While working with a student this morning on an honors band solo, several thoughts about practicing occurred to me. Actually, I’ve always had these thoughts about practicing, but I don’t think I ever bothered to write them down.  What follows is a list of my basic beliefs about practicing.

1. We must teach students HOW to practice! All too often, we tell students, “Go home and practice.” But, what if they don’t know what to do? I think many of our students simply (hopefully) take their instrument and music home, start at the beginning of the song, play to the end and then say, “Okay, I’ve practiced.” This method is not effective, if they don’t know what to do. In my personal experience, I never practiced in high school (sorry Travis!), but I didn’t think I ever needed to. I could sight-read the music easily, and never really struggled with the repertoire on which we were working. This was fine until I got to college and really needed to practice. Then I struggled…because I never learned how to practice, I did not excel at anything I was required to do. After 2 years of listening to my saxophone professor telling me how to practice, I finally wised up and started listening to him (after a near disaster at one of my fist juries!). If we do not teach our students how to practice, their efforts will be futile – they will become easily frustrated and give up.

2. Students must have a practice plan in mind. Students should set small goals for what they want to accomplish during each practice session. This will give them an idea of what to work on. Depending on time availability, it could be one section of music, one phrase, one measure, or even playing that one note perfectly in tune.

3. Students must have a sound in mind. This is critical! If students do not have any idea what the trumpet should sound like when it is played at a high level, then how do they know what they should be striving for? Encourage your students to listen to great artists on their instrument – then they will truly begin to understand what they should sound like!

4. Students must practice the technique of the instrument before practicing the music! In the world of music education (especially those involving ensembles) we often do this backwards. We give the students the repertoire, and then they begin to learn how to play the music. But, are they really practicing the instrument. We all “teach music through performance in band”, and that is certainly important and necessary, but students must learn how to play their instruments in order to do this. Nothing helped me to play my repertoire better than sitting in a practice room working on my 12 major scales (with a metronome!!) every morning. Not only did this practice get my fingers and technique more coordinated, but it also gave me an opportunity to work on my air support and tone. We must become masters of technique on our instrument – then we can truly make music!

5. I believe in 3 Golden Rules of Practice. (1) GO SLOW!! The best advice I ever received was from my collegiate saxophone professor. “You should never make a mistake when you are practicing.” How is this possible? You should be going slow enough so that you never make a mistake. If we make mistakes while we are practicing, then we are practicing mistakes, and that is a waste of time. Slow down! Don’t worry about the tempo! You must first get down the basics – technique, air support, tone quality before you can ever play up to tempo! (2) Work on Small Sections. Only focus on those small parts that are giving you trouble. Don’t worry about “practicing” stuff you can already play! Break it down to the smallest parts…are specific notes giving you problems, then work those two notes back to back. (3) Repeat, Repeat, Repeat! Take those small sections and play them over and over and over until you feel totally comfortable with them. USE A METRONOME!! Each time you feel comfortable, move the metronome up one marking. A gradual increase in pulse is imperative….if you go too fast too quickly, you will be practicing mistakes. You must give your mind time to get the fingers in sync.

6. Even if your playing improves only minutely during a practice session, you are still improving! Isn’t this the goal for every session? You should walk away from every practice session with a sense of accomplishment, not matter what. If you employ effective practice strategies, then you will have improved. If you don’t feel that you have improved (even ever so slightly) then you may want to look at your routine and see if it is effective. This thought was the one that brought me back to the instrument hour after hour for more practice!

I’m interested in your thoughts on practicing, and what key points you may pass along to your students! I’m sure I’ll have more to share as I think of them!

I posted a tweet today about grading for elementary band students. I have gotten quite a response, so I wanted to put it out there and see if I could spark some further discussion.

I had this thought today while listening to some of my students in the elementary group play. Quite honestly, I have visited and re-visited my grading policies at the elementary level several times each year, and I’m never really happy with what I come up with. So, if you have some insight, I’d love to hear from you!

Here’s what I struggle with -

1. I want all of the students to enjoy their experience, in the hopes that they will stick with the program. I am currently in a position of building a program, and I need every kid that I can get. So, I feel the pressure to keep as many kids in the program as possible – I am trying really hard to make it a positive experience for them.

2. Most of my grading rubrics at the elementary level have always been based strictly on participation. Basically, if you show up with your instrument each week with all of your materials, and you participate and generally have a good attitude, you get an A.

3. But, why should the student that never practices and can barely play 3 notes get the same grade as that student who is taking private lessons and is 15 pages ahead in the book?

4. I feel like there has to be some way to asses their ability/skill on the instrument. I mean, Math and Science teachers do that in elementary school. They assess the students’ skills in their subject. My kids come to band to learn how to play instruments. Why do I not assess their ability to do that?

5. That being said, I realize that some students are just more “naturally talented” than others. I do not want to punish those that aren’t quite as skilled. Not every kid can be the star quarterback, but they can contribute to the team in some way. And, if they are not pulling their weight and contributing, they get cut right? I’m afraid that if the students’ grades drop based on ability that they will leave the program all together. But, if that’s the case, should I let them go anyway?

So, I’m looking for your input here. The general consensus seems to be that I do need to assess their skill level in some way. I agree with some of your that believe that their skill assessment should not be a large part of their grade, but at least a percentage. So, for those of you that do include this component in your band assessment, how do you do it? Regular playing tests? Just daily observation of how they play? Self-assessments by students? I would be curious to hear all of your suggestions!

I have run the gamut emotionally in the last week. If you are a music teacher, you are probably already thinking that you know exactly what I’m talking about. Each of us has to deal with the daily frustrations of our jobs. In the music world, this includes things like paperwork, bureaucracy, co-workers, scheduling conflicts, etc. Sometimes, we get bogged down by these frustrations and it becomes easy for us to “lose our way.” This happened to me the day of my concert dress rehearsal this week. The day of the rehearsal, many of my elementary students were coming to me announcing that they had schedule conflicts with the concert. I found this particularly frustrating, because I had been reminding them every day for 3 weeks about the rehearsal and concert. Anyway, it was just “the last straw” and I had reached my boiling point. I was tired. I was annoyed. I was dejected.

But that night at the dress rehearsal, some amazing things happened. Almost every elementary student attended. This is particularly exciting, because we have never done a performance like this. I combined all three elementary bands into one larger group. Usually, they just all play separate concerts. This is especially difficult at the small schools that only have about 12 kids in each “band.” But, I knew that if I could get all 60 kids together from all 3 schools, it would be an awesome experience for them.

It was so wonderful to look at that group and see all of them playing together…they LOVED it! They had such a good time playing in a huge band all together, and you could tell by the looks on their faces! Even better, every time I stopped to work on something, they were extremely quiet and attentive. This I did not expect, but it was awesome! It was also exciting to think that in just two years, I could have upwards of 50 students in the Middle School group. This would be BY FAR the largest group I have ever had at that level. Again, I owe much of this excitement at the elementary level to the change in the elementary program this year.

The Middle School group rehearsed equally as well, but the most gratifying part of the evening was the dedication of my Senior High students. After our dress rehearsal for the concert, they stayed later and worked on our pieces for our upcoming Adjudication. This included the entire Holst First Suite. They were extremely focused and they worked very hard, which was really gratifying.

Of course, the concert was outstanding. My students always step up and do the absolute best that they can. It is pretty rare that I am not pleased with their effort in performances. It was a wonderful event, with performances by our orchestra and choir as well. We truly celebrated Music In Our Schools Month.

These great experiences came for me just at a time when I was feeling down and out about my job and teaching music in general. I don’t want to sound cliche, but we really have to hold on to these good times and keep them close in our minds so that we can remember why we do what we do. It is very difficult for me to do this – it always seems that the rough times outweigh these great times. Nonetheless, it always seems that these great moments come to us at just the right times, helping us to find our way again!

I would be remiss if I didn’t give a shout out to all of you who have offered me words of encouragement via Twitter and Facebook! You are all dear friends! Thanks so much!

In what I hope to become a semi-regular series in the podcast, we discuss several topics including early childhood education and music, practicing, and our students. Enjoy!

Episode 3 – Lunchtime Conversation

You can see my podcast page over at http://dougbutchy.podomatic.com

In the spring of 2009, I approached my administration about the possibility of making a significant change in our elementary band program. I wanted to eliminate 4th grade from our program and just focus on the 5th and 6th grade. This freed up a little time in my schedule, and now I am able to see my elementary students twice a week at 30 minutes each (instead of only once). I get to see them in a small group with like instruments, and also in a full ensemble setting. I asked for this change in the hopes that it would improve the elementary program, and I have been very pleased with the results!

Without officially crunching the numbers, I can safely say that student attendance for elementary band has improved by at least 50%. I used to have students that would consistently miss lessons, and thus fall way behind their peers. This simply does not happen any more. Now, out of approximately 60 students that I have in 5th and 6th grade only 2 students have chronic attendance problems. I don’t even have to send other students to remind others of their band time – everyone shows up on time and ready to play!

Another significant improvement this year is a reduction in the number of students that I have had drop out of the program mid-year. I suspect that the attendance improvement probably has something to do with this as well. Out of all 60 students in elementary band this year, I have only had one student drop out! This is a significant change from last year as well!

Finally, the level of the music that the students can play this year is also vastly improved. In the past 5 years, most all of our concert selections consisted of two to three 8-measure exercises from our method book. Now, we are able to perform entire band arrangements and the kids love the music! I think this is strongly tied to the improved attendance and participation…the kids like to play the music (it is enjoyable for them) so they want to be there more than ever.

So in summary, I am proud to say that this change in our elementary program has been everything that I hoped it would be. This is also probably one the largest 5th and 6th grade groups that I’ve had in the last few years. Hopefully, the attendance and participation with stay high and it will translate into a larger number of students participating in our middle and high school programs.

Just wanted to share this AMAZING video of an elementary band in Japan performing Leonard Bernstein’s Slava! Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y9p0Acf-SbU

Ironically, this YouTube video directly relates to an online class that I just started through Wilkes University and Discovery Ed. I will post about that later. Anyway, I had my wife listen to the audio of this video first before seeing who was performing. Then, we she came into the room and saw who was performing the work, she was as flabbergasted as I was.

I have just begun reading Daniel Pink’s A Whole New Mind for my graduate class. In the first chapter, he writes about left brain versus right brain thinking and how our educational system has traditionally catered to the left – the logical, language-centered, essentially more “academic” side of our brain, all the while more or less ignoring our more right-brained compassionate, artistic, emotional side. This video is a direct correlation to that.

My wife says, “What’s wrong with this country that we don’t focus enough on the arts?” As Daniel Pink would point out, it is largely in part due to education being based on preparing a workforce to participate in the Industrial Revolution where artistic and creative thinking were not as valued. Somehow, folks in other countries have at least figured out that the arts are a vital part of their school’s curriculum.

I could go on and on about the effects of high stakes testing, and how I believe our educational system is skewed, etc. but many other folks have written much more eloquently on the subject than I ever could. I would like to leave you though with this talk given by Sir Ken Robinson in 2006 for TED Talks.

I can’t believe that I haven’t posted anything since the end of the school year! Well, the school year ended up great, and I’m actually very excited for the school year to begin. Maybe even more excited than I have been in a while!

I just finished up attending a 2 day ed tech conference at a local school. It was the first one, and it was a great success. We had sessions on Wikis, podcasting, Web 2.0, and I even gave a presentation on blogging. It was a wonderful first year, and I am looking forward to attending future events.

We have some major changes coming to my music program this year, which is very exciting. First, my senior high band will be rehearsing all together in one period every day of the week. In the previous 5 years, they rehearsed in 2 separate periods, and only 2 days a week, since we shared the students with the choir program during the same period. I really think the group will now be able to play music at a level that is up to their potential. They are very talented, but we just didn’t ever have the time to prepare anything more challenging than a grade 3 level piece.

Another change to our band program is that we are going with only 5th and 6th grade participation in band, instead of 4th, 5th, and 6th. This will allow me to see the elementary band students 2 days a week…once in a small group with like instruments, and once in a large group “band” rehearsal. This is very exciting! We will actually be able to perform complete arrangements at our concerts, instead of silly 8-measure exercises out of the book!

Finally, we a receiving new marching band uniforms this year! After 3 years of asking, they were finally ordered last spring, and should be here in time for our first game, which is at home. I can’t wait to make our traditional march to the stadium in those brand new uniforms!!

So, things are shaping up to be a great year! Band camp begins on Monday! Just don’t ask me if I have finished writing my drill charts yet!

And by “them”, I mean my elementary students. I had a great conversation last night with my graduate saxophone teacher, Dr. James Umble. I had mentioned that I was struggling with teaching elementary band. I lamented about how the students don’t show up for their small group lessons, they don’t practice, etc. Then I mentioned a conversation I had with my assitant band director. His son plays trombone in my elementary program. He is also taking private electric bass lessons. This student practices the bass a heck of a lot more than his trombone. Why? Because playing the bass is fun for him. Playing the trombone is not. Why? Because he gets to play what he wants on the bass. He gets to play music that appeals to him.

At this point, let me just say, I am old-school. I was raised on the old Rubank method books, and that is how I tend to teach, especially at the elementary level. For someone that claims to be a techie geek, I am extremely outdated in my approach to teaching elementary band. I am so into Garage Band and SmartMusic, etc…why am I not using these in my elementary band classes?? I don’t know. I think it is because I’m somewhat afraid to go out on a limb and stray from the class method book. But, I think I have to.

This goes back to the conversation I was having with Dr. Umble. How can I still teach the important basics of playing an instrument that are included in the method book, and yet make it interesting for the students? Let’s face it…how many kids are pumped about going to band to play “Hot Cross Buns?” Not many in my school!

So here is what I think I have to do. I have to find a way to use the method book in addition to some kind of supplemental material that is going to be “cool”, “awesome”, or even “rad!” What am I going to do to make the students want to look forward to coming to band every week? What am I going to do so that students are counting down the days until the next rehearsal? It has to be interesting and egaging for them, or they will leave it behind. And, that is what is happening at my school.

Some ideas I’ve kicked around include looking at my method book and identifying the key concepts that are introduced and reinforced, and then creating my own exercises that are handouts to supplement what is in the book. These handouts would be songs or etudes that are popular songs, or other things that the students would be interested in playing. This may even motivate them to practice!

Dr. Umble even suggested that I use Garage Band to loop something for the students to play with. Why didn’t I think of this?! We could play the exercises out of the book, and I could create loops for the students to play along with! Also, why don’t we have the students create podcasts? We could have them doing improvisation with Garage Band, record it, and then post it as a podcast!

So these are the things I’m thinking about doing with my elementary program, in addition to using SmartMusic to some degree.

What do you do with your elementary programs to keep the kids coming back for more?? What motivates them to come to your rehearsals? What motivates your students to practice?

I have recently begun using SmartMusic, mainly with my elementary band students. I am LOVING it, and my students are really enjoying it as well. In fact, on the 2nd day of using it with my small sixth grade group today, when I asked who wanted to go first, all hands immediately shot up in the air. I have never seen students so excited to play in class! The more I learn about the program, the more impressed I am with it. The integrated online gradebook, called “Impact” is really amazing. When students complete assignments, they are sent directly to your gradebook, and it calculates everything for you. You can even add other assignments that are not necessarily SmartMusic assignments.

Right now, I do not have any students currently enrolled in my classes, but most students have shown interest in getting the program at home. We are currently using the program on my personal laptop. I also am using the program weekly for graded assignments with the students. However, I am not factoring in these SmartMusic grades with their report card grades until next year. I still want to find out how much the software will impact their grade before I really “make it count.”

I am already noticing the added benefits while using it in class. First, the students are really excited to work with the program, and I can see this being a good practice motivator. What is also great about the program is that it forces students to play at a steadytempo. This is something that my students struggle with regularly. If they are playing along with the software at home, it will really help their time. Our Standard of Excellence books now come with accompaniment CDs, and I have found that students that practice with those CDs have a much better sense of time than those who do not.

What I worry about with the program is that it may frustrate those students who struggle. I hope that it motivates them to practice more, but I can see it becoming a deterrent. My concern is that those who struggle will get frustrated and lose some confidence as a result of getting “bad grades” on their playing tests. But, I have also found that students who struggle can consistently see improvements in their grades after repeated playing.

I am also a little worried that students will not utilize the “loop” feature that is offered in the software. In other words, I am concerned that they will simply play exercises from beginning to end over and over without just focusing on the areas that they need to work on. I guess I should remember that this software is a practice aid, and does not simply replace the teacher. This brings me to another point. The major drawback to the software is that I don’t think it can accurately measure articulations, dymanics and/or note lengths. Mostly, the program can only recognize correct pitches and rhythms. But this is half the battle, and the teacher must be diligent in still teaching musicianship, not just “button pushing.”

So these are my observations so far in about 3 weeks of using the program. I have also used it a little with my middle and senior high students with concert and jazz band music. I plan on rolling out the program fully in the fall for next year.

What are your experiences with the program? Have you used it? Are you currently using it? I look forward to your feedback.

So when I realized that my last post was OVER a month ago, I decided I had better write something. To tell the truth, a lot has been going on, I just haven’t had the time/motivation to write about it. So, I’ll see if I can go over what’s new:

1. Taking masters level lessons with my undergrad saxophone instuctor. I have been slowly working on getting my Master’s in Music Ed., but after taking a number of classes, I have been extremely unmotivated to even finish it. I think this is due mainly to the fact that I am doing my Masters at the same school I did my Undergrad at – Therefore, I feel like the classes that I’m taking are exactly the same stuff I did in Undergrad, just with more reading and writing of papers, which I can’t stand! So when I found out that I could take a lesson as an elective and it would still count towards the MusEd Masters, I decided to go for it. My teacher is Jim Umble, easily one of the 10 best in the world. Anyway, I have been loving studying with him again, and now am even considering changing my Masters to a Performance degree. Stay tuned for an update on that! I had been longing to really study music “seriously” again. What I mean is that I have longed to work on the saxophone again at a level that really challenged me. I have been playing consistently even since I finished my undergrad 7 years ago, but have not really “practiced” much since then. It has been great to get “back on the horse.”

2. Renewed energy for teaching in my current position. I’ll be the first to admit that I have been less than enthusiastic about my job, or at least where I am, for most of this school year. However, after a few happenings lately, I have been more energetic and encouraged. I have had the opportunity to work with some of the other teachers in the building who are really dedicated and who a really great teachers, and they have really invigorated me! I have also found that since beginning the work on my instrument again, my mindset about teaching has changed slightly for the better. I don’t know if I can put my finger on it, but I feel like I am expecting more from my students, and I am getting better results.

3. Considering major changes to our music programs’ curriculum and scheduling. I am hoping to drop our 4th grade band program in an effort to give more time and attention to the 5th & 6th grade students. I feel this will lead to greater interest and better retention in the program. I teach in three elementary buildings in addition to the middle-high school, and right now, I only see the elementary students once a week for 30 minutes. It is just not enough time to have a solid program…it has not worked in the 5 years I have been here. I also hope to get my senior high concert band scheduled at a different time than our choir, so that I can have the whole band in one period and 5 days a week. (I don’t have either right now. – This makes it difficult to work on more advanced concepts like blend and balance.)

So, that is the quick update…I hope to be more productive on the blog in the near future. In the meantime, you can always follow me on Twitter.  That is where I have been doing the majority of my “blogging” lately.