– Kent Smith
Founder of Heritage Festivals
(Editor’s note: Friends may contact Mr. Smith at Klsmith9134@comcast.net.)

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    Adaptability is making sure the movement and choreography are musical and work for marching band. All elements and equipment used in a show should work with the music and the stage. Just as visual routines must fit the music, they must also fit the football field and take into consideration weather conditions. In addition to all this, the story should be told in a way the audience will understand.
    After the compulsory round in Olympic figure skating, each skater has an opportunity to choreograph a free-style routine to the music she selected. This routine must show both skill and timing in executing the figures, and it must also show the skaters ability to adapt those figures to the music – an important factor in obtaining the highest possible scores.
    A good example from dance was presented by Gower Champion in the musical “Hello Dolly.” The company, performing “Put On Your Sunday Clothes” became a train in motion and sound. Parasols were turned into wheels, and feet became pistons and rods, culminating in the entire cast inching across the stage as a driving, pulsating locomotive.
    I have seen the locomotive concept adapted to marching band. The rifles and tom toms became the cowcatcher, the cymbals were the beacon, the color guard used flags as pistons, and the drum major was the engineer. Every element of the band was used. This demonstrates that no group is restricted to having just one part of the marching band portray the theme, but that everything can have an important part in the production.
    Although the locomotive example is intricate and difficult, this is less important than a fitting adaptation of motion to music, no matter how simple the motion may be. For example, visualize a band in a circle with flags blossoming to highlight the expansion of the circle. This is simpler to coordinate than the locomotive, but it will be just as effective if it is well tailored to the music.

    Coordination is the harmonious presentation of effects, including flow, blend, and adaptability of show elements, to create an aesthetically pleasing whole. This is a demanding process as it forces show designers to get an overview of all aspects of the program.
    Some things to consider at this stage include the relationships between adjacent visual effects and both adjacent and simultaneous patterns. There should be a continuity and flow between patterns. Some aspects of a show may not fit together; there is a difference between something enhancing the presentation and simply occurring at the same time. Something that does not enhance the featured spot on the field will only distract from it.

    Continuity, a step up from coordination, is the logical and orderly sequence of maneuvers and the compatability of all the details necessary to ensure a smooth, entertaining presentation. Two examples of techniques a designer uses to produce continuity include a perfect end-to-start relationship, attained by ending the preceding move with the formation that will be used to start the next one, and such diversionary tactics as featuring a section of the band while moving the rest of the group into a ready position.
    Show designers should ask three questions about their work:
        •  Are section features or other methods used to ensure smooth and consistent entertainment and avoid dull spots?
        •  Are effective or significant maneuvers presented one after another without wasting time or including a move that does not maintain interest?
        •  Are upcoming maneuvers tele-graphed too early and too often so that when the maneuver finally occurs it is not very effective?
    I consider continuity to be the most important facet of a well-written program. It makes the difference in entertainment value. Consider a show that presents pictures, but between pictures the transitions look like mob scenes. This is neither attractive nor entertaining, especially when it is possible for a program to flow from one maneuver and idea to another without losing the audience’s attention.
    Although there are many other factors encompassing the showmanship or salesmanship of the program to be taken into consideration, the techniques here are the four major tools for designers to create a musical and entertaining show that audience and judges will want to see it time and time again. 

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   (Although the Kiel Municipal Band was not formed until 1928, there were bands in Kiel as far back as 1870. This photo of the Arion Band was taken in 1900.)

 
    The Kiel Municipal Band rehearses two nights a week and performs indoor concerts for fall, Christmas, and spring, as well as five outdoor summer concerts per year. The band also marches in 8-10 parades per year. Over the years the band has performed in Chicago, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., Elkhart, Indiana, and Kiel, Germany. In 1954 the group was the first community band to appear at Midwest, and it returned there in 1979.
    The Kiel Municipal Band is also one of the few civilian bands that has been permitted to perform in the amphitheater at Arlington National Cemetery, and it played for the Milwaukee unveiling of a postage stamp honoring John Philip Sousa’s The Stars and Stripes Forever. In 1985 the band was the host band for the American Bandmasters Association Convention held in Kiel and Kohler and also represented Wisconsin at Major League Baseball’s All-Star game in Minnesota. Just last month the band returned to Washington for the National Community Band Sousa Festival.
    Band members tend to stay for a long time. Although there are high school students in the group, many members have tenures of at least 30-40 years, and one member is in his 62nd year with the band. A number of married couples met each other in the band. Says director Lewis Schmidt, “The camaraderie and interaction between members is noteworthy. It is common to see an 86-year-old explain how the band works to a 15-year-old, or a youngster helping an injured percussionist set up equipment.” Most band members come from Kiel or the neighboring communities of New Holstein, Manitowoc, and Appleton.
    The band’s signature march is Invincible Fidelity written by Albert A. Fradeneck in 1923. The band began using it as a street march in 1939, and it is played as an encore at the end of most concerts. In its 75th year the band was able to purchase the copyright, thanks to an anonymous donor. The title of the march is also the band’s motto.        

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Music Selection
    Objectively evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of your band before purchasing music. When perusing scores, look for literature that highlights the strong points of your players and helps to improve their weaknesses. With fewer students it becomes easier to tailor music selection to your players’ skills. Avoid continually selecting music with easy parts for weak players. They will never improve without a challenge. Also, if one section always has dull parts, it will be harder to recruit and retain those players.
    The volume of your ensemble should not factor into which pieces you select. Instead choose music through which your students will learn to play with good balance, beautiful tone, and blend. Where you are missing instruments, you may need to edit some parts to cover all the moving lines, even when they appear to be insignificant. When editing music, keep the composer’s intentions in mind. For example, if he wrote a textural crescendo, you should include the same type of idea. If you modify the instrument choices, you should retain the color changes.
    Double reed players are often in short supply in small schools. If your ensemble is missing oboes, experiment with flutes, clarinets, or muted trumpets to cover the parts. Bassoon parts can be rewritten for tenor saxophone, baritone saxophone, or euphonium. Try several options and listen to the results. No single solution will apply to every situation.
    Many small bands do not have enough horn players, so substituting saxophones, muted trombones (or trombones playing into the stand), euphoniums, or some combination of those instruments may work well. Lack of horn players does not have to be a problem for creative directors. At the 2009 Midwest Clinic, Rebecca Warren suggested having a trumpeter play into a chicken bucket to create a tone that is surprisingly similar to the sound of a horn.
    It’s easiest if you place the bucket on a stand. It takes some experimentation because playing into a bucket can affect intonation, but it is a convincing substitute. You can spray paint the tub black or use school colors.
     Euphoniums, trombones, and tenor saxophones can substitute for one another when necessary. Experiment with the number of players covering the missing part to create the right balance.
     A band without a tuba has a difficult time producing a characteristic band sound. If possible, buy or borrow a tuba, and recruit a willing student. While it seems obvious to switch a brass player to tuba, anyone with good breath support can be a good candidate. A clarinet player who overblows might make an excellent tubist.
    If you find yourself without a tuba, a strong bass clarinet and baritone saxophone can help to fill out the bottom of the band’s sound. Also consider rescoring chords at the cadence points in the music. When bass instruments play in well-tuned octaves, the overtones create a rich, resonant sound because of the resultant tones (the fifth above) that are produced by the in-tune octaves.
     These substitutions can be manipulated to help weak sections as well. For example, to help struggling trombone players ask a tenor saxophone player to perform with them. Hopefully, this doubling will develop confidence in the weaker section until you feel it is time to eliminate the additional instrument.

Recruiting
    Planning for instrumentation in the years ahead does not have to be as difficult as it seems. Begin with a chart of every player in your ensemble, and then separate them by the year of graduation and their instrument.

                2011    2012    2013   

    Flute    Sally    Sarah    Kayla   
                John    Ann    Amber   
                Megan    Hayleigh Amy       

    Oboe    Susan        Nora       

    Clar.    Hannah    Melissa    Kelsey   
                Julie    Mary    Jana   
                John    Joseph    Linda
                Alex    Maddi    Ava       
                Abigail    Lucy    Sadie       

    This chart can be made either on paper or in a computer spreadsheet. Look for sections with plenty of players and ask hard-working students if they would be interested in a new opportunity. Select these instrument changes carefully. A player who is having difficulty learning one instrument will continue to struggle on a different one. Often second chair players of a section are an excellent choice to change instruments because they usually have good music-reading skills and already understand how to practice. It is likely they will thrive when they believe that they are contributing significantly to the band.
    Try to encourage a balance of both boys and girls in each section. Stu­dents are often involved in sports and band in small schools. A mixed section will eliminate the possibility of your entire trombone section playing basketball instead of performing in the pep band.
    Finally, recruitment it easier if  interest in the band is high. Your band should be highly visible in the community. Share photos and newsworthy information with the local newspaper, and take the high school band to elementary and middle schools to perform frequently. Make sure your pep bands play well and are entertaining, because athletic events are usually well attended. They may be the only time many community members, parents, teachers, and ad­ministrators will see the fruits of your hard work.

Tone and Intonation
    It is impossible to hide poor-quality tone in small groups, even if it is just from a single student. No one wants to listen to a bad sound. Because directors in small districts often teach students at all levels, you have the opportunity to teach good habits early. Be sure that beginners understand how to play with good breath support, em­bou­chure, and posture. Once in high school, their good tone will be an asset to the band.
     Warming-up is the ideal time to develop a characteristic individual sound in every section of the band. Lip-slurs and long-tone exercises need to be part of daily re­hearsals. This first exercise can be adapted for any group.

    Brass players begin on their fundamental pitch (concert B flat), lip slur up to the next harmonic, and then lip slur down, returning to the fundamental. From there, have them change pitch, moving chromatically down the instrument. At the same time, woodwinds play long tones on a concert B flat and then move chromatically down in pitch with the brass.
    Flutes, double reeds, and saxophones can begin to use vibrato on the long tones. As the brass develop flexibility, ask them to expand the number of partials they play. With consistent practice your brass players will be able to play five or more partials.

Chorales
    Chorales are an important part of developing good tone. When you conduct chorales, encourage the students to listen across the ensemble and then work toward improved intonation, balance, and blend – the components of a characteristic band sound. Ideally, they will learn to listen to the entire ensemble, a skill that should be taught and developed over time.
    Choose chorales that fit easily within the ensemble’s technical ability to teach more advanced listening skills. To help develop these skills, ask questions that will direct the students’ listening, such as identifying the parts that play the same musical line or knowing whether one section matches the articulation of another section. Once students become accustomed to your questions, they will listen more acutely to be ready to answer. This process develops listening skills and it is also a helpful classroom management technique.

Listening for Balance
    Begin to address the concept of good balance within sections simply by asking each section to play while listening for balance within that instrumental choir. For example, have the clarinet choir play a chorale as they listen for balance and blend; this offers an opportunity to show the importance of the players on the lower parts.
    With fewer students playing, it is easier to address tuning problems. A band whose members play in tune will not only sound better, the group will also sound louder. When musicians play out of tune, the inaccurate frequencies cancel each other out. Playing with good tone is the first step toward playing in tune. The second step is listening and matching others.

Developing Rhythmic Precision
    Even young players can learn to watch their conductor while playing. While it’s one thing to insist everyone watch you, make sure you are giving something meaningful – cues, eye contact – to each person to watch. Good eye contact is a great way to encourage players to observe your conducting. If you bury your head in the score, students are unlikely to watch; they will bury their heads in the notes. Con­ductors have to practice their craft. You should expect to practice at least as much as you expect your students to practice.
    Consider implementing daily rhythm practice into your rehearsals. This is easy enough to do by displaying a short rhythm of three or four measures on the board and asking students, first, to copy the notation and, second, to write the counting under the notes. Next, count and clap the rhythm using correct subdivision.
    Show everyone typical counting errors, then give your students the   tools for avoiding them. Inexperienced players typically fail to hold long or tied notes for full value. Insist that students subdivide while counting rhythms and while playing. Another common mistake is rushing short note values. Again, careful counting and subdivision will help to fix this inaccuracy.

Solos and Small Ensembles
     It is impossible to overstate the value of a strong solo and ensemble program, especially in a small district. Although the work is time consuming, directors who teach students privately or in chamber groups have the best chance of addressing individual playing problems. For a small band to succeed, every player needs to play his best. The time spent working with small groups will pay off when they bring their improved skills to the band.
    While local, regional, and state-level music festivals are obvious performance venues for soloists and chamber ensembles, consider developing a year-round chamber music program. Working on small ensemble pieces throughout the year encourages students to learn more than a single chamber piece. You can host chamber recitals at school or have soloists and small ensembles perform for community groups.
    The challenges of working with smaller bands are balanced by the satisfaction of developing the musical abilities of students. With creativity you can find solutions that may actually improve your students’ playing in the long run, as they learn to listen and play together to make the small ensemble the best it can be. 

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Develop Ear-Training Skills

    The power of learning these songs by ear is that the entire ensemble knows all the parts. The first cornets or clarinets that would ordinarily only perform the melody are now performing the bass line, while the tubas have the opportunity to perform the mel­ody. This fosters good listening skills and improved accuracy. With the four parts performed securely, you should teach the rhythms and tonal patterns in the work to students.

Rhythm, Tonal Patterns
    Tonal and rhythm pattern training includes labeling each of the aural parts. Students need to be able to hear the tonal center and identify the correct tonality to perform music with greater accuracy and understanding.
    Begin by teaching tonal patterns in the Second Suite in a call-and-response format but not in rhythm. In the beginning use a neutral syllable, then later teach the patterns using sol-fa syllables. This will help the students to know where the tonal center is for each song.
    Rhythmically, players need to identify duple and triple meters to perform with improved rhythmic accuracy. The patterns in “Song of the Black­smith” of the Second Suite include patterns in both meters.

    By teaching these patterns with specific labels that correspond to different tonal and rhythm types or functions, students will have a common language with which to discuss the aural features of this work.
    Use the call-and-response method to teach the rhythm patterns in “Song of the Blacksmith.” Have students keep time with some part of their body and then work on the call-and-response patterns in time. Use a neutral syllable first, then try either the Gordon rhythm symbols or the modified Kodaly system. (See the books included in the Suggested Reading list at the end of this article for further information).
    Once students understand the patterns, teachers can isolate any performance problems and have the players more easily polish them because they have a stronger fundamental grasp of both tonality and meter. More important,  students who have greater musical understanding of tonality and rhythm more easily transfer this information to the other works they are performing.

Making the Connection
    After working on these ear-training activities, students are better prepared to begin reading because they have a better understanding of the tonal aspects of the music. At this point notation indicates both pitch and rhythm, not just the symbols representing a way the player is to manipulate the instrument.

   
    Begin by reading and writing familiar tonal and rhythmic patterns that students sang and played in their aural activities. After learning to read these patterns, they progress to the mel­odies, bass lines, and inner parts of the folk song they have learned. At this juncture provide the notated parts for the Second Suite, and then go back to the recording you played for the students in September when the aural comprehension process began. At this point everyone will have an expanded knowledge of the composition.
    A classroom discussion about the Second Suite will now be more substantial given that the students have a greater understanding of the musical concepts in the composition because they can now independently perform the rhythms and tonal patterns in the music; they can also sing and play all of the melodies, bass lines, and inner parts of its folk songs. Students are finally ready to rehearse Holst’s work with mature aural understanding.
    Aspects of the piece that elude many students are now clearer for rehearsals. Phrasing and the interaction of various parts become the focus of each rehearsal rather than pitch and rhythm. Working with students’ aural abilities before passing out notated parts is essential to developing knowledgeable performers and creative musicians.
    Many teachers spend a great deal of rehearsal time balancing ensemble parts and asking students to listen. After teaching ear-training skills, students more easily make the connections between orchestration and its relation to balance and blend. Many may be able to transfer some of these concepts to other literature. With the students listening, it is an easier and faster process to teach the expressive elements found within the music.
    After spending some time re­hearsing the Second Suite, record the ensemble in a performance. Then have the students compare their performance to that of a professional or collegiate ensemble. A rating scale, such as the one printed with this article, will help to guide students in evaluating the performances of both groups. The discussion can then focus on as­pects of the performance that need improvement, both technically and expressively.

Benefits
    The value of developing your students’ listening skills is that these apply to other repertoire performed by the ensemble. For example, one student made a comment relating to the tonality and phrasing within the second movement of another band composition we worked on. She had been able to transfer this knowledge, correctly comparing elements of music the band was rehearsing.
    For my ensemble, our performance of the Second Suite outshone the other works on our spring program because the students had such a strong foundation for what they were performing as an expressive creation of art. The students’ greater aural understanding gave me the opportunity to teach them where the performers and composer meet to convey the musical intent.
    The most rewarding aspect of this type of teaching is that the students grow to become independent thinkers of music. They do not just use the director’s ears to correct problems but are able to critically think, and at many points, correct problems without the director’s help. This process saves countless hours of rehearsal time. Teaching instrumental students aural skills is well worth the effort.
 
Suggested Reading
Bruce Dalby, “Teaching Audiation in Instrumental Classes” (Music Ed­uca­tors Journal, Vol. 85, #6)
Edwin E. Gordon, Learning Sequences in Music: Skill, Content, and Pat­terns (GIA)
Richard F. Grunow, Edwin E. Gordon, and Christopher D. Azzara. Jump Right In: The Instrumental Series – Tea­chers Guide for Recorder. Tea­chers Guide for Winds and Percussion (GIA)
Richard F. Grunow, “Recruiting Begin­ning Instrumentalists with Musical Objectives. Instrumental Connec­tions in Kodaly Envoy” (Organiza­tion of Kodaly Educa­tors, Volume 25, #2)
Richard F. Grunow, Music Learning Theory: A Catalyst for Change in Begin­ning Instrumental Music Instruc­- tion. Unpublished.
Colin Matthews, editor, Gustav Holst, Second Suite in F: For Military Band (Boosey & Hawkes)
Mitchell Robinson, “To Sing or Not to Sing in Instrumental Class.” (Music Educators Journal, Volume 25, #1)
Scott Shuler, “Music Learning Se­quence Techniques in Instru­mental Performance Organiza­tions.” C.C. Taggert and D.L. Walters, editors, Readings in Music Learning Theory. (GIA)

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Playing the Zone
Charles Pennington
Allen High School

    Last year we created a new student leadership position called Drill Instructor. These band students rank between a section leader and a drum major. We have six for this fall. They are students and members of the marching band who are extremely good at marching and help by teaching marching concepts.
    Drill instructors do not worry about music at all; that is the section leaders’ responsibility. Instead, these students are responsible for checking marching basics and drill and cleaning any problems. Drill instructors are star marchers with great posture and fundamental skills, and they know how to fix forms, shapes, curves, and lines and use correct terminology. To keep them from being overwhelmed, drill instructors are assigned to one of six zones. The field is divided into thirds as well as front and back, and each student leader is responsible for the marchers in his zone. By dividing the field into parts, drill instructors can study just their portion of the drill without being responsible for all of it.
    The responsibilities extend to posture and instrument carriage, so these students have to know the correct way to hold every instrument because they could be working with trombones and clarinets at the same time. Drill instructors have been a big help because the staff can’t see everything happening on the field at all times. It permits these students to be out on the field and go across sections regardless of what they play, and they can be instructors and helpers for drill. That’s been a great addition.
    One good trend that marching bands are following is having an increased emphasis on woodwind players. In the past, the focus was on volume and impact, so brass and percussion seemed to get a disproportionate amount of front billing. In recent years, woodwinds have come to be considered just as important. Modern shows have more balance between all sections of the group. This year our show is Dvorak’s New World Symphony, and we might even use an English horn, in the pit and miked, for the famous solo.

A Section at a Time

Jim Rhodes
Forsan High School

    For the first four days of band camp students come in by section. We send out a letter with the schedule for students so they know when they have to be there. From 9-11 a.m. might be flutes and clarinets, then saxophones and horns from 11-1. Once their sectional is over, students are done for the day. By the end of the day we have gotten to drumline and color guard, and we’re through by around 5 p.m. We run sectionals this way for four days, and then on Friday we put it all together to see how it’s going to fit. All students come in for a couple hours, then we tell them we’ll see them on the first day of school.
    We teach both music and marching techniques in sectionals. The band hall is big enough that we can move chairs out of the way, put tape down, and make about 30 yards of football field inside, which is preferable to being outside in the summer heat and humidity. When each section arrives, we immediately start going through all the marching fundamentals. After 45 minutes of that I ask students to get their instruments out, and my assistant and I split up the group to work on the show music, fight song, and national anthem. As one sectional ends students are showing up for the next one, and we start again.
    I used to take the full band outside for a while to march, then we would come back inside to play. I got a new band hall in 2006 and purposely designed it to be big enough that we could do some marching indoors. This way students don’t have to attend a morning marching rehearsal then return later to play. I ask for two hours of each student’s time, and then they are free to go. Students prefer that. Our school is nine miles out of town, so students have to drive here, or if they can’t drive, their parents or friends have to give them a ride. It’s a big chore to get out here multiple times a day.
    I don’t start teaching the show in band camp because I never know who is committed to the band for the year until the first day of school. My drill writer asks me in late May what my numbers will be for next year. If I think I’ll have 18 flutes, I put down 16; if I have 20 trumpets, I’ll put down 18. That gives me a little leeway if a student quits or moves. The numbers are never quite exact, but they’re close. If I’ve charted for 18 trumpets and then have 20 on the first day of school, I use alternates. I assign spots based on who shows up for band camp and is faithful about that. Also, in Texas we have No Pass, No Play, so if I lose a student to that, there is someone available to fill a hole. If I end up with more students than I have spots, I don’t mind putting a trumpet player in a flute spot. If I chart for 16 flutes and end up with 15, I’ll put a clarinet or trumpet player in the last spot. Although it’s ideal for like instruments to march beside each other, there are times when you just can’t get that to happen. Students get sports injuries, and we never know when and where we’ll have holes to fill.
    Forsan High School has 204 students, with 130 in the band. Because well over half the high school is in band, there are many students in sports or cheerleading. We work with the coaches to make sure everyone can get students without causing conflicts. We’ve been over 100 in band for as long as I can remember, with strong support from administration and parents. We don’t have as many courses to offer as a large school, but band is one of the great things students can enjoy. I like to have a program that’s well rounded, good in both marching and concert band. We won the state honor band in 2007, which was a big honor for us, and we won the state marching championship that year as well.

Power and Posture
Gregory Dick
Friendswood High School


    A couple years ago we began working on posture and carriage with a specialist. We work with the volleyball team to schedule some time in the gym. The specialist has students lay down on their backs, with the small of the back touching the ground. While in this position, students perform exercises with the legs and arms while keeping the small of the back touching the ground, which is difficult to do. Students do things like leg and arm lifts. One example has students start by laying on their backs with the arms above the head and the knees bent so the feet are flat on the ground.               
    Students move their arms toward the floor stretched out above the head while they push their legs out straight, then return to the starting position. When laying flat on the ground you learn how it feels to have everything lined up from head to feet, and many of the exercises begin and end in that position. These exercises strengthen the core and improve balance. The core muscles in the abdomen are important to good posture when standing. When students stand up, their bodies should be in that same position they were in laying down.
    If someone were to wander into one of our rehearsals at the right time, he would think this was a ballet class. Quite a bit of dance and ballet instruction is interjected into marching band. The goal in teaching dance elements is to get students to move and look better when they march. It really helps; an uncoordinated adolescent boy practicing dance and ballet quickly gains much better control of his body.
    We also plan to work on playing with a more powerful sound and with more dynamic contrast. Judges in the past have suggested we do more of this, so we’re going to emphasize that by changing the drills and warmups that we do with the group. In music rehearsals, we will do more breathing exercises and play warmups at different volumes, especially louder than we usually do. We also want to work on fortepianos and crescendos from piano to fortissimo and back. Later we will do the same exercise while also working on marching fundamentals. Adding varied levels of complexity will force students to pay close attention to their volume as well as how much work they’re doing to project. We want to work on playing loudly, but the correct way, where students stay relaxed and just move the air. When you play loud, you don’t blow air harder, you just use more of it. The air, embouchure, and body have to stay relaxed and calm.

Improve One Thing
Keith Lancaster
Dripping Springs High School

    We work with students on the concept of getting better every single day, both musically and visually. Rather than spending much time talking about contests or competition, our philosophy is that at the end of each day, students should be able to name one thing they improved upon. We start that from the first day. Sometimes we go over what students improved as a group, sometimes we do it individually, sometimes we break into sections.
    Responses might concern marching basics (“I held my horn up better today.”) or the music (“I held all my phrases out today.”). At the beginning of the day we encourage students to set a goal about one thing they’re going to do better. As we push this, students start paying attention to what they’re doing and try to make themselves better. They also don’t wait for me or some of the other staff to find a fault, they’re constantly trying to figure out what they could do better, so they’re analyzing themselves a lot more.
    This year the section leaders are responsible for this as well. We are asking them to question students about what they’re doing better during water breaks to make sure they don’t forget about this halfway through a three-hour rehearsal block. We want to be sure all students stay interested and involved for the entire rehearsal. Band members sometimes become disengaged and bored once they feel they can handle their part fairly well. When the focus is changed to individual improvement on the music and the drill and the marching basics, students stay more engaged.
    Section leaders are assigned five to eight students. One of their main responsibilities is making sure that all members of their section are on the field on time. Almost all of our rehearsals are in the morning, and our rehearsal space doubles as the high school student parking lot, so starting on time is essential. The policy is that late students have to run a lap, and the section leader has to run with them. This motivates the section leaders to encourage their charges to be on time and also puts a little pressure on the habitually late student who doesn’t mind running a lap every day in exchange for 10 more minutes of sleep in the morning.  

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What tips could you offer to trumpet students?

How can ensembles play with better intonation?
    Intonation is always a problem for wind players, and in my view this is partly the result of  thinking of one note at a time. They rarely think of their notes in intervals or distances apart. Even more rarely do they think of the chords that are being played. Knowing that your note is a particular distance away from the previous note or the next note, not only gives the ability and knowledge to play it in tune, but it improves accuracy. When players are aware that a group of notes has two large intervals with one small half-step in the middle, they are more likely to play it in tune and without missing. If a conductor or teacher can identify the chord that a brass section is playing, then the players can be directed to an awareness of who has the tonic, who has the third of the chord, and who has the fifth of the chord. Just this simple knowledge improves their playing and intonation a huge percentage. Most bands play notes as isolated sounds not as part of a broader concept.

What is the secret to making progress in practice sessions?
    One of the greatest side benefits of studying music is learning the value of working slowly. Certainly this is what every professional knows and does. When asked why he could play faster than every other violinist, Jascha Heifetz answered, “because I practice slower than every other violinist.” This is the opposite of the basic instincts of all beginners. In part it is the immaturity and impulsiveness of the young, combined with the times in which we live, from 30-second soundbites to instant messages and texts and surfing the internet. With my brass quintet, which includes members of the Chicago Symphony, we regularly rehearse pieces we have played our whole lives at half-tempo or even slower. At this speed, nothing is difficult, and nothing is technical, so we can relax and hear every interval, every interplay amongst the group, and fix every single detail. It is easy to open your ears and be able to hear everything when you are not worried and everything is calm and slow. It also helps identify what needs fixing in each of our individual parts.
    I have never heard of concert bands playing a new work at a dead-slow pace first, but it would be revelatory for an ensemble to do so. Most professional chamber music groups also do this, and again, that creates the ability to hear details and fix them perfectly. For my students at Northwestern University, I recommend as required reading The Talent Code, a new book about ways to learn. The first chapter describes a young amateur clarinetist who begins practicing a passage at a fast tempo, but instead of ignoring mistakes, stops and plays it again repeating the error. She next does the extraordinary and slows the tempo down, isolating just the part with the error, fixing every detail before patching it back into the section. She proceeds in just this way, with many halts, many fixes, always small parts, always slowly, before proceeding to put it back together, and moving faster. In just this short practice session she improved a huge amount. The next piece she played straight through at full tempo. To a listener, she might have sounded better on that piece, but actually she did not improve on that piece at all.
    The basic idea of The Talent Code is that deep, focused practicing creates myelin, the insulation around a neural pathway. The greater the myelin, the stronger and faster that pathway is, and gradually it becomes your default setting whenever you play that passage or one like it. This contrasts with the usual way a student practices, which is at full tempo, with many mistakes, then going back and repeating the mistakes at full tempo. This wraps myelin around bad playing, which means that the default setting for that player will be to return to those same mistakes in the concert. Deep practicing starts from making mistakes, as we all do, but then identifying them, and immediately slowing it all down and highlighting the exact part that is incorrect, and building myelin around slow perfect playing.
    The ideas in The Talent Code apply to any field of endeavor, whether it be golf or music or soccer. If you use deep practicing and only use repetition after you have gotten it perfect, then you are creating an 8-lane highway of correctness. In a golf tournament or in a concert, you can call up the perfect shot or technique that you want.  The more deep practicing someone does, the thicker the myelin. Each careful repetition wraps another layer around it, and eventually it becomes so strong that is the natural way to perform it. It becomes your default setting. On the contrary, whenever someone repeatedly plays a section incorrectly,  they reinforce the wrong kind of learning.
    When I practice, I seek out any place that sounds wrong and focus in on that. I instantly slow it down to identify and correct what needs fixing. I keep slowing it down and simplifying it until it is  perfect. I never play repetitions until it is completely correct and then play many repetitions that way.


                Photo of Charlie Geyer and Barbara Butler taken in 1998

What are the keys to success in music?
    I believe there are four ingredients needed to achieve success as a musician: talent, work ethic, intelligence of work, and perseverance. Talent is what many young students think is most important. I can tell you that you do need talent, but it is the least important of the four. One young saxophonist may be able to play a difficult technique easily right away while another has to work hard to master it, but to an audience they are both equal. The audience only hears the results, which are the same. 
    Certainly I am spoiled by working with the finest students at Northwestern University, where all have talent, but whether some have more than others is not important to me. A good work ethic is critical, and this means consistent work. In my view, the last two categories are the most critical elements of success. Intelligent work is far more important than practicing for hours and failing to achieve any permanent learning or improvement, that someone else accomplishes with 10 minutes of intelligent practice.

What is the state of music education in our schools?
    I am greatly concerned today that school administrators at all levels do not appreciate the value and importance of music to the development of our youth. I believe this devaluation of music stems from the fact that neither success in music nor the study of music can be measured in terms that those administrators understand. Academia lives by measuring our youth: GPAs, SATs, ACTs, and class rank, and that which they cannot measure, they do not value. Because school administrators can measure the rigor of AP classes in math and physics, they then use them as predictors of future success in college. However, the rigor in music is measured by the four hours of practicing each day, the continuous competitions and auditions, the hundreds of hours of lessons, rehearsals, and summer festivals. These are absolutely predictors of success but cannot be measured in the same way. I believe that someone in business or medicine, law or engineering, will be better at their job if they have studied music and have developed the creativity that is the hallmark of music.
    People who are deeply involved in music become more creative and better focused as students. They learn the value of slow and dedicated work, and that makes them more successful in any field they choose. Most of the students in my daughter’s ensembles are in AP classes, and get accepted into the finest schools. In my view there is a direct correlation between intelligence and participation in music, starting with those who choose to play an instrument. The ability to focus on precisely the most critical problem notes is the same trait that makes for excellence in math or science. Merely slogging away at a problem is not the equivalent of making progress.

What other performance tips can you offer?
    I found out years ago that musicians can actually control how an audience thinks about the music. At a lesson a student played a piece for me and sounded great, but part way through it I realized my mind had wandered. I was embarrassed and simply asked him to start over without explaining why. He replied, “I’d love to start again. I was really into it until the double bar.” This surprised me because it was at the double bar that my mind started to wander.
    Later that week at a group lesson, I experimented and played a lyrical piece in three sections for them. In the first section I focused on playing as though I were an opera singer who brought meaning to every word in the lyrics. During the second section I thought only about my trumpet technique, while during the third section I thought only about going out to dinner. After I finished I asked which section they liked best, and every single person chose the first section, describing it as singing and beautiful, almost like a dream. About the second section they commented about the clean tonguing and neat slurs; all comments pertained to my technique. About the third section there were so few specific comments because their minds had wandered just as mine did. From that moment I learned that a performer can control how the audience thinks about and reacts to the music. If you teach music solely by emphasizing notes and technique, no one will be thrilled by the result.

And a final note …
    (Editor’s Note: During the interview, Butler told the following story, which was just to interesting to omit from the article.)

The Piccolo and the Pistol
    When I came to Chicago as an undergraduate student at Northwestern University I immediately received a phone call to play a Bach Cantata and was asked if I played piccolo trumpet. I assured the caller I did, and was hired, but actually I had never played one and did not yet own one. I immediately called the Schilke company and got Mr. Schilke on the phone, begging for help. He said in a gruff voice, “Come down.”
    I arrived, and he said that there were no piccolo trumpets in stock, but that he always pulled out the best one and gold-plated it, to keep for his own use. He let me borrow his piccolo and eventually let me buy it. Just before I graduated, I had a late rehearsal one night, and left the horn in my car overnight. Naturally, that evening my car was in a row of cars that had all their windows smashed. Everything, including my prized piccolo trumpet, was taken.
    I went to Schilke’s office in tears and told him that I needed a new instrument. Before he could answer, the phone rang, and he was told that at that very moment, someone was trying to peddle my trumpet at Lyons and Healy, which was just down the street. I jumped up, ran down the street and into the store, where I saw the thief holding my stolen piccolo trumpet. I went right up to him and punched him as hard as I could, but the police had just arrived and pulled me off him. Right behind me stood Ren Schilke with his gun pointed at the thief. I was unaware until then, that he had grabbed a pistol and followed me to the store. What a great guy, and I still play that piccolo trumpet today.

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