Pretty Good...for a first day

As first days of school go, this one was pretty good. I am splitting the percussion class with Mr. Apple. He is teaching the marching band kids and I am teaching the others. I didn't mind. I just hope I can help them. I then taught the largest single class in the school. I have over 50 in one class. That is OK though. I don't mind and I think once we get things established and have some consistency, it will be a great class. Then I had a visit from the Principal and Assistant Principal of Instruction. I thought for sure it was the end of my band directing career but they were just stopping by to check in. I thought that was nice and hope they do that more often. Then came our first after school band rehearsal of the year. I set the pre-game show in record time. I think it took 23 minutes. Then it was on to the real work. We started to clean the first two movements of the show. It was hot but so it goes. I also got to see one of my past band booster club presidents from B-L. That was nice too. So I guess all and all, it was a good first day. Tomorrow we continue on...a football game on the second day of school. Here we go!

Here They Come!

Tomorrow is the first day of regular school for everybody in my district. Of course, my kids have been coming now for about a month. I will see some new faces but for the most part we will all be very familiar with each other. We have our first after school rehearsal tomorrow and our first home football game Friday. Nothing like going back at it quickly.

I guess though for the most part my goals for the year are simple. I would like to teach people the enjoyment they may find in music. It is that simple. Not marching band or competitions or football games...Just music. I hope to help those students which are a bit behind or don't yet know why they should play music and hopefully help those which excel already to find more in themselves than they though was possible.

I truly hope at the end of this school year all will have a greater appreciation for true music. Can there be any greater cause?

Learning about Effort

Today we had a lesson in effort. This is a word that goes a long way in a Brady Band. I can handle a lot of different things but a lack of effort is just something I can't understand. If you were near the "Ole Asphalt Grid" today, you heard the word effort many times. But guess what you also saw and heard? Much effort. What we must realize is that to achieve our goals, we must all put forth all the effort we can muster every moment. It is not a sometimes thing. It is an all the time thing. Band takes physical effort, but what most don't understand is the amount of mental effort it also requires.

Day 3: I hope we didn't get worse

I just hope we didn't lose anything today. We set no more pages of drill and tried to put everything with music but that is difficult when most of the students don't know their music. The drill and music work so well together but if you don't know that music, this is a major problem. One thing is for sure, if you want different results, you have to do something different. I know..."It's only the third day of band camp"...who cares? There is high correlation of a a band's seasonal success and the success they have at band camp. Somebody once told me to get the show on the field as quickly as possible and clean, clean, clean. They may have had something!

P.S. I know it was hot today. Everybody knew that all across the state too.

Band Camp: Day 2

We are making progress despite of the weather. It certainly makes it hard to get much accomplished when the temperatures hover around 100 degrees. None the less, things are getting done. We have 21 pages of drill on the field and got to where I thought we needed this morning so we stayed inside this afternoon and worked on music. You just can't work on music too much. I sent the students into sectional areas today and I have to say I was very pleased with the gains which were made. I really think I have the best staff ever this year. It is so nice to have people to work with that do things that way I ask.

We have one new staff member that desires a special welcome. Mr. Colt Campbell is a new band director at our middle school. He is a graduate of USC and plays trombone. He has already made an impact on our program with his eagerness and pleasant demeanor. I know the students have enjoyed working with him so far and I have too.

As the band progresses we have to remember, good enough and easy is not the way to get what we want in the end. We must continue to work for the higher levels of accomplishment especially at the individual level. The fact is that most of what we do in band is controlled from an individual level.