Week One
     During the first days of classes and rehearsals, the student teacher should ob­serve and participate in full en­semble rehearsals and possibly lead small-group sessions as well as individual lessons. If the student teacher takes attendance, he will quickly learn everyone’s name.
     I usually introduce a new student teacher to the administration staff, the other music faculty, and to as many of the other teachers as possible as well as to all the classes. To eliminate communication problems, the student teacher should set goals on his first day in school and work to meet them. To-gether we discuss and review basic information he should know, such as the different procedures for the building, the music classrooms, and the school in general.
     I suggest that you end your first meeting with the student teacher by setting up a daily time to meet and discuss problems and answer questions. Some of the following information may seem obvious, but I have found that it is helpful to provide at the beginning of student teaching.
•    Arrive early to teaching assignments and dress in professional attire, such as a suit and tie for men and a dress, suit, or pants suit for women. The student teacher’s demeanor should be courteous toward the other faculty, and his discussions with students should be professional and positive.
•    Complete plans for lessons and rehearsals before every class, and take initiative for projects that may include administrative work, such as taking attendance, word processing, or photocopying.
•    Attend all meetings and events before, during, and after the school day, and show enthusiasm for any criticism and implement suggestions given.
•    If a problem develops the student teacher should communicate di-rectly with his mentor.

Week Two
     The student teacher’s first important responsibility can be warming-up the large ensembles for rehearsals. He should take turns teaching entire les­sons of other classes, such as theory and music history. During daily meetings, discussions should focus on how to manage a classroom and review lesson and rehearsal planning.

Week Three
     In addition to warming up the large ensembles, the student teacher handles a portion of teaching most of the other classes in the day. Daily meetings should include sharing assess­­ment systems and grading information. Review the forms for student-teach­­er evaluations and how to plan a year-long calendar of music events.

Week Four
     By now the student teacher has assumed nearly 80% of the teaching duties. Team teaching can be a good use of rehearsal time. I have seen student teachers work with small groups while the veteran teacher directs a rehearsal; next the two teachers change responsibilities.
     This gives the ensemble a chance to receive instruction from the primary instructor as well as the attention of a director in a small ensemble. Excel-lent topics of discussion include different types of instruction for different types of learners, pacing re­hearsals, and how to develop programs for concerts.

Weeks Five, Six, and Beyond
     To give the student teacher a realistic experience as a band or orchestra director, he now assumes all teaching responsibilities. Talk about the importance of developing good habits for continued growth by setting long-term goals and participating in professional organizations and conferences. At this time stu­dent teachers should ask for a letter of recommendation to keep in a credentials file.
     Every student teacher and teaching situation is different. The ultimate goal of the experience is to let the student teacher develop at his own pace and at the same time provide the best education possible for the young musicians in the ensemble.
     Most student teachers are hungry for time and information from a mentor. Regardless of who taught the day’s lessons, spend 20 minutes a day reviewing your activities. It will give the student teacher some insight as to why you taught rhythm the way you did and help him to understand your reaction to a flute player’s chatty behavior.
When a student teacher wants to know why the brass section didn’t respond to a question, the detailed answer of a mentor will help him to evaluate and improve his teaching techniques. The discussion becomes a wonderful time to reflect for both the expert and novice teacher.
     Student teachers need to absorb as much practical material as possible. They will benefit most from their experience if they leave student teaching knowing 10 or more pieces at each grade level, have a list of pieces in the school music library (hard copy or on a CD), and copies of effective lesson plans, calendars, and booster club by-laws. It gives me a great sense of pride to know I have mentored students who are now thriving in the professional world.
     Mentors have the opportunity to influence generations of people, far beyond the novice student teachers who look to them for help during student teaching. Con­scientious planning along with the guidance of a college supervisor can make student teaching a rewarding experience and one that will most likely begin a lifelong relationship through music.

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Widen Your Range
     It is easy to fall into the trap of narrowing the range of your listening, with the most common problem being that directors limit their focus solely to the instrument they play. Those who play low brass, for ex­ample, typically listen for bass trombone or tuba parts because their ears have become attuned to the sounds of these instruments after years of private lessons, practice, and rehearsals.
    The first step to expanding your listening range is to know the nuances of sound for each instrument in the en­semble. To make this process simple, I’ve found it easiest to pick out the melody and harmony of a piece and follow it through out a score. These two parts will change voices as the music moves ahead and give you a chance to listen carefully to instrumentation you may not be accustomed to hearing. As you study a new score, analyze the music by highlighting the melody as it moves across the piece. Then listen to a recording of the music and follow the highlighted parts. 
    Another beneficial way to attune your ears to other instrumental groups is to work just with those instruments. This can be easy if your schedule includes time for lessons built into each day. If the upper voices of the ensemble are troublesome, work on listening to the sounds of those instruments in the lessons. I suggest you become highly familiar with them, even playing the instruments on your own and as part of the group lessons.
    It is also helpful to play small ensemble pieces so you become accustomed to hearing the sounds of a specific group of instruments. Although there is a big jump from working with a single section to the entire ensemble, this will at least help you to listen acutely to these instruments. Because it is difficult to focus on directing an entire rehearsal and developing your listening skills at the same time, I’ve found it better to extract a problem and resolve it without distractions.
    Once you develop your ears to hearing the sections within the ensemble, you  need to be able to refocus your attention quickly, moving from individual players to the entire ensemble. This means that during rehearsals, you should be able to hear a problem in a certain section and then pinpoint the student who is making the error. That may seem difficult, but with practice it can be surprisingly easy.
    The best way to develop this skill is to start with a small ensemble of students during a lesson. As they play through a phrase in a piece, look each student in the eyes and try to focus on just his sound. If your teaching schedule does not include group lessons, set aside a few minutes to work with different sections during re­hearsals.
    I have found that walking around the room and standing directly in front of students will help you to focus only on them. As you become more comfortable, try to move your attention quickly from student to student. This can also work to get the ensemble to play with a good sound: pinpoint a student within a section who is playing with a poor sound and help him to make the necessary corrections. Next, move on to the entire ensemble and focus on sections that are having difficulties.

Start Small
    When you are learning to develop anything new, it is always important to take on no more than you can handle. In the case of improving your listening skills, you should begin by standing physically close to the ensemble at first be­cause you’ll more easily be able to pick out problems in smaller groups. I suggest that you initially do this by observing another ensemble and identify the errors you hear because it removes any responsibilities for classroom management.
    The distance you move around the room will depend on its size. If you are working with a marching band outdoors, then you will have plenty of area in which to move around. As you begin to hear two and three individual parts at once, you should move farther back, creating more space between you and the ensemble. This allows the sound to thoroughly blend together before it reaches your ears. The most difficult task I once had was listening to an entire marching ensemble from the stands, focusing on each part and correcting any errors during a rehearsal.
    In general, rehearsals are easier for directors during the beginning of a season when more of the obvious errors take place. Once students are playing errors beyond the halfway mark of a season, the problems are more difficult because they become more subtle. Knowing how to correct these subtle errors can make a mediocre ensemble sound great.
    The first season I worked with a drum and bugle corps was tremendously difficult because I had to listen more critically to the group’s sound. It was the end of the competitive season and the corps was trying to achieve a perfect show. If there was one playing error in the course of five minutes, that single error could allow another group to place higher. It was important for me and the other instructors to have finely  tuned ears.

Useful Tools
    Many directors use an audio re­corder to develop good ears, continuing to practice aural skills on their own rather than only during rehearsals. Even experienced directors record rehearsals and then review the recordings to catch the errors they did not hear the first time; and as the date of a concert performance grows near, they use recorders to pick up subtle errors from the ensemble that are difficult to pick out during rehearsals.
    One piece of advice I heard was that “recordings do not lie.” You may be convinced something is taking place in a piece or that a specific phrase is perfect, when a recording reveals something unexpected. This happens because directors have the added job of managing the classroom during re­hearsals. As a result they either can’t focus entirely on the music or their position in the room keeps them from hearing a problem in the music.
    It is a good idea to purchase a recorder that gives you the finest audio quality possible. Digital recorders are best, but if you cannot afford one, a tape recorder with an external microphone is a good supplement. Built-in microphones do not pick up sound over a large frequency range, meaning  they do not allow you to hear everything correctly.
  A digital recorder is terrific because once you push record, you can leave it on for the entire rehearsal and not worry about running out of memory or tape. Further, digital recorders have built-in microphones, usually with great quality. They are a worthwhile investment because you can use them to record any ensemble in the music program, to help students record  auditions, or to provide students with a copy of a piece they are working on.
I enjoy using the Zoom H4 digital recorder because I can move audio files to my computer with it, edit the files, and put them on a CD or send them to a friend or student by e-mail. On one drum-corps tour a digital recorder stood up through three months of continuous use.
    Another helpful tool is listening to recordings of other ensembles, whether they are groups of colleague or professional ensembles. I suggest you begin by listening primarily to small ensembles because at first you may not be able to determine parts based solely on instrument. Give yourself a listening test to see if you can guess the number of instruments playing.
    Once you master this, try listening to small mixed ensembles and decide on the number of instruments, which instruments are playing, and what parts they are playing. Finally, listen to large ensembles and try to do the same. Although it can be difficult to pinpoint the exact instrumentation and break down the parts of an ensemble, the exercise will help you to more accurately listen to a full ensemble, and it will give you the experience of listening to multiple parts of the same instrument. For example, many pieces break the trumpets into three parts; your job is to be able to hear the three parts and rehearse them.

Teaching Your Skill To Others
    The final step is teaching the students in your ensemble to open their ears and listen to great artists; it will help them to create a good sounding, in-tune group. In my experience it is always easiest to focus on others who are playing your part. Students playing higher pitched instruments generally need to develop their listening skills more than students on lower instruments, who usually develop a round, in-tune sound by listening to low bass parts. Low brass are grouped together and do not have to listen far to match sound. 
    A great technique that I use is to have the bass instruments sustain a low concert Bb, then bring in the higher-pitched instruments section by section on concert Bb. The idea is to have them focus on the bass pitch – the foundation – matching the openness of the sound and tuning with each other. Once the entire ensemble is playing with a good sound, I cut them off and have them attack the note a again, this time immediately playing with the same quality and sound. It may take several times for the group to play initially with such quality, but the results are well worth it.
    Once the ensemble masters this technique I move on to chord progressions using the series Treasury of Scales by Leonard B. Smith (Alfred). This set of books has written parts for each instrument in the ensemble and chord progressions in every key. We work with chord progressions first because students can focus on their sound and not worry about technical rhythms.
    Developing your students’ ears is ex­tremely beneficial because it helps them to analyze and remedy the problems in their playing. When each person in an ensemble becomes critical of his own sound and knows how to correct poor pitch, then directors have more time to fine tuning the interpretation of a piece rather than spend it pointing out errors with pitch and rhythm.
    I began compiling the ideas for this article shortly after student teaching when I was overwhelmed by the number of responsibilities a new teacher had to handle at any one time. I hope these tools will help new directors develop their listening skills and become better educators. If directors master them, they can maximize their rehearsals and produce great-sounding ensembles.                                          

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Developing Musicianship
    I have always believed in the solo-and-ensemble process for developing musicianship in students. Years ago in January and early February the other directors and I encouraged as many students as possible to enter the OMEA Solo and Ensemble Contest. Every year following the contest, I was pleased with the improvements I heard in each band, realizing that the students’ work, whether they polished a solo or participated in an ensemble, had a direct, positive influence on the overall sound of each band.
    Students learned to listen more intently to one another as they adjusted pitch, turned a phrase, and added dynamics to their performances. The in­creased improvement through chamber playing  was all the more inspiring because the students did it with a minimum of coaching from the staff. After years of preparing and polishing ensembles for chamber performances in just two months of the school year, I was curious to see whether the level of achievement would increase more if students prepared chamber music throughout the school year.

Developing a Plan
    I was uncertain that a year-round chamber program was the best idea for all seven concert bands, so I limited it to the Symphonic Winds, the top performing band. In hindsight, this was the right decision because of a lack of senior leadership in other groups. After some encouragement from several of my college-level colleagues, I devised a plan to place every student in Sym­phonic Winds in a chamber ensemble. In the spring of 2001 I reviewed the instrumentation of the band for the following fall and met with students to explain the new program.

    I asked each student to place himself in one of eighteen ensembles – brass quintets, woodwind quintets,  clarinet quartets, percussion ensembles, and more. Before the first rehearsal in September each student was to select one piece for the group to play. For five students in a woodwind quintet, the ensemble had five works to rehearse. In September, each ensemble chose a group leader to help with rehearsals, purchase music, and find gigs; each group was to perform somewhere in the community once every nine weeks. It was that simple.
    As the new school year began and the chamber program was in place, the reality of my plan set in. I worried about losing a day of rehearsal time, but I realized it was too late to turn back. There was no second-guessing at this point.
    We are fortunate at Lakota West to have 75-minute band rehearsals every day in addition to an abundance of practice rooms. For the first chamber rehearsal of the year, I held a brass sectional in the band room for the first 35 minutes of the period while the woodwind and percussion ensembles dispersed to the other rooms for chamber music rehearsals. After 35 minutes, the woodwinds and brass switched, while the percussion continued its rehearsal. While the chamber groups re­hearsed, a great amount of in-depth work took place in sectionals, including individual playing tests.

Public Appearances
    For community performances, students can visit any number of elementary and junior high schools, retirement centers, churches, or various clubs in the Cincinnati area. Before each appearance the ensemble plays its music for peers in class, giving directors time to critique the performance and, if necessary, help the group prepare for a public performance.
    During rehearsals staff members check on the progress of each ensemble and provide needed instruction. At times this can be somewhat informal. I may be walking down the hall and overhear students suggesting ideas. I’m compelled to stop in and ask for further explanation. “Let me hear this.” Many of the ensembles gain additional assistance from private teachers, college faculty, classmates, and even solo-and-ensemble adjudicators.
    The faculty at Capital University’s School of Music has worked with our ensembles before contest season, and in March, the Lakota West Symphonic Winds visited Youngstown State University for a joint concert. In the afternoon the ensembles played for the Youngs­town faculty and and received further feedback.
    Last year the Boston Brass was here for a performance, and afterward its members heard some of the chamber groups. It was beneficial to listen to their comments about the student ensembles and thoughts about performance etiquette, such as how you should stand and present yourself to an audience. To be honest most directors don’t think about such details. Getting this advice was especially helpful for students because the Boston Brass players are amazing musicians who easily connect with audiences.

Difficult Music
    The ensemble members usually select a broad range of music, from easy arrangements, especially before the Christmas holiday, to advanced works selected by the Ohio Music Educators Association. Often the music is too difficult, so we encourage everyone to be realistic about what they can play well. Each student selects a work, so of the five pieces a quintet learns, I hope only one is difficult.
    Ideally, the groups should have a varied repertoire for each performance and with enough material to play for a half hour. They find the most success performing fun pieces that include everyone’s musical decisions, played for the sheer enjoyment of it.
    Some students have begun to compose or arrange their own chamber music, which became a pleasant surprise and added a entirely new dimension to the music education taking place. Several well-crafted compositions have been performed for community audiences, much to the delight of the young composers.

Becoming Better Musicians
    I’ve found that the different groups vary in their talent and dedication to excellence. In some, every player works diligently, developing their part and performing at a high level. Peer pressure is wonderful in this regard. Each player takes responsibility for the success of the group and this produces better musicians. When a third clarinet shares a part with five others in full band, the world doesn’t change if he misses a phrase nearly as much as when a solo player misses a phrase in a clarinet quartet. In­dividual counting and listening across the ensemble become important in every rehearsal; group dynamics and interpersonal communication also rise to the fore.
    Students quickly learn that each part is critical to the entire group and that attending each rehearsal is vital. We preach that students who perform in public are representing the Lakota West band program and that what they do, and how and when they arrive, is important. One of my favorite adages is that the best way to be on time is to be early. If only one person does not show up, the time of the entire ensemble is wasted. This is another instance where peer pressure is helpful.

Improving Percussionists
    The percussion ensemble in-cludes at least eight individuals working to make music and learning more about the world of percussion. Fortunately the high school has a percussion instructor who knows how to carefully direct young people. In fact, mallet playing has skyrocketed in our percussion ensemble, with the top group performing a seven-part mallet ensemble this year at contest that was just amazing.
    Performing in ensembles has made the percussionists more well rounded because they no longer just sit in the back of the band room waiting for a cymbal crash. I’ve even seen the improvements extend over to marching band. In years past everyone wanted to be a snare drummer and now I hear, “Hey, I’d really like to play mallets in the front line.”
    The point of scheduling chamber ensembles during band rehearsals every week is that it greatly increases each student’s musical maturity by leaps and bounds. Much is accomplished with advanced players as well as students who show leadership and discipline. However, it takes a strong student leader and the careful watch of directors for every group to advance. It could be deadly to combine several students who don’t have a good basic tone, don’t read well, and lack in social skills and expect them to advance through a year of ensemble work.

Benefits for All
    One result of chamber group membership is that some students practice more outside of school, ultimately helping the band make greater strides. Perhaps the greatest benefit is that students listen more across the ensemble – listening to hear the melody and how their part fits into the larger band sound. Intonation is another area that dramatically improves. When a student practices on his own, intonation is not always paramount, but for balancing chords in a chamber group, intonation becomes crucial.
    Communication in music making is another benefit of playing chamber music. Certainly students benefit from the social aspect of getting a group together and going out to make music. Instruction time in many high schools across the nation is now being used to foster social interaction in the hopes that it will bolster students’ achievements. Of course, music educators have always known this to be true. We often boast that the best and brightest students in school are in the music program because of the intangible results.
    Through the ensemble program I’ve found that most of the mature musicians are helpful in coaching younger students for solo-and-ensemble performances in January. They help the freshman ensembles to prepare for contest after school as well as share their insights about the high school program.
    Students genuinely seem to enjoy rehearsing chamber music and having the chance to make their own musical decisions. I often receive requests from churches, weddings parties, and other venues to provide music. It is wonderful to have so many ensembles ready and willing to play, sometimes with only a few days of notice.
    Both the students and the band program have earned money from many of the performances, which I turn over to our boosters club for band projects. Sometimes these funds go directly to the students. For example, General Electric had a Christ­mas party last year and asked a chamber group perform. To show their appreciation the company gave each student a gift card for Best Buy.
    As goodwill ambassadors of the band program, the chamber ensembles have been great for recruiting, especially when they play for elementary and junior high students who will soon be attending Lakota West. After hearing a performance and talking with the high school students, incoming freshmen are encouraged and motivated to practice. The older folks in the community are always excited to hear young people making music.

Some Practical Advice
    When colleagues ask my advice about setting up a year-long chamber music program, I reiterate the importance of having enough practice rooms and places to send students to rehearse. You don’t want students practicing in a hallway. If a school doesn’t have enough rooms to rehearse during the day, then one solution is scheduling rehearsals before and after school. Being enthusiastic and encouraging to students will make this happen. It is also important to have group leaders who communicate well enough to make the program work.
    If I were still at my job in a rural Ohio school where I had one band for grades 9-12, would I do this? The answer is yes. In that situation I would have enough seniors to work with and inspire the younger students; however, a freshman band is a more difficult situation. In that case I would schedule chamber ensemble rehearsals for only two months, not nine, because freshmen tend to be immature and would have no student leader to look to up to and respect.
    It takes thought, coordination, and good student leaders to develop a chamber music program that has students winning awards at contest and performing in the community. The result – a larger band and more musical program – is well worth the effort.

Remarkable Group
    Last year I had a remarkable sax group. The members liked playing together so much, they would practice all the time and come in to perform for the band. Their arrangements were always 10-15 minutes long, not the two-minute variety. They would play and play and play. Finally I would have to say, “Sorry guys, we have to go to lunch.” One of the students is now a college composition major.
    Actually, the group went to contest asking for comments only, because Ohio students have to select repertoire from a prescribed list, and the composition student had a newly composed piece that wasn’t on it. They decided that there are more important things than just getting a rating.
    That is one of many stories that I associate with the chamber music program. No band is perfect, but I have heard the bands at Lakota West get stronger every year, with a great deal of the improvement coming from the chamber program. Obviously, a chamber program alone does not make for a stellar band program, but in combination with private lessons, participation in honor band, support from the administration, and a daily plan to strive for the best performances, great bands are possible.
    Although some schools have more resources and a great numbers of students, most students want to be pushed to be the best they can be. Making music in different settings and various-sized groups contributes to students becoming more engaged and focused, and many times they become more interested in music for the rest of their lives. As music educators, this is what we all hope for.  

To read more about Greg Snyder, check out this that previously ran in The Instrumentalist.

How are you using chamber music in your music program? Drop us a line at editor@instrumentalistmagazine.com and let us know.

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After 36 years on the podium at Penn, Keith is a veteran of the profession who understands how well a mature sound can contribute to producing exceptional ensembles. By example, the concert bands that are at the heart of his program regularly earn gold ratings at Indiana State School Music Association events, and his top symphonic band just performed at the 2008 Midwest Clinic. Penn’s marching bands have performed in numerous bowl parades, including the 2001 Tournament of Roses Parade, and the jazz ensembles he has directed have appeared at such events as the American Association of School Administrators Convention in San Fran­ciso and the Central Pennsylvania Friends of Jazz Festival in Harrisburg.
    Of the 3,200 students at Penn High School, about 425 participate in the instrumental music program, including 300 students in five concert bands and some 100 students in three orchestras; of those students, many also participate in the two jazz ensembles and marching band, which is held after school. The high school has three band directors and 11⁄3 orchestra directors, and the district middle schools have 3 1⁄2 band directors and 2 2⁄3 orchestra directors.

Tuning to F, B flat, and A
    Keith begins rehearsals by making brief an­nouncements as students play before the work of warming up gets underway. “I’ll give the band a cut off and ask everyone to sing concert F; we’ve practiced it long enough so students now do it without any reference. From that point, my warm­up always varies. It will include tuning to F, B flat, and A; and it will include multiple scales. If I start on F, students anticipate they will play up the scale until I point down. It may be up a note up and back to F, or it may be several notes up and back down to F. My goal is to have everyone absolutely focus on my down beat and where it is going. Each student has to listen and match the ensemble.
    “For exceptional musicianship in a performance, a band has to be flexible, and that flexibility comes from the fact that the warmup is not predictable and it is not metered. If I were to beat out four beats for every note and have the band hold every note out, there would be no need for anyone to watch me; but because students don’t know when I’m going to make a change, they have to watch and they have to listen. I may start on a different group of notes and work up and down through scales, taking the do-re-mi approach, just to get everyone listening. No matter which key we start in I’ll ask, ‘Are you absolutely matching pitches?’ The tempo doesn’t have to be fast, but the adjustments have to be made with a critical ear. In all of Penn’s bands, the directors warmup with scales; we conduct them slowly for pitch, then we work them fast for technical development. Both are equally important.”

Tone Quality
    Keith talks about playing with good tone quality at every rehearsal, reminding band members when they are most likely to slip, such as during sightreading or toward the end of a lengthy passage when it’s easy to run out of air. Students forget that all they have to do is breathe. “The more a director can get young musicians interested in what their instrument sounds like when it is played well, the more they will want to emulate that sound. There are so many ways to get good musicianship in front of students: invite a guest to play for the ensemble; ask local symphonies to send out quartets to perform; or have a university director work with your groups.”
    Penn students are fortunate to live so close to South Bend because they can attend the many free concerts at Notre Dame University. Keith has also worked closely with Jay Gephart, director of bands at Purdue University. Several years ago the Penn band participated in a partnership with Purdue: Jay brought the marching band to Mishawaka and shared an evening with the Penn marching band, and later Keith brought his concert band to Purdue and shared a concert there.

Trombone, Then Tuba
    Keith Rudolph is a product of Indiana music education. “Growing up, I had been a mediocre trombone player and switched to tuba in seventh grade. I nearly immediately liked it, and the more I liked it, the more I practiced. By my sophomore year at Boonville High School, I was active in everything musical that was possible and knew I wanted to be a band director. As an undergraduate I studied at Butler University and was fortunate to be in John Colbert’s symphonic band. Later I stayed on as a graduate assistant for my master’s, so it was quite a good experience.”
    Penn High School had been in existence for  only 15 years when Keith became its band director in 1973. “During those early years the school had six or seven different band directors. One teacher, about three directors before me, had done a fine job, based on recordings he left of the concert and jazz bands. After he left in August the school hired temporary replacements for a year. The next director stayed only one year so that I was the fourth band director in four years. As a result many of the students decided not to continue with band because they were fed up with the turnover.”
    Rudolph’s first year was difficult. The high school had two concert bands with a combined enrollment of about 80 students, and because the previous directors would assign only the best students to the top band, the second band was small and with little talent. It created some bad feelings for anyone who didn’t make the top ensemble.
    “During my first years I taught 8th and 9th grade bands in a middle school and two high school band classes. A jazz band that met entirely outside of school rehearsed after marching band season. Then in 1990 the 9th grade became a part of the high school, which went through a major renovation, and the band program took off because of the influx of students. The great bulk of the talent was in the middle school at that time thanks to some new teachers.
“When the high school expanded we added several teachers. I remember hiring someone for a 5⁄8ths position and said, ‘If you can hang on for a year with a 5⁄8ths salary, we will be able to make it a full-time position in a year.’ It worked out that way.”

Praise for Administrators
    Excellent administrative support at several im­portant points in the growth of the music department made a big difference in Keith’s ac­complishments for the music program. “When I arrived at Penn the principal was outstanding, especially for someone with as little experience as I had. At one point the assistant superintendent was absolutely essential in helping me. In my third year of teaching I remember talking to Dean Speicher, a long-time superintendent, about the fact that Penn didn’t have an orchestra. I worried because each year parents who were new to the district would ask why there was no string program; they had thought this was an up-and-coming school system. 
    “‘Have your proposal ready,’ Dean would say, ‘but now the time is not right.’ He was adept at managing the system and initiating projects when the school could sustain them and not just start them. A few years later I received a call from Dean’s secretary with the simple message, ‘The time is right.’ Later that day I took the proposal to his office and we developed a timeline for starting an orchestra. We now have three string classes with an enrollment of over 100 students. The full orchestra includes advanced strings and wind students from the top concert band; because both ensembles rehearse at the same time, I sometimes let the orchestral winds go for half a period. They also re­hearse on Monday evenings for two hours.”
    Keith likes to consider everyone’s thoughts for the music program so that it represents a collection of ideas. In addition to the music faculty, he talks to students, parents, and the administration, asking for their input to the program. “We are fortunate to have a great group of parent volunteers and boosters who not only do a lot of the heavy lifting but also are an excellent sounding board for our future planning.”
    For the summer marching band schedule, he tells students how many hours it will take to learn and polish a show, and the students decide how many hours a day and how many days a week they will practice. “They basically say, ‘We want a summer break that is as long as possible, but we also want to work hard and get it done.’ The staff believes that because marching band is an elective, students aren’t surprised to have to practice outside of class.
  “Penn is on an alternating block schedule, so if students don’t practice outside of class, the ensembles just can’t move forward. The school calendar is 39 weeks of the year, several of which are interrupted by Thanksgiving, winter holidays, and a spring break. We see students for three class periods only 13 weeks each year. For the remaining 26 weeks, we see them twice a week or occasionally once. This means that if students don’t practice outside of school, we have a rough time making progress.
    “At least 50% of the students in most of the ensembles study privately, and in the advanced groups the number gets higher. In the group that went to Midwest, everyone either studied with a private teacher or was coached by me. In the second group probably 75% of the students study privately.”

Marching Bands in Indiana
    Rudolph believes that the more competitive marching bands get, the smaller the groups become because directors expect more rehearsal hours and more performances. As a result an increasing number of students realize they don’t have the time and don’t sign up. In the class A Indiana State finals of the 1980s, most bands had 230 or more students. Now if a band has 230 students on the field, it is probably the biggest band there.
    Marching bands have become much more active and much more competitive in recent years. “At one point the marching band at Penn became so big that we couldn’t staff it. When we had about 300 members and I asked for more help, the response was, well maybe not everyone can be in the marching band. After a long talk with the parents, I decided to add more rehearsal hours and see what would happen to the numbers. Over the next three years the numbers dropped from 300 to about 225. We now have 210-215 in marching band every year. I’m not unhappy with it but, as I said, when you start involving more people and more hours, something has to give somewhere. Some students simply don’t want to devote 100 hours or so much of their summer to marching band, and that is fine. If they don’t participate, I hope they come back and play in one of the concert bands.”

Some Advice for New Teachers
    As a new teacher, Rudolph remembers assigning music that he liked, even though it was too difficult for his students to master. “Part of the problem was that I had just left a graduate program where I was a graduate assistant and didn’t take the time to explore good high school literature. I hadn’t done the homework. It doesn’t mean a new director can’t rehearse some of the compositions he played in college, but he should be careful and not schedule them too frequently.
    “Over the years I’ve learned that it is far better to master some thing, than it is to come close and accept some rough edges along the way. There is a fine balance to playing music that students sound great performing that also challenges them. You can easily go the other way and not challenge students enough; they loose some of their interest or potential practice time because they are bored.”
    For college graduates who will be teaching for the first time in September, Keith suggests they find out as much as possible about the school’s music program. “Unfortunately, the principal who interviewed you may not know the details that can make a difference in your first months at school. If possible, try to get a hold of materials right away, including past programs, any method books that may be in the music files, and music the ensemble performed the previous year.
    “The guidance office may be able to put you in touch with band members who can be helpful. You should ask them what rehearsals were like, how they warmed up, and whether they played from method books. This will help you focus on the level of the materials that are going to be effective. You don’t want to duplicate a previous director’s work, but you should start at a level where students feel that they are going to fit in and the band can move forward.”

People Important to Band Directors
    Over the years the people who have been most important to Keith Rudolph are the principal, the secretary, and the custodians at Penn High School. He remembers how one secretary came to his rescue when the band arrived in California to march in the Rose Parade only to find that a sousaphone player had left his instrument back in Indiana.
    “I called the principal’s secretary, who I knew would be in even though it was a holiday break. When I explained my problem, she offered to walk down to the band room to find the sousaphone. She reported that it was in the case and then asked how she could help. The secretary took care of everything, and the next day – one day later – the sousaphone arrived by UPS at the hotel. That is typical of the secretaries at Penn. We’ve been so blessed with people who will do anything to help.
    “There have also been any number of people who have bailed me out over the years. One of the reasons for their helpfulness is that if I messed something up, I acknowledged it right away. I wanted to be certain whoever I effected knew I was sorry and that I intended to work like crazy to never repeat the problem – mostly because I didn’t want to hear about it a second time. Since I’ve done that, when I need a custodian’s help for something that is not on the schedule, many will pretty
much drop what they are doing and help out. If you are right with people, when you need them, they will be right with you.”

Thoughts About the Midwest
    Keith was extremely pleased with the way his students prepared and performed for the 2008 Midwest Clinic. The band was in Chicago during the school’s finals week, so if he had it to do over, he says it might have helped to have had the Saturday before Midwest for one more long rehearsal. “But we played so well, that I’m just going to have to live with a couple of slipped notes. I knew that this was going to be a huge highlight in my career. I stood on the side of the stage still in awe of the process, even though we had just gone through it. Shortly before the band went on I noticed that our oboe soloist, who is a wonderful musician, was just about in tears. I walked over to her and asked, ‘Are you okay?’ She said, ‘I am so scared.’ I said, ‘You know, I am too. We are going to get through this.’ She played great during at the concert.”
    While it is intimidating to perform for an audience of your peers, Keith attributes the large audience turn out that day to the guest appearance of tuba soloist Patrick Sheridan, who performed Straight of Hormuz, a work composed by Sheridan and Sam Pilafian just for the Penn Symphonic Band’s Midwest appearance. “I don’t know that any high school band can turn out a great audience unless you have a national name for a number of years, and I don’t think we do. Having Pat there was a huge lift for the students because he arrived a week early and had such energy and enthusiasm that he elevated our level of performance.
    “We had three rehearsals with him, and he presented several clinics that included all of our other band students. Then we performed a concert exactly one week ahead of Midwest. At Midwest we had a night-before rehearsal to go through Pat’s number again. In addition the band performed Rain by Brian Balmages, directed by Ray Cramer, who simply transformed the students on that selection. The band also got a huge kick out of playing several other numbers by composers who were in the audience.”
    Directors interested in taking an ensemble to perform at the Midwest should apply and go all out. “A year ago, we thought we would put a couple of pieces together to record in January. When January arrived, the performance wasn’t good enough, so the other directors and I scheduled a concert shortly before the Midwest application deadline that we recorded and sent in.
    “It was absolutely worth the effort because going through the Midwest experience has elevated the band. Students are rehearsing much more maturely, and the result is that they are doing some neat things on a daily basis. It all started with questioning how we could get our very best effort on tape sometime between January and March, when normally the peak performance of the year takes place in May. It was a challenge to rethink our work a bit.
    “As to programming at first I had few favorites to consider, but the more I got into it, we ended up with almost all new literature; every single piece was something we had never before played. Even if numbers were a few years old, they were new to us. We thought that was a particularly nice part of the process. Later I heard from several people who attended our concert and were appreciative of what we programmed, so we must have selected well for them too.”

Some Final Thoughts
    From his perspective Keith says that in addition to having more students studying band instruments at Penn now than 30 years ago, he has also seen concerts bands in Indiana greatly improve. “The number of really fine concert bands is pretty significant. It’s a great change. There were always some good programs, but there are so many more now.”
    While having his bands in the Rose Parade and at the Midwest Clinic were rewarding career highlights, another thrill for Keith is seeing Penn students continue to succeed in music. “Just a few years ago during football season, Purdue came up to play Notre Dame, and I got to be on the sidelines with the Purdue band. I had ten former students in the Purdue band and six in Notre Dame’s. Things like that continue to make my career truly special.”

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