Relatively Speaking: Balancing Roles When Your Child Is In Your Band Program

from CBDA Fall Bulletin 2021

by California Band Directors Association

SCSBOA Update

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.

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.

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.