And We're Not Going to Take It Anymore

There are a lot of people in the instrumental music world who are mad as hell right now. Making the calculated decision to use a pen name to deceive well meaning music educators seeking authenticity in multicultural music programming deserves anger.

But it also deserves action.

With the open secret no longer secret, more people are raising their voices in support of true diversity in music education works and I hope that the gate keeping publishers and organizations are finally starting to listen. With some of the events of this past weekend, it appears that may be so, but we can't let it stop here.

We don't have to wait for the major publishing companies to carry and promote diverse composers though. Make a commitment to finding and programming underrepresented composers. It can seem daunting, but there are some great resources that have already done a lot of the work including Jodie Blackshaw's list of band compositions by female composers and the Institute for Composer Diversity's databases.

Once again, we teach diverse students and they deserve to see and hear themselves in the music they make.

Pain in the Brass

Yep. I went there with the title and I'm going to roll with it.

I have a brass problem and I need help. I knew it wasn't great, but until one of my field placement students from the local university asked about the ratio of woodwinds to brass recently, I started admitting it. Our overall numbers are good, but woodwinds vastly outnumber our brass.

We had well over 30 trumpet players in 6th Grade Band last year. 7th Grade now has nine. There were six solid trombones in the 7th Grade Band last year. There is one now, and he moved into the district over the summer. And of our five baritone/euphonium players in 7th grade, exactly 0 remained for 8th Grade Band this year.

I use a baritone and trombone as my demo instruments fairly regularly. Last year we played things like Brass in the Basement and In the Valley of the Ancients so that the low brass and winds weren't stuck with typical lines. With my sister being a tuba play throughout much of high school and part of college, I really do try and pay regular attention to them.

Help.

To aid our solo trombone, the trumpets in 8th grade band will be rotating in on baritone throughout the year. (THANK YOU to my awesome colleagues for the idea!) I'd like to not need that band-aid (hahaha...band aid...music puns are the best) though in the long run so I need to do better.

What are some ways you engage your brass? What tricks do you use for low brass retention? Middle school repertoire suggestions? Please throw this flute player a bone!

Recording Exchange

Through the magic of Twitter, we were able to connect with a band in California that was playing one of the same pieces as us last year. We exchanged recordings and the students were able to give and receive some really good feedback. I've tried this to a degree with other pieces, but students were able to give much more meaningful comments on music they were familiar with.

I would really love to do that again this year. I tried posting in the Facebook Band Directors Group but wasn't able to connect with anybody playing the same music. A lot of other teachers were interested in doing the same thing but ran into the same problem. I'd like to try one more time and hopefully a few more of us can connect with other ensembles to share.

If you're interested, please fill in your information on this awesome site created by the one and only Aubrey Yeh! Hopefully we can get some more directors and bands connected and get our kids thinking and sharing!

The Norm, Not The Exception

Another one to add to my Why I Love Solo and Ensemble list:

At Solo and Ensemble on Saturday, a seventh grader's duet partner failed to show up for unknown reasons. Her mom made the trip to hear her even though she was in a wheelchair with a broken leg. Her younger sibling's birthday party was rescheduled so she could play. She dressed up and had her hair in an intricate braid with a fresh flower pinned into it. She waited over an hour until she was the last student left in the warm-up room. And she wasn't going to get to perform. 

Rather than let that be her first Solo and Ensemble experience, the judge I was working with played the duet along with her before taking a little extra time to work with the student who was our last performance of a long day. She walked out smiling and feeling pretty important for getting to play with the judge when just 30 minutes prior had been near tears and uninterested in playing. 

That is what teaching is about. Don't ever tell me that teachers don't care. Stories like this aren't the exception. They are the norm. I love my job.