ Update................................................................................................................. 6 Paul Herrera, CAJ Representative
NCBCDA Update........................................................................................................ 7 Casson Scowcroft, NCBCDA Representative
NCBA Update............................................................................................................. 8 Christy Latham, NCBA Representative
SCSBOA Update........................................................................................................ 9 Jeanne Christensen, SCSBOA President
CODA Update........................................................................................................... 10 Chavonta Edington, CODA Representative
Remembering Mike Gangemi................................................................................. 11 Jeff Detlefsen, CBDA President
Achieving Musical Development Goals.............................................................. 12 David Lesser, Clovis North Educational Center
Relatively Speaking: Balancing Roles When Your Child Is In Your Band Program.......................... 14 Antonio Castro, Schurr High School
All-State Auditions................................................................................................... 17
CALIFORNIA BAND DIRECTORS ASSOCIATION BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Jeff Detlefsen President
Susan Willmering Vice President
Kristen Pallas Secretary
Dan Bryan President Elect/ Treasurer
Ali Gilroy Golden CASMEC Coordinator
Michael Tackett Exhibit Host
Joe Cargill CBDA Logistics Coordinator
Cisco Marquez CMEA Rep
Paul Herrera CAJ Rep
Phil Vallejo Past President
Ryan Dirlam Student Host
Danille Collins Director of Marketing
Christina Latham NCBA Rep
Trish Adams Executive Administrator
Ashley Shine Ensemble Host
Taylor Smith Director of Communications
Chavonta Edington CODA Rep
Casson Scowcroft NCBCDA Rep
Jeanne Christensen SCSBOA Rep/CBDA Logistics Coordinator
CBDA is a nonprofit association consisting of band directors from all levels of music education. CBDA provides the AllState Jr. and High School honor groups for students and a state convention each February for directors. Join or renew CBDA membership here. The CBDA Bulletin is the official publication of the California Band Directors Association, Inc. Published three times a year: Spring, Fall, and Winter. Subscription price is included in the CBDA annual dues. The opinions expressed in the magazine are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent an official position of the Association. CBDA does not necessarily endorse any product or service advertised in this magazine. Access emails at cbda.org 22
PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE
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don’t think I realized how much I missed teaching music, until I was able to get back in front of my band this fall. The feeling of directing and connecting with a live group of eager students was exactly what I needed to “fill my cup”. I have seen many posts from fellow music educators sharing this joy as they too rekindled their love for teaching music. As we are settling into this new school year, I know most directors across our state and country are “assessing the damage” caused by a lack of music in our schools in the last 18 months. Many of us have had the opportunity to play music with our students again, while others are still working on teaching remotely. As we all cautiously work through planning performances, trips, and schedules, know that the CBDA board is doing the same careful analysis for the upcoming All-State Ensembles and CASMEC experience. CASMEC 2022 is scheduled to happen in person in February 2022. We are looking forward to seeing many of you with your smiles and invigorated spirits. The All-State Ensembles are coming back together with a phenomenal slate of conductors. Unfortunately, due to the uncertainty of many programs in California, especially at our small and rural schools, the CBDA Executive Board made the disappointing decision to delay the creation of the Small Schools All-State Band for another year. We were pleased to have Dr. Peter Boonshaft agree to come back in 2023 for the premiere of this ensemble, and look forward to a great inaugural concert. Housing options are still being developed to allow students to participate in All-State in the way that they, their parents, and directors feel most comfortable. We are beyond excited to finally premiere our two Social Justice Commissioned pieces! Keven Day and Katahj Copley wrote two powerful pieces that speak to the events going on in our nation today. It is not too late to join the consortium and have your name, ensemble, or school added to these publications. You can join until September 30 at www.cbda.org/ cbda-social-justice-consortium/. These two pieces will be played by our HS Wind Symphony on Saturday February 19 and our JHS Symphonic Band on Sunday February 20. We have also planned a round table discussion with the composers and curriculum committee as a session at CASMEC on Saturday afternoon. Those who have joined the consortium will receive a printed copy of their piece(s) when they arrive at CASMEC in February. Although some days may seem overwhelming as we all work to discover the right direction to take this year, I encourage you all to stay connected with one another. We are not alone in this struggle as we continue to fight for music education in our schools. CBDA has been in constant communication with the amazing work being done by CMEA and their executive board. We continue to support them as they work to advocate for our classrooms throughout the state. Together with our other CASMEC partner organizations we are determined to provide our members with a wonderful conference and All-State experience and look forward to celebrating a successful year with you all, in person. Stay strong,
Jeff Detlefsen President, California Band Directors Association Director of Bands, Sierra Pacific HS
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C A S M E C Preview
Ali Gilroy Golden CASMEC Coordinator Director of Orchestras, Reagan Educational Center
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The 2022 California All-State Music Education Conference is back IRL! We can’t wait to see you all this upcoming February in Fresno, CA and are so excited to provide the highest quality professional learning opportunity for music educators and your students across the state. As always, California Alliance for Jazz (CAJ), California Band Directors Association (CBDA), California Choral Directors Association (CCDA), California Music Educators Association (CMEA) and California Orchestra Directors Association (CODA), the collaborating organizations of CASMEC, have been working hard to prepare an educational and uplifting conference and All-State experience. Registration will be open soon! The cost is $220 for organization members, $30 for college student members, $35 for retired members, and $365 for non-member attendees. Be sure to get registered with CAJ, CBDA, CCDA, CMEA and/or CODA to access that member rate. This year we are excited to host some wonderful sessions including presentations on great techniques to rehearse your ensembles, ways to communicate with your administrators, ways to cultivate a positive ensemble identity for musical excellence, and tips on score study and rehearsal preparation. Our CBDA presenters include Dr. Peter Boonshaft, Dr. David Betancourt, Dr. Jason Caslor, Dr. Michael Fleischmann, Dr. Danielle Gaudry, Dr. Christopher Marra, Phil Vallejo and Dr. Gregory Whitmore. Please be sure to join us immediately following CBDA General Session on Saturday for a special session featuring our Guest Composers, Kevin Day and Katahj Copley and their new commissions. Hopefully, most of you have heard of the exciting opportunity CBDA recently offered its membership. CBDA has organized a consortium to commission two new pieces of music, one for High School Band (Grade 4) composed by Kevin Day, and one for Junior High School Band (Grade 3) composed by Katahj Copley, that will help tell the story of social injustice within our nation. We are honored to work with these talented composers in the creation of these two works and hope you will join us for the World Premiers performed by our very own All-State students on Saturday, February 19, 2022 and Sunday, February 20, 2022. Our housing link for conference attendees will also be available on our registration page soon. Rooms will fill up quickly, so please do not wait to book your stay. Discounted rates are locked in for a short time only and shuttle services will only be provided to and from select hotels. Again, be sure to use our housing link on the registration page in order to lock in our CASMEC block rates. We know the 2020-21 school year was a difficult one. And unfortunately, 2021-22 is proving to provide its own new and quickly changing obstacles for us all as educators and musicians. However, it really is wonderful to see students and colleagues in real life again, and to make music together. For this I am grateful! We hope you’ll join us Friday night for the Director’s Social where you’ll have the opportunity to visit and reconnect with old friends and hopefully make some new ones as well. The CASMEC Team is hopeful that our 2022 Conference filled with educational sessions and inspirational music making will provide you all with a safe space to refresh, rehone and resharpen your skills and talents as an educator. We are so looking forward to seeing you all this February and reconnecting! I hope you have a wonderful and safe fall semester!
2021 Virtual All-State Honor Ensembles
See the Performances Here!! https://casmec.org/virtual-allstate-performances/
C A J Up d at e
Paul Herrera CAJ Representative Director of Bands, Gregori High School
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It is wonderful that the 2022 California All-State Music Education Conference will be in-person. More information of what that will look like and how it will be done safely will be posted on the CBDA website soon. For directors that have students interested in auditioning for these jazz ensembles, the audition music and submission information have been posted on CAJ and CBDA websites. Our conductors will be Matt Falker for HS Vocal Jazz, Jill Geist for JHS Jazz Band, and David Beatty for HS Jazz Band. This year CBDA and CAJ are co-sponsoring the commission of one piece for the JHS jazz band in Mike Gangemi’s memory. If you are interested in honoring him, please consider donating to his memorial scholarship fund on the CBDA website. It is wonderful to see Jazz and in-person teaching is in full swing this year across the state. Below is my approach to engaging students not seen on campus since March of 2020 and my preparations for getting them into transcriptions and improvisation. While I find myself worrying about past performances that have been lost or anxious about the possibilities of them happening this year: I am reminded that education is a journey and not a destination. Rehearsals are where the magic happens: concerts are a way of showcasing the end result. As a result: I am focused on laying a solid foundation for learning to take place. Week one was dedicated to establishing a welcoming and supportive culture. I dedicated time for icebreakers and team-building exercises. I know that many of my younger students are in need of support: so I have made sure to establish a student leadership/apprenticeship program that is working toward bringing those students most affected by the year away from playing/singing in an ensemble with students in pairs where possible. Week two was dedicated to going over basics. I constantly have students do call and response on any given pitch with me on my horn with rhythms that are found within their music and with various jazz articulations. I have slowly branched out to adding a few other pitches within a given scale or mode that has opened the door to talk about transcriptions and how they can learn tunes or melodies in multiple keys. In the weeks, and year ahead students and I will reverse the role where they lead us in a two bar phrase and the ensemble echo them. They’ll learn how to best incorporate these sound bites and lay the foundation for full on improvisation in a twelve bar blues form and then in any styles/genres/forms that we encounter later in the school year. I hope you find these tips and tricks helpful in preparing your younger students ready for improvising.
NC B C DA Up d a t e Greetings from the Northstate. If you are new to the CBDA organization, an introduction is in order. The NORTHERN CALIFORNIA BAND AND CHOIR DIRECTORS ASSOCIATION, is an organization of music teachers in the area of the state north of highways 80 and 50 in Norcal. Our main mission is to provide world class music experiences in the form of honor ensembles for the high school music students of our members. Rotating between CSUs Sonoma, Chico and Humboldt, we host an annual honor event, featuring Honor Concert Band, Honor Concert Choir, Honor Jazz Ensemble and Honor Jazz Choir, all conducted by the top educators from all over the country. With all of the craziness going on around the state, NorCal remains in limbo this year. Our host universities have not committed to allowing large group events. We are therefore exploring other possibilities, both in location and in format. Covid restrictions are once again having an impact all around the nation, the state and our member schools. Last year NorCal moved to a virtual Ensemble format, with a very successful honor band and choir, led by the talented Drs. Travis Cross and Emily Threinen. Please check out the video last year 2021
Casson Scowcroft NCBCDA Representative Director of Bands, Pleasant Valley High School
NCBCDA Honor Band & Select Choir Concert As several member schools are affected by the Dixie, Caldor and other fires, we will once again be extending our deadline for auditions to be submitted, giving more time to teachers and students who still may wish to participate, but may not be able to make auditioning their priority right now. NorCal is looking forward to several fantastic milestones to be enjoyed when conditions allow for normal music gatherings. Most notably, NCBCDA is commissioning two important pieces for its largest ensembles. To celebrate the 60th anniversary of the Honor Band, Julie Giroux has agreed to compose a celebratory work. The Honor Concert Choir is celebrating its 25th anniversary next year and we are happy to announce that we will be commissioning a piece for that event as well. Composer and consortium information will be forthcoming. Stay safe and best of luck to all of us music educators this year. See you at CASMEC!!
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N C B A Up d at e Northern California Band Association
Christy Latham NCBA Representative Director of Bands, Santa Cruz High School Mission Hill Middle School
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The mission of Northern California Band Association is to provide quality adjudication that supports education. NCBA was established in 1990 by music directors to provide an organization that could judge diverse marching band competitions that were previously run by independent organizations. NCBA provides a slate of judges for competitions, that are routinely trained to improve and sustain their skills, competitions in Northern/Central California and Northern Nevada with the goal to provide consistency in adjudication at each competition. These competitions include field competitions, parade reviews, concert band, jazz band, winter guard, percussion, and solo drum major competitions. Every January NCBA hosts a High School and Junior High school honor band. 2022 will be the second year of our honor Jazz Band. These are hosted and performed at San Joaquin Delta College in Stockton in the Atherton Auditorium. 2022 Honor Band Conductors are: High School Honor Band - Matthew Morse, CSU Sacramento, Junior High School Honor Band - Cathy Ettle, Lincoln HS, Stockton, Jazz Band Director - Patrick Langham, University of the Pacific We offer several ratings festivals for concert and jazz bands. Three festivals are planned for the 2021-22 school year. Each festival offers a full day of concert and jazz festivals. The locations are: Pittsburgh HS, Pittsburgh, CA, Inderkum HS, Sacramento, Ca, Del Mar HS, Campbell, CA NCBA offers Winter Percussion and Guard competitions. 15 Winter events in Guard, Percussion and Solo Drum Majors. The organization has adopted a WGI model and has a multi year plan to transition to this system. All Winter judges have completed the training programs.
S C S B OA Up d a t e I love the fall season. The weather begins to get a little cooler, the days get shorter, and there’s change in the air. The fall is a time to reflect, but more importantly, a time to plan for all we hope to accomplish during the year with our students. We set goals for ourselves and our programs. I see the fall as a time for renewal. It is time for change. With the season of change, the SCSBOA Board of Directors has taken a look at how we do things. We have been working hard to plan out the many performance opportunities our association provides for the membership. We have a strong tradition of music education and also a “set” way of evaluating groups. The board is committed to finding the balance of supporting educators and their programs, while making sure our processes stay current and relevant. The fall marching season will offer schools the choice to receive a rating or comments only, or traditional competition, at each field tournament. The minimum time limit has dropped to five minutes to ease the stress of performing the typical 7-11-minute show. Feedback is what everyone missed last year, so we are committed to providing more comments to be used as an important educational tool for both the educator and their student musicians. We want to support all programs as they get back to their marching activities. In addition to the marching season, we have thoughtfully planned for our festival season and annual conference. Schools attending festivals will have an allotment of time to perform on the stage in place of having to perform a certain number of pieces. Music selections will be the director’s choice and clinics will be available at each host festival site. The annual SCSBOA Professional Development Conference will take place once again in the month of January at the Hyatt Regency Orange County. Our conference will be held on January 21-22, 2022. The difference at this year’s SCSBOA conference is we will not host our student honor groups on the same weekend. The honor groups will move to April with the hope they will be able to gather in person from the many regions represented in Southern California. If you are interested in attending our conference, look on the SCSBOA website (www.scsboa.org) in the coming weeks to register. It is a great two-days of professional development sessions, food, and reconnecting with colleagues. The conference is also very close to the “Happiest Place on Earth.” Let’s all keep our fingers crossed that this school year will be one full of music, laughter, and moving forward, in person.
Jeanne Christensen SCSBOA Representative Director of Bands, Mira Mesa High School
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C O DA Up d a t e students from Central CA will have the option to choose which event they would be able to travel to. Audition materials for our one-day, in-person December 4th, 2021 Honor Orchestra event are available here! Audition materials are due online on September 30th. Please encourage your students to apply!
Junior High School All-State Updates
Chavonta Edington CODA Representative Director of Orchestras, Diablo Vista Middle School
CODA is excited to announce a second All-State ensemble for 7th and 8th grade students! The new Junior High All-State Concert Orchestra will premiere at the 2022 CASMEC Conference, as a second group addition to our existing Junior High All-State String Orchestra. CODA has been fortunate to receive large pools of auditioning students over the last few years, and we are excited to open a second opportunity to include more students in the AllState experience. Junior High School orchestra directors - this is a great year to encourage your students to audition for All-State! The Junior High excerpts have been updated to encourage accessibility - please do encourage your students to take a look and consider auditioning! Find excerpts, scales and audition procedures for Junior High School All-State here. For High School All-State excerpts, scales and audition procedures, click here.
CODA and Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Greetings Colleagues! By now your programs are in full swing and whether you are teaching indoors or outdoors, I hope that you are able to find meaningful opportunities to create music with your students. Please take some time to explore all of the exciting news from the California Orchestra Directors Association for the 2021-2022 school year!
CODA Membership 2021-2022 It’s time to renew your CODA Membership! Become a member today and help take an active role in supporting students, educators, and school orchestra programs across the state of California. Click here to view membership class information and here to join the organization or renew your membership.
CODA December Honor Orchestra 2021 As an updated event for 2021 given ongoing safety protocols, we will be hosting two in-person, simultaneous, one-day events on December 4th, 2021. One will take place in Northern California, and one in Southern California; 10 10
CODA serves to promote school orchestras in California by providing quality honor orchestra experiences for school orchestra students. Music continues to be a vehicle to bring our communities together in the ongoing effort to end systemic racism, discrimination, and injustice. We believe that our students deserve respect and representation inclusive of race, religion, socio-economic status, sexuality, and gender identity. CODA also facilitates an exchange of instructional strategies and ideas for the school orchestra director and provides a community and forum for school orchestra directors. We pledge to center the discussion of diversity, equity, and inclusion in our ensembles, classroom culture, and music libraries. Our goal is to help increase access to quality orchestral experiences for all students. Our proposed long-term plans toward increased diversity, equity, and inclusion include: 1. Conductor Diversity 2. Repertoire Recommendation for Honor Orchestras 3. Financial Barriers for Honor Orchestra Participation 4. Teacher Education Regarding Diversity 5. Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Chair & Resources
Remembering Mike Gangemi On June 20, 2021, Michael Gangemi, CBDA board member, band director at Santiago High School, and a friend to so many, lost his battle with liver failure. With Mike’s passing, the world lost a compassionate, hardworking, and loving man as well as a legendary music educator. On multiple occasions since June 20th I have found myself thinking back to the many times Mike encouraged us to reach out to one another and support each other. He once posted the following message on Facebook: Please, for the sake of your own sanity, open your contacts and send someone a message to let them know you’re thinking of them. That you love them. That they’ve made an impact on your life...As corny and lame as it may seem, it certainly beats the… “if I only had 5 more minutes with them...” What I wouldn’t give for the opportunity to send Mike another text, a quick call, or have “five more minutes” with my friend. Mike served on the CBDA board since 2009, making him the current longest serving board member. As webmaster, Mike helped us move from an organization that was mostly offline into one of the leading groups in the nation for online auditions and applications. Of course, Mike’s work in CBDA went well beyond that of his role as webmaster. If you needed help, you could be confident Mike would be there in an instant, willing to do whatever it took to help you succeed. As we prepare for our first conference without Mike, we are constantly finding “jobs” outside of the webmaster’s job description that Mike had been handling for us for years without being asked or told to do so. I don’t think anyone realized how much work this man did for our organization... and he was certainly never one to point it out or draw attention to himself. Not only was Mike a prolific volunteer for CBDA, he truly believed in the mission of our organization and the impact that participating in the All-State groups could have on a student’s life. It was for that reason that Mike donated money to help pay the participation fees for students who couldn’t afford them on their own. Mike quietly donated towards these fees for years and did so anonymously, unknown not only to the student and director, but to most of our board as well. In addition to the financial gifts, Mike donated a significant amount of time to help students record their auditions, including students outside of his own school’s music program. To honor his contributions to All-State, CBDA is so excited and honored to announce the Michael Gangemi Memorial Scholarship Fund. This fund will help provide partial and full scholarships to All-State students in need, continuing Mike’s legacy of service to CBDA and his willingness to help those less fortunate.
Mike was celebrated with a wonderful “Mikeapalooza,” a Celebration of Life, on July 31, 2021 at Westlake High School in Thousand Oaks. Hundreds gathered to celebrate his legacy and enjoyed live music, fun stories, and an overall fitting tribute for such a wonderful man. The attendance at this event alone is a great example of the reach that Mike had, and how much he influenced and touched the lives of others for the better. I know as we continue to prepare for this upcoming conference, I will constantly be reminded of all that Mike did for not only our organization, but for me personally. I already miss the banter of our text messages, the random checkins, and the loving concern Mike had for me and my family. I plan to live my life in honor of Mike by making sure others know how important they are to me, and I encourage you to do the same. With love and sorrow,
Jeff Detlefsen President, California Band Directors Association Director of Bands, Sierra Pacific HS
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Achieving Musical Development Goals
David Lesser Director of Bands Clovis North Educational Center
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Fifteen years ago, I was given the special gift of opening a new school. Planning for opening the Clovis North Educational Center Bands began in the spring of 2007. Numerous decisions were made before construction had completed. A balanced music program was paramount. Every ensemble must be exceptional, from our marching band, to our second concert band. Goal setting was key for achievement during our first ten years. Our plan split goals in two categories, program operational goals and musical development goals. I am going to share ideas which allowed us to reach musical goals pertaining to our concert ensembles. Short term goals included things like a successful intensely focused 90-minute rehearsal, to great posture for the duration of a performance. Long-term goals included, fielding multiple concert ensembles with full instrumentation and invitations to perform at state and national-caliber events. The pie-in-the-sky goal that would probably never happen was to perform at the Midwest International Band and Orchestra Clinic. In 2007, I had very few solutions on how to get there. Through many mistakes, baby steps, plus a plethora of support from master music educators, and a bit of luck, our concert ensembles achieved all our primary musical goals as we celebrated our 10th anniversary in 2017. The first step to achieving your selected goals will require an honest self-assessment. Decide how much you are willing to give to your students, your music program, your growth as a musician, pedagogue, and conductor. In my experience, achieving any of these goals has required extreme dedication, LOTS of time, and quite a bit of grit.
You must persistently reflect, revise, and retry. Setting small and large goals enabled me to stay grounded and move our program forward with purpose. I suggest creating a document comprised of detailed goals you wish to achieve in the next five years and move on to some broader strokes for what you hope to achieve ten years from now. Then add some pie-in-the-sky dreams to the list.
Finding your Mentor Finding your mentor is key. This should not happen quickly nor be taken lightly. I have had two or three mentors who were my main council. They helped guide musical decisions, challenging me to do things I didn’t think I could. They have seen all my ups and most of my downs. The other mentors are an additional list of musical giants. Some played great roles in my development. Others sprinkled bits and pieces of advice leading to improvement in my teaching and our performance level. Finding my mentors started by having the courage to pick up the phone. I was nervous and a nerdy fanboy reaching out to these all-stars. My relationship with them has been like a pendulum. At the beginning, I learned a great deal. I was in awe of how a guest conductor on the podium could use one metaphor, one descriptive word, or one gesture to correct a technique or error I was unable to cure after many attempts. My toolbox was being filled at lightning speed. Over time the pendulum swung the other direction where now their visits are much more collaborative and affirming. “Fake it until you become it”. – F. Troyka. I have found mentors from the following groups of educators:
College Band Directors - As a new teacher, I relied heavily on my College Band Directors. They committed hours of council, guest rehearsal time, and friendship. After twenty years they live close to home and are still willing to help. It only costs a few lunches and dinners, which have also been learning experiences. I could never repay them for the time they have dedicated to the myself and my students. I hope every music educator has someone in their corner, like Dr. Sutherland and Dr. Gilroy have been in mine. Veteran teachers in my school district or region - They had decades of teaching experience and very successful programs. It was easy to email, call, or have lunch. I would ask to observe their rehearsals, ask for them to observe one of my rehearsals, or even clinic my band. Again, most advice was free, but I often showed gratitude by a small gift card and a thank you. Out of area guest conductors or clinicians – These were the idols. After much study and learning the model high school and University bands from around the country, I formulated the list of ensembles I wished to emulate. I wanted to know what they knew. I picked up the phone and cold-called many of these conductors. Sometimes it took a phone call, an email, then another phone call before I got a response. I thought, “why would this amazing teacher ever call me back?” Luckily, nine times out of ten they were eager to help. Through fundraising, finding grants, collaborating with multiple schools, working with companies to sponsor clinicians, we found ways to host guest clinicians from across the country to rehearse our ensembles. This is how many of my musical friendships were formed. In the last 15 years, the Clovis North Wind Ensemble has had more than 56 guest conductors. I would consider there to be 5 mentors out of that group who continue to be very influential in the growth of our program. The remaining 51 guests provided a different perspective and gave some type of additional tool, for me to add to my toolbox.
Listening to Recordings – On My Own and With the Ensemble I recommend purchasing a subscription to Masterclass (www.Masterclass.com). Questlove’s Masterclass was eye opening. I was amazed by his daily listening schedule, playlist organization, and the diversity of music he listens to. This was intended to create new set lists, beats, and to influence his own playing. This really resonated with me. I treat listening like I should treat exercise. I tend to be more consistent with finding time to listen to music than I do finding time to exercise… (if I was smart, I would do the two in tandem). Listen to music is part of my job. I find time each day to listen to music on my own in one or more of these categories: • Studying repertoire I should know • Pieces my students should know • Intense study of music we are preparing to perform • Searching for that “new” piece or “new” composer • Find something I haven’t heard before • Mental health • Entertainment There are many ways I use audio and visual recordings 13
to achieve our ensemble’s musical goals: • Observe performance etiquette • Expose students to model musicians • Analyze style • Analyze artistic choices • Compare and contrast performances of the same piece between two ensembles • Reference recordings to help prepare for performance From 2007-2011, listening and watching recordings of performing ensembles during class was one of our most important tools. Sometimes I dedicated an entire class period to this exercise. There were no experienced students or performing ensembles in our program yet. Observing videos of amazing high school ensembles, allowed our performers to see students their own age achieve at an extremely high level. We would also use University, Military Band, and Orchestral recordings as examples of mastery level performances. There are two types of listening, passive and active. Passive listening is for entertainment while active listening is with a purpose. Younger students are usually not used to active listening. During active listening we taught the process of how to listen, preceded or followed by cues on specifics to observe. I required students to sit with their instrument in their lap with good posture and take notes throughout the recording depending on the prompt. We started with one short piece, working our way up to an hour-long concert based on their ability to stay engaged for longer periods of time. From 2007-2009, we mostly watched DVD’s of high schools performing at the Midwest Clinic (www. markcustom.com). The first year was direct instruction on the bullet points above. The second year, I prompted student conversations with questions. “What was uniform about the ensembles entrance to the stage?” “What markings did performers make on their music?” “During this musical phrase, what sections of the ensemble stood out?” From 2010 and beyond, students verbalized their thoughts about the recordings with more depth and without my prompts. Since 2011, I post reference recordings on YouTube or google classroom. Our conversations now require students to make artistic choices about which recording they prefer and why. A favorite was when we compared three recordings of Elsa’s Procession to the Cathedral while we were in performance preparation for the same piece. We used the following recordings for reference: United States President’s Own Marine Band Baylor University Northwestern University The class decided there was great musicianship in all three recordings. Students recognized significant musical differences between all three recordings and found Northwestern the class favorite. This was due to the ebb and flow of the ensemble as well as the way choices were made to emphasize certain voices such as the French horns.
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Programming Appropriately Selecting quality appropriate music for our ensemble to perform is the most important part of my job. I spend months planning repertoire selections for the band. I usually have three or four sets of music cycling through my brain thinking a few years ahead. Is this a year to pick a piece that may be a bit of a stretch to see if the band can rise to the occasion or is it time to take a bit of a step back and refine some fundamentals that have been neglected? It is absolutely acceptable to perform grade 1, 2, or 3 music with any level ensemble as long as it is of good quality. One of my favorite pieces to ever perform was Gently I Wander, by Robert Sheldon. A pitfall of many groups is their concerts have been over-programmed. Here is a link to the repertoire the Clovis North Symphonic Band 2007-14 and the Wind Ensemble 20142020 has performed at concert band festivals: https:// tinyurl.com/ae8n8zht Planning to tackle the goal of a Midwest clinic appearance, I knew the program length for a Midwest Clinic concert was up to 45 minutes of playing time. This led to deciding to prepare 5-8 pieces each spring semester for our festival music. Performing additional literature gave students the stamina they needed to meet the demand of performing 45 minutes of music. It developed our individual musicianship, and it became our normal. Our largest shift of performing more difficult music came once we met the goal of having two concert ensembles. Internal competition kicked in and students practiced more. By the Spring of 2018, I could pretty much put any piece of music in front of the band to play. I was in awe of them every day. It felt like I was rehearsing an honor band. This was the result of years of hard work and small growth from one year to the next.
Create Individual Musicians Informed artistic opinions through discussion was our first step to creating individual musicians. The next step was to focus on fundamentals. EVERY. DAY. We teach our students the “why” behind the “what”. Long tones, every day, without fail and done with a purpose. Have discussions about what makes long tones important. Show students how long tones CAN be musical. Get excited about a consistent beautifully balanced, non-overly articulated attack duration and release of a concert F. It is one of my favorite parts of the year, starting over on a concert F. Next, accountability. David Fullmer, Director of Bands, Snow College, Ephraim Utah spent time with our students years ago. I stole his mantra, “Every note of every measure”. I made a big sign and hung it in the band room. It was clearly seen by all students every day. Our expectation is that every student will play every note of every measure correctly, once we get to a performance. Some ways this was achieved was by regular playing by individual students in front of the class or from within the ensemble. Once students realized it was a safe place and we were all supportive of one another, this flourished. All players in the ensemble down to the last chair player in the section became comfortable and proud when it was their turn to demonstrate mastery on a part. The more competent our
students became, the more celebratory our rehearsals and performances were. This led to developing soloists in every section of the band. Once this occurred literature selections expanded. It’s widely known in the band room that if you have a solo in a piece of music, it is a privilege. The soloist has the responsibility to be a great steward of the ensemble during their musical moment. All solos in our Wind Ensemble are required to be memorized now. The more you take your eyes out of the music, the larger your ears may become. Another important saying we have regarding individual musicianship is “ABC – Always Be Changing.” Assume you are ALWAYS the one who is out of tune, out of time, and out of balance. That way you will always be engaged with what is going on and can react quicker to changes in the ensemble. I have been fortunate to be surrounded by an amazing team who have worked in tandem with our students and myself to create a special atmosphere of celebrating music. Through our systematic approach of goal setting we have stayed the course and achieved some amazing things. Next time I will share ideas about program operational goals. As a proponent of paying it forward, please do not be nervous or afraid to reach out with any questions about any of the things we have tried to accomplish with our ensembles at Clovis North.
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Relatively Speaking Balancing Roles When Your Child Is In Your Band Program by Antonio Castro
Band Director Schurr High School Sparton Legion Montebello, CA
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Thirty years ago, I think I knew I was somehow going to be a teacher. I was not expecting to be a band director. I think in my early twenties, I knew I was going to have a family someday. When I look back now though, I do not ever remember weaving those two concepts together. I think we can all agree that finding the right person to tolerate a band director’s life is unique and a challenge all unto its own. It wasn’t until my fourth year teaching that I was about to have a child of my own that I was about to shift everything I thought I knew into a whole new type of philosophy. My daughter is now a COVID-Era sophomore. She is in my high school band program. Here are my limited nonexpert thoughts on the matter. Let me start by saying I have absolutely no regrets about the challenge I am still sometimes dealing with on a day to day basis. From a teacher standpoint, I still have all the same challenges with my daughter that any other teacher may have. She has inherited a lot of my personality, especially my “younger personality” and habits. This is a nice way of saying, in my opinion, she’s brilliant with a hint of laziness. From a dad perspective, I believe any parent would brag or flex about their own children. I am no different. She constantly impresses me with things that I know I could not do when I was her age. Trumpet came naturally to her, as did movement and weapon. She’s now tackling the challenge of co captain of her (my) high school color guard. Sometimes the dad and teacher combine and that’s when things get complicated.
Now, from what I know about most band parents, unless the parent was in band themselves, they could care less about whether or not their child practices at home. Their mindset, from what I can tell, is “They practice before school, during school, and after school, sectionals, all day on Saturdays, they play at rallies, games, field competitions, parades, band reviews, and the teacher wants them to practice on their own even more?” The band director’s answer is of course “YES!” The dad in me is more like
“ Ugh, OK, I get it. Do some math.” That being said. My kid hardly practices but nails performance assignments and assessments. I have come to realize that being a good parent and being a good director comes with some hypocrisy. You have to be a bit of a hypocrite to make sure our students and children are able to stand on our shoulders in order to see and reach farther than we could. This means we strive for our kids to be better than us. So of course I want my kid to practice more. Of course I want her to succeed academically. Even if that means she has the same habits I grew up with. It’s up to me with both teacher eyes and parent eyes to help her avoid some of the pitfalls and bad decisions that I made. Now I know some may say “You have got to let her fail and pick herself back up so she’ll learn.” I agree to an extent. However, I also believe the universe works. I believe that for every situation I have experienced, bad or good, it happened for a reason. What I have derived from this through the years is whenever I did not understand why something was happening to me (usually something unpleasant), I have come to believe its purpose was to help either my students or my family either avoid, adapt, or overcome a similar situation. This means owning my hypocrisy for the sake of a better outcome in my daughter and my students. Make no mistake. This is hard. My daughter has been a band kid for her entire life. My students and recent alumni at the time were the first ones there at the hospital. She has been attending guard rehearsals to stretch and move since 7th grade. She has heard all of my sayings, all of my “isms”, knows all my catch phrases, knows all my corny jokes, knows what sets me off, and knows another side of her father the rest of the program never sees. This carries an extra weight to her high school experience as well that I am cognizant of. This was all by design, however. As a younger director, like many, I was out to make a name for myself. I put in way too many extra hours at work. I left early and came home late. Sometimes not seeing my daughter during the hours she was awake. This carried on for some time. By the time she was old enough to realize what was going on she started to resent my chosen profession. This was tough. I’m sure those that are still reading this with similar situations in their lives can completely understand. This went on for some time. As certain uncontrollable factors entered and exited my life (i.e. administration changes, different coaches, different athletic directors, facility availability, my own seniority), I started to have more control over my work schedule and plugged back in to being a father. During this time, my daughter soon took an interest in music. She expressed an interest in being in band. My band. I was thrilled. I still am. I was willing to make this happen. This meant more time together and I wouldn’t miss out on some of her most important moments as a young adult. At the time we had to make some serious decisions. We switched her school so she could develop friendships with students her age and transition to middle and high school with them. During her middle school years, she decided to follow her godfather’s footsteps and pick up the trumpet. Her tuba player father was heartbroken for about 30 seconds until 17
he realized how much money he would save. It was during this time I discovered something very important that shaped how I would spend the next crucial years with my daughter. I do not enjoy teaching my daughter music *dramatic chords*. When she was 11, I was still Daddy. Not even Dad yet. Asking for help on her instrument meant correction, critique, and, as we all know, repetition. She did not enjoy that one bit. This is where we needed to have “the talk.” It was an epiphany of sorts. It all started to make sense. Through the years I always get questions like “Why doesn’t my kid listen at home like they listen to you?” The answer became crystal clear. Because I am not their parent. I am their music teacher. My focus is much more narrow when it comes to their upbringing. Now, I was both. A student is normally supposed to have a different relationship with their music teacher than their parents. There are many shared responsibilities but it is still much different to be a teacher than a parent. We both came to find out a lot of truths from our talk. She would have to understand that “Dad” will become “Mr. Castro” when it came to music. I know this may sound cold. But for us, it works. Now, when she asks for help I ask “Are you sure?” It’s a reminder that I’m about to switch hats. I’m about to be Mr. Castro. I’m about to give instruction. I’m about to be constructive but also may tell her things she may not like. Sometimes she’s ready for it, sometimes she says “Wait. Let me think about this real quick.” Now, as a leader in my program, she knows the unwritten rule about asking me questions. “Three before me.” She knows she can come to me regardless but she definitely makes an effort to seek out answers on her own before relying on her dad for program related questions. There are things that are easier now that she is in my program. My wife and I don’t have to worry about who is picking her up. My wife is our best booster. She understands her schedule as a guard mom because she’s lived with it
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for so long at my side. Professional courtesies are available whether I use them or not. It helps knowing which teachers will gel with her personality ahead of time. My colleagues have also watched her grow up on and off campus. My boosters have been the extra aunts and uncles in my daughter’s life that I could leave her with while I dealt with an issue or both her mom and I were busy. We understand each other’s boundaries. I am now privy to her life more than most parents to their children. I do my best to not take advantage of that. I still have to let her trip and fall so she can pick herself up. I am a dad so of course I still mess that up sometimes. There are definitely things that are more difficult as well. Perhaps more challenging is a better phrase to use. Any seasoned band director will tell you to leave work at work. Do not bring it home with you. Well we now live five minutes from campus. This presents unique challenges of its own. I used to have up to a 30-minute drive home to flush out my day, lesson plan, think about mistakes I made throughout the day, how I could have handled various interactions better, think about what went well, what could have gone better, and what to avoid doing in the future. Now, I literally bring work home with me. My car rides are considerably shorter. I can’t vent like I used to, nor can I really let my daughter know what I really thought of certain aspects of rehearsals or performances. Regardless of the challenges, having your child in your program is really good for the soul. You can literally be there and watch your child evolve, thrive, and inspire others. I’ve seen plenty of my other students do it and now I get to see my own daughter get the chance to do it as well. After these last 18 months of distance learning, remote teaching, and losing dozens of students to moving, poor grades, and family tragedies, I can think of no one else I want by my side to help me rebuild my program.
All-State Auditions California currently offers the opportunity to audition and participate in 15 All-State ensembles. Collaboratively, CBDA, CODA, and CAJ offer a junior high (Grades 7-8) All-State Honor String Orchestra, two junior high (Grades 7-8) All-State Honor Bands, a junior high (Grades 7-8) All-State Jazz Band, 3 high school (Grades 9-12) All-State Honor Bands, a high school (Grades 9-12) All-State Jazz Band, a high school (grades 9-12) All-State Honor String Orchestra, and a high school (Grades 9-12) All-State Honor Full Orchestra. CAJ also offers a high school (Grades 9-12) All-State Jazz Choir. CCDA offers four All-State Choirs. All of these ensembles will rehearse and perform at the California All-State Music Education Conference in February, 2022.
Audition information is posted here: https://cbda.org/all-state-ensembles/auditions/
2022 Scales and Audition Etudes are posted here: Dropbox Link Google Drive Link
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