Quick and Easy Performances Opportunties

Performing is what learning an instrument is ultimately about. Students choose to play an instrument to well...PLAY. We schedule our annual Winter and Spring concerts at the elementary level and can tend to think that is it. There are other ways to give students opportunities to perform that:
1. Don't require much planning
2. Don't require teaching additional music
3. Do sell our program
4. Do give students opportunities closer to real life performing

Here are just a few quick and easy performing ideas that only take a little bit of advance effort and planning:

1. Students perform at lunch
Planning - talk to your administrator and lunch supervisor in advance
Music - use music students are currently working, preview concert or a previous concert's music
This type of performance is what we call the "captive audience". Students are eating lunch and your band/orchestra students perform for them. If your school has multiple lunch periods, having your students play for a younger grade can make them more comfortable.

2. Students perform at an already planned assembly
Planning - talk to whoever is in charge of the assembly/administrator
Music - again use whatever students are working on preview concert or previous concert music
This works great for all school sing-alongs, have students play a song or two as students are entering/exiting.

3. Students perform at Open House/Parent Nights
Planning - talk to administrator
Music - same as above, also I have had students sign up to just play solos or small groups as well. Excellent opportunity for advanced students to shine
I have students consider it like a street performance. Set up in a busy hallway and perform for parents walking by. Many will stop to listen and you will love the number of parents of younger grades who stop to ask "When can my student join?"

4. Students perform at local Nursing Home/Care facility
Planning - contact local senior centers/care facilities, fill out field trip forms/transportation/administrators
Music - same as previous
This takes more planning but it is a wonderful opportunity for your students and is great PR. Depending on your district's busing policies it should be a free field trip or very small cost. Students love field trips, senior facilities love having them perform. We do trips before winter break and play holiday tunes each year. It is a wonderful follow up to a winter concert!

What performance opportunities have you explored with your young students?

Director vs. Teacher

I was fortunate to have great music teachers from age 5 on. Starting with my first piano teacher who taught me the music staff, to my children's choir director who shared his love of making music, to my middle school band teacher who emphasized understanding music theory and sight-reading. As I got older in high school in college these teachers turned into directors, it was more student management and the rehearsal grind. Now there were moments I again saw their passion and love of music; in those moments we as a group really shone.

In this era of complex evaluation, merit pay and the slow death of tenure do we need to reconsider the role of band director? I have always thought of myself as a band teacher. This is probably why I gravitated towards elementary band, but if high school had happened I feel I would have gone in the same direction.

It is a fine line to consider when working with music students. Is our goal great concerts and/or top contest ratings? Is our goal students gaining a love and respect of music? Is our goal greater musical understanding?

I think great teachers don't have to choose. When we teach to the whole student, go deep into the music: learning the theory, history and meaning of the music, we accomplish all of those goals.

I think is this era of accountability we are given the opportunity to really shine, to prove how beneficial music really is. We can use these new challenges to our advantage.

Ideas to consider:

1. Taking rehearsal time to learn more theory.

2. Taking rehearsal time to have students learn the history of the songs and/or the composer's intent.

3. Having students compose and do projects related to music they are working on.

4. Discuss real life applications/careers in the music field.

We need to keep what we do relevant. As a music teacher we KNOW what we do is benefiting students but sometimes we need to go beyond just the notes and rhythms and playing well to prove it.

I'm going to wrap up this slightly rambling post with a plug. I believe in Comprehensive Musicianship, teaching with intention and proper planning. If you want to discover more about this philosophy of teacher check out one of these sites:

http://www.wmea.com/CMP/

http://www.ilcmp.org/

http://www.iowacmp.org/

Beginning Band Music Selection

Choosing the right music for your beginning band is a challenge. There are a few important things you need to consider right off the bat:

1. Number of melody/harmony lines: In general the biggest mistake young band directors make in music selection is choosing pieces with too many melodic lines. In general beginners are most successful in 2 or 3 part songs, with the majority of the piece moving as one. Of course it is important for students to learn to play in parts, but be wary of how many complex pieces you program in a concert.

2. Range and Key: In general with beginners you want to stick with 5-7 note songs, and in the first year you really do not want to go much above concert A-Bb, as it is your trumpets for the most part will not be able to comfortably hit their high C. When trying to expand their range consider using a familiar tune where they can hear if they are correct.

3. Appeal: You want to pick music that students will connect to while it being also being quality literature. This is a challenge. The vast majority of music being written for beginning band (grade .5-1) is not original nor appealing to the 21st century 10 year old. I'm not saying we need to program all pop music, students really love classical melodies and folk songs. What you want to avoid overly simplified tunes, nursery rhymes, and pieces where there is little challenge.

4. Variety in Programming: There is a traditional formula to band concert programming-Opener which is typically a Fanfare or Overture, Lyrical Piece, March and Closer which is typically longer and exciting. This formula works for a reason, it teaches a range of styles, expressive qualities and music/band history. I typically do stick this formula, however finding Marches for beginners is a challenge-at least those that are traditional march form.

5. Instrumentation and student ability: Instrumentation is a huge issue in music selection. Unfortunately many arranger/composers of young band literature have an unrealistic concept of reality when it comes to instrumentation. First the typical elementary band does not have many harmony instruments-bassoon, bass clarinet, tenor/bari sax and often do not have tuba, oboe or french horn either. Most smart arrangers double these parts but the frequent lack in low voices is a major concern. On the other hand you do not want to pick parts that bore your poor trombones to tears either. It is important to study your ensemble the first part of the year and work to discover strengths and weaknesses in your sections when selecting music.

6. Cross-curricular: Finally one last consideration is music which links to their other subjects. This is big in the era of Common Core. Finding pieces which have links to literature, history, science etc. can really add validity to your program.

So is music selection overwhelming yet? To help here are a couple examples of beginning band pieces have had been very successful with in the past:

CC-indicates Cross Curricular literature.

First concert: (typically my first beginner concert is mainly from their text but I like for them to experience at least one "full page song", these are my favorites)

"Shark Attack!" by Les Taylor
"Popcorn Prelude" by Mike Hannikel
"Freedom's Road" by Paul Lavender
"Dance of the Jabberwocky" by Rob Grice **if your first concert is later in the school year CC

Second Concert:

Beginner Openers:
"Fanfare Heroica" by Brian Balmages
"Declaration and Dance" by Larry Clark
"Ancient Hunters" by Sean O'Loughlin CC
"Cardiff Castle" by Mark Williams CC

Beginner Marches
"Yankee Spirit March" by John O'Reilly CC
"Admiration" by Larry Clark
"To the Fore" by Chris Bernotas

Beginner Lyrical:
"Anasazi" by John Edmondson CC
"Spirit of the Wolf" by Michael Oare CC
"Chase Through the Midnight Forest" by Darren W. Jenkins
"Soaring Through Ionian Skies" by Robert W. Smith CC

Beginner Closer:
Something by Robert W. Smith, he writes pieces that kids LOVE to play but are much easier than they sound, my favorite is "Tempest" but he has many great pieces.
"Midnight Mission" by Brian Balmages
"Storm Chaser" by Kevin Mixon CC

Beginner Gimmicky Pieces: (these are fun for students but you have to be careful to not overuse them)
"Along Came a Spider" by Mike Hannikel
"Slip and Slide" by Ralph Ford
"Creatures in the Attic" by Brian Balmages

Beginner Pops:
"Star Wars (Main Theme)" arranged by Carl Strommen
"25 or 6 to 4" arranged by Michael Story
"Rockin Robin" arranged by Gerald Sebesky

There are many great literature lists on there on the interwebs. Good luck in your future concert programming!

Interactive Assessments

Assessment is a huge buzzword that we are constantly working to address and improve upon in our teaching. I even did my master's thesis based on surveying band directors and their methods of assessment. Overwhelmingly they discussed Smart Music. It's effective, efficient and challenging for students.

There are a few major flaws in Smart Music however:
1. It costs money for the director/district and the students. For those of us who teach at low income schools we are unable to fully implement or at all implement the program because of this alone.

2. It does not account for expression. Smart Music only evaluates pitch and rhythm accuracy. In fact the pitch accuracy is debatable. Yes students playing right notes and rhythms is crucial, but isn't it important that we emphasize dynamics and articulation as well? It is possible for a student to get a perfect score from Smart Music and never articulate. Now most directors do not score purely off the Smart Music assessment, they listen and evaluate as well, but why are we spending all this money if we have to listen to it again anyway?

I don't have the option of Smart Music at the elementary level. Some of our Junior Highs have it and utilize it well. This year I'm trying an alternative and I'll revisit later how it worked out.

One of the big buzz words with assessments is student growth. In fact starting next year in the state of Illinois student growth will factor into our evaluations. How that will be determined for music teachers is yet to be announced but I decided to be proactive and test run something new that will demonstrate student growth.

My solution: Google Drive

I have created an individual folder for each of my students, basically creating online portfolios. In these I am storing their various recordings throughout the year. I've decided to stick with one playing test per trimester. What I am doing different is actually pre-testing the students as well. I'm calling this their "before" performance. The first time we see the piece of music I record them attempting to play it. Then later I go back and score it using a rubric. I announce post-recording "oh by the way, this is your next playing quiz in two weeks". The playing quiz happens and I use the same rubric, this time the student gets a copy and I observe the growth between the two performances.

Reasons why I am liking it so far:

1. I can see that yes the student has learned/practiced and what I'm doing is working.

2. By having it in Google Drive, I do not load up my IPad or computer with recordings, I can keep them organized AND I can share the recordings with the students (all of our 5/6 students have their own Google accounts) so they can hear their growth and share it with whoever they would like.

3. Additionally, I have DATA. If an administrator asks, how are you assessing your students? how can you demonstrate growth? I can simply share my assessment folder in Google Drive with them and they can see it.

4. It's FREE.

Challenges:

1. It is time consuming. Time must be budgeted for the quizzes during their lessons twice per trimester (due to pre-test/post-test). I have to spend my own time uploading the recordings to Google Drive-this is made pretty efficient with the app I use which allows direct Drive upload-Voice Record Pro for IPad

Really that's the only challenge so far. I like it really. So as a Smart Music alternative, we'll see how it works out, I'll let you know.

Anyone else done something similar?

Music Tech Tools for Beginners

Oh how wonderful this time of easy to access technology. My first metronome was one like above, it was not exactly accurate. I remembering having to save up for my first electronic metronome, which I could not even hear when I was playing. My first tuner was my big Christmas present one year.

Now we have Apps. Both of these crucial devices can be downloaded for free or for under $5. In the past we could rarely hope that our beginners and young band students would have access to these tools, but now they are simple search and click away!

Here are my favorites:

Free apps:

Metronomes

Android/Google: Mobile Metronome-easy to use does everything you would want in a metronome

IOS (Iphone/Ipad): Pro Metronome-my favorite metronome app above all. I use it almost everyday. There is a pay version which allows for more extensive beat subdivision, but young students would not need it.

Tuners

Android/Google: gStrings-easy to use, only tunes concert pitch, but does play a concert A.

IOS (Iphone/Ipad): Pano Tuner-I have not personally used this one but it is highly rated.

Pay apps:

All the best metronomes are free, the upgrade to full Pro Metronome app is $2.99

Tuners

You get a lot more when you pay for tuners. There are two in particular that shine above the rest.

Tonal Energy-IOS only. My favorite tuner app. This app does a ridiculous amount, but what kids will love is that it smiles at you when you play in tune. :) It also transposes to all instruments, plays pitches and sustains them (so amazing when working with brass students, especially french horn). Extremely accurate and has some crazy advanced features like frequency and overtone analyzers. It also has a built in metronome. It is simply fantastic, and completely worth the $3.99 price tag.

Cleartune-available on IOS and Android/Google. Very easy to use, accurate, pitches can be transposed for various instruments (excellent for working with beginning brass). Costs $3.99

Other helpful music apps

Voice Record Pro-great versatile recording app which allows you to record at various quality levels, convert to mp3, share in multiple ways (e-mail, Google drive, Sound Cloud, Dropbox, Facebook, etc.) It's free!

Chromatik-a place where your students can find the pop tunes and other various tunes to play on their instruments. The music does tend to be more advanced though, so it has limited use for young students. It is free!

GarageBand-if you are unaware of this one, you have really been ignoring music tech. Great for creating backing tracks for anything you want and a wonderful way to include the "Creating" element into your classroom. Costs $4.99

Do you have any other apps you love?

ICAN Statements, Blooms, and my Teachers Pay Teachers addiction

I was excited to create Can Statements inspired by my district's instrumental music curriculum. Feel free to borrow and use!

Now if you have not discovered Teachers Pay Teachers you are missing out. Teachers who are much artier, craftier and generally more creative them me post their cool bulletin board and other ideas. For very little and sometimes even free.

My favorite find so far is this Musical version of Bloom's Taxonomy.

I dare you to not eat up your plan time/weekend time with this site. Most of all there are great ideas for integrating Common Core and vocabulary. Now most lesson ideas are general music focused, but a lot can be altered to be used in an instrumental classroom. 

Having students make real life music connections

Getting the chance to share where being a part of band can lead is always a great moment for a teacher. When teaching the younger students we are more focused on teaching fundamentals and the music itself, every now and then we get the opportunity to show them more. For instance how does this wonderful music we play get created?

I had one of those moments today. Concert Band composer William Owens was generous enough to do a phone interview with my 6th grade band students this morning. He talked to them about what inspires his writing, his favorite piece he's written (always the one he's working on-love that answer), how he structures and names his pieces and more. It was a great opportunity to learn the behind the scenes work that goes into creating the music they play.

I highly encourage my fellow band directors to reach out to the composition world to have them connect with your students. In the past Timothy Loest was also generous with his time and I hope to make this a tradition with my second year students to interview a composer of a piece we are working on.

Also, in this day and age of Danielson Framework evaluation and Common Core, this kind of project is student driven and very much appreciated by administrators!