The first time this came up, I was working with a group of 9th grade clarinet students on finger dexterity and breath control. To do that, we were using a simple, one-octave scale they could all play. I didn’t often model my clarinet but had it with me for this rehearsal. We were working together, but I was also having them play individually. The progression of instruction:
Play the scale up and down, one octave – in one breath. Good.
Go one octave, two times in one breath. Got it.
One octave, three times, one breath. After a couple times – good.
Now, let’s go two octaves, one time, in one breath. Not too hard.
Two octaves, two times, one breath.
Two octaves, three times, one breath. “But Mr. Gardner, we’re going to have to go faster to do that.”
Ok. Your choice. Go faster and/or breathe deeper.
Here we go….
Two octaves, four times, in one breath. “Mr. G, a clarinet can’t go that fast.” (I loved hearing that).
I took my clarinet, played a THREE-octave scale up and down about 6-7 times in one breathe.
“How did you do that?”
Without any pause, I answered,
“My clarinet has a speed button.” I expected them to laugh, or to ask more questions, but every one of them took that answer at face value as in, ‘Oh….well, that explains it.’
I could not let them get away with that acceptance. I ripped off a 3 octave (or so) chromatic scale up and down multiple times, and then we talked about how I did that.
Did it look like I had to stop and think about what the next note was? Why not?
Did you see how close my fingers stay to the keys?
We discussed how we took that simple scale and worked on speed. Using that technique, and breaking runs into smaller groups, I was trying to help them grasp the concept of “Play Every Note.”
There is a sales technique called the “Puppy Dog” close. It gets is name from the puppy dog at the pet shop scenario:
A mother and young child go into a pet store to buy a dog. They find one, but mamma says it is too expensive.
The wise sales clerk invites the mother and child to take the puppy home for the night….with the offer to bring it back the next day if they don’t think it is worth the price.
They will NOT likely bring the puppy back.
I fell for that sales close with a car once. My wife wasn’t with me when I stopped on the lot (intentional, so I had a way out of a pressure sales situation). The smart salesperson invited me to drive the car home to show her. SOLD!
I used the “Puppy Dog” approach with a clarinet student (I will call her Sally). The first time I heard her play was in a middle school concert. I didn’t know Sally, but I noticed her. It was 2-3 yrs later when I convinced her parents to let her study privately with me. She had incredible musicianship but was hindered by a mediocre instrument.
When I would ask about a step up instrument, she always responded about how busy her parents were. Knowing her father’s occupation, I knew PRICE was NOT the issue.
The music dealer let me borrow a top of the line clarinet for a day, with return privilege that I was not expecting to utilize.
I took the clarinet to Sally’s band rehearsal at the high school, instructing her to play it in the rehearsal and then to take it home that night to practice with at home and either return the clarinet or payment the next day. She handed me the check for payment in full.
This is David’s entrance from his hs production of The Wiz. Once he gets fully lubricated, he adds choreography (his own) to the song. Video is under 4 minutes. Enjoy.
There is more to school life than what happens during the academic day. Some academic teachers are also coaches or extracurricular sponsors. Coaches develop strong bonds with their athletes. Music and theater arts teachers spend considerable extracurricular time with students – evenings, weekends, summers. These teacher/student relationships are significant and life long impacting.
Is it ever ok for a teacher to LOVE students?
In a reunion with some of the students from my first teaching job, as they were sharing memories, one person put it this way:
“Come back to teach the students of the students you taught.”
I expected to hear some of the heart-warming stories and did, but one comment caught me off guard a little. As one was listing attributes he appreciated, he included…..
“…and your smile.”
What teachers do you remember most 10-20-30 years out, and for what do you remember them?
Band is the ultimate team.
Unlike a basketball team with its starting five, there is no bench in band. Everybody is in. Everybody is a starter. Few other types of groups will involve people from such varied backgrounds. There are children of doctors and lawyers performing with children of single-parents working multiple jobs or utilizing government help. There are the students who have their own cars and those who need rides, those with the iPhones and the free phones or no phone. You will find students in most bands from every church in the community and others who have never been inside a church.
High school provides a memorable time for teens and parents to be on the same team before graduation and the empty nest.
If only it were like that for all teens.
At this most critical time in their decision-making years, if teens can’t find love, acceptance, encouragement and support from parents, teachers and mentors, they will search for it elsewhere, often with disastrous results leaving them with consequences that change lives and crush dreams.
But even more than TEAM, band is FAMILY…
Most high school athletic teams are together for a “season” — maybe six weeks with a few more for preparation. Band meets in the summer, including band camp which can be 8+hours a day. Then there is every day at school with additional rehearsals in the evenings, plus the Friday football/basketball game and the Saturday competition.
…and more functional than some.
As I stood outside Door 34, she jumped out of the passenger side of the car and ran past me, teary-eyed, crying,
“I’m sorry. I’m sorry.”
As she went by I saw the papa, for the first time, approaching me and angrily waving a piece of paper.
“How much of this schedule is mandatory?”
I paused, if only for a moment as I thought through his reaction to my answer…
“All of it.”
After grumbling something that I probably couldn’t repeat, he returned to the car and didn’t quite lay rubber in his exit. The daughter was waiting in my office, still crying and apologetic. I hugged her. How does such a sweet daughter have a parent like that?
There are loving parents who are working 2-3 jobs each, going to school and dealing with the challenges of large families – and it is somewhere between difficult and impossible for them to spend a lot of time at football games, parades and competitions. I get that. But what do you say to this parent?
“We need to pull [Benjamin] out of band because he won’t clean his room and he needs to learn respect. He loves band and so this is the only valuable thing we can take away to make our point.”
Or this one?
“Why should I pay money for her to spend time spinning a flag. There are no colleges that will offer scholarships and besides, what job is that going to prepare her for?”
Or to these students?
“Can you please give me something to do. I’ll straighten the library….anything….just don’t make me go home.”
“I have a job so I can earn the money for my band fee, and I keep hiding it, but my mother keeps finding it and taking it.”
“I have to quit music lessons. My dad found out I was using some of my job money for music lessons and says that if I am going to waste my money on that – I can start paying rent.”
“Please don’t try to introduce yourself to my dad. Please don’t. Please, please, please don’t. He is not a nice man.”
I want to share the LOVE they may be missing.
Educationally, the L-word is dangerous. Administrations encourage admiration and respect, but love is conspicuously absent. Understandable. Inappropriate teacher student relationships make national news and destroy lives. Elementary teachers can hug students, but by middle school it is to be a touchless relationship. I disagree.
Sometimes an appropriate touch, handshake, high five, tap on the shoulder or even a hug – can be powerfully effective in mentoring, consoling or encouraging. It doesn’t have to be physical. It can be listening and responding when others won’t.
C.S. Lewis in his book, The Four Loves, divides the Greek vocabulary for “love” into four categories: Storge (στοργή storgē) -affection, Philia (Philia (φιλία philía) – friendship, Éros (ἔρως érōs) – romantic love, and Agápe (ἀγάπη agápē) – charity.
None of those match completely what I’m trying to define. Storge (affection) can include the physical. Philia (i.e. Philadelphia – brotherly love) comes close but can include the sexual. Éros is obviously not appropriate, and Agápe, often interpreted as the love between Christians is also close, but gets into spiritual and that is not quite it either.
I “L” my students with a parental type. I see their potential and their youthful enthusiasm and I love that. I love their willingness to share with me things that they can’t comfortably share anywhere else.
“You are always the one to trust with issues like this because you treat us like people and not just another bunch of “teenagers”.”
juggle the extra rehearsals and activities with job and homework — and go for the best grades without parental encouragement or expectation
keep a positive attitude when others have parents involved and but they don’t
Nobody said life is fair. Those who endure hardships can be the better for it later. Trust me on that. As the oldest of five children raised in a single parent family by a polio surviving mother (and if you have no idea what that means, thank God), I understand poverty, but also how to work through it, with it, around it, and above it …. so cut me some slack when I don’t expect less from the less fortunate.
Students often impress me with friend choices and for the way they support and encourage each other. It is moving to see how friends and band members surround one who is hurting, physically or emotionally. With proper relationships established, teachers can be included in, or involved separately in similar support and encouragement – even of some personal issues.
I RESPECT students …
who work through moderate pain or discomfort without complaint
who have the musical ability to thrive, but can’t get the new instrument, or the private lessons, or go to the summer camps….or even stay in band, because of a parent who doesn’t see the value of band or color guard
expect more of themselves than their parents do
endure custody battles and try not to allow it to interfere with band
I hope these students appreciate how hard I try to make their situations work out.
And we have students whose parents are their biggest cheerleaders and amazing supporters…..
helping them earn the highest of Boy or Girl Scout honors
supporting their garage band
encouraging out of country mission trips
inspiring them to pursue the same vocation as the parent
or spending countless hours volunteering for band (committees, sewing, cooking, feeding, chaperoning, driving, etc)
We have CARING students who….
stand outside Wal-mart when it is below freezing to ring bells and play Salvation Army brass ensemble music
volunteer in nursing homes and with church youth groups in a host of different types of volunteerism
help raise money for those sick and injured
I am a retired high school teacher who appropriately loves, admires, and respects students.
I attended “10th District” Elementary School and an inner-city, public Jr/Sr High School that had three, 4-floor buildings. Then I went to a 40,000 student state-subsidized University and recently retired from a 1400-student public high school.
Four factors contributed to my writing this post, designed as an introduction.
1. The first reference I recall to anything related to “factory education” was in a meeting between administration/school board and a group of concerned high school parents challenging the predicted negative impact of a schedule change on their audition-based ensemble. Responding to a passionate presentation, an administrative representative boasted,
We’re not here to teach the elite,
we’re hear to teach the masses.
2. A grad school professor at Ball State criticized “factory education” and emphasized the need to redesign the model and move away from mass production.
3. A colleague at my high school who was in on the planning and there when the doors opened, described how the building was designed like a factory — with the offices in the front and the different department modules.
4. My sons are involved with some non-factory setup educational models (a Classical Christian Academy, a School of Performing Arts, and a Boston area boarding school) and I look forward to utilizing what I learn from their experiences to help me (and you) understand why public schools are sometimes referred to as factory models of education, or education factories cranking out graduates the way assembly lines crank out cars.
The modern assembly line
Henry Ford revolutionized the concept of the modern mass-production factory in the early 20th century when he developed the concept of a revolutionary new process using skilled workers in specialized areas where the workers were stationary and the product parts were assembled as they moved from branch lines to the mainline where the final product was assembled and completed when it reached the end of the line. Prior to that, groups of individuals moved around a stationary vehicle. His approach was all about dividing the labor to speed up the line to produce more product efficiently. The person who inserted the screw was not the one who tightened it, for example. Every worker had a small part in the production until the completed product reached the end of the line.
Looking at these satellite views and floor plans, can you tell which are high schools and which are factories? I’ll share more points following the pictures.
Indiana High SchoolGeneral Motors Assembly in Fort Wayne, IndianaFloor Plan AFloor Plan BFloor Plan CFloor Plan D
Two of the above floor plans are high schools and two are factories. Can you tell which is which? I’ll give the answer below.
Indications that you might be in a factory school.
In the above floor plans, A & D are schools while B & C are factories.
I was trained in public schools and universities. My sons experienced public education through high school. One went on to a public university, is currently attending a private graduate institution, plus involved in a private School of Performing Arts and a Classical Christian Academy. The other son went to a private, top-tier undergraduate university, an Ivy-League graduate school and will be teaching in an elite boarding school outside Boston as a high school professor with his Ph.D.
A few of the questions I hope to address in future posts:
Given today’s circumstances vs those in the ’80s when my children entered school, would I repeat the path of public education or go a different route?
What are some of the differences in the approach of the top-tier universities and elite boarding schools? Should you?
Is it really all about the money, i.e. can those with the means really get a better education?
Are there multiple worlds of education?
Is life fair?
What options do we have?
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My first teaching year, fresh out of college, I was only four years older than the seniors in the band. At Camp Crescendo, it was the band director’s responsibility to ensure students were all in the dorms for lights out. There was one particular senior girl, Sherrie P., who started calling me “dad” — and it stuck…at least, during camp. Every evening as I walked around the dorm area to ensure my “children” were all where they were supposed to be, I would hear variations of “Good night dad”…. And “Thanks for checking on us dad.”
I was worried about getting back to school for my first semester on the job and having students calling me “dad” in the hallway.
Fortunately, that didn’t happen.
“G” …
…has been the most common and the most persistent.
“GARDNER”
I rarely felt like students were being disrespectful, or I would never have allowed that. The very few times that I questioned, I told them my first name is “Mister”.
GPA
Toward the end, instead of being 4yrs older than the seniors, I am 4x their age, older than their parents and maybe even some of their grandparents.
Super Size Poster Context: Large, only high school in a county that includes students from 20-miles and long-distance phone calls away, some spending over an hour each way on school buses. Marching band is small for the school size and behind some area powerhouse programs in terms of size, staff, equipment, all things financial and cutting edge.
S-Steps To Success
#1 – Super Size
The FIRST thing we need to do is to SUPER SIZE this band. Size doesn’t equal quality, but it can impact the sound. To some extent, numbers translate to sound, crowd appeal and score. That is part of the reason the State Music Association has different qualifying levels for the different class sizes.
We need to Search for Super Sizers. You can help. Be enthusiastic about your band. Enthusiasm is contagious. What YOU say to a middle school band student, or to any prospect, is often much more effective than what a teacher/director says.
Sideline ensemble people don’t have to be band members. Your friends who play piano can play mallet instruments. People who quit band in the past can come back. And then, without taking anything away from what it takes to be a percussionist, we can teach just about anybody how to hit something. And now that we’ve incorporated guitars, we offer an opportunity to some of your friends who are band members of a different type. Know someone with a dramatic voice? Perhaps they can perform the voice-over script.
Sadly, we have seniors graduating. For those who remain, I wrote a note to you,
I’d love to see the school or community have to deal with
a band that can’t fit in the band room
scrambling to get instruments and equipment for the participants
providing 4-5, instead of 1-2 busses
#2 – Sensational Sound
SECOND, you should Strive for Individual Success. If you become the best that YOU can be, then we can work to blend your individual abilities to improve the overall band. A super-sized band can produce more sound, but we need your individual improvement to enable us to play some of the more challenging music you’ve heard.
Study Seriously for Improvement. Consider Individual Study on your instrument. If you can pay, we have access to professional experts on almost every instrument. They absolutely make a difference. For less pay, we can connect you with some college students who are looking for some experience. And if you can’t pay, let us know, because some teachers will make allowances for hard working students. For sufficient interest, we can explore periodic after school Master Classes for instrument-specific instruction in a group setting. And several of you are already taking advantage of some of the musical ensembles at the local university. Instruments need to go home. There are no shortcuts. Proficiency requires practice. Practice doesn’t make perfect, but it certainly helps, and you can’t achieve perfection without it.
Your Individual Level of Musical Success depends on a combination of
your musicianship
your training
your equipment
your commitment
#3 – Sizzling Show
FINALLY, we need a SIZZLING SHOW, and it won’t come cheaply. Sizzling requires specialists in music technology, creativity, art, design and construction, as well as dance, theater and maybe even drum corps.
We need Spectacular Music. That can including paying for licensing and excellent composing and arranging.
We need Stunning Drill Design. Some competitors pay three times what we are able for expert, on-site designers. We have had good drill design by someone in the area, even if he can’t be on site.
We need Superb Special Effects.
When I watch state finals, I notice patterns from the top groups. Effect generators include tarps, ramps, platforms, multi-functional backdrops, and some really interesting custom-designed and built theme-enhancing props.
Most color guards have 2-4 costumes and 4-6 different flags plus rifles, sabers, wheels, sticks, and other theme-specific props.
With the props and the horn and body flashes, we need some theatrical expertise for our show. Marching band is not just about marching and playing any more.
We need Splendid Style, requiring splendid basics. We have to march better, to get it sooner and to push it harder.
We need State-of-the-Art Equipment. Most of the drumlines had 4-6 snares, 4 quads and 5-6 basses. If we want to do that, not only will we have to super-size the drumline, but we’ll need more drums. The front ensembles tended to have 6-8 mallet instruments and 8-15 people. Many of the sideline instruments were individually microphoned with sound controlled by a remote controller managed by a staff person in the audience. Most had new silver Sousaphones or shoulder Tubas. One had ten such tubas and five bari saxes. One of the largest, if not the largest band there, had 100% silver brass instruments (trumpets, mellos, trombones, baritones, tubas). Another had all silver brass except trombones, which marched in a separate block.
This example built from two modified and stacked storage containers.
If we’re going to get more and bigger stuff, are we ready for our own personalized semi trailer, like just about every other Class A band has?
We need a taller, safer rehearsal observation platform. It could be permanent or portable. Portable would enable us to move between rehearsal areas. A design I especially admire is basically a garage (for front ensemble equipment storage, podiums, etc) with inside access to a platform on the roof. One school has such a building in between a grass practice field and a parking lot…so they can watch rehearsals on either surface from the same place.
Let me sum it up this way:
Let’s SUPER SIZE this band by searching for super sizers and staying in band.
Let’s develop a SENSATIONAL SOUND by striving for individual success and studying seriously.
Let’s field a SIZZLING SHOW with spectacular music, stunning design, superb style and closer to state-of-the-art equipment.
You give us what we need in people, equipment, work ethic and attitude – and we’ll take some major steps toward super-sized, sensational, sizzling success.
Some larger competitions can involve dozens of bands with thousands of students with nothing resembling the level of supervision in a high school before or after school or as classes change. For the most part, band parents and the directors are the only ones with direct oversight….. and after a performance, most students are free to congregate back at the stadium to watch the other bands as they mix and mingle.
In uniform, before a performance, you’ll see focused faces as students prepare to do what they are there to do. You might see them move quietly and in formation from the bus area to visual and musical warmup and then to the stadium.
Band students learn dedication, commitment and
that striving for excellence is a worthy goal.
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Most marching band operations are very structured with responsibility and accountability. There are seniors, section leaders, drum majors, staff, directors (where do I put parents in this list) all with authority over the band student. Participants appreciate compliance and cooperation.
Band students learn the value of,
and respect for chain of command.
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Unlike a basketball team with its starting five, there is no bench in marching band. Everybody is in. Everybody is a starter. Few other types of groups will involve people from varied backgrounds. There are children of doctors and lawyers marching with children of single-parents working multiple jobs or utilizing government help. There are the students who have their own cars and those who need rides, those with the iPhones and the free phones or no phone. You will find students in most bands from every church in the community and others who have never been inside a church. And yet, with all these differences, when they put that uniform on (actually, even before they dress)…..they are all on the same team, all equal. A good result requires the best from everyone. Students learn teamwork and cooperate with those outside their friend circle.
Band students learn to cooperate and collaborate
with those from different backgrounds and capabilities.
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You will see students cheer and applaud for good performances of other groups, including those with whom they compete. You’ll see them wishing each other good luck, especially when a band is transiting through the pre-show stages and passing others who have either already performed or have a while yet to go. At a competition, I saw a band applauding the same-county rival band and the new band that their previous director had transferred to. When our band was relaxing and enjoying a band-parent-provided soup & chili bar supper following a recent performance, a competitor band passed by, still in uniform, returning from the field following their performance. Our students applauded their rival until the last one had passed. One of their directors found me to tell me that, “Your students are a class act.” That is sportsmanship….or should I call it bandsmanship?
Band students learn good sportsmanship.
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Marching band is a time-consuming extreme weather sport. Summer rehearsals are in extreme heat and often go 8+hours a day for multiple weeks before school starting in the fall. Think about the temperatures in September and then imagine putting on a winter coat, hat and gloves and running around a football field at a fast pace. But then, by the time mid-October comes, it gets cold enough that students are wearing under armor and other garments under the uniform to try to stay warm. Then, add periodic rain. Sometimes they have to move rehearsals in and outside to avoid it and other times they get wet. When school starts, add 8-10 extra rehearsals Mon-Thur, 4-5 hrs for a Friday football game, then 12-14 hours on Saturday for a rehearsal, travel and competition — sometimes two.
Band students learn to commit, persevere and endure.
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You’ll see both excited and disappointed students as the results are announced, but they will display professionalism many adults would be good to observe and learn from.
Band students learn that there are no shortcuts to success.
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Many students, seemingly for the first time in any significant way, are given tasks and responsibilities and held accountable for them. The band student is responsible for loading and unloading his/her equipment; instrument, gloves, show shirt, correct socks and marching shoes. Some students have “section leader” responsibilities, which for most is a first time they’ve had management and oversight responsibilities for others. They have to learn leadership and people skills. Often, at the end of a 4-5yr career, graduating seniors will talk about how
band “taught them” responsibility and accountability.
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Band students learn that they are individually important.
There is nowhere to hide in a marching band. All students are active participants. In a typical Indiana marching competition, there are six judges watching and listening; four in the press box and two walking around the field going eyeball to eyeball with performers. Band students understand that a trained judge’s eye automatically goes to what is different; someone out of step, out of line, out of tune, and that an individual performance reflects on the total ensemble score. Seniors and section leaders learn how to balance their role as a mentor and teacher/trainer for the newbie members, while also ensuring that even the newbies get up to speed in time for performance.
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Students are trying to follow the ‘dots’ from their chart/dot books that tell them where they are going. It is difficult to see the big picture from that spot on the field, so there are directors or instructors watching from farther back (and sometimes higher up) who will adjust a form or shape. Or perhaps it is to point out that an individual is playing too loudly and needs to balance and blend better with others around them. This is contrary to much contemporary educational philosophy which emphasizes only the heaping of praise on what students are attempting to do. Band students know better, and expect to hear how to improve individual performance. Achievement through excellence enhances self-esteem . The challenge for the individual is to “not take it personally”. I describe to students regularly that I highly value them individually, but that when we are trying to improve a marching performance, that they are but one small moving part of a larger machine and that my job (as a director) is to fix the part to improve the machine….no matter who the part is. Nothing personal.
Band students learn to accept criticism, and that self-esteem is raised through the achievement of excellence
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With the extreme time commitment a marching band requires, students must learn to prioritize their time and use it efficiently, especially when it comes to getting homework done.
Band students learn time management skills.
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When you ask people who were in a marching band years ago, they may remember how their overall band performed or competed, but probably not likely that weekly score or placing that seemed so important at the time. But they will remember the values they learned, which is why former band students encourage their children to participate in band as well. This is not the article to argue that band utilizes academics, multiple arts and significant athleticism….. but they get all that as well.
Son David sang this solo in several show choir solo competitions his senior year in high school (2001). It is an emotional solo from the musical “Civil War” about a son asking someone to “Tell My Father” about his death on the battlefield.
To increase the impact, David borrowed a reenactor Civil War uniform. He wouldn’t let me hear the song until he performed it. I remember the first time I saw him walk toward the competition room, in “full uniform”….he walked, pridefully, in total character and ignoring stares from other students in the hallways. Dressing in ‘costume’ was not a common thing for solos.
And the first time he walked on stage, he confidently and effectively commanded audience reverence and respect. Each time he finished, it felt like there was an ever so slight gap, prior to applause, where the audience was wiping tears and unsure if applause was appropriate, especially after the final line.
After one of his performances, I heard a couple girls from another school talking in the hallway:
“I just heard this guy dressed in a Civil War uniform sing a song to his father and it made me cry.”
It made me, David’s father, cry every time.
Here are the lyrics:
Tell my father that his son Didn’t run or surrender That I bore his name with pride As I tried to remember You are judged by what you do While passing through
As I rest ‘neath fields of green Let him lean on your shoulder Tell him how I spent my youth So the truth could grow older Tell my father, when you can I was a man
Tell him we will meet again Where the angels learn to fly Tell him we will meet as men For with honour did I die
Tell him I wore the blue Proud and true, through the fire Tell my father so he’ll know I love him so
Tell him how I wore the blue Just the way that he taught me Tell my father not to cry Then say goodbye
8th-grade students going into a large high school should consider the advantages of being in (staying in) marching band vs entering as a General Population Freshman. If you’re already signed up, yay for YOU. If you were in 8th grade band, but have not signed up for high school marching band…..read on — and know that it is not too late to change your mind. And if you have never been in band….the good news is that you CAN be. Join the Color Guard — or ask for a spot in the front ensemble. We can teach you auxiliary percussion parts. Play piano. You’re hired!
The local high school has a population near 1500 with about 40 outside doors and multiple main north/south and east/west hallways. Lockers are somewhat segregated by class….so most freshmen lockers are far away from seniors’. It is a safe school with only rare hallway confrontations. Great students, BUT…. a freshman walking down the “senior” hallway might hear some comments.
What’s that freshman doing in our hallway? Did you see him trying to talk to a senior?
For the most part, seniors ignore freshmen and freshmen steer clear of seniors….
I expected them to laugh, or to ask more questions, but every one of them took that answer at face value as in, ‘Oh….well, that explains it.’
