The student population at Louisburg High School where I’m in my 40th year of teaching is about 535 students. Yet we’re proud that more than one-fourth of the student body is in marching band and that we were one of ten U.S. bands chosen to march in the Tournament of Roses Parade in January 2018.
Now that the school year is well underway, instrument repairs are soon to be an unavoidable fact of life. The good news is many of the most common repairs can be done in the comfort of your own music room. To do so, however, you need the right tools. Here is a rundown of the most important tools you need for common musical repairs.
Think about the way we learn music – the methods and best practices used in the vast majority of music classrooms. The teaching approaches are not all the same, but there are a lot more similarities than differences. Go back to the 1980s and earlier, though, and you will find systems that are far removed from what we have today. Changes happened over time in large thanks to the inception of the Essential Elements for Band method books.
Sight reading is a wonderful assessment of musical literacy, but it can take time for students to learn this skill. This is why I advocate for having an organized and methodical plan to give students sight reading opportunities throughout the year. Over the course of my 26 years of teaching music in Texas, I have found that focusing time on sight reading each week has really paid off. First, the amount of preparation time for our formal concert literature has been reduced. Secondly, our performance quality has improved, providing a much deeper musical experience for the audience.
A musician cannot learn without a great teacher, but even the best teachers can’t be experts on every instrument. It can be challenging for an educator to teach an instrument that’s not their own. If a boost of confidence is needed in the area of teaching flute and piccolo, Yamaha performing artist Tracy Harris is here to help.
Exciting, fun, blown away – these are just some of the adjectives and phrases pep band directors have used to describe the experience of participating in the NCAA basketball tournament. Like the players, band members and their directors put their whole hearts into the games, spending many hours practicing their stands music for these showcase events.
Nothing rouses the spirit like a march, and few bands can capture the patriotic fervor of an American march like the United States Marine Band. Affectionately known as “The President’s Own,” the Marine Band was founded in 1798 by an Act of Congress signed by President John Adams and is the longest performing musical organization in the nation. For over 200 years, the Marine Band has been led by legendary American musicians like John Philip Sousa. One of these renowned directors, Colonel John Bourgeois (Ret.), sat down with Pepper to discuss his time with the Marine Band and how its work has impacted American culture both at home and in the eyes of the world.
Few movie franchises have caught the world’s imagination like Star Wars. For forty years, audiences have been enthralled by the trials and tribulations of the Skywalker family and their adventures in a galaxy far, far away. The heroes and villains of the Old Republic and the Galactic Empire are cultural icons.
Are you a band director yet you find yourself teaching chorus? In Part 1: Preparing Your Singers I discussed setting up and managing the choral room, breathing and warm-ups, and reading music. Now you’re ready for
When deciding which music to choose, consider the following questions:
During my teaching career, I noticed that there were many music teachers who would have liked to have known more about teaching both band and chorus – perhaps in order to be considered for more job opportunities, but sometimes simply in order to DO or KEEP their current job.