Workshop/
Seminar
Registration
Beginning Band and Orchestra, the roots of a successful program
by: William W. Gourley
Several years ago the Traverse City School Board was considering eliminating the sixth grade beginning band program to balance the budget. Band director, John Campbell, waited until the end of the lengthy discussions before addressing the board. He explained that the band program is like a flowering plant. The flower is the high school band program, the stem is the middle school band program and the root of the program is the beginning band – the sixth grade program. If they cut the stem and flower from the root the flower will continue to blossom for a week or so and never flower again. But, if they cut off the flower and leave the roots and stem, the plant will eventually grow more flowers and continue to grow beautiful blossoms year after year. John suggested the board cut at the high school level and leave the beginning band in tact. Then, when budgets were stable the school system could reinstate he programs at the high school level – the flower – almost immediately. If they cut the beginning program, the school system would be destroying the root of the flower they call band and it would take years to re-grow their program when funds become available. The message was a powerful one and the board spared cuts to the beginning program.
As music educators it is imperative that we do not succumb to the beauty of the flower that is the high school program and neglect the roots of that flower. The advanced musical skills, exciting performances, public recognition, travel and attachment to students we have watched grow-up provide a very gratifying environment that can distract us from the beginning program. First and second year educators feel more comfortable with the high school ensemble because of the similarities to their college experience, the “maturity” of the students and the fact that it has only been four or five years since they were a member of a high school band themselves.
The middle school and beginning music programs have little in common with the university experience. Getting students started with the proper habits, guiding them through those first honks, squeaks, groans and scrapes requires us as teachers to be a cheerleader, coach, expert analyst, visionary, salesperson, promoter, psychologist, pedagogical master and possess unflappable patience while 30 to 100 beginners make their way through “Hot Cross Buns”. Trying to keep young students motivated in a discipline that is inherently grounded in delayed gratification when they are surrounded by immediate gratification activities creates an environment that can feel quite alien to any music educator let alone the beginning one.
It is easy to see why educators spend so much time gazing at the flower rather than tending to the roots of the program. After all, roots grow in dirt where bugs, worms and other unattractive squiggly things live. You never know what the next turn of the spade is going to uncover. And who sees the roots, anyway? These are sheltered from the light of day beneath the soil while the flower of our program continues to be in the community’s eyes. We must remember the ability to produce beautiful flowers year after year is dependent on healthy roots. The high school band or orchestra cannot flourish without a strong beginning and middle school program.
CREATE AWARENESS
PREPARING THE SOIL
May flowers don’t just burst from seeds planted in May. It takes months of preparation before the stem even breaks the soil. Months before the first flower the gardener needs to create an environment that will foster growth. The soil needs to be broken up, peat moss and fertilizer added and the seed placed in the ground months in advance. Then, we need to tend the seed still underground with constant watering and weeding.
Starting the beginning string or band program shares much in common with creating a beautiful garden. The Gemeinhardt reports of the early 1980’s emphasized the need for creating a stronger awareness of the beginning music program. Parents need information. If recruiting will take place in May, we must prepare the students and parents throughout the year.
In September we need to start the ongoing process of informing parents about the music program, the benefits of music and what the procedures will be to involve their children in the music program.
School Newsletters - Place an article in the elementary school newsletter explaining that in May students will have the opportunity to join the instrumental music program. Invite them to stop by the music table at the school’s open house and at parent-teacher conferences and to attend one of the concerts throughout the year. Fall marching band or orchestra Halloween concerts are great promotional events filled with excitement. Be sure you have something in every newsletter throughout the year that is pertinent to beginning band or strings.
Elementary Open House and Parent-Teacher Conferences - Have a booster table set up at the elementary school open houses and parent-teacher conferences with information regarding your program in a brochure or handout. A short two to three minute PowerPoint presentation filled with pictures of last years beginners having fun in music along with shots of the middle school and high school programs with sound-bite quotes will continue to encourage the “seed” to grow. Have your second year students perform in informal duets, trios or quartets around the school during these events. They can play songs from the method book, Row, Row, Row Your Boat in a round, or the arrangement of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, whatever. The majority of the information (75-80%) should concern beginning and second year band or strings class with the remainder offering highlights of the middle school and high school programs. Remember, your target “customer” is the first year music student parent; they really don’t care about festival ratings and scheduling at the high school.
Elementary music concerts and programs – Again, this is another opportunity to have information on hand even if it just an ongoing video presentation or a table with brochures.
In April mail a letter to the parents in the grade you will be recruiting with a short description of the events and procedures their children will be experiencing as part of the introductory instrumental music experience. Be sure to list the dates for fitting and information/rental meetings.
Perform a short (20 minute) in school concert. If possible, perform for the entire elementary (it never hurts to prepare the “soil” years in advance). One of the most effective ensembles to use is your second year students. These are the same kids on the playground, in the cafeteria, hockey and soccer teams with the students you hope to recruit.
MAXIMIZE PARTICIPATION
PLANT MANY SEEDS
It is not unreasonable to expect to enroll a minimum of 50% of a grade in beginning instrumental music. The days of “selecting” only those students that show sufficient aptitude for music or, “Take the best, shoot the rest” are no longer appropriate. They never were. That may apply to conductors but not music educators. Every child should have the opportunity to participate according to his/her needs. As with seeds, you never know which ones will eventually become beautiful flowers. Remember, even weeds often have some of the most radiant flowers.
There are several effective recruiting packets available today that can help music educators maximize their effectiveness in getting children to join the music program. During the past 20 years the music industry has tried to act proactively anticipating the impact of the proliferation of activities for children at an early age from year round hockey and soccer to academic games, television and computers. Marshall Music has developed the Excel Project a comprehensive plug-in recruiting program complete with advocacy articles, parent letters, posters and an implementation timeline to assist educators in maximizing instrumental music participation that the director customizes. (See the Marshall Music Newsletter Archives at www.marshallmusic.com) There is no need to reinvent the wheel. Any one of these programs can minimize your time while increasing your efficiency in bringing parents and students to your program.
In general, high school ensemble enrollment (9-12) tends to be 25%-40% larger than the beginning band or strings class. If a school is starting 50 band students it can expect to have a high school enrollment of 65-75. The program that starts 100 string students in the fifth grade can expect 125-140 string players in grades 9-12. Obviously there are exceptions to this rule but 80% of the schools will fall into this formula. These numbers emphasize the need to keep our attention on the recruiting and retention in beginning programs.
In today’s economic climate and with the pressures from other academic disciplines music programs are in a fragile position. More than I’s at festival and invitations to perform at conferences, communities and administrators measure success in the music program by numbers of students. The greater the participation of the student body in band or orchestra the more valuable a program is perceived and the less likely it will suffer deep cuts or harmful scheduling conflicts. It is hard to argue with success. The Catch 22 here is the most visible part of any instrumental music program is the high school ensemble whose numbers are dependent on how many students are enrolled in the beginning program. It is vital that the band or string teacher devote considerable energies to enrolling as many students as possible in the beginning program. Unlike gardening where we can run down to the local nursery and buy flowers to fill in our garden, there is nowhere for the high school director to go to fill in the band or orchestra. You have to grow your own.
MAINTAINING INTEREST
NUTURING THE SEEDLING
Once the plant breaks the soil we need to tend to the seedling to ensure its growth. We must carefully fertilize water, protect it from spring frosts and weed around the plant if we expect it to grow into the beautiful flower we need to adorn our garden. And all plants don’t need the same things. Some need less water than others, some withstand insects better than others and yet others can thrive with little or no sun.
Everyone may not be right for instrumental music but instrumental music must be right for everyone.
A beautiful garden is the result of many different kinds of flowers that bloom at different times throughout the year and flourish in many different conditions. The early spring blossoms fade to be replaced by summer blossoms that give way to the brilliant flowers of fall.
Just as it is the English teacher’s mandate to teach every child, it is the instrumental music teacher’s mandate to create an enriching environment for every student who wants to be in the program.
An old adage goes, “Variety is the spice of life”. As music educators variety is the essence of our success in maintaining the students’ interest and participation.
Slight of Hand – Music skills acquisition is the result of repetition and repetition can become discouraging. We can disguise it by using different rhythmic accompaniments on a simple electric keyboard or create them with Band in a Box or any of the many music writing programs available on the market. Teaching concepts before they appear in the lesson book or music can make them seem easy when they eventually appear in the book. During the warm-up/review portion of the class I used to play Hot Cross Buns, Mary Had A Little Lamb or other exercises the class had mastered in cut time and have them echo play it back to me. When we came across cut time in the book I would ask the students to pay attention to how many beats the half note or whole note was getting. Then I would ask how many quarter notes we played to the beat. Eventually I could get someone to say everything had been cut in half. Abracadabra! New rhythms, range, bowings, positions, crossing the break all can be learned before they are taught in the book. The students feel, “Hey, this is easy. I can already do this.”
Patience, Flowers Don’t Bloom at the Same Time – No matter how hard we try some students take longer to grasp a concept. Often, instrumental music students are used to excelling with little effort in school and can become discouraged when classmates who generally don’t do as well in other classes develop range on the brass instruments more readily or can control the bow better. Sometimes, to help a student experience some success I would ask them to play anything in the book for a grade. And, you bet, I gave an “A” to the student who played the one measure exercise that introduced a new note. We had a good chuckle over it but the student learned I was there for his/her success not mine. It’s important to help the student be patient with his/her progress.
Put Away the Weed-Be-Gone – If you notice a couple weeds growing in the garden don’t spray the whole thing with a defoliant. You will kill the flowers as well. Look for opportunities to cultivate those weeds. Some flowers look like weeds in the early stages. It’s a bit like the Ugly Duckling story. Remember, some of them eventually grow beautiful flowers. Don’t address the entire class because of a few non-conforming students. I can recall a particularly non-disciplined class with students who took forever to get set up and continued to be a challenge in the class. I completely ignored their inappropriate behavior. At the end of the class I gave “bonus stars” to the three students who were on task making it a point to praise their posture and the fact they were right on target the entire time. Within two weeks every student came around.
Let the Sun Shine In - Keep the garden’s attention focused on the healthy plants and the others will come along. My grandmother used to talk to her plants and it always seemed to encourage the withering ones. Bring happiness to your classroom. Use games to get students motivated to perform well. A little crazy goes a long way. People learn much more in a fun environment than in a hostile one. Oh, they learn in a hostile environment, they learn to not enjoy their experience. There aren’t too many plants that flourish without ample sunshine and the more they get the more likely they will bloom. Give your students lots of praise and support.
One Thing Doesn’t Work, Everything Works – In our garden, plants won’t grow just with watering, weeding, fertilizing, sunlight or talking to them. It is a combination of all of these things. As teachers we need to provide a variety of experiences for the students. There must be something for everyone to create a desire to return day after day, week after week, month after month and year after year. Variety in music from traditional to pop and country to movie and TV music. There needs to be a place for SpongeBob SquarePants as well as Osterling and Dakow. Every year my colleague who taught strings would rote teach the beginners the Flintstones’ theme. I knew he was about to shout, “Wilma” and my students in the adjoining room were going to crack-up. His students couldn’t wait to get home to play it for their parents. Variety, sunshine and a little bit of slight of hand. Abracadabra! Halloween concerts, holiday concerts, marching band concerts, traditional festival concerts, trips to the symphony or local university concerts and rehearsals, bowling parties, jazz band, fiddle club, a blend of music that appeals to audiences and performers, award buttons, progress charts; the more variety the more students you touch and the more that stay on to flower in the high school program.
Add a Shot of Fertilizer to the Seedling – As the seedling begins to resemble the flower it will become it is time to add a little fertilizer to encourage it to continue growing. Everyone knows playing the game is more fun than practicing. Research shows that the sooner beginning students play a concert the more likely they will continue in the program. Try to have a concert within the first eight weeks. Don’t think of a concert in the high school sense. It can be as simple as a demonstration concert with the class playing unison melodies over a synthesized accompaniment. Parents will never realize the students aren’t playing parts and using the synthesized accompaniment will enhance the performance. Parents will appreciate a 20-30 minute concert with a few tunes where first-concert certificates are presented along with a little desert. The Music Achievement Council (musicachievementcouncil.org) has a wonderful First Performance, A Demonstration Concert, for band or strings that includes everything you need for the first performance including easy melodies arranged by Sandy Feldstien. Saline has all its band beginners attend a marching demonstration where the middle school and high school bands demonstrate their skills. The beginners get to stand on the sideline and play a few beginning songs culminating in the beginners playing a BbM scale in whole notes interspersed with the 200+ marching band roaring a couple measures of swing style between notes. It gets the juices flowing at a time when the novelty of the new instrument begins to wane.
As intoxicating a flower high school ensembles can be we must maintain a diligent focus on the root of any music program, the beginning instrumental music class. With academic, fiscal and scheduling pressures intensifying every year it is up to us as the music education expert in the district to create an environment in which the music program can flourish to its potential.
To be successful, to grow that beautiful flower we call the high school ensemble, we must envision the beginning string or band program in the terms of a two year plan. The first year includes cultivating a fertile environment for recruiting prior to the student and parent choosing to join the program. The second year begins when the student starts on the instrument and we need to nurture the budding musician in order to build stronger and deeper roots for the music program in order to keep students in the program. Until there is a strong commitment to the first year instrumental program the school district cannot hope to offer its students a high school program that meets its full potential.