Trombone Choir
Gordon Cherry: For those of us who experienced it, the sound and feeling of the trombone choir never will leave our hearts and minds. Picture if you will, about 30 young men and women from all parts of the continent and every background. We took places assigned by the Chief in a semi-circle based on seniority and ability, and began to play five or ten minutes of the Remington routine in unison, with the Chief singing in his unmistakably sweet, but slightly raspy voice. You could tune an orchestra with that voice. If there ever was a discrepancy in tuning, it had to be you.

We proceeded to a chorale, usually Bach; Bach was his meat and potatoes, the backbone of every rehearsal and concert. Bach’s music was Remington’s training vehicle for the choir, the perfect composer to convey his concept of the trombone and how it should sound. Bach’s chorales and fugues were our daily bread for his three Ts: tone, tuning, and technique. The chorales built tone, tuning, phrasing, and technique; the fugues were for technique, rhythm, and ensemble.

The Chief projected his sound concept during every moment of his music making and teaching. This concept was song, plain and simple. He detested the stereotype of blatting unmannered trombone, so much in vogue at the time. The trombone was his chosen vehicle to reproduce the beauty of the human voice. His concept of the trombone was a rich, sonorous, and expressive instrument capable of nothing less than any orchestral instrument.

The Teacher
Donald Hunsberger: The personal relationship between a teacher and private students is a delicate balancing act involving stimulation, guidance of native talents, support, and an awareness of the student’s state of self-doubt. Traditionally some teachers bully or harass students into achieving goals, risking the future self-worth of students driven by fear. Emory Remington’s teaching centered around the relationship between him and his wife, Laura, and young trombonists fortunate enough to study with him.

His personal support was strong and unwavering, yet from the student’s perspective it was a fragile relationship. The slightest reprimand from him or the feeling that we had failed him was devastating; what a relief it was to feel that we had eventually regained his respect. Again, the words of his former students are powerful.

Gary Good: He worked with me as diligently as with his greatest
trombonist. Whenever I find myself impatient with someone, Emory Remington’s patience reminds me of the hidden talents to be nurtured in each of us.

Ronald Cox: Mr. Remington demonstrated a great respect for an individual’s dignity. He seemed to attend just about every performance of students in recitals or ensembles, and seemed to find the time to be encouraging to students from any department. He never chastised me verbally if a lesson was underprepared. If he was not quite satisfied, he’d put a question mark over the top of the page and gently say, let’s sightread, Spike.’ Once, only once, did he ever stop singing. I have never felt so alone and swore that this would never happen again. I still sing along with my students.

The post Lessons from The Chief appeared first on The Instrumentalist.

While both of you are busy with a variety of musical activities, what do you miss most about teaching in class every day?

Darrin Davis: I greatly miss the daily interactions with students. I am in my first year out of the classroom every day and not with the band full time. I thought that marching band would be the one thing I wouldn’t miss, but I enjoyed that process so much and seeing the kids grow. I was a pretty emotional guy this fall. Every time I saw the band in uniform, it tugged at my heartstrings not to be able to do that every day. What I don’t miss is probably booster club board meetings, particularly when it was about budget.

Greg Bimm: My experience is similar. I miss standing in front of the symphonic band and making music with those kids every day. That band was my home. Even at the rehearsals when we were making music at a base level, working on warm-ups and exercises and trying to make good sounds, every day was special. There were times when I went in sick as a dog, but for those 50 minutes I was lifted up.

I miss marching band, too, but I still do the drill for Marian. I get to go over to rehearsals and work with Steve Pyter, who took my place. He has been amazing at working with the band and keeping things going well. The students really adore him. He makes me feel at home and still connected to the program in exactly the right proportion. I particularly miss the nuts and bolts of marching band rehearsals every day.

I don’t miss some of the unpleasant details of the job. In June, after I retired a year ago, I was sitting at my desk and was still on the email for the band program. An email came through from a girl who was going to miss a rehearsal without a good reason. Immediately, my eyebrows went up, and I reached for my keyboard. Then, I realized that I don’t have to do that. It is not my problem. That was a really good feeling. I don’t miss that stuff at all, but standing in front of the kids everyday is beyond special. I miss that still and probably always will.

Darrin Davis: When I was still in the band room as director of bands, I would rarely leave a rehearsal, even if I was sick. There were opportunities to give clinics with other bands or work with an honor band. Almost without fail, I declined those opportunities because I didn’t want to leave my students. There is a bit of a hole that I am starting to fill now with the chance to guest conduct. Even with these new creative experiences, there was no feeling like standing on the podium with the Broken Arrow wind ensemble.

Greg Bimm: I also enjoy having the time to do honor bands, but there is nothing like looking in the eyes of the kids that you know and see every day. When you give a cue to your first flute player, you know who that person is – who they are, why they are, what their background is like. No matter how good the honor band is, although you can make great music, it doesn’t feel the same as making music with your own students.

What are the most important lessons you learned early in your careers?

Bimm: In my first year, I was finishing the second or third rehearsal with the marching band, and there was this kid who had a big grin on his face as I was being very serious. I gave him a hard time because I thought he was making light of what we were talking about. I didn’t know anybody yet and didn’t know him at all. I found out that he was a senior, a wonderful kid, and had gotten a 34 on his ACT.

When I got to know him better, I discovered that he had never learned scales. On one Wednesday, I taught him how scales are built. He came back on Thursday and asked me to name a scale. He could slowly play all of his major scales because he understood how they worked. I initially jumped to a conclusion with him, and he turned out to be wonderful student. When he graduated, I said, “Why were you grinning that first day?” He said, “I wasn’t grinning. You had us facing into the sun, and I was squinting.”

The larger lesson was learning how to develop a bag of teaching tools. When I started teaching, I had no tools. If the music was bad, I was going to just attack it mercilessly until the sounds were OK. Over all these years, I developed many different ways to accomplish the same thing.

As a young teacher, I may have observed a really good teacher but their approach might not be aligned with my personality. As I gathered tools over the years, I found out what works with my personality. When something goes wrong now, I have many choices on how to fix it. When I work with my own band, those choices always filter through who the student is.

Darrin Davis: There is the adage that when you are starting out, you don’t know what you don’t know. When I began teaching, it was before the internet. There was no way to search online for different resources to build that bag of tools. You learn when you are willing to be vulnerable and admit you don’t know everything. It didn’t take me long because as much as I had great colleagues at Broken Arrow, there were also other colleagues in the area who would say, “Come over to one of my rehearsals or bring your scores and let’s talk about some musical concepts.”

As a young teacher, I didn’t know the pedagogy nearly as well; you need to know all of the instruments to teach them and have multiple remedies to help kids improve their quality of sound. You need to learn alternate fingerings, and tuning tendencies to develop that pedagogical base. I had a great mentor in the area, Dean Coale, who taught with George Brite at the great Sapulpa High School. He allowed me to be a sponge, to listen and observe every detail about how he taught. That information helped me get the first layer in the bag of tools.

The process of adding new skills is lifelong. I was working with an honor band a couple of weeks ago and walked into a rehearsal of another honor band. I stole about ten different things. Some young teachers are reluctant to ask for help from a more experienced director. They would rather look something up online than have conversations with veteran teachers.

Something else that made a big difference in my early years was developing my concept of sound and paying attention to how it changes over time with different groups. It is interesting to listen to a recording from a year ago and another from 20 years ago to see how that concept of sound continues to evolve, particularly with advancements in literature and the increasing proficiency of the students. The need to keep learning never leaves us.

Bimm: I was just in Nebraska, and on the way to the airport, I was with a couple of college teachers, and we were talking about warm-ups. They shared some ideas I had never thought of before. I was very shy in those settings early in my career and still feel a bit that way. I was afraid to ask questions of other directors. Often, I would just be a fly on the wall. I remember watching John Paynter rehearsing the Illinois All-State band in the early 1980s, and I was working the equipment and making sure that whatever was needed for a session made it to the right place. While moving equipment from one rehearsal room to another, I always made sure that my path took me past the rehearsal hall. I remember standing in the doorway and watching John work. Every once in a while, he would look over his shoulder to the right and raise an eyebrow. He had worked with my band before. I was just trying to steal anything that I could

What do you admire about each other?

Davis: Greg has developed a program of enduring success. If you ask Greg about his feeder system, he doesn’t have one. His students come in at different playing levels, and he empowers his senior students to be mentors to the younger ones. This is a philosophy that every program in America can learn from. You do not have to change your level of expectations based on current skills. It’s about the skills we will learn. I have always admired how fine his concert bands were. He was a pioneer in the 1980s for getting a concert band sound to exist within the marching band. What Greg did for the activity in the 1980s became the standard for how we would create this concert approach to the marching. It was transformational. Look at what everyone is doing today as they try to make that concept even better.

Bimm: My knowledge of Darrin and Broken Arrow goes back to when they first started coming to Bands of America. The first time they won, I was standing on the sideline watching Darrin and their staff. Their eyes kept getting bigger as the announcements were going up through the places. When they were announced as the winners, they were so surprised, and I was so impressed by their humility. There was no assumption there that they were going to win. That’s the Darrin that I have known all of these years.

Their program is known coast to coast. Everybody knows Darrin Davis and Broken Arrow. They know the astounding history, and the crazy levels they reached. I heard Darrin’s band at ABA two years ago. What I remember is the Kallinikov (Symphony No. 1) The band was just off the charts. Within all of that, the program stays focused and that is a reflection of who Darrin is.

How do you approach daily warm-ups?

Davis: I want the students to be able to produce a characteristic tone and have control of their instrument so they can fluctuate and understand the variance of pitch. The beginning of the year is about creating those note shapes, like the bricks in a wall. Initially that is what we want the sounds to look like – consistent beginning, middle and end to the sound. Then we start defining what it means to play notes that are 75% sound and 25% silence, 50% sound and 50% silence, and then 25% sound 75% silence. From that foundation, then we develop a repertoire to shape notes that decay just as you would see a wave form on a digital device. To make an accent sound the way it looks with that sideways triangle. Do the triangles touch? Do they create distance or silence between the notes?

The beginning of our warm-up process is defining the consistency and quality of sound, note length, and note shape. These are the building blocks for everything else we do. I teach and emphasize the importance of sustaining a pitch and bending it to be in tune with the players around you. We have to get students to a level where they have the sensitivity so that even if they make the wrong decision, they are gradually training their ears to make better decisions.

When I started teaching, they didn’t have the TonalEnergy tuner yet. The advent of those tools has made a transformation in sound quality, purity of sound, and development of students’ listening skills. There was a time in my career when I thought the answer was for every player to have their own little tuner with one of those wires that clamps onto a bell. That is not the answer. The solution is to develop their ears. Those devices are good for the practice room, but not for creating ensemble skills and ensemble awareness.

To take it one step further, my process has a focus on what each individual student brings to the table. Can they make artistic choices on how a phrase should sound? When we start a piece of music, I may know exactly how I want to phrase it, but I want students to have a chance to see what their ideas are. Sometimes it affects my interpretations if I like the way someone interprets a phrase. Empowering students to make artistic choices was a huge part of my process at Broken Arrow.

Bimm: Since I retired, I have had a chance to go into different band rooms and see different approaches to warm up. It has struck me that in a number of cases there is a lack of thinking and focus going on. During the time they are warming up, the groups go through a series of things without a clear focus from the director. Most importantly, it is not a period of critical thinking for students. They seem to roll through the warm-up exercises to get them out of the way and move on to reading the music for the next concert.

I looked at warm ups a bit differently with my groups. Even as we approached concerts, there were times when we spent a larger portion of time working on warm-ups and exercises than on the literature we were going to play. We used the same relative warm-ups in the same order each day, but they were built to be a bit different every day. We kept them “new” each day, so they could be adaptable for whatever we were playing and so that the students had to think to participate. Our students came to band at 11 AM after being in four other classes, so we needed to “warm up” their minds as well!

We started by playing all major and minor scales. Students arrived for band and 5 minutes later, a student would count off. The band would play the scales sequence. These director-less, self-starting scales created the idea that they had chosen to be practicing.

Our first director-led warm-up was always sight singing. As Darrin said, when we started, there was not the technology that we have today. To teach playing in tune, I used sight singing to train their ears and train them how to target pitches.

For sight singing we used the book Treasury of Scales by Leonard Smith. The first half of the season, we would sing the odd numbers (major keys) and during the second half, we sang the even numbers (minor keys).

The format was simple. If we were playing number 19 which I think is in Eb, we would start by playing and singing the Eb scale. Then, there were four parts to the exercise. First, we would sight sing the line (no stops-complete with errors), then we would play it, having the kids listen for what they had missed while singing. Third, we would sing it again having the students use what they had played to guide their voices. Finally, we would play the line having them let what they sang (their ears) guide their instruments. A good thing about Treasury of Scales is that each line has a simple whole note scale for one group. That helps when the harmonies are especially difficult. The rest of our warm-ups were also home grown and based on intentional focus.

Which mentors helped shape your teaching and the directors you turned out to be?

Davis: As a undergraduate in a small school in Missouri, my director said, “I’ve got concert tickets. We need to go.” It was the 50th Anniversary of the CBDNA in Kansas City and Frederick Fennell was going to conduct. I didn’t know much about Fennell at the time, but the concert transformed everything that I thought about music. I was hungry for all those old LP recordings. Now you can pull any of that stuff up on YouTube and see rehearsals with great conductors working with different bands. Fennell’s approach to pulling the music out of an ensemble, no matter how experienced, was just magical.

While doing my master’s degree, I worked with the band program but also spend part of my time with the music education department. There I met Professor Gerald Siverson, who was one of Fennell’s four conducting students at the University of Miami. It began a conversation and collaboration with my new major professor but also a connection to learn from Maestro Fennell. I actually had the opportunity to have a conducting lesson with Fennell as a part of my studies with Gerald Siverson.

We meet certain people in our lives for a reason, and they become transformational. I didn’t decide until just a couple of months before high school graduation that I wanted to be a music major instead of an engineer. I went to my high school director, Ken Grass, and said I want to be a band director, and I want your job someday. He was the Director of Bands at Broken Arrow High School, and I felt it was the only place that I could go. He said you don’t want this career path because it doesn’t pay very much. He went through the reasons why he didn’t think it was a good choice. I went up to him two days later and said, “I’ve thought about it more, and I really want to be a band director.” We became very close. He told me that after the second or third time I said I wanted to be a band director, he realized that I might have a chance. He helped put me on a path to being successful.

In the last 25 years or so, Professor Thomas Leslie from UNLV has been a huge influence on my life. Learning how he approaches sound and musicianship has been so valuable for me. I call him my big brother because he means a lot to me on a personal level but even more on a musical level.

Greg Bimm: I decided to be a band director in fifth grade. I got hooked pretty quickly and have always pursued that. I had two band directors in high school, Christopher Izzo and Mel Pontious. Both of them had a profound influence on me. The program was really high level and could play pretty much everything. Both directors were brilliant musicians with different styles. Mr. Izzo was a fiery Revelli-like person, and Mr. Pontious was more cerebral in the most positive way. I got the best of both worlds. That probably was the single thing that set me on a path so that I could be successful later on. Mr. Izzo is gone now but we stayed close all of his years. Mr. Pontious is still alive and well. I’ve thanked him so many times. One of the things I thank him for was when I was in freshman band in high school, he had us play the Chaconne from the First Suite in Eb. The program was very special.

After that, some of the people who influenced me are household names. I got to know John Paynter, whose brilliance was mind boggling. He was a special person from the musical side. He did transcriptions, and that’s probably one of reasons I’ve done a few transcriptions because I wanted to be like that.

William Revelli was another major influence although his style would probably not fit in today’s world. I had a discussion with someone once about how if Revelli was a band director now his course would be different. His goal was to make great music, so he would probably do that in a different fashion now.

I got to talk with Revelli once when I was his guide. I picked him up in Peoria, Illinois and drove him for two hours. He was a very normal guy. I was driving Mr. Izzo’s Cadillac, and Revelli looked at me and said, “Is this your car?” I told him I drove a trashy old Chevy, and he said that he drove an old Chevy too, so we talked about nasty old cars for a while. There were moments, too, when I saw a different side of him as a musician. I sat next to him at a concert as a band was playing The Alcotts by Ives. Revelli leaned over to me and said, “What’s wrong with this band?” I started to analyze and said the French horns a little bit sharp and everything else I could possibly dig out because I didn’t want to be wrong. He still said no. Then he said, “They’re over-regimented.” Basically, the director was such a dictator, and the time was so strict that the music couldn’t sing at all. This was Revelli, who was notorious for being powerful and demanding. For him to say that the band was over regimented changed my perspective.

Both Paynter and Revelli made the same comment to me in a different way. Before I met Revelli in person, I spoke to him on the phone early in my career. I asked what advice he would give to a young band director. He simply said, “Wear out the seat of your pants studying your scores. That is the biggest key. If you really dig in, you learn to love the music, and you learn the music well enough that you can get it into the band that is going to perform.

John Paynter shared the same lesson when we were standing backstage at a concert where we were both going to conduct. He leaned over and said, “If you watch closely at all, you can really tell the directors who study their scores.” Then he just gave me a wry smile.

Greg Bimm and his bands have won first place in its class in the Illinois State Marching Championship 42 straight times. Bimm also led the Marian Catholic Symphonic Band which has been named honor band in its class at the University of Illinois SuperState a record 10 times. The marching bands won seven Bands of America Grand National Champions, 21 BOA National Class Championships, and 34 consecutive BOA National Finalist appearances. He earned degrees from Illinois State University, Western University, and received an honorary doctorate from VanderCook College of Music.

Darrin Davis has performed with bands at the 88th ABA Convention, the Midwest Clinic, the Music for All National Concert Band Festival and six times as featured honor band at the Oklahoma Music Educators Conference. Broken Arrow is a 30-time Oklahoma State Marching Band Champion, 17 BOA Grand National Finalist, and a four-time Bands of America Grand National Champion. Davis earned degrees from Missouri Western State University and the University of Tulsa and maintains a busy schedule of guest conducting and clinic appearance.

The post The Shape of Success A Conversation with Darrin Davis and Greg Bim appeared first on The Instrumentalist.

Kim Bain

My first conducting experiences while working on my undergraduate degree in music education at the University of Alabama were pretty par for the course. However, while at Bowling Green State University persuing a graduate degree, I was lucky enough to be in a conducting class taught by Maestro Robert Spano. This was 1987, and Spano was the conductor of the BGSU Philharmonia and in charge of all opera activities. He was 26, and the students in the class ranged from ages 22 to 24.

I was a band kid from Alabama who arrived at graduate school with zero experience in orchestral conducting. Funding for school orchestras in my home state was less than stellar back then, and it is not much better today. Nonetheless, my conducting experiences with Professor Spano were inspirational, and studying with someone of his caliber instilled in me feelings of both fear and exhilaration. I still look back on that conducting class with great fondness.

At Bowling Green, Maestro Spano already had the reputation of a musical titan. Following his time as a young professor there, his career blossomed, and he became an American orchestral conducting superstar, including spending more than two decades as music director of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra.

I will never forget the first week of class. We were all required to come up to his piano and perform an open score reading exercise in front of the class. This consisted of singing one of the voices of a four-part Bach chorale while playing the other three voices on piano. The score was written in soprano, alto, tenor, and bass clef. While an undergraduate student, I had great success in class piano at The University of Alabama, but I had never performed or done anything like this before. Professor Spano took mercy on me and allowed me extra time for other open score reading assignments.

My most vivid memory from the class is our final exam. We were required to conduct the student orchestra, the BGSU Philharmonia, in a performance of an arrangement written by a student from the undergraduate arranging/orchestration class. Luckily, Professor Spano took mercy on me, and I was assigned one of the better arrangements. I conducted the Philharmonia performing a transcription of Debussy’s Estampes (Movement 1. Pagodes). This was my first time in front of an orchestra, and I loved every minute. I remember Professor Spano videotaping us as we conducted, and I so wish I could find that old VHS tape.

I learned so much during that short semester with Maestro Spano, and I’m sure I never thanked him as I should have. I’m just so grateful to have had the opportunity to study with him, and I will always remember my first experience on the podium in front of an orchestra – all thanks to him.

Kim Bain retired after 34 years of teaching in 2021 from Louis Pizitz Middle School in Vestavia Hills, Alabama. Ensembles under her leadership were consistently cited for musical excellence at both the state and national levels. Her band performed at the Midwest Clinic in 2015. She is currently teaching saxophone at Samford University and is an active freelance musician in Birmingham, Alabama.

Gregory Whitmore

I have several fond memories of my first conducting experiences. As a child, my parents purchased cassette tapes of classical music for me to listen to (these were compilation recordings of well-known symphonies one could purchase at a big box store). I remember my early conducting experiences consisted of sitting in my bedroom and listening to those cassettes. I used a wooden pencil as my baton as I conducted the music of Mozart and Beethoven. I had no idea about conducting formally; however, I vividly remember feeling successful in these early childhood efforts.

Recalling my first conducting experiences in front of a live ensemble, I think back to my senior year of high school as Drum Major of the marching band (Belleville High School, Michigan). I remember learning my conducting beat patterns and studying the scores and publisher recordings of my high school marching band’s field show for that football season.

I also remember my first time conducting the band on the podium on the field at our annual summer band camp. Admittedly, I was nervous, and I remember calling the band to “horns up” and then counting the band off to start playing. Then, they actually started playing. It was an exhilarating experience to collaborate with my peers in music-making on the marching field.

I was also fortunate and honored to be the Drum Major of the University of Michigan Marching Band for two seasons while I was in college at Michigan. While I spent most of my performance time with the MMB baton twirling and adding to the on-field performance elements of the MMB’s halftime shows, I conducted the Michigan Marching Band in the stands with a few pep tunes. Standing in front of a band of that magnitude and musical ability in Michigan Stadium (“The Big House”) is something I will not ever forget.

As an undergraduate Music Education Major at The University of Michigan, I had a memorable experience in conducting “serious music.” The culminating activity in our undergraduate conducting class was to lead the University of Michigan Concert Band in one movement of Ralph Vaughn William’s English Folk Song Suite. The class studied the score throughout the semester, refining our conducting skills and technique, all leading to the day when we would step to the podium to lead the band in our selected movement. I vividly remember my baton shaking from nerves. I remember giving the downbeat (I selected Movement 1), and upon hearing the band playing those opening measures, I thought, “Wow, they are actually playing to my conducting!”

While I was terribly nervous, the conducting experience felt like it went by quickly, and when I sat down after my conducting round, I remember feeling a rush of excitement, while simultaneously wanting a chance to conduct again. As a college band director, I have conducted English Folk Song Suite several times, and each time I revisit that wonderful piece, I recall that first conducting experience.

Gregory Xavier Whitmore is Conductor of the University Symphonic Winds at California State. University Fullerton (CSUF). Whitmore is an Associate Professor of Instrumental Music Education, and serves as Area Coordinator of the CSUF Music Education Department. He is in his 11th season as Music Director of the Pacific Symphony Youth Wind Ensemble.

James Popejoy

I decided in the eighth grade that I wanted to be a band director. I didn’t really know what that entailed, but I was excited about the things I did know, and that included this conducting. I was selected as one of the student conductors in my band and given the opportunity to lead the ensemble during warm-ups. I was hooked! After directing my high school pep band and conducting string orchestra sectionals, my first real conducting experience occurred when I was given the opportunity to conduct the collegiate Percussion Ensemble while an undergraduate music education major. The percussion instructor recognized my interest in conducting and provided me the invaluable experience of exploring the process of rehearsing and conducting an ensemble.

After teaching four years at my first high school band job, my growing interest for conducting led me to apply to a graduate school conducting program, a fairly new option at that time. The rest is history as my love for the art of conducting continues to flourish to this day as a university conductor and instructor of conducting.

James Popejoy is Director of Bands and Professor of Music at the University of North Dakota. In his 44th year of teaching at the public school and collegiate level, he earned degrees in music education and conducting from Central Missouri State University, the University of Iowa, and the University of North Texas.

Melissa Gustafson-Hinds

As a music educator, I am very blessed to have had the opportunity to conduct at the 2022 Midwest Clinic. The previous year we had an excellent group of students and thought applying would be a great learning experience for us as teachers and for the program as a whole. James Keene was a mentor during this process and assisted in coaching me on clarity and musicianship. In addition, I had several mentors guiding me as much as I needed.

Because this experience was new to our program, the kids didn’t feel the same pressure as the directors. I remember standing backstage (on the side) as students settled in their seats for the final time, and we were preparing for the introductory announcement. I reminded myself to remain calm and positive for the kids and give them that energy of strength and “O’Fallon love and family.” After walking on stage, I looked at each of them in the face before the first downbeat. Once the concert began, we were able to relax and feed off the positive energy in the room and the supportive applause.
As teachers and conductors, we always have to remember that we need to be there for our students and lead them down the path of positive experience, whatever it may be for your program.

Melissa Gustafson-Hinds is in her 17th year as Director of Bands at O’Fallon Township High School in Illinois. In addition to her teaching duties, She serves as Performing Arts Department Chair at OTHS and the Illinois Music Educators Association Band Division President. She holds degrees from Illinois State University, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and the University of Missouri – St. Louis. She has been teaching in Illinois public schools for 31 years.

Thomas Trimborn

In 1958, Leonard Bernstein presented the first of his televised Young People’s Concerts, and I was instantly hooked. I wanted to be a conductor just like him. At that time, I was in 7th grade playing trombone in the band and eventually got up the courage to ask my band director to teach me how to conduct. To my relief, he readily agreed to spend part of my weekly private trombone lesson demonstrating the patterns.

Once I had learned the basics, back in my bedroom with the stereo cranked up, I became Bernstein, Reiner, Ormandy, or Toscanini practicing my conducting patterns to music played by the greatest orchestras in the world. I was told that I had a natural arm. By the time I was in ninth grade, I asked if I could conduct the band. Again, my director agreed.

We were preparing for the spring concert, and a Spanish overture entitled Ensenada by Joseph Olivadoti was on the program. My director thought it would be a good choice for me. He gave me the score and told me to prepare. I was excited and nervous, but couldn’t wait for the upcoming rehearsal. The day arrived, and there I was standing on the podium. I gave the downbeat and amazingly we played through the entire piece with no stops. I had no idea of how to rehearse, but my director made some suggestions of things that needed work and kept me up there for the rest of the period.

Afterwards, I was not only pleased with how everything turned out that day, but knew I wanted be a conductor. As it turned out, I conducted that piece on the concert which was icing on the cake – this time not only on the podium in front of the band but appearing before an audience as well. Later that month by the time graduation day arrived and it was time to move on to high school, I was known as “Mr. Ensenada” when introduced to receive the John Philip Sousa Band Award.

Thomas Trimborn retired from Truman State University as Professor Emeritus of Music after 45 years as a high school band director and university instructor/administrator. He earned his PhD from Northwestern University and MM and BFA degrees from the University of Wisconsin- Milwaukee.

Sean O’Loughlin

My first time conducting was as a student with the Syracuse University orchestra during a rehearsal. Our conductor wanted to go out in the hall and hear the ensemble, so he asked me to conduct Tchaikovsky’s Romeo and Juliet (Fantasy Overture). I had been studying conducting in my music education classes, but had never had a chance to lead a full orchestra like this. I felt calm and excited at the same time.

From the first delicate chords in the woodwinds, to the powerful brass entrances and the famous sweeping melody, I was instantly hooked. To feel the power and the interaction of the players with me was truly special. A few players commented on the heightened level of playing during that reading. It made me understand the true power that a conductor can have on a performance.

Along with the usual tempo and dynamic indications, I was able to show emotions in my conducting. Learning how to show all of that without simply beating a pattern was a good lesson too. Cueing the various entrances and important passages allowed me to connect with the players on a deeper level. It was an important moment for me.

As Principal Pops Conductor of the Syracuse Orchestra and the Victoria Symphony, I continue to bring some of those early lessons and experiences with me. I have also been blessed to have conducted several major orchestras in my career, including the Boston Pops Orchestra just this last summer at Tanglewood.

I had a full circle moment just last year, when I conducted excerpts from Tchaikovsky’s Romeo and Juliet Overture as part of a love-themed pops show. I was instantly transported back to that first time and couldn’t help but smile from ear to ear.

Sean O’Loughlin is the Principal Pops Conductor of the Syracuse Orchestra and the Principal Pops Conductor of the Victoria Symphony in B.C., Canada. His diverse background includes collaborations with some of the leading symphonies and popular artists of today. These artists include the Boston Pops Orchestra, the Chicago Symphony, Josh Groban, Sarah McLachlan, and The Decemberists.

Randall Coleman

As a 16-year-old junior in high school, my choral director selected me as the student conductor for our chorus. She was my idol and role model. I wanted to be just like her someday. She made a group of untrained high school students from a small, rural high school in Alabama believe that they could do anything. She was a strict taskmaster, and we all were careful to be doing what we were supposed to do, or we would get “the look” from her.

I conducted an arrangement of I’ll Be Home for Christmas with our choir on the holiday concert. My first experience in front of a musical ensemble. I was extremely nervous, but as the piece began, I eased into the moment and enjoyed the music and the message it conveyed. My most poignant memory is looking in the direction of my teacher near the end of the piece and seeing her wipe a tear from her eye. From that moment on, I knew this was what I wanted to do with my time as a teacher and conductor. I wanted music that I shared with my ensemble to have meaning, and I wanted it to have an impact on the listener’s experience.

I won’t ever be able to repay my high school teacher for the impact she has had on my life, both professionally and personally. I am fortunate to still be able to reach out to her to hopefully remind her of that. Music is indeed a powerful tool that we share across generations. I have been a high school and university band director for 42 years now, thanks to the impact that my high school choral director continues to have on me to this day.

Randall Coleman is Director of Bands and the Frances Hall Hill Professor of Music at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. He also teaches conducting and band organization classes, along with graduate classes in conducting, wind band literature and history. He previously was Associate Director of Bands and Professor of Music at the University of Alabama for 14 years.

Robert E. Foster Jr.

During my undergraduate years, I was a music tech helping high school bands and running sectionals for the Marching Jayhawks trumpet section. These opportunities all provided me with a little experience to figure out how to lead an ensemble. I completed my bachelor’s degree in music education from the University of Kansas and upon graduation started my master’s degree at the University of Illinois.
I vividly remember my first conducting opportunity in front of an audience. James Keene, Gary Smith, and Cody Birdwell were the Illinois band directors. As a graduate student, I was given the opportunity to conduct the 350 member Marching Illini on a concert in the Quad. When it was my turn, I climbed up on the center ladder to conduct Boogie Down and provided the whistle commands to start the song. Midway through, I noticed my knees were shaking out of control – I was terrified! When I climbed down the ladder, one of the directors asked me what I thought. I told them it was awesome, but also scary. This is the only time I ever played buzz rolls, with my knees against the ladder!

Robert E. Foster, Jr. is the band director at Lexington Trails Middle School and Starside Elementary School in De Soto, Kansas. He has taught in the Kansas public schools and at the college level over the last 29 years. He is a Dr. William P. Foster Award of Excellence recipient.

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Band directors sometimes seem superhuman with all the hats they wear, from music teacher to tour director, counselor, promoter, logistical specialist, and more. Managing all these tasks can be quite overwhelming and lead to inefficiency or even burnout. It is essential to ease the burden on directors by asking parents to help take on some of the tasks associated with performing at football games. When asking for help from others, it is crucial to provide volunteers with clear directions for their service and how it fits into the routine of a football game performance.

Directors have many procedures and standards of operation that we teach students daily. That is true for football games as well. By sharing these procedures with parents in leadership, they develop a greater understanding of what we teach and a stronger respect for us and the content we impart beyond music. One of my mentors used to say, we “teach about life through music.”

I created a document for game day procedures to help me remember all of the things I need to do as a director, but also to give parents a cheat sheet each year. This document grows in importance as students and parents graduate from the program, and new families join each year. While many veterans share their wisdom with rookie students and parents, it is helpful to have a written guide. Over the years, I have found students and parents respond well to procedures – “This is how we do XYZ in our band.” Written procedures lower stress for students, directors, and parents when everyone understands a complex event’s expectations and needs.

PDF of chart for download

Photos by Will England

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By default playing happens all the time, although we don’t call it that. We refer to it as playing before thinking. For example, a conductor raises his arms to begin a piece. Does every player know what the first note should sound like? What is the dynamic? Are there any performance markings like marcato, staccato, tenuto, or accent/little diminuendo? What about the style and character of the first note? How is the first note physically produced starting with the kind of breath needed for the best tone? Where is the tongue placed? Is the attack clean and on pitch? Is the note followed by a rest? If so, what kind of ending is required? Is the player listening to avoid a glottal stopped sound? Or, does the first note connect to another note? There are so many things to consider before making a sound, but most students think little of these options and play before thinking. Leaving things to by default playing produces results that are not attractive.

A Tuner is Your Friend
A few years ago, I was invited to present a masterclass for middle school flutes. During the day my host became ill, and I was asked if I would step in for him and teach a group of beginning trumpeters. I agreed. It would only be 70 minutes! I asked what page they were on in their band method book, and we started on the first line. Splat, splat, splat on an ascending five-note scale. The beginning of each note was chipped or cracked. The duration of the notes was shaky and the note endings non-existent. I got out the tuner on my phone and asked who would like to volunteer to see it they could play one note and keep the needle on the tuner still. The first trumpeter tried. When he didn’t succeed, his classmates quickly got interested, and each wanted to give it a try. They now had a goal of what they wanted to happen, and the beginnings of the note vastly improved. Already they had learned to think before playing. Then, we worked to keep the needle still for duration of the note. This showed how to play with even air. Once they were successful on one note, they worked on two, three, four and five notes. Each time a student tried, he was cheered on by his classmates. By the end of the hour, each student had successfully played a clean five-note scale. They also wanted to download the tuning app so they could practice attacks at home. This is the power of thinking before playing. If a teacher never mentions what the goal is, there is never a plan so default playing takes over. Whatever comes out, comes out.

Breathing Prep
Since the flute and the tuba are the two instruments that require the fastest air flow, air management is an important topic for them. I fear we talk too much about the inhale and not enough about the exhale. One of my goals for middle school flutists is to be able to play two-octave scales up and down twice in one blow. Scales that originate in the right hand are much easier than those in the left hand because of the more difficult third-octave fingerings. The first time flutists try this, they will be unsuccessful because they will start playing before thinking and dump too much air on the first three notes. Planning before playing is an important goal. The breathing plan below illustrates a way to do this for a two-octave scale.

Where’s the Phrase?
Applied teachers require etude study as part of their curriculum. However, most students do not view etudes in a favorable light, treating them as technical torture that is repeated over and over again throughout the page or pages. On top of that, most etude books have some sort of key plan that includes the dreaded sharp keys. For sure, etudes are not considered music by many students.

The first etudes were written for keyboard or violin. The ones for keyboard often began in C major followed by the relative minor key. Then the keys progressed through major and minor keys of the Circle of Fifths. This key arrangement is shown in J.S. Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier, Books 1 and 2. Other instrumental etudes copied from the keyboard and violin plans.

Most instrumental etudes were written in the Romantic era with a few exceptions. They are constructed in phrases of two, four, or eight bars. Having students mark the phrases (which are usually the same as the breathing places) before beginning work on them, leads to a more musical performance. Too many students approach breathing in etudes as I’ll breathe when my air runs out. This might mean breathing too soon or too late in the phrase structure.

Teaching students how to mark phrases is a time-consuming process but one that is well worth it. Initially, teachers should mark the phrases for students so they can begin to understand how much of music is written. Then have them play one phrase at a time followed by a rest or silence. When playing one phrase, the phrase or statement should sound logical to the listener. In an ensemble setting, play phrases in a ping pong style. For example, the flutes play phrases one, three, five, seven, and the clarinets phrases two, four, six and eight.

Phrases should be shaped in performance. To find the shape of a phrase, show students how to connect the note heads with a line as if coloring in a dot-to-dot coloring book. There are five common shapes: a mountain shape, a valley shape, a descending line, an ascending line, and a gruppetto. In a mountain shape, the most important note is the highest note, while in a valley shape, the most important note is the lowest note. The most important notes may be played a bit louder than the other notes and may be emphasized with a tenuto or increase of vibrato speed. With descending and ascending lines, the shaping will be soft to loud or loud to soft. Whatever the shape, having a plan with the air usage is a really good idea. Leaving a phrasing structure to default playing results in a mezzoforte performance.

Where’s the Beat?
Band and orchestra directors often raise the baton and hold it still for several moments to get everyone’s attention. This is good but only part of the answer. Directors also need to explain where to play on the beat – on the ictus. Ensembles with lesser skill levels often play before the beat rather than on the beat. Discussing where the ictus is can produce amazing improvement.

Time: Tempo, Meter, and Rhythm
Getting agreement on tempo is sometimes referred to as playing as an ensemble. Watching the baton and good listening habits are the key to success. Point out to those who are sitting in the back rows that they are hearing reflected sound which has a short delay. If students in the back row do not watch the baton, they will be late and slow the tempo of the ensemble. Discuss how to play railroad tracks, ritards, accelerandos, and fermatos. Everyone should be on the same page with these tempo changes.

After explaining to students that meter is indicated with two numbers resembling a fraction and what these numbers meant, an experienced band director I know further illustrated the concept by using outlandish and silly examples. He found that after students looked at 12/2, 57/1, and 2/128, they better understood the idea and 2/4, 3/4 and 4/4 were easy in comparison.

The next concept to explore with students is simple (divided by 2s) and compound (divided by 3s) meter. Most students readily understand simple meter because they have had more experience with it. When they tap a foot, feeling the subdivision is as easy as down/up, down/up. Compound meter is more challenging because it is down, up, up which is certainly not a natural movement. One excellent Suzuki teacher had students clap on their laps for the first part of a beat, clap hands together for the second part, and then snap their fingers for the third. Doing these movements several times helps students assimilate the compound pulse. I often use the words step, tip, toe as if one is waltzing to explain compound rhythm. I find that many students simply play by ear in compound meter without understanding to how it works. Once again, this is playing without thinking or planning.

When working with rhythm, a good plan is show students how to check the subdivision of each beat. This reinforces the idea of the differences between simple and compound rhythm. Taking one rhythm and playing it in unison with the entire ensemble on each note of a scale helps players figure out how to match others.

Discussing the concepts mentioned above helps students have a goal in mind before playing. Begin with the breath and then move on to watching the baton’s ictus, listening to the three parts of a note – the attack, the duration, and the release. Encourage students to play with a plan and avoid by default playing.

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Flutist Walfrid Kujala passed away in November at the age of 99. A towering figure in the flute world, he will long be remembered for his distinguished tenure in the Chicago Symphony from 1954-2001, 50 years on the faculty at Northwestern, and his prolific writing on the flute.

Kujala was a graduate of the Eastman School of Music where he studied with Joseph Mariano with additional studies with William Kincaid, principal flute of the Philadelphia Orchestra and flute professor at The Curtis Institute. Many of the major orchestras in the United States are proud to have a former Kujala student in their flute and piccolo sections.

Through the years, he had a close relationship with The Instrumentalist and Flute Talk magazines. His first article, Jawboning and the Flute Embouchure, was split into three parts and published in the September, November, and December 1971 issues of The Instrumentalist. His article on Embellishment, Italian Style: Ornamenting the Largo movement of Vivaldi’s C Major Piccolo Concerto is the most requested article by flutist scholars. We have collected a few memorable excerpts from his interviews and articles

The CSO Audition
How drastically things have changed since my audition for the Chicago Symphony 66 years ago. Nowadays we take it for granted that virtually all current vacancies in American and Canadian professional symphony orchestras are listed in the International Musician, which is the monthly journal of the American Federation of Musicians (AFM). However, that did not become standard policy until about 1965. Before then all of us aspiring musicians had to keep our detective skills highly polished to find out about possible vacancies.

Conductors of the so-called Big Five orchestras, New York Philharmonic, Boston Symphony, Chicago Symphony, Philadelphia, and Cleveland Orchestras, were very much in demand as guest conductors for lower-tier orchestras. They would often look upon these orchestras like farm teams where they could spot talented up-and-coming players for future recruitment. They also relied on well-known contractors like Joe Fabbroni, who was Fritz Reiner’s agent in New York, for recommendations.

Conductors of many lower-tier orchestras would visit conservatories like Juilliard, Curtis, New England, Cleveland Institute, Peabody, and Eastman to hold auditions. For instance, in the spring of 1943, Hans Kindler, conductor of the National Symphony, visited Eastman to hold auditions for the NSO. I auditioned just for the experience and was pleasantly surprised to receive in the mail a contract for second flute, which I had to turn down because of my impending military draft. This whole scenario should give one a clearer appreciation of the dilemma facing aspiring symphony players in the thirties, forties and fifties.

In 1954, my direct knowledge of a vacancy in the Chicago Symphony came about by sheer chance because the CSO’s new music director Fritz Reiner had offered Mariano the principal flute position. Mariano, much to everyone’s surprise, turned it down. Mariano told me that it was highly probable that there would be two more vacancies in the flute section and that I should apply.

Here was the frustrating thing. The auditions for all eleven of the CSO’s vacancies (almost all of them due to firings!) were to be held in New York in January during Reiner’s mid-season break. (His home was in Westport, Connecticut, within commuting distance of New York.) The CSO’s regular personnel manager had very little to do with audition arrangements. Instead, all of the auditions were set up by Joe Fabbroni, Reiner’s New York agent. I was advised to call him, and he turned me down flatly.

I then asked Erich Leinsdorf, the Rochester Philharmonic’s music director (and my boss), to call Fabbroni to recommend me. (Leinsdorf had known Fabbroni quite well during Leinsdorf’s previous years as music director of the Metropolitan Opera.) Leinsdorf asked me to listen in while he phoned Fabbroni, and I was totally surprised to hear his effusive compliments to Fabbroni about my beautiful playing.

That did it! Fabbroni called me back to set an audition time for the afternoon of January 11, 1954 at the New York City Center Theatre on 55th Street. Reiner was surprisingly friendly, and the audition went well. I began with my solo piece, the Bach B Minor Suite, after which Reiner proceeded to pull out some first flute parts from his briefcase for me to play. They were all standard works. No surprises. (He was famous for pulling out unexpected, tricky excerpts in auditions, and of course, there were no pre-announced audition repertoire lists in those antediluvian days.)

After I finished my audition, much to my surprise, Reiner immediately began talking about contract terms. He offered me a choice of either assistant principal flute or principal piccolo. Having already garnered much piccolo experience in the Rochester Phil, I felt it was the opportune time to widen my horizons, so I opted for the assistant principal flute position. Reiner subsequently engaged Ben Gaskins as principal piccolo. Ben had already built a distinguished career as the former piccoloist of the Cleveland Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, and Arturo Toscanini’s NBC Symphony. For the next three years the CSO flute section consisted of Ernest Liegl, principal flute, Ralph Johnson, second flute, Ben Gaskins, principal piccolo, and me as assistant principal flute. (February 2020)

Preparing for College Auditions
Evaluating flute applicants for admission to my studio involves a number of aspects to determine which students are best suited for a long-term working relationship with our department and its performance opportunities. In 20 minutes or so of audition, I try to measure the scope of an applicant’s repertoire, musicianship, technical facility, and overall approach to flute playing.

Entering freshmen should be able to play one of the Bach sonatas, typically the Eb Major (BWV 1031), the Hindemith Sonata, a French concours piece by Enesco, Faure, Chaminade, or Gaubert, and possibly a movement of a Mozart concerto. I do not stress orchestral excerpts during the first year because students have such diverse backgrounds. Some have good high school training, especially if they come from a large metropolitan area with a youth orchestra; others have deficiencies. I work hard to bring freshmen flutists to a more uniform level before moving the class into a formal curriculum of orchestral excerpts.

Entrance auditions help to identify a prospective student’s ability, promise, and problems to be addressed. I have learned that students can pay more attention to playing musically after they have organized the fundamental elements of playing: good breath control, scales, studies, fingering accuracy, good balance and support of the flute for optimum firmness of the lip plate on the lower lip, and the more subtle aspects of embouchure control.

In an audition, a student should demonstrate good tone and dynamic range, knowledge of scales and arpeggios, good rhythm, and the ability to shape a musical phrase. Accurate rhythm is a good indicator of musical talent; if I point out an incorrect rhythm, I want to hear the correction to be sure that the student is properly sensitive to the underlying pulse. (November 1991)

Approach to Teaching
I was never good at expressing myself abstractly and am more concerned with specifics, analyzing the physics of playing – not only fingerings but also tone production: what happens with the embouchure and the breath. Mariano was concerned with the end result: the phrasing and the style of the piece. Through his own demonstrations – and with which he was generous – he would illustrate what he was trying to describe.”

Kujala cautions, “Anyone studying with him had to be very careful to remember these similes and metaphors and the result produced during the lesson so that in the subsequent week of practice, he would be able to nail them down. Mariano’s teaching was very inspirational; one could be transported by the chemistry that developed during the lesson. Away from him, however, one could flounder while in search of the magical way in which a phrase developed. What did he say that made it click? How could I recreate that? One would have to be aware of abstracts as well as those feelings of air production in order to pinpoint what he said that helped. That is perhaps how I got into my style of teaching through analyzing what Mariano was doing, trying to get a better handle on his concepts.” (October 1988)

On Undergraduate Curriculum:
Kujala commented, I always tried to strike a good balance between traditional repertoire and new music. Back in 1973, I constructed a basic curriculum design that was divided into four parts. List A was the standard list of 34 flute solos, List B had 38 solos (including piccolo) that a student was encouraged to explore, and List C contained 51 more solos (including piccolo) that could be considered for adding on to post-graduate recital programs. By 2013 I had added 3 and subtracted 2 solos from List A. For List B, I added 20 solos and subtracted 3, and for List C I added 18 and subtracted 6.

There is not enough room here to post a detailed list of all these solos, but I would like to share my preferences for etudes (which constituted my list D): Andersen (mainly op. 33 and 15), Karg-Elert 30 Caprices, Genzmer Neuzeitlich Etuden (2 vol.), Casterede 12 Etudes, Bonsel 8 Concert Etudes, Bitsch 12 Etudes, and selected Marcel Moyse and Robert Dick volumes.

By the way, I am a strong believer in the importance of recording students’ lessons so that they have the immediate opportunity of reviewing their performances and my comments. This tradition goes all the way back to the days of cassette tapes, around 1987, and through the CD era to 2012, when I retired from Northwestern. I would always hand over the recording to the student at the end of each lesson. (February 2020)

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Programming: It is possible to predict the quality of a group simply by looking at the printed program. Thoughtfully selected music demonstrates the director’s knowledge of the idiom, the group’s aspirations, and a broader understanding of what works and what is appropriate in a festival. The program is our textbook.

A good program has balance, has the compositions in the appropriate places and contains excellent literature appropriate for a jazz festival. Common programming errors include: good literature that is not appropriate for the group’s development or talent level, weak program choices, literature that has its place (pop) but not in a jazz festival, lack of variety (three rock pieces or three pieces in the same key or tempo.)

Music selection is a continuous process. As a teacher, I was always listening and planning well in advance. As soon as I had a good idea of next year’s ensemble, programming decisions were made. Of course, a good Plan B is necessary to prepare for the unexpected – a student moving out of town or not deciding to do the band – but there must be a plan. My programming decisions next year for all bands were made before school ended for the summer.

Programming isn’t a festival to festival or concert to concert endeavor. You need to have the end in mind. What will these students be playing as seniors, and where are we in the process? Teachers who neglect programming do so at their own peril. As a judge I have seen plenty of festival performances ruined by a director’s choices or poor planning.

A few years ago a panicked director contacted me a month before festival season. She had a group with challenging instrumentation and had done no planning. The pieces she had been working on were not appropriate for a creditable festival performance. She said, “That’s what was in the library when I got here.” Those kids had no chance.

Literature appropriate to your ensemble: It is important that the literature be a good fit. Common problems include inappropriate ranges for the performers (lead trumpet and second trumpet and lead trombone parts too high), incomplete instrumentation, excessive rhythmic density for the group’s technical facility and the style not fitting the personnel (such as a formative drummer trying to play a fast mambo.)

By far the most frequent occurrence is incomplete instrumentation. Some teachers don’t understand that you just can’t leave parts out. Often the harmony is defined by the third or fourth trombone part. If that is missing, the harmony sometimes makes no sense. One solution is to rewrite the chart to make sure those color notes are covered. If you have an extra tenor, that would be a good solution. Sometimes the problem with a chart isn’t solvable. I once heard a band with one trombone try to play a Stan Kenton chart. Kenton had five trombones and sometimes tuba.

There are two solutions. There are many great standards for small bands written by Mark Taylor, Michael Phillip Mossman, Mike Tomaro and John LaBarbara.These are for reduced sax section, two trumpets and one trombone. Alternate alto and tenor parts are provided. If your band is more advanced, look at charts that were written for Maynard Ferguson in the 1950s. These have a reduced trombone section. Earlier charts by Duke Ellington have smaller brass sections. and the same is true for a number of Essentially Ellington charts by bands such as Chick Webb.

If you are not comfortable with rewriting, find a professional in the area to do it for you. A few years ago, I was asked to fill in for a sick high school teacher. I expected to walk into a full big band. Instead, it was two trumpets, one sax, three trombones and full rhythm. I called a writer friend to write charts that fit this instrumentation. The band was a success.

Weak/lacking improvisation: Steve Massey, the retired great jazz educator at Foxboro High School in Massachusetts said it best: “A jazz program without an improvisation component has dubious merit.” Sometimes directors – particularly those with middle school groups – pick charts with no solo sections. This is not a solution; it just avoids the issue.

Even if time is limited, spend part of every rehearsal on improvisation, even if it is collective. Try this: have the rhythm section loop a ii V progression in Bb. Teach the horn players a major pentatonic – the first six notes of a major scale minus the fourth. All these notes are consonant. Then, have the band improvise together. (It is a little chaotic, but a safe haven for the shy.) Then, try section by section and pairs or trios.

In a festival, we don’t expect perfect improvisation. We are used to hearing formative soloists. We do expect – and reward – effort. If we do our job as judges, we will have information to help students along the way. We want your students to be successful.

It is your job to learn and teach these skills. “I’m just a (fill in the instrument) player” doesn’t suffice. Massey was a drummer. He learned his craft and became one of the best jazz educators in the country.

Is it okay for students to play written solos? Yes, with two caveats: the process can’t stop there, and students need to play the solos with jazz feeling and nuance rather than as a stenography project. If you give them a written solo, encourage them to change it rhythmically and add some upper neighbors and chromaticism. Jazz feeling can include vernacular – scoops, drops, bends, dynamic, ghosted notes, and growls. All of this gets judge credit.

Don’t be afraid of ballads. There is an old expression “death by ballad.” This isn’t really true. In an ensemble sense, ballads are more exposed, particularly in intonation, and can be a challenge to sell to kids. However, this is a style that your students must learn. The key is picking a chart that gives you the style but isn’t needlessly exposed in tessitura or texture. As a judge, a big part of my evaluation is how the group plays a ballad. It tells so much about the teaching. As Dave Sporny, the great jazz educator at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst puts it, “A jazz ensemble is nothing more than a wind ensemble with a rhythm section.” So, be a great wind ensemble teacher.

Is rock appropriate for festival evaluation? Yes, in moderation. We sometimes see bands avoid the swing issue by playing two or three rock charts in a set. Rock has its place in jazz. The jazz-rock period in the 1960s and early 1970s was important, so this is a good homage. If you program rock, make it one such chart per set and make sure it is great rock.

What about originals? Originals are an important part of the jazz canon and often have become standards (see Charlie Parker and all his originals based on I Got Rhythm changes. In programming, the key is balance in style and era. For the Essentially Ellington participants, the key is balancing that music with music written in the students’ lifetime. For the directors favoring contemporary jazz, it is performing music with historical value. We learn from our forefathers. Don’t be afraid to go back to the Louis Armstrongs and Jelly Roll Mortons.

Your students are ready to be successful. The ball is in your court.

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