William Revelli was a legendary Director of Bands at the University of Michigan for decades. I didn’t know that when he stepped on the podium to rehearse the high school clinic band I was in at the Morehead State University. There were six bands. I was in the top (Honor) band and had earned the first chair. That was a pretty big deal — and so was he.
Two remembrances of that Honor Band experience. These are the only two things I remember. I can’t tell you what we played or anything else. But these made a lasting imprint.
At precisely the start time for the rehearsal, Dr. Revelli stepped onto the podium, introduced himself, pointed to two empty chairs and asked that they be removed. Some of us could see the two girls walking quickly toward the stage via the auditorium isle. When they got the the stage, Revelli asked what they were doing.
“We’re in this band.”
“No. You’re not. There are no more chairs.”
“What are we supposed to do?”
“Go tell someone to put you in a different band. My rehearsal has already started.”
And then, he turned to ME and asked me to stand. He asked my name and turns to the band and introduces me as their Concert Master. And then, he asked me to play a tuning note. I did.
After a pause, he asks me to play it again. I did.
“No, play the same note you played the first time.” (He was saying I didn’t match my first pitch.)
Periodically, as the band is playing a new piece of music, they tend to put their focus on getting the right notes and maybe the right rhythm. Dynamics, key signature, accidentals, etc…… are often missed. Two quotes I use in situations like these:
“If the notes are on the paper it is your job to play ALL of them.” and “Play EVERYTHING you see.”
And sometimes, especially with the younger band where many of the students are not yet driving, I will compare playing an instrument to driving a car.
“You want to turn the key, start the car and go….. and hopefully, no one is coming up beside you;
You think you’re good as long as you stay on the road, but what about how fast to drive, that school zone sign or crosswalk?
If you drive the way you’re playing, you’re dangerous, you’ll hurt yourself, or someone else, or you’ll get the cop’s attention and get a ticket.”
If time, I’ll go into some detail.
BEFORE STARTING THE CAR You fasten your seatbelt, adjust the seat and mirrors. Make sure you have your license. Put the key in the ignition. Do you have enough gas?
BEFORE YOU PLAY Check to ensure your instrument is ready; (reeds, valves or slide moving freely). Look at the music. Observe the tempo, time signature, key signature, dynamics — and listen to the conductor’s instructions.
AS YOU DRIVE Make sure it is clear to pull into traffic. Don’t just look straight ahead, check your mirrors. Watch for other traffic, watch for signs (speed limits, road curves, stop signs, traffic lights, railroad crossings, etc).
AS YOU PLAY Be award of the others around you. Blend in. Watch the conductor. Note any accidentals, articulation, dynamic or tempo changes that come along. Follow the road maps; fermata, cesura, DS, DC, Coda, repeat, etc.
Some additional comparisons during the rehearsal might include:
Wrong note/accidental – You hit that pothole
Missed cesura – You ignored the railroad crossing and got hit by the train
Dynamics/tempo changes – You missed that curve in the road sign and just crashed
Have you ever watched someone learning to drive? They are super cautious and focused on everything. Pretend like you’re learning to play this piece and focus on ALL the details.
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.
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….
This is a story about how a discouraging professor positively impacted my Philosophy of Education.
My college clarinet teacher didn’t want me in Music Education, arguing that with a ‘performance’ degree, I could teach anywhere “except in a public school”.
He unintentionally challenged me to use relationshipsand respectas pillars of how I teach. Here’s a paraphrase of what he said:
“You’re a decent clarinetist (in 4yrs, I don’t ever recall him saying I was ‘good’), but there are so many things you do without thinking about them — that you’ll be a terrible teacher. How will you explain playing in tune? You do it, but you can’t tell me how. What are you going to do when your band gets some technically difficult passage, just tell ’em to ‘play it’? How will you explain hearing what you see? A performer never has to explain those things. And besides, you don’t want to waste your time on teenagers. They are high maintenance, make stupid decisions and ruin their lives. And your failures will significantly out number your successes. Don’t do education. Be a performer and get paid for what you can do.”
I was crushed, defeated, depressed and discouraged, choosing to ignore his selfish speech while adapting some of his discouragements as positive aspects of my teaching.
He was a good teacher but a terrible human. He hated students, especially those who “wasted his time”. We learned out of fear, not respect. We never heard him perform, so we could never strive to reach his level. I remember waiting outside his studio, watching the girl exit in tears and crush her reed against the wall …. and then hear…. “Next”. (GULP!) One of his final comments to me, “I’ve wasted four years of my life on you.” But, that was because I ended up with a Music Education degree vs Clarinet Performance. He taught me the instrument and gave me motivation to never be like him.
He influenced me in the areas of Relationships and Respect. Here is an except from my Philosophy of Education.
I invest heavily in Relationship Building. I want to know my students. By knowing their situations outside of the classroom (family, financial, etc) I can better know how to effectively relate in the classroom. If I see online that the family cat died the night before, I can understand and empathize with a mood that could otherwise be misidentified as a bad attitude. A phrase I use periodically is that I “love, admire and respect” my students, and they know it. My office desk tends to be a hang out area before and after school and rehearsals. And when students are congregating in the band room, I often join them.
I want my students to Respect me because, 1) they know I care and have their best interests in mind, and 2) they know I know what I’m doing. Here’s a memorable example:
In a clarinet sectional, we were working on scales and I was trying to get students to play faster. One stopped me with, “That’s as fast as a clarinet can go.” That gave me an opportunity to demonstrate that a clarinet, could indeed, go faster.
So THEN…. they are willing to listen as I go into detail about WHY they need to practice scales and HOW to practice them to increase proficiency.
I DO education without ever telling a student that he/she wastes my time.
With all the current controversy in women’s sports (which I have been posting about…..), this showcases that in music, it is not about male vs female, it is about excellence. This girl is incredible with the number of different instruments/parts she is playing. and the tune…. well, you’ll get it. (Kudos to my son for sharing this video).
The world is full of mediocrity. Have you ever had a student at the “other” end of the special ed spectrum? You know…. the end that also requires extra teacher input and attention; where it is just as challenging to keep this student engaged as it is the lower-achieving student? Why is the term “special needs student” only used at one end of the spectrum?
I once sat in on a public discussion meeting where a high-achieving group was challenging a scheduling change. I was shocked when I heard one of the presenters say,
We’re not here to teach the elite. We’re here to teach the masses.
Think about that.
It is as though we’re all about not leaving a child behind, but also about not letting anyone get ahead either. At the lower end of the proficiency spectrum, we have organized “special” education with additional classrooms and facilities, employing both certified and classified staff. We develop IEP’s (Individualized Education Plan) for about 12% of our public school student body (Institute of Education Sciences) and require all building teachers to accommodate each of those individual needs.
But what about the 6% of Gifted & Talented student(s), at the high end of the spectrum; those who ace the test, ruin the curve, and yet still do all the extra credit — just because it is there? For them, there are no additional classrooms and facilities, specially trained staff, and IEP’s. The easiest thing to dois re-assign them as “mentors” or “tutors” so that we can pull everyone into the mediocre middle. That is the educationally correct thing to do, but who does it help …. and does it also hinder? We teach to the middle and use the achievers to help. We love the star quarterback but not the star student.
Yes, let’s do all we can to help every student, but let’s help every student. Compare the long term benefits of our lopsided investment for both students and society. When you hear about the top technology and other highly skilled jobs going to students from overseas, where do you think those countries are investing? As we correctly strive to leave no child behind, may we also more aggressively assist the academic achievers?
There are teachers who recognize the high achievers and provide individual challenges. We do have “AP” (Advanced Placement) classes designed to better prepare students for college….. but which colleges?
As you listen to or read about politicians, lawyers or surgeons focus, on the schools they attended. Are state schools bad? That’s not what I’m saying, but many of them are teaching “to the masses”.
I went to both a large, inner-city public high school and a super-sized state university. I sat in freshmen writing and lecture classes with 200+ students in a lecture hall with a graduate assistant on a microphone who would never know my name. One of my sons, while a doctoral candidate at an Ivy League university, taught a freshman writing class with 15 students…. and of the three classes he taught, that was his largest. Am I claiming that not all colleges are created equal? YES!
School systems celebrate when test scores are slightly above the state “averages”. What is average? Mediocre? So, we’re all about being slightly above mediocre?
I’m tired of being the geek. I’m tired of ruining the curve. I’m tired of making people mad because I do the extra credit anyway. I want to go to a school where I can be normal, where it is okay to be an achiever.
I heard this quote when I was asking a high school senior about the choice of college. When the principal learned about his Valedictorian’s college choice, he shared his opinion:
Why not go to [XU], it is the biggest state school…..everybody goes there. It is affordable. Why out of state at such an expensive school?
I know because I talk to both students and parents, that the experience of the student quoted above is not unique.
Low achievers are helped. High achievers are heckled.
My parental experience raising two high achieving academic students is that:
…for us the system worked, but we had to work the system.
With the attitude and determination evidenced by the geek quote, he chose Duke. His SAT score was slightly above the “average” there. He went in as one of nearly 500 high school valedictorians and graduated in the top 1%, but that was okay there, where he was expected to achieve and encouraged to excel. Unlike public high schools, which must take everybody and do the best they can to educate all…..there are schools, both high school and college, that specialize. Here is a paragraph from one such school’s admissions brochure(emphasis mine):
We want to find the ambitious and the curious, students who want to tackle issues head-on and are open to change. Ours is a community of talented learners, and we look for people who have unique qualities, who can challenge us as much as we challenge them. We want some bumps. We want some students who are well-rounded, some with sharp edges. We want people who are not afraid to undertake things that are messy, complex, and extremely difficult to do well—because they love it. We like students who already know what it means to succeed and those who know what it means to reach and not succeed and reach again. We like students who make intelligent and interesting mistakes, students who understand that only in risking failure do we become stronger, better, and smarter.
Let me be clear. We could not have afforded to pay the $58,000 sticker price of a [“top tier”] University education. As I was balking at the “early decision contract” on the admissions office table, they responded to my financial panic with:
If we decide we want him, we will get him here.
And they did. They didn’t make it cheap and they didn’t make it easy, but they DID make it possible for us to pay less than what we would have paid for an in-state public university. Our total contribution for eight years of college for two was about $32,000. Our total contribution for eight years of college for two was about $32,000. That’s $2,000 per semester. Where can you go to a school for a price like that?
ps Every time I’ve written about variations of this topic, I get blasted with negative feedback. The goal is not arrogance or elitism, but to encourage those who ARE achievers, or who want to be by pointing out that there are solutions for you too. And….to dispel the myths that college is all about who can afford what. Here are my bullet points:
Don’t choose the cheapest school based on $$$
Good Grades Do Pay
Be proactive vs reactive; make it happen, don’t just let it happen. Plan it, don’t wing it.
