Every conversation I have ever had with composer Quincy Hilliard has included heavy doses of laughter. While working on the Midwest preview issue, I called him to talk about his composition teacher and mentor, Jared Spears, who passed away in September. The mission was more somber than usual, but there were still plenty of laughs during the call.

You can read Hilliard’s memories of his composition teacher as part of a tribute to Spears. Before we started, I reminded Hilliard of a story he shared in the magazine about a Midwest Clinic years ago. No matter who you are and what you have accomplished, we have all run into people who seem far too famous to talk to us. Here is what Hilliard remembers from a terrifying day at the convention.

My greatest memory of Midwest was meeting Francis McBeth. His work Masque inspired me to become a composer. My composition teacher, Jared Spears, introduced me to the work and spoke of Francis often in our private lessons. I knew that they were great friends. The first time I ever saw Francis, he was walking down one of the aisles at the convention visiting other booths and talking to people. I decided to stalk him. After about the third aisle, I was afraid that he might see me and think that I was trying to rob him so I stopped. I was so excited that I called home to tell my wife that I saw Mr. McBeth.

She asked, “Did you talk to him?” I said no, he would not have time for me. He is too important. She said, “Why don’t you go up and introduce yourself?” I was so excited that I did not sleep that night. I was planning how I would approach him. Finally, the next day I went up and introduced myself and told him that I was one of Jared Spears’s students. He laughed and said, “I am sorry you did not have a better composition teacher, young man.”

He talked to me for about an hour, and every time I saw him after that, he would come up and talk with me. On one occasion when I was in Arkansas, he invited me to his home and showed me his woodworking workshop and his classic car collection. He was a great composer and an awesome person. I will never forget the talks we had about composers, conductors, and composition.

After hanging up the phone with Quincy Hilliard, I started thinking about all of the amazing people I have met on the convention floor. On my first visit to the Instrumentalist booth as a high school student, I didn’t know what to expect as I walked down to the exhibitor floor at the Hilton. Within the first five minutes, I was shaking hands with Frederick Fennell. He asked to shake hands left-handed because his right hand was worn out from greeting countless directors. With barely enough time to take off my coat, I had already been initiated. I can’t wait to see who is at Midwest this year. We will see you in Chicago.

– James M. Rohner, Publisher

Stop by and see us at Midwest – Booth #806

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Composer and educator Jared Spears passed away on September 18, 2025. He published more than 300 works and was a frequent guest conductor. He taught at Arkansas State University from 1967 until retirement in 1999. The interview below was conducted by Andrew Balent and first published in the September 1987 issue of The Instrumentalist. We reprint it in tribute and remembrance of Jared Spears’ distinguished musical legacy.

September 1987

An Interview with Jared Spears
By Andrew Balent

Jared Spears is a composer with the unique ability to write music for bands on all levels, from elementary to college. He is professor of music at Arkansas State University in Jonesboro, teaching composition, orchestration, theory, and history. As resident composer at the university, Spears received its Outstanding Faculty Member Award in 1980.

Spears’s best-known works include Momentations, Wind River Portrait, Alleluias, The Kimberly Overture, Meditation and Festiva, and Canticles. In addition to a busy composing schedule, he appears at other universities as a guest lecturer and conducts band festivals, camps, and clinics in the United States, Canada, and Norway. At the 1986 Midwest Clinic, I talked with Spears about his background, his career, and his musical philosophy.

Did you come from a musical family?
My mother’s people were hardworking German immigrant farmers, not necessarily musically inclined. On the other hand, my father’s family was very involved in music and other areas of show business. My father was in radio years before I was born; he was involved in writing for The Shadow and other programs. His sister was a light opera singer who appeared in shows with Eddie Cantor, Bing Crosby, and Jack Benny. Another sister was an opera singer in New York, and my grandfather was one of the best tenors in Boston. My father told me that Caruso used to come to my grandfather’s home and sing duets with him.

How did you get started in music?
When I was in the eighth grade, a man from Lyon and Healy came to our school in Arlington Heights, Illinois, and asked for volunteers to study music and form a band. Everyone paid 25 cents for a weekly lesson. I started playing drums, and by the end of the year, I had formed a little jazz group. All I had was a snare drum and a cymbal, but slowly I acquired more instruments until I eventually wound up with a complete set. I joined the concert band in high school and was just what we called a Bb drummer until one day, when I was playing cymbals, the director, Fred Schmoyer, suggested that I raise and flip them around at the audience. Being gutsy, I let the cymbals fly on a solo and twirled them a little. Afterwards, some people in the audience told me it was really great.

My whole personality changed as a result of that: I became outgoing – aggressive you might say. I liked the idea of being a writer, perhaps a novelist or a songwriter. My young mind figured that it would take a year to write a novel but only a week to write a song, so I decided to become a composer. I started writing some simple dance band arrangements. I didn’t know that you had to transpose for certain instruments; it wasn’t necessary for snare drums! The arrangements sounded horrendous.

Did you have any lessons in composing, or did you learn it on your own?
I took theory in high school, with the goal of writing music for dance and concert bands. After studying four-part harmony, I attempted a piece, but I made the mistake of attaching a different chord to every note of the melody – even the eighth and sixteenth notes. We played it, and it was really horrible. After that episode, I was frustrated, but eventually I started studying on my own what other composers had done. There were no full scores available then for most dance band music, so I took the parts and wrote out scores. If there was a recorded tune I liked, I would take it off the record, producing a score and parts. In this way, I learned a lot about orchestration, voicing, and form.

I continued writing for dance band and eventually decided to become a band director. As a senior, I wrote a simple march for the concert band. Fortunately, it no longer exists, but it did sound much better than my earlier attempts, and it gave me the confidence to continue writing.

Were there any teachers or other musicians who were particularly important in your own musical development?
Fred Schmoyer, the band director at Arlington Heights High School actually got me to write my first piece for band. Later, at Northern Illinois University, Maurice Weed got me interested in the music of Debussy, Roy Harris, Stravinsky, and other 20th-century composers. Blythe Owen, my composition teacher at the Cosmopolitan School of Music in Chicago, grounded me in basic forms and developed my perspective of the craft. When I arrived at Northwestern University to work on a doctorate, I had just scratched the surface of the possibilities of sound and form.

I was fortunate to have two different composition teachers there. Anthony Donato made me write in the style of the time – twelve-tone, free atonality, and so on, but he always kept me thinking within practical, not outlandish limits, for which I am grateful. My other teacher was Alan Stout, who introduced me to the music of Penderecki, Ligeti, and Lutoslawski. From Stout, I learned to explore the unknown and search for sounds and shapes I had never known before.

Who among your colleagues has influenced you as a composer?
Several years ago, Alfred Reed and I spent two weeks together working at a band camp in Saskatchewan. Being still somewhat green in the profession, I was awed by this fine composer and his astounding storehouse of experiences, concepts, information, and solutions.

During the evenings and weekends we would wander through the hills surrounding the camp, and I would ask him questions about music and for advice on my career. He unselfishly shared his knowledge, and I soaked up every word. He greatly influenced my attitudes about composition, orchestration, and music in general.

How did you begin writing music for the young band?
In my first few years of teaching at Maine Township High School in suburban Chicago, I found very little concert music available for the young band, except for the excellent works of Frank Erickson and John Kinyon. If there was a Hall of Fame for composers of elementary band music, Kinyon would probably be on top. I’ve studied his works and recommended them to my students.

Though I was happy writing more difficult music, I started composing for my beginning band: some short overtures, little marches, things like that for musical variety. I continued to learn by looking at scores, studying how the textures were formed, noting how other composers voiced their ideas, and so on. Eventually, I wrote a march of medium difficulty called March for Moderns. I sent it to several publishers, and they all said it was too modern. Finally, C.L. Barnhouse had some faith in it and published it. I was in seventh heaven. My career as a band composer had begun.

Several years ago I was in Atlanta with Bill Strohm, then the band director at Babb Junior High School. They were going to play my Momentations, a work of medium difficulty at the Midwest Clinic in Chicago, so I flew down to work with the band. During lunch one day, Bill recommended that I start writing for even younger bands. He suggested that I compose more varied and interesting music than was then available for the beginning and intermediate players. I went home and played around with some ideas and sketches and came up with a piece for Barnhouse called Adventures. That was followed about a year later by Sansketch. Now I’m writing as many pieces on this level as I am music of greater difficulty.

Do you enjoy working with younger players?
I’ve conducted some elementary honor bands, and the students at that age are super. I walk into the band room and say, That is a beautiful purple sky today! They say, “Yeah!” They all want to go outside and see it. They’re excited about playing, and they’re open to suggestions and new ideas. It’s an exciting age to work with.

What do you think makes a successful piece for a young band?
A piece that is musical, interesting, and somewhat unpredictable, but still within the limits of the performers’ technique, will usually succeed. When I compose music for the elementary band, or for any band, I think about the group I’m writing for and what they can do. I like to write something that will bring out the students’ musicianship as well as provide technical challenges. If there is an alto clarinet player, there should be something interesting to play, rather than just doubling the bass line.

I like to write a singable melody because it is easier for the kids to play. They can hear it more naturally than a jagged melody that jumps around like the fourth tenor sax part of an old jazz band arrangement. I like varying the sounds and colors in an unpredictable way. If you can write a piece that the musicians can get involved with and enjoy, and that the conductor can also enjoy (lots of dynamic, tempo, and expression changes), then you’re automatically going to excite the audience. If you can raise one goosebump in the rehearsal with the musicians, or in the audience at the concert, you have done your job as a composer. You have communicated the beauty, the joy, and the excitement of music.

Has the high school band movement changed much in your experience?
Yes, quite a bit, and I think a lot of it has been healthy. The most far-reaching recent change is perhaps in the marching band. The corps style has become quite popular among band directors and students. Some schools do a great job with corps style and still have great jazz and concert bands, too.

That’s what I like to see – a well-balanced menu for the kids. Some schools are going into the marching too heavily, however, and I think it is harmful. I know that many of the woodwind players around the country are in trouble. A lot of these students are spending too much time twirling flags instead of playing music on their instruments. Still, I have nothing against marching band, because it’s a valid medium of expression in music just like other media. There are more people at one football game than will probably be in your concert hall in a whole year. So it’s good for PR, and it exposes kids to a large, enthusiastic audience.

Do you think jazz has a place in the band curriculum?
The jazz band movement has grown from a seed to a full-blooming bush during my career, and I’m glad for this growth because that type of music is vital. It is one of the major styles of the 20th century. It offers the youth in our schools a tremendous informal outlet for individual expression. I have a feeling that the concert band is going to be getting back into the proper focus again, though, because it is still the center of all instrumental activity. All of these organizations within a well-balanced program constitute the ideal for which we should strive. I think the band program should include wind ensemble, concert band, jazz band, and marching band so students experience all of them.

I’m excited because I think that something new is going to happen in bands. It may be in connection with computers and synthesizers. I’m ready. That’s what composers are all about: supplying people with good music times during both stable and changing.

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Set-Up to Warm-Up: The Nuts and Bolts of a Jazz Program

Bethany Robinson
Tuesday, December 16, 2025
1:00 PM – 5:00 PM

Bethany Robinson is excited for her role in a unique jazz clinic at the 2025 Midwest Clinic. She describes her session as hands-on and interactive. “I think people will leave feeling really inspired, really encouraged, and also connected to other directors who are doing the same thing. I think there is a lot of safety in numbers and reassurance that comes when you meet people who are sharing the same journey.”

What is the new jazz intensive that you have helped develop this year?
The event is broken into three sessions. The first covers the nuts and bolts of running a jazz program. The second part covers the transition from directing a concert band to leading a jazz band because so many directors face that situation. The third session focuses on jazz rehearsal techniques. I am excited that the rehearsal session will be a hands-on, bring-your-instrument clinic. We will have a rhythm section ready, and the amazing directors who attend the session will be the students in the band. In addition to experiencing jazz ensemble as a student, there will be plenty of time for questions and answers.

Who else is involved in making these sessions happen?
This is a collaboration between the Midwest and the Jazz Education Network. José Diaz, Midwest board member and President of JEN, and Kelly Bell, Executive Director of the Midwest Clinic, have been instrumental in developing this session. Besides me, the clinicians include Roosevelt Griffin, Director and Professor of Jazz Studies at Northern Illinois, and Mary Jo Papich, a legend in jazz education and a founder of JEN.

What provided the inspiration to schedule these sessions now?
This project came out of conversations at the Jazz Education Network conference, as we discussed ways to help a broad range of jazz educators at every level. Some directors think of JEN as just for college educators or professionals. The Jazz Education Network has education as part of its name, so we were looking to partner with the Midwest Clinic because it was the perfect way to reach even more directors at various levels of experience.

With my background as a bassist who played in jazz bands, you would think I would have been very well-equipped to teach jazz. Even though I had jazz experience from middle school all the way through college, I didn’t receive one pedagogy class through my music education degree. I thought that I was ready to teach jazz because I had played and listened to the music for years. When I went out and taught a big band, it was a disaster at first. Ironically, I took my band to jazz fest at Purdue University, where I am now the Director of Jazz. After we performed, I thought it was quite a success. When the adjudicator came up after, he just shook his head and looked disappointed. He said, “I guess we could talk about how to swing?” This comment was devastating to me. I realized how important it is to have that foundation in jazz pedagogy to get your students started.

Over the years, I have learned from conferences and attending clinics from amazing mentors who understand best practices for teaching jazz and building a strong jazz culture. Having worked hard to gain this information over a long time, it feels like a life mission to share what I have learned. This is true whether I am mentoring someone or inviting people into my high school classroom or at Purdue. These sessions at Midwest will give other directors the specific ways to show students what to do and how to get started.

What are some tips that directors will learn from these sessions?
Always have music playing when students enter your classroom. It might be arrangements you will play that day or anything that puts a professional sound into their ears as they put their instruments together. I always love playing a tune that makes them stand up and want to dance. Daily I’ll play a Joe Williams and Count Basie tune, which makes the players feel the time together. My other tip is to make sure that the hi-hat on two and four is really crispy. You want students to keep that heel up and really lay into the hi-hat. Make sure every student in the band is tapping their heel into the ground and feeling the time as well.

Finally, avoid playing the comparison game. If we are excellent at one subject, we can’t always compare it to a new subject we are just starting to learn. We must give ourselves some grace. Using our voice or our instrument, we might sit down and play along with the students. This can be really beautiful and collaborative as teacher and students learn the genre together, make mistakes, and try again. We can model what messy learning looks like.

Bethany Robinson is the Director of Jazz at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana. She previously taught in the Noblesville (IN) School District where she expanded the jazz program from one to six bands. The top jazz ensemble was a two-time Jazz at Lincoln Center Essentially Ellington Finalist and Indiana ISSMA Jazz State Honor Band in 2023.

Solo to Ensemble: Harnessing Peer Power for Program Growth

Heather Henson & Randall Coleman
Wednesday, December, 17, 2025
2:00 PM – 3:00 PM

Heather Henson will share her experiences as the instrumental and choral director at American Christian Academy in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Her session with conductor Randall Coleman, Director of Bands at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, will discuss the challenges of leading a small program and the many benefits of utilizing mentors. “Many people get into our field when they’re young and feel so overwhelmed with responsibilities and expectations. I would feel that way if I was just starting. The only way to survive that is to have these outside mentors and support.” Henson’s band from ACA will appear as the demonstration band for this clinic.

What was your path to becoming a director?
I am the product of a school in South Florida that had a program similar to the one I lead now. It was already developed and successful when I was a student. It had the typical levels of band and choirs and a thriving musical theater department, which we finally just added at my school last year, the next step in our long-term vision for fine arts.

I attended Samford University in Birmingham, a smaller university with a smaller music program. While completing my degree at Samford, I student-taught with Mike Tucker at the Pittman Junior High School program (now called Hueytown Middle School).

Mike Tucker is one of the best teachers I’ve ever seen or worked with. He had a larger program with 120 beginners broken into two classes. In my program, I am thrilled to get 12 beginners each year. Although most people think of me as having small groups, I do have experience with large programs, including helping with all-state bands every year.

When I began at American Christian Academy, in 2008, the elementary music classes were mostly comprised of singing. I wanted to develop a program that included comprehensive education on note reading, rhythm, and style. With the support of my headmaster, the band program began that year with five students after school. We slowly added to the program and created a vision for fine arts over a 10-year period.

I have been here for 18 years now, and we have beginning and intermediate symphonic band, marching band, and choirs. About 10 years ago, they hired a second director to take over the elementary classes and help me with the band and choirs. We added a third position just this summer. It is so helpful to have our former percussion tech teaching full-time with me. All programs have challenges, particularly the smaller ones, so we have to be flexible and never quit. After 30 years in the field, anticipating small school obstacles and problems is one of my strengths.

What grades participate in your marching band and concert band festival group?
That is currently grades 8-12. We start them in 6th grade, have an intermediate band with 7th graders, and march with grades 8-12. Our goal is to have the 7th and 8th grades in an Intermediate Band, and then 9th-12th be our Symphonic/Marching Band. Requiring 8th graders to participate in marching is a struggle, which anyone in a program like this understands. We have 45 students in the top ensemble right now, 8th through 12th. The largest top group we have ever had at ACA is 63. We are still recovering from an administrative decision that restructured our middle school grades. This caused us to lose an entire grade of beginners, and then shortly after that were the pandemic years.

Your marching band recently competed for the first time in several years. What led to the decision?
We stopped competing for several reasons, but mainly because we only have four days a week to rehearse and one field on campus. Marching practice happens before school and during first period. We start at 7:40, and students have to be ready for a downbeat inside or to do breathing gym and stretching on the field. I have to let them go at 8:45 so they can clean up before their first class. It adds up to about 4-1/2 hours over four days each week.

The program really began to grow when I convinced the administration that band should meet first period. When making the pitch for band during first period, I reminded them that the football team practices more than 2 hours a day, five days a week. With less than half that time, we teach marching band, give concerts, appear in parades, and participate in a variety of community events. I didn’t have to convince families that marching practice before school was normal because they had never known any other way here. The parents trust me a lot here, thankfully. I told them, “You’re going to miss all the traffic if you arrive to school at 7:40.”

The decision to compete again was driven by my great senior class. They said, “Could we please go to a contest?” I explained the necessary commitment, and we added sectionals twice a week. Two different groups come at 7:15, a half an hour before the regular start time. The contest provided some additional motivation for students beyond the usual football games.

What was your initial motivation to apply for Midwest?
Midwest was never on my radar except to attend, and I had only gone twice because when I got back into band directing, I was a single mom raising three kids at stepping stone ages. I went to Midwest once with the Hillcrest band directors years ago and then when the Alabama Winds performed in 2017. Our band was ready for new challenges, and I wanted the program to keep growing musically and experience more than typical honor bands. They were ready for a higher level of performance.

How has this invitation motivated students?
When I told my adminstration that I was applying, they were all for it. Thankfully, my current headmaster has a bit of a band history. He supports the fine arts wonderfully across the board, so he was enthusiastic about applying to Midwest. I told him this probably isn’t going to happen the first year. He said, “Let’s figure out a way, if you get accepted, to get them there.” That statement made me feel confident.

My students had no idea what Midwest was. They get excited about traveling to a theme park, but inspiring them for this big conference took some explaining. When I told my headmaster we were accepted, he said, “I want the announcement to be big. I want balloons falling from the ceiling.”
There were no balloons, but we made a video and announced it in front of the school in the chapel. Everyone was very receptive. As for funding, we go on a trip almost every year. We alternate between bigger (and more expensive) trips and smaller ones. We wanted to take a bigger trip this year because of our great group of seniors, but flying to Chicago made it more expensive. Some of our families have taken on the fundraising challenges of this trip.

I normally am not too concerned with who decides to go on a trip, but we want correct instrumentation for any performance. For the Midwest appearance, I paid even closer attention to that. There were students who were not signed up, and the reason was definitely financial. We have had some small donors help out, and recently received a very large contribution from a family outside the band program for which we are very grateful.

For our clinic, I am pleased that we will demonstrate student mentoring by featuring our tuba section. I have never had to worry about having tubas at ACA, which is abnormal for a small school director. Years ago, I sent a young tuba player on a mission to connect with a beginning tuba student. They were probably five years apart in age, and the goal was to make a personal connection, not necessarily a musical one. Now we have a tuba family stretching over several years. They have long-standing communication groups, and they always ensure that the newest, youngest tuba player is brought into that shortly after they begin!

I am going to have the tubas demonstrate a scripted mentoring session to show what happens in my classroom when older students work with younger players. Then we are playing Robert W. Smith’s By Loch and Mountain, which has a great tuba solo and will pay tribute to Smith’s Alabama roots.

Our second piece is White Light by Phillip Sparke. It’s an oboe feature, and I have invited a former student, now in college, to play with us as part of a smaller ensemble.

The last piece we will play will be more poignant. We will talk about professional mentoring, colleague to colleague, professional and personal. I have had many mentors, but two of the most important are Randall Coleman and Leslie Welker, who is retired now, but she taught in this area. I got back into band directing after several years of staying at home with my kids. It was a very hard time, but it needed to happen. Leslie mentored me professionally as a band director, but also woman to woman. Our personalities are very different, but she motivated me to keep reaching for excellence even on the hard days. This is what band directors do.

I was talking with Randall back when I was first considering applying to appear at Midwest. He said, “you’re never going to know if you will make it unless you actually apply. You have to handle hearing the answer no once in a while.” That’s what we teach our students.

Heather Henson has been the instrumental and choral director at American Christian Academy since 2008. She graduated from Samford University with a Bachelor of Music in Music Education. She began teaching. She began her teaching career in the Jefferson County School System as the Assistant Director of Bands and Choral Director at Oak Grove High School and Alliance Elementary School, and then as Director of Bands at Pittman Middle School in Hueytown, Alabama. She is a clarinet player and was a charter member of the Alabama Winds.

– Interview by Becky Rodgers Warren

It’s A Small Band World After All

Roger A. Dekind
Friday, December, 19, 2025
3:45 PM – 4:45 PM

How did you get started at the Disney II Magnet School?
I was hired in 2018 just two weeks before school started. I did one round of interviews with the AP to the principal, took a tour of the school, and was offered the job in a couple of hours. They gave me a roster of 200+ kids, and they took me to a little closet in the main auditorium with 38 or 42 instruments. I had to figure things out on my own during the first year.

As a Chicago Public School alumnus, I came in with my roots in concert band and experiences at Lincoln Park High School and also as a student at the Merit School of Music. Merit is an outside program for music, but I call it the Hogwarts School of Music. That gave me the experience to go somewhere and build a more intense and focused training method for music.

I take everything that I have experienced and try to give my students great musical experiences. Our appearance as a clinic band at Midwest is an experience that has been years in the making. It’s a full circle moment for me, and I am excited for the kids most of all.

What grade levels do you teach?
For the last seven years I have taught grades 9 through 12. This year they mixed in some eight graders with the high schoolers. We have an opportunity to keep some of those eighth graders if they continue in band at the school. It is recruitment for our program and the school.
Describe the group you are taking to Midwest.

The group for the clinic is our Disney II advanced band. It is the top group in the school, but most of the students have only been with me for one to three years. I have never had a full classroom/group of students to start from Beginning Band and stay on the trajectory of Beginning, Intermediate and Advanced Band. Students come into band at any grade point and any musical experience. You almost always see students with very little to no musical experience and have a small window to work with to help them grow into the best musicians and humans as possible. The Chicago Public Schools have no feeder system. A neighboring district, for example, has two powerhouse high school schools that draw students from nearby middle schools with bands. We don’t have that in CPS.

So, when you start your school year, you really don’t know who’s going to walk through the door.
Correct. I’m the only band instructor. So we just offer the three sections of band: beginning, intermediate, advanced. Maddy Marino, who is also a Roosevelt alum, teaches choir at the school. We share the same challenges of having a freshman class with little experience. As students in band or chorus make progress, we may bump them up to a higher level. We are assessing students throughout the year. We have been fortunate that the school secretary or scheduling coordinator works with us to make these ensemble changes possible. It is so important to have those relationships.

What was your first experience with the Midwest Clinic?
I was blessed enough to be a senior at Lincoln Park High School in a selective enrollment music program that was one of the top programs in the Chicago Public Schools. A clinician came in, and our jazz band played some jazz techniques. As a result, our band was selected to go to Midwest. We worked with some top jazzers in front of an audience at Midwest, similar to what we are doing this year. It was thrilling to play in a place where every famous composer and conductor was in the building. That was such a huge moment because CPS is rarely featured at such a prestigious clinic, even though it has been held in the same city for almost 80 years.

How will Midwest impact your students?
This has been the driving force since the day I got hired. I knew what Midwest is, and the impact it has. It didn’t just change my life; it changed every person in band with me. At the convention, students will have a chance to try a professional instrument and to hear top-notch musicianship from everywhere. Everyone deserves to get that experience and cherish that moment. I continue to preach to my kids that there are so many great experiences outside the walls of our school.

In the last couple of years, I have attended for two days and have brought my students along for a day. This year, they will spend two days at the conference. We will check out performances and explore the exhibit hall. I have told them, “Every university is here at your fingertips. All of the big schools are coming to you. It is a chance to think about your future and what you want to do.”

What will directors see at your clinic?
The first half of the clinic will focus on thriving as a small band program in the fourth largest school district in America. We are a magnet school but also tied to a neighborhood school. We do not have the benefit of selective enrollment in our district. I am going to tell the story of how we got organized and jump started a program just two weeks after being hired. The second half will demonstrate our approach to teaching music and our rehearsal process.

Since we first received this invitation at the start of the year, my message has been: You are representing something bigger than CPS, bigger than yourselves. We are here to highlight those beautiful things that happen in our program and represent the school and city. We are here to serve.

Roger A. Dekind is the Band Director/Music Instructor at Disney II Magnet High School, where he has taught for nearly eight years. He is a graduate of the Chicago College of Performing Arts at Roosevelt University with a major in music education. He has studied clarinet under Dr. Bonnie Campbell and Charlene Zimmerman. He describes the Disney II band community as united, supportive, energetic, and dedicated and credits his students for pushing him to become an even better director and teacher.

– Interview by Becky Rodgers Warren

Day Two: Next Steps for Success with Your Beginning Jazz Band

Antonio J. García
Wednesday, December 17, 2025
1:30-2:30 PM

At The Midwest Clinic, we have had a real interest in presenting the attending educators with information they can grab onto and use day one in rehearsal. There are a high percentage of workshops to help them when they march into the band room on the first day of the semester. We set up a jazz track to focus on day one for a beginning jazz band at any level from middle school up to a college. What could you do on day one, week one?

There will be demonstrations with a hands-on pair of workshops where clinicians work with a demonstration middle school jazz band for two hours of a three-hour presentation. The third hour, held on a separate day will have a pair of clinicians discussing how to make the decisions behind the desk before you get to your first rehearsal. These choices might range from budgets to repertoire to amps.

The clinicians for day one, José Diaz and Dick Dunscomb, will demonstrate strategies that focus on getting a swing groove across the band because swing is the most amorphous of all our grooves for many people. There will be discussion on jazz articulations and listening to some recordings.
After a 15-minute break, Don Zentz, also a Midwest board member, and I will lead the day two session. We will demonstrate strategies for using call and response vocals, teaching improv, and layering in things for performance. The demonstration band, from Old Quarry Middle School, directed by Frank Alongi, will perform at the end of that second hour of rehearsal.

The next day, two great in the trenches educators, George Andrikokus and Matthew Johnson, will give a session called Before Rehearsal: Planning for Your Beginning Jazz Ensemble. They will walk through the decisions that directors make regarding stage setup, literature choices, lesson plan, and emphasizing what might be called ensemble-ship partnering with musicianship.

What led to this deep focus on jazz this year?
It was just a confluence of great things. The Pre-Conference Intensive is a cooperative effort between the Jazz Education Network and Midwest, and all of the jazz members of the Midwest Board are members of JEN. We’re actually giving a workshop at JEN from our Midwest standpoint. We call it A Prescription for Success and offer suggestions to help jazz directors take their ensembles to the next level. There’s always a need to help foster the next generation of jazz bands. It’s important continually to fertilize the ground and water it and make sure that we are constantly bringing up stronger ensemble experiences and band and orchestra directors who have the information they need to grow with the confidence to experiment.

For many band directors, jazz is an experiment. We know that most music education degrees don’t include any jazz requirements. Most music educators who graduate from great programs have no experience putting together a jazz curriculum or teaching improvisation. There are also other great musicians who are running jazz bands who are hungry for more information. We try to provide that.
At some point, jazz comes up for most school directors. They may have a holiday concert or swing or pops music for a concert. Having the proper interpretation is important to them in their regular job, if that regular job isn’t jazz. They want to sound as authentic as they are with Mozart or Persichetti or anything else that crosses the desk. They don’t want to play a tune by Duke Ellington and have it feel uncomfortable. The notes for jazz charts are the same black and white shades as the notes for classical charts. The only thing that changes them is the interpretation which comes from listening. It sounds simplistic, but it is true.

If someone is hungry to learn about jazz, the educators who have deep experience are happy to help. We can tell directors what to listen to start students off on a bossa nova, a swing tune, or a blues. We want to help younger directors build that foundation and could explode the amount of informed music educators. The Midwest Learning Channel is another valuable resource for directors. It is a growing archive of videos of various workshops that can be accessed at .

I want to emphasize to anyone reading this that they can contact me or any established educator who might be helpful. The secret sauce is listening to the music we want to emulate. Singing along with the music is also essential. If you can sing along with the phrasing of the Basie band or sing along with Ella, you will figure out how to articulate that with your instrument and band.

Antonio J. García is Secretary for the Midwest Clinic and has served on the board for three decades. He is former Director of Jazz Studies at Virginia Common-wealth University and an alumnus of the Eastman School of Music and Loyola University of the South. He is active as a performer, composer/arranger, producer, clinician, educator, and author in instrumental and vocal genres.

– Interview by Kevin Schoenbach

You Cannot Teach an Empty Chair: An Affirmational Approach to Recruitment, Retention, and Representation

Chandran J. Daniel
Thursday, December 18, 2025
1:30-2:30 PM

I’m in my 18th year of teaching. I’ve taught in urban schools, parochial schools, small schools, and large schools. It is easy to get hung up on all of the resources you are missing, but teaching at a small school has taught me that the greatest resource is the students in the room. You can’t teach an empty seat to cover a tuba part.

There are a handful of concrete steps that anyone can take, regardless what their program looks like to increase recruitment and retention. Start by taking a look at your total population demographics and think about how to use that to direct your efforts. It’s really important to examine all of the data available to see who is in the room, who is missing, and reflect on the challenges students are facing and what you can do to assist them.

Students
Find ways to connect with students quickly and affirm why you want them in your program. They need to have a reason to sign up. For some, it’s just a love for playing instruments, and they already have this appreciation for music. However, for students who haven’t connected with music yet, you have to find ways to bridge that gap for them. All of your great pedagogical tools have zero impact on students who are not in the program.

At a previous job, I was a K-12 music teacher at a small school and oversaw the band and choir programs. The total student population was about 180 kids from kindergarten through 12th grade with only 55 high school students. During one of my first classes with the high school choir, there were a couple of boys who were disruptive and just would not pay attention. I reached this point of great exhaustion and frustration and thought, “They are new to this program, and this is not a good fit. I need to have a conversation about them finding something else to do with their class period.” Then, I just had this sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach; if I kick them out, where does it stop? I realized that with so few kids in the building, I needed to change my mentality and attitude. How many kids would lose out on the opportunity to experience music, if I kicked them out because our personalities did not agree. I needed to think about how could I serve these kids. That was the moment when I came up with the phrase, “You cannot teach an empty chair.”

I had to find a better way to connect with them, meet them where they were, and keep them in the room, which ultimately did happen. One of them was the captain of the basketball team, and the next semester he recruited six or seven more boys to join choir in this tiny school.

Equipment
When I worked in low SES (socioeconomic status) schools, getting instruments was often the biggest challenge. I taught at a charter school on the west side of Chicago for six years in an under-resourced community, so a lot of my research and presentations in the early part of my career were focused on building band programs in low SES situations.

A few years ago, Dr. Ken Elpis was presenting at IMEC, and he made this brilliant point that really stuck with me. When schools were transitioning towards computers, one of the biggest challenges they found was that many families could not afford to have a personal computer at home. The most effective solution was often for schools to just buy computers and make sure that everyone had the equipment they needed. They didn’t allow the resource gap to be an insurmountable challenge that would keep students away from these necessary 21st century skills.

For instrumental music programs, the cost of entry often comes down to whether students can afford instruments. Sometimes the most effective strategy is to just “buy the computers,” to get the equipment kids need and eliminate as many barriers as possible so students can have access to a high-quality music education. Sometimes we just have to take a deep breath and figure out how we can find more resources. The great thing I have found, however, is that when you invest in breaking down barriers towards access, it tends to create long-term instead of short-term solutions.

As you gain equipment, you gain personnel. As you gain personnel, you tend to gain monetary resources to reinvest. If you can start to increase your enrollment, you are also increasing your fundraising base. Every student that you bring in is another person to help with the fundraising burden. It becomes a positive cycle. As you start adding equipment, you add more bodies, and you very quickly have a positive curve to your fundraising and resource building outcomes. It also becomes easier to make your pitch to administrators and the community when they see positive growth in quality and the number of students who are impacted by the program.

There are lots of small steps to take to begin building an equipment inventory. You might start with small fundraisers to buy inexpensive instruments from Facebook Marketplace, local pawn shops, garage sales, or flea markets. Something that was really effective for me was working with local music stores to get multi-year leases for 30 instruments that we would pay off over three or four years. This gave us equipment in hand and a specific fundraising goal every year to pay for those instruments. At my school in Chicago we did this and were able to quickly build the band program up from 8 students to 50 after three years. By the time I left, there were 85 students in the band program.

At the school I’m at right now, Thompson Junior High School, there were about 140 kids enrolled in the band when I was hired four years ago. Today, we have a little over 240. Students are the lifeblood of a program, and you need a well-planned approach to recruitment to keep your program vibrant and growing.

Chandran J. Daniel is the director of bands at Thompson Jr. High School for SD 308 in Oswego, Illinois. This year marks Daniel’s 17th year of teaching. His previous positions (all in Illinois) include K-12 music director at the Hinsdale Adventist Academy, K-8 music director at the Alain Locke Charter School in Chicago, and band director at Lincoln Middle School and Edwardsville Community High School in Edwardsville. Daniel received his Bachelors of Music Education from Illinois State University and Masters of Music in Music Education from Anderson University in Anderson, SC. Daniel was named as a 2017 Emerging Leader by the Illinois Music Education Association Board of Directors.

– Interview by Kevin Schoenbach

Join Us For This Historic Meeting!

NASSB: National Association of Small School Bands

In 2015, it became apparent that there was a large contingency of attendees at The Midwest Clinic who taught at small schools. Richard Crain, president of the Clinic’s board of directors arranged for a session featuring four small school directors. An attendee at this session stated that she had been coming to Midwest for 25 years, and this was the first clinic whose subject matter was dedicated to addressing challenges unique to small school band programs. Later, Frank Troyka presented a marching band clinic for small band programs and it was SRO.

Over the years, most clinic sessions at The Midwest Clinic have been directed toward larger band programs, often those with significant resources. Even though many doubted the wisdom of creating special tracks directed toward a specific audience, the Small School Band Track was created. By any standard of measurement, these sessions have attracted full audiences. In a 2024 survey, this overall subject received the most requests.

Richard Crain, president of The Midwest Clinic Board of Directors from 2009 until 2021, grew up in a small school band program with a high school enrollment of 75 students, and he was a major influence in campaigning for these special tracks. According to Crain, “The opportunity to learn to play a musical instrument and experience the joy of making music together literally changed my life.”

In 2002, the Holiday High School Band from Holiday, Texas auditioned to perform on the main stage and received an invitation to present a concert at the 56th Annual Midwest Clinic, Chicago Hilton and Towers. Since that first performance, 12 small school programs have been invited to present a concert or clinic at Midwest.

In 2024-25, the thought of creating a national organization to formalize and organize information to provide tangible assistance to small school programs was developed. This organization would exist as a resource center, a platform to exchange ideas, and a tangible effort to address the unique needs of this special classification of schools nationwide. This endeavor is not about dues or generating revenue. It is a genuine effort to address the needs unique to rural and other school programs with small enrollments. All students deserve to learn to play a musical instrument!

We are grateful to The Midwest Clinic for providing the room (Prairie Room, Thursday, 8:30 PM) and advertisement of this meeting. Gratitude is expressed to Rebecca Warren (North Dakota) and Stan Mauldin (Texas) for their leadership in the development process for the establishment of the NASSB. Our appreciation goes to The Instrumentalist for featuring the NASSB as the 79th Midwest Clinic approaches!

The post A Sneak Peak from the Presenters appeared first on The Instrumentalist.

Selecting repertoire is one of the most challenging tasks directors face. Creative parameters, such as artistic themes or extra-musical events, can guide repertoire selection and enhance the meaning of the program. However, directors may worry that overly broad programming may require purchasing or renting music beyond their budget or planning time. This article suggests ways to design concerts that are budget-friendly and creative beyond traditional programmatic formulas. I will illustrate how each strategy guided the concert programming for the Augusta University Wind Ensemble (AUWE) 2024-2025 season.

That ensemble had 58 members with approximately 50% music majors and 50% majors outside of music, along with several outstanding local high school students. The AUWE had complete and balanced instrumentation, performed primarily grade 4 and 5 repertoire, and rehearsed twice a week with 100 minutes for each rehearsal and an average of 12 rehearsals per concert cycle. The concert examples below can work for a wide range of ensembles and demonstrate ways to think creatively about programming while staying within reasonable music purchase budgets.

^{Professor Wycliffe Gordon, Director of Jazz Studies at Augusta University, performing with the Wind Ensemble,
Photo by Michael Holahan, Augusta University}

Establish a Framework
A blank canvas is daunting to any artist. Establishing an initial set of creative guidelines can start the brainstorming process, whether planning a single concert or a multi-concert season. For example, these parameters might include art movements or styles, emotions, or topical or social commentary. I review programs from other institutions, consult with trusted colleagues, read the culture section of newspapers or classical music periodicals such as Gramophone Magazine, and spend time in art museums and nature for inspiration.

I also explore connections to other departments on campus and community organizations. For example, a school with a strong dance program could facilitate a collaboration on a piece, while a connection with a rap artist could lead to a performance of a piece for rapper and wind ensemble. In practical considerations, the technical capabilities of the venue (lighting, projection, digital display, stage size/setup) determine what and how to implement the creative limits. All of these ideas are part of the brainstorming process.

For the 2024-2025 season, I chose Vox Humana (The Human Voice) as a unifying framework, establishing that any music related to singing or folksongs would fit the theme. The collaborative potential was straightforward with faculty vocal colleagues, and there are many pieces that connect to the theme. In programming during the season, I connected at least 2-3 pieces of each concert to the overarching theme. This provided a clear thread throughout the season.

Use Stand-Alone Concepts
The next step required thinking about concepts, activities, or ideas related to the established framework. These adjacent facets expand on the main theme and provide more texture. For Vox Humana, I identified concepts related to the human voice, from obvious (singing, music based on songs) to less salient (different folksong traditions, the interaction of songs in a piece). This led to ideas for the stand-alone concerts (two per semester), with each concept relating to the overall theme.

The first concert was based on the mashup approach when an artist takes two or more melodic ideas and simultaneously transforms them. When selecting pieces, I first searched our library and found three pieces that fit the concept. Michael Markowski’s joyRiDE, a mashup of Beethoven’s Ode to Joy and John Adams’ Short Ride in a Fast Machine, was the concert opener. Charles Ives’ The Circus Band March was the closing piece and displayed his idiomatic layering of popular songs. While not a conventional mashup, Folk Song Suite by Ralph Vaughan Williams, served as the anchor cornerstone repertoire for the program. These three pieces established the initial concert structure with an opener, main work, and closer. Next, I looked for other music to complete the program. Two familiar works – Omar Thomas’ Shenandoah and Shelley Hanson’s Volver a la Montana – are reimagined settings of different folk song traditions from the Americas. In addition, I wanted to feature a trombone faculty colleague and selected Arthur Pryor’s arrangement of Annie Laurie because of its parlor song source, which complements those found in The Circus Band March. The resulting program was balanced in diversity of composer voice, style, genre, and era, and totaled 38 minutes of music. Because my school owned half of the selections, the cost was under $300 for the additional repertoire.

Concert 1: Mashups
joyRiDE, Michael Markowski
Shenandoah, Traditional arr. Omar Thomas
Annie Laurie, Alicia Ann Scott arr. Arthur Pryor
Folk Song Suite, Ralph Vaughan Williams
Volver a la Montana, Shelley Hanson
The Circus Band March, Charles Ives

Be Flexible and Adaptable
Programming takes time to sift through repertoire lists, listen to ideas, and revise plans with a fresh perspective. Often, the process becomes rushed, with selections made close to the start of a concert cycle. Planning for the 2024-2025 season started in late November 2023 and was nearly completed by May 2024. That time-frame gave me flexibility to adapt as new opportunities arose, which was evident in our first concert of the Spring 2025 semester.

My initial plan for this concert featured two faculty members, one woodwind colleague on shakuhachi (a traditional Japanese flute) for Tetsunosuke Kushida’s Figurations and a piano colleague for Gershwin’s Variations on I Got Rhythm. Chen Yi’s Spring Festival, which incorporates the traditional Chinese folksong Lions Play with the Ball, opened the concert, and Ron Nelson’s Courtly Airs and Dances was slated to close the concert. Despite careful planning, the program felt incomplete.

In April 2024, my colleague Wycliffe Gordon inquired about performing one of his compositions, Me, We, with the Wind Ensemble during the 2024-2025 year. The Spring 2025 concert already had two featured artists, and Wycliffe was a natural addition to the program. The title, Me, We became the concept for the concert as a play on words: Me (the soloists) and We (the Wind Ensemble). Plus, his composition and showcase were a great finale.

During Fall 2024, I learned more about the group’s playing ability, and decided to feature students as a complement to the faculty to align with the Me, We concept. Our library had John Mackey’s Strange Humors, which includes a significant djembe part. The featured students were two percussionists, so I doubled the djembes and staged them antiphonally in front of the ensemble. Adding Strange Humors helped to round out the concert program.

After an initial read-through of the program, it was clear that Courtly Airs and Dances was not the right challenge for the ensemble, and the piece would plateau halfway through the rehearsal cycle. The program needed a new anchor piece of similar duration. I chose Satoshi Yagisawa’s Machu Picchu: City in the Sky to read from the library. Though the piece was considerably more difficult than Courtly Airs and Dances in the initial reading, it provided the technical and musical stretch to push the ensemble’s ability and musicianship. The final program only required me to purchase two pieces at less than $250 total, and it provided a challenging yet rewarding experience for the ensemble.

Concert 3: Me, We
Spring Festival, Chen Yi
Variations on “I Got Rhythm”, George Gershwin trans. Douglas McLain
Figurations for Shakuhachi and Band, Tetsunosuke Kushida
Strange Humors, John Mackey
Machu Picchu: City in the Sky, Satoshi Yagisawa
Me, We, Wycliffe Gordon

Tie It All Together
The season’s final concert summarized the Vox Humana theme. The concert was a shared performance with the Greenbrier High School Wind Ensemble, the top band at a local school. They performed on the first half of the program. The core of our portion centered on composers’ reimaging of folk songs. We opened with Percy Grainger’s The Duke of Marlborough Fanfare and created a chamber music opportunity for more advanced brass players as well as a solo feature for a talented horn member. Dwayne S. Milburn’s American Hymnsong Suite anchored the program while Andrew Boss’ A la Machaut closed the concert and served as a capstone to the season with its modern reimagining of Guillaume Machaut’s melodies.

During the 2023-2024 academic year, Augusta University hired a new voice faculty and opera program director, and I wanted to feature her with the band during her first year. Bernard Gilmore’s Five Folk Songs for Soprano and Band was a good fit for her and the ensemble. The concert needed one more piece to round out the program. Because the concert was scheduled for the Tuesday after Easter Sunday, Sousa’s Easter Monday on the White House Lawn was a subtle nod to the timing of the concert. The Department spent $270 on new music for this concert.

^{Dr. Courtney Kalbacker, Director of Opera Theatre at Augusta University, performing with the Wind Ensemble,
Photo by Michael Holahan, Augusta University}

Flexibility in programming is vital since unexpected opportunities may arise that alter the intended concert. For example, in early Spring 2025, I was asked to have the Wind Ensemble perform for our new university president’s inauguration, planned for the same week as our final concert. After discussion, we made our pre-existing concert part of the Inauguration Week celebrations, which meant he, his family, other university leaders, and local dignitaries would attend. Our President played trombone in middle and high school band, which opened opportunity for meaningful connections in celebrating the inauguration while acknowledging his musical background.
Given the President’s trombone experience, I arranged for Wycliffe to perform Me, We as a surprise encore and musical treat. Many stars aligned for those added selections to work, yet it required little extra rehearsal time and elevated a historic moment in our institution’s legacy. None of that would have happened without nimble programming and the established framework for the season.

^{Dr. Russell T. Keen and Karen B. Keen, President and First Lady of Augusta University, with the author,
Photo by Michael Holahan, Augusta University}

Concert 4: Tune In
The Duke of Marlborough Fanfare, Percy Grainger ed. Donald Hunsberger
Five Folk Songs for Soprano and Band, Bernard Gilmore
Easter Monday on the White House Lawn, John Philip Sousa
American Hymnsong Suite, Dwayne S. Milburn
A la Machaut, Andrew Boss
Alma Mater, Robert W. Smith
Me, We, Wycliffe Gordon

Planning repertoire can be a daunting task. Establishing a framework, whether for one concert or an entire season, can foster creative ideas about repertoire. Within that structure, concerts can center on different concepts related to the framework, broadening how pieces relate back to the concerts and framework as seen in Concert 1. Planning over a long period of time gives room for many program drafts, while openness to flexibility allows for adaptability based on the ensemble, as seen in Concert 3, or to incorporate new opportunities as seen in Concert 4. The Augusta University Wind Ensemble’s programming was achieved while spending less than $1,000 on new music for the year. I hope these examples inspire creativity as you develop programming your concerts. If you have questions or comments, please feel free to email me at ibrinberg@augusta.edu.

The post Variations on a Theme appeared first on The Instrumentalist.

2:30 AM: Thoughts run through my head. Why am I awake? I’ll doze until my alarm goes off. I bet my band room will be warm even though it’s cold outside. I’d better layer my clothes. I need to copy the music on my desk before rehearsal. Coffee is my friend. Sigh, we are out of coffee in the band office, and I will have to stop on the way in to school. Is Walmart open all night?

3:30 AM: The term ends on Friday, and a student hasn’t finished his playing test. I think of ways to convince him to finish and dread the lengthy parent email faulting my teaching and motivational skills.

4:45 AM: I am not certain I can adult today. I wonder if I can wear jeans on a Thursday.

5:30 AM: Walmart is open.

5:45 AM: I imagine a huge pushing arm shoving slow drivers off the road.

6:10 AM: The copy machine is broken, but the coffee pot works

6:55 AM: The student-led Question of the Day begins before rehearsal. I listen from my desk while they talk. I am proud that they do this respectfully on their own, but wish I could bottle up that energy.

6:57 AM: Take the student to the nurse’s office with a bloody nose.

6:58 AM: Check for stray blood and remember training “If it is wet and sticky and not yours, don’t touch it.” The stray blood check is negative.

7:00 AM: Rehearsal, I spend the next 35 minutes educating young minds and quietly questioning every decision in my life that has led me here. They have momentarily forgotten everything we have worked on for the past two months. The concert is tonight.

7:45 AM: Debrief rehearsal with colleagues, with the office door closed. My amazing colleagues and the closed door are the reasons I don’t get fired.

8:00 AM: Turn in attendance, read emails again, send encouraging response to the parent about the playing test. listen to MakeMusic exercises, grade Goal Sheets, update gradebook, begin weekly update email to go out tomorrow, update social media accounts to hype said concert, and call doctor’s office to refill my son’s medication.

8:15 AM: Finish none of that, welcome students for group lessons that now rotate until lunch.

9:30 AM: Colleague brings me a cup of the coffee I brewed three hours ago. Manna from heaven.

Lunch: I attempt to eat while working with students, trying to catch up before the end of the term tomorrow. Otherwise known as National Save My Grade Day. I recall that my contract guarantees a 30-minute duty-free lunch. I can’t remember the last time I had that.

12:00 PM: Text message from my son: “I don’t feel good.” The response includes nice words to mask the underlying message – stay at school unless you are vomiting or bleeding from the eyes.

12:05 PM: More small group lessons. My brain hurts. This class has four students in different units. One forgot his lunch and is hungry. One girl forgot the music in her locker and disappears to retrieve it. Another student is on the verge of tears due to nerves about the concert. The final one is annoyed that the lesson hasn’t started on time.

12:30 PM: Email from parent about student not attending the concert tonight.

12:42 PM: Email from another parent about another student not attending concert tonight.

12:43 PM: I question everything about teaching band while continuing to teach like all is well.

1:30 PM: Can I reheat this cup of coffee, or should I just admit defeat?

2:14 PM: The school day ends.

2:20 PM: Discover that the gym is full of basketball players. This is the same gym where 20 student volunteers have stayed after school to set up for the concert. I hunt down the administrator to discuss.

2:40 PM: Begin setting up for the concert in the gym.

4:15 PM: Head out for dinner during Senior Citizens’ hour. Pass on the wine, sadly.

5:30 PM: Dress for the concert at school. I am a pro at the quick change into formal wear in the staff bathroom, and am usually ready faster than my two male colleagues.

5:45 PM: Apparently, not tonight.

6:00 PM: Greet the first early bird parents and students and fix last-minute equipment issues. I find the microphone and wonder why it is so loud.

6:15 PM: Help students fix bow-ties, take pictures for the end-of-the-year banquet. Use my band director superpowers to heal a clarinet. Remind the percussion section to warm up appropriately. Again. And to tie their shoes.

6:20 PM: Ask a student where his bowtie is. He insists he never got one.

6:22 PM: Hug my son, who apparently feels better and came 45 minutes to town to surprise me and attend the concert. My boyfriend, who I haven’t seen in so long that he felt the need to drive an hour to a middle school band concert to catch sight of me in my natural habitat, also came along. I haven’t seen him yet though.

6:30 PM: Group warm-up begins.

6:32 PM: Late student arrives.

6:50 PM: Motivational encouragement for my bandlings out loud; prayers in my head that no one throws up.

6:55 PM: Leave to line up for the grand entrance into the gym. This time I beat my male colleagues.

7:00 PM: Concert. Shift between multiple roles: band director, recording engineer, Vanna White (displaying handouts during announcements), and comedian. Some ventures are more successful than others.

8:00 PM: No one threw up. Concert over. The students sounded great. I try to avoid impromptu parent-teacher conferences.

8:10 PM: Visit with former students who came back to hear the band.

8:30 PM: Finally hug boyfriend.

8:40 PM: Close doors after everyone is gone. Debrief with colleagues.

8:50 PM: Start long drive home. Remember coffee mug is still sitting on my desk, with coffee in it.

9:00 PM: Realize how tired I am. Answer the phone and gratefully debrief more with my colleague as we drive home 45 minutes in opposite directions. Managed to stay awake.

9:40 PM: Arrive home. Have a long, meaningful conversation with my teenage son (really) because this is the best time to make life-altering decisions. Debate the ability to nap with my eyes open and my brain recording things to address tomorrow.

10:15 PM: Shower while making a mental list of what has to occur before the 7:00 AM rehearsal.

10:30 PM: Answer student emails about Friday and update social media to reflect how well the concert went. Answer a parent’s email about student grades.

11:00 PM: I can’t sleep.

The post Musings from Middle School appeared first on The Instrumentalist.

Picking an Instrument
Most middle school programs start beginners in the early years of middle school. You may have an instrument night where students and their parents explore the various instruments. In my experience, students know exactly which instrument they should study. Instrument choice is one of those little studied areas of educational psychology, but in my experience, students select the one that matches their personalities. Teachers often offer playing tests. I have seen students “fail” the test for studying flute because they had a teardrop on the top lip. I don’t agree with this assessment as many of the top flutists of the last century also had teardrop embouchures, me included. I look at instrument selection as a time commitment too. If we are asking for home practice sessions of 20 to 30 minutes a day in the early years with an increase in the high school years, students should be able to spend the time with an instrument they love the sound of. If, on the other hand, students select an instrument they have trouble achieving success with, I am all for helping them find an instrument that is more accessible to them. For example, one band director friend switches flutists who have difficulty with the upper octaves to the bassoon. His program has graduated many all-state bassoonists who went on to college with a full scholarship.

When I was first teaching at the Eastman School of Music Preparatory Department, the curriculum required that each student take two years of piano before beginning a wind or brass instrument. This was a luxury for the teacher because beginners advanced quickly. When I was a student, I studied tonette for a year before I began flute. Some schools teach recorder for a year or more before advancing to the instrumental world. Some instruction of notation is certainly beneficial.

Reviewing the Basics
A colleague asked me at the beginning of a term, what did you teach today? I responded, “Basics which included putting the flute together, aligning the instrument, how to stand (placement of feet when playing standing), how to sit in a chair etc.” I could tell he was surprised that I had spent time on such rudimentary elements, but the next day he shared that he had checked the alignment of his university clarinet students and not one had assembled the clarinet correctly. So, the takeaway is that almost everything you teach you will reteach from 6 to 20 times, depending on the technical level. My motto is “You haven’t taught until they have learned.” I also believe it is important to not rush learning. Everyone who teaches beginners longs for the day when they can graduate from the method books and play repertoire. Moving on to repertoire too soon creates gaps in learning. Slow down and take pleasure at every level of learning Students have played well when they play with understanding.

What to Teach
A good lesson plan divides the class or lesson into three parts: warmup/theoretical technical work, etudes, and repertoire. Many method books have a review at the top of the lesson page followed by a new concept and then some fun pieces to play. This structure means that students leave a lesson or class with confidence and enjoyment.

The warmup should begin with one whole note. In a class, concert F is a good note for all instruments. In a flute lesson, select the D on the fourth line. Each note has three parts: the beginning or attack, the duration, and the release. Work for a clean attack with no chips. For the duration, concentrate on even air, and for the release, the note will either end with a big bang or have a taper. Work on both types of endings. Concentrating on the shape of one note is an excellent way to improve the sound. My teacher, Joseph Mariano, spoke of making a phrase like a string of pearls. Each note is a perfect pearl. If the musical line goes up, make each pearl louder; if it goes down, softer. Simple but effective.

Scales
The basis of much of music is a melody based on a scale. Ensembles who know their scales learn music more quickly and play with confidence. It is intimidating for students to be assigned 24 scales. It is better to break them down into smaller units. Start with the tetrachord (four notes) of each major key around the circle of fifths. For example, CDEG, GABC, DEF#G, ABC#D, EF#G#AB. etc. Once students know the 12 tetrachords by memory, put the C tetrachord with the G tetrachord for a C major scale. Moving on around the Circle of Fifths, the G tetrachord plus D is a G Major scale and so on. Students find this simple and more easily understood. I find that learning the tetrachords and putting them together in a scale may be accomplished in less than an hour.

Playing Fast
Many beginners develop poor hand positions because they only play slowly. Playing fast requires economy of motion, which leads to a great hand position. For example, if a student has learned two notes A and B, practice trilling from the A to the B. Every time a new note is learned, add that trill to their warmup. At this level of advancement, do not incorporate trill keys, but work primarily on the coordination of moving from one note to the next and back again. Some trills are easier than others. Students who never practice playing fast will never be comfortable playing fast. Playing fast is a different skill from playing slowly.

Rhythm Exercises
A good warmup also includes rhythmic exercises. For some students, practicing rhythmic exercises with a newly learned instrument may be too much to control at once. I like to start with clapping in the air and then clapping on the lap. I especially like clapping on the lap because students can feel the pulse in their leg muscles. Some teachers use a rhythm set of instruments. If you don’t have the funds for drum sticks and pads for each student, clapping is an economical way to go.
First work with quarter notes only. Divide the class in half and have group A clap on beats 1 and 2 and group B on beats 3 and 4. Once the group is steady in execution, employ dynamics. Group A claps forte and group B claps piano. Then reverse it. You can explore the idea of antiphonal writing and the idea of question and answer with this exercise. Progress on to the eight most common ways to divide a quarter note (right), still implementing the antiphonal idea.

Pianists learn this coordination early in their studies and so should instrumentalists. This exercise makes playing in an ensemble much more accurate. Adding dynamics with clapping, starting with forte and piano as previously mentioned, is generally easier for young musicians than learning them while playing their instruments. You should also incorporate whole, half, and quarter rests early on.
For the warmup/etude section of the class, band books that feature rhythms and chorales are a good purchase for the band room. Working on a few exercises every class means that you are planting the seeds for a band that sightreads proficiently.

Etudes
Etude study helps students progress technically and musically. If students take private lessons, those teachers will select appropriate etudes. If not, is an excellent source. Your college woodwind and brass textbooks also offer suggested etudes for each level. You can provide links so students can download exercises, or, if you have time, assemble an etude book yourself based on these exercises. For flutists, the works of Sussmann and Gariboldi are excellent and fun to play.
To round out the class, select repertoire that has something to teach. One of my students was so disappointed with her all-district music selections that she wondered if it was worth attending. She said, “Look at this piece. ABA form with the A sections being fast and the B section slow. The flutists only need to know five notes – Eb, F, G, A, Bb in the second octave. The A sections are in 58 and the middle section a slow three.” Granted she was an exceptional student, but I am sure on some level her observations were felt by others.

A band director friend was preparing his concert repertoire for an appearance at Midwest Band and Orchestra Clinic. His band played off-list in Texas, but for Midwest there is a requirement to program something for every grade level. He mentioned that polishing the music for grades 1, 2, and 3 was a challenge because the easier repertoire showed all of his band’s deficiencies. He took this as a challenge and sightread a grade 1, 2, and 3 level composition in each rehearsal.
If challenged and nurtured, middle school students can achieve musically satisfying concerts. Be patient and thorough. Reteach when necessary, and enjoy those moments of music making.

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Lacquer acts as a barrier against environmental elements like moisture and air, significantly reducing the risk of corrosion, a common issue with brass. While it increases durability and lowers costs for beginner instruments, it can slightly dampen an instrument’s sound characteristics, resulting in a warmer and duller sound compared to silver- and gold-plated finishes.

The Basics of Plating
Silver and gold plating of brass instruments is a meticulous, lengthy process. First, the brass receives a thin copper coating. This foundational layer is essential as silver and gold adhere better to copper than to raw brass. By applying copper first, the subsequent silver or gold layers bond securely to the instrument’s surface, safeguarding it against corrosion and wear, while also influencing the instrument’s sound qualities.

Silver Plating
Silver-plated instruments are known for their brighter, crisper sound and brilliant appearance. This plating choice is favored due to its affordability and attractive look. Silver delivers a bright, focused tone and a quick response, ideal for musicians who emphasize clarity and precise articulations. Other benefits include enhanced projection, resonance, broader dynamic range and easier maintenance compared to raw brass or lacquered instruments.

Gold Plating
Gold plating is often applied over a silver finish and results in an elegantly smooth finish, distinguishing it from other options. Gold gives a warm, mellow sound, ideal for genres requiring expressiveness. It provides additional comfort in the hands and remains untarnished with basic care. Gold-plated instruments offer a refined, rich tone, though they may respond slightly slower than silver-plated ones. They are perfect for musicians seeking a softer tone and a comfortable playing experience with minimal maintenance.

Silver vs. Gold Plating
Sound Quality
Silver plating offers a bright, clear sound suited for high-energy music, while gold provides warmth and richness, enhancing genres like jazz and chamber music.

Physical and Visual Characteristics
Silver-plated instruments boast a timeless, classic appearance, favored in traditional settings. Gold-plated instruments exude elegance and a unique visual appeal.

Economic and Practical Factors
Silver is generally more affordable. Gold requires a higher initial investment but offers long-term benefits with low maintenance.

Choosing between silver and gold plating involves considering personal preferences, musical style, and performance context. Silver is ideal for those seeking brightness and quick response, while gold caters to those desiring warmth in sound and feel.

Some musicians choose gold-plated instruments and mouthpiece rims due to a sensitivity or mild allergy to silver. While silver’s bright tone and classic appearance are significant selling points, players with such allergies may experience negative skin reactions, particularly with prolonged contact. Gold is hypoallergenic and may offer a safer and more comfortable alternative without compromising aesthetic appeal or significantly decreasing sound quality. Although gold is more expensive, gold plating is an appealing option for musicians seeking to avoid allergic reactions while enjoying a warm, beautiful sound.

Silver and gold plating each present distinct characteristics that affect both sound and aesthetics. Understanding these differences helps musicians align their instrument choices with their musical aspirations of sound.

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What to practice?
Young students will likely focus on their band music, region band etudes and scales, and perhaps solo and ensemble music. All of this music is intended for a performance or audition. Unfortunately, unless the band’s curriculum is expertly crafted, or the state or region has a sterling developmental syllabus for young musicians built into its honor band auditions or solo and ensemble events, this may not be the best way to develop fundamental skills.

Nearly all students are familiar with method books. Most band programs use them in the beginning stages of development and quickly abandon them for performance repertoire. While upcoming performances are great motivators, using method books beyond those earliest years can be a great way for students to continue working on individual technique and musicianship in bite-sized, developmentally-appropriate chunks.

Method books with three or more volumes can keep students going into late middle school and beyond and help build healthy practice habits for the future. Once method books are exhausted, students can move on to the first standard etude books and repertoire at grades 1-3.

Above all, keep students from playing their all-state etude exclusively for three months. They may be able to perform the piece with ease, and even earn a chair in an ensemble, but they probably will have learned little else. Instead, every student with aspirations on their instrument needs a healthy diet of pieces that speak to them and present appropriate technical and musical challenges.

Students will need help to determine what they should focus on during practice sessions. Experienced players can forget how overwhelming learning a complex skill or piece can be to a student. It helps to give less experienced players a simple checklist for any musical assignment:

Tone: Did I play with the most beautiful, even sound possible?
Time: Did I play exactly in time, with accuracy down to the smallest subdivision of the beat?
Technique: Did I play all of the right notes?
Intonation: Were all of my notes in tune, individually and with each other?
Interpretation: Did I play all of the articulations and dynamics accurately? Am I thinking about adding shape to the line?

A Variety of Performances
Find creative ways to mix up the concert routine. Consider a solo and ensemble night for students, detached from any upcoming district contest. A performance for friends and family offers a calmer goal for students and is a good opportunity to introduce them to the concepts of long, medium, and short-term planning.

A performance, approached appropriately, can involve a series of small and large challenges. The long-term goal might be the performance or audition, but there are many intermediate steps along the way. Short-term plans are the day-to-day goals. It isn’t enough to say “I want to be able to play this piece.” It isn’t even enough to say “I want to play this phrase.” Every practice session should have a specific and achievable goal.

For example, instead of planning to learn a particular phrase, students could have an achievable metronome marking goal for the end of a practice session. Even better, they can identify specific areas where they wish to improve in the phrase. Suggest that they think about technical passages, specific articulation challenges, missing dynamics, or whatever is the most pressing item in the section.

Triage
Triage is an important step for students. Teachers advocate learning all of the musical components in a phrase together (rhythms, notes, dynamics, articulations) as it is difficult for the brain to add material later. However, isolating individual challenges first can make this goal far easier. If a student identifies the trickiest bit in a difficult phrase and focuses on that first, it may save considerable time.

After a practice session, remind students to reflect on how it went:
• Did you achieve your goal for the session?
• What might be an appropriate goal for the next session?
• Did you learn the goal quicker or slower than you thought you would?
The answers to these questions may lead to adjusting short- and medium-term goals in future practice sessions.

Helpful Tools
A metronome and a tuner/tone generator are helpful tools for a successful practice session. Twenty years ago, these were clunky, stand-alone pieces of equipment that might cost more than than $100. Today, there are fantastic combination tuner/metronome apps for just a few dollars.
A metronome trains players’ rhythmic sensibilities, identifying inaccurate or imprecise rhythms. However, it also helps organize practice sessions. Without a metronome, musicians have little idea of how close they are to the tempo and technique goals of a particular section. The lack of a metronome can lead to inefficient practicing.

To use a metronome while practicing, students should use their daily goal-making to identify a specific passage that they want to improve. Then, they should find a tempo on the metronome that will allow them to play the passage accurately and correctly. This may be very slow, and they may have to start with a very small section. However, they must not fall into the trap of rushing through this stage: Impatience leads to missed notes, rhythms, and musicality later.

Once they have identified an appropriate passage and starting tempo, they should play through the passage, focusing on the checklist above. If they can successfully perform every component, they should repeat the passage twice. If they are able to perform the selection accurately and comfortably three times in a row, they can then increase the tempo. It may be helpful to use buttons or coins as a counter for successful performances. If they make a mistake at any point, they must start over again. If they find themselves starting over a second time at a particular tempo, they should consider decreasing the tempo.

Some may want to make a large leap in tempo after some progress, but our brains and muscle-memory will not respond well to this, and mistakes will result. Similarly, dialing up the metronome by a click or two at a time will lead to frustration. A good guideline is to change the tempo by five or six clicks upwards at a time. This will sustain momentum in the practice session while ensuring that the brain can process the new tempo appropriately.

Intonation
Modern instruments are some of the finest ever made, with substantial improvements in ergonomics and acoustics. However, each instrument is filled with compromises, and none will have perfect intonation on every note without appropriate adjustments by the performer. A tuner can help in determining an instrument’s tendencies on specific notes. A tone generator can catch notes that are out of tune in a passage. By setting a tone generator to a specific pitch and playing through the line slowly, players can strive for a perfect meeting of their note with the reference.

Duration of Practice
We have all heard of legendary musicians who practiced eight hours a day. Consistency and focus are far more important than length of time. Fifteen minutes a day, five days a week can be perfectly appropriate for a young musician as long as they have a plan and stick with it.

As musicians grow and mature, practice sessions will lengthen. For example, an aspiring music major should practice two or three hours a day to meet their goals. While more practice time than this may be appropriate in certain circumstances, too much practicing can turn into aimless wandering and create physical and mental difficulties. A reasonable amount of time, properly planned, can lead to great progress. Then, students can go out into the world to have experiences that make their lives and music making better and richer.

Consistency is key. Just as regular studying is far more effective than cramming right before a test, regular, moderate, practicing is light-years better. The brain needs time to acclimate to new tasks and slowly build muscle memory. The all-at-one-time approach often leads to performances filled with missed notes, inaccurate rhythms, and very little true music-making.

Teaching Practice
To communicate these techniques to students, explain and demonstrate how to practice in class using lines in the method book or a new scale. Start by practicing a new concept as a group, using techniques they can use in their own practice.

Find a comfortable tempo on the metronome and play the new exercise as a group. Ask the class to reflect and suggest which musical elements need work. Tell students to choose one area to improve and perform the exercise again. Repeat the process of asking the class for thoughts on their performance. When appropriate, move the metronome up by six bpm and repeat the exercise. Ask students for feedback on what happened at the faster tempo. Students may respond that they missed a note or neglected the dynamics when focusing on the new tempo.

While working towards incorporating all of the elements of the music right away, students often find that shifting their focus to the articulation or increasing the tempo will negatively affect another element. Reassure them that this is normal, and they should keep going and trust the process As you teach students how to practice, clearly explain each step so they can replicate the process outside the classroom. When asking for their thoughts on how the exercise went, explain that they are reflecting on their individual performance and its importance in practice.

Another way to emphasize practice is through student-run chamber ensembles. Split students into groups and guide them step by step through checklists for each rehearsal, but let them run their own rehearsals. While students are rehearsing you can circulate and make sure groups are on-task and assist when needed. You can also have each group turn in an assignment at the end of the rehearsal, describing their goal for the session, what they worked on, how they worked on it, if they met the goal, and what their goals are for the next session.

Introduce the concepts of efficient and productive practicing to your students from an early level. Mastering this skill will help them avoid frustration and make faster progress and ultimately better music-making.

For stubborn practice problems, review Andrew Allen’s article Alternate Practice Strategies from the October/November 2021 issue of The Instrumentalist.

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