Building your audience

Music teachers need an audience!

Students need an audience!

Principals need an audience!

How do you get the parents there?

This may not what you want to see your audience to be doing at your next band, choir, or strings concert but you do want audience to feel this way.

An audience is very important everyone involved in your program, especially the students.  I had the experience of having standing room only audiences and also a very small number of people showing up to their child perform.

Seeing is believing!

Your students need that response of accolades from their parents, teachers and administration.  I believe that response will bring about a sense of pride in themselves as well as you as a director.  It builds a stronger program and the students will only benefit from that.  A director will benefit from feedback from the administration.

Getting your audience there

School website: There should be someone in your school who has control over the school’s website. It’s crucial to be on top of this information. Sending it to the webmaster in a timely fashion will help as well as being super nice to them.

Letters home: Sending letters home to parents with at least two weeks’ notice allows parents to make arrangements to get there.

Posters at school:  Parents often go to school to pick up their children, seeing posters about the event can catch their eye. Even Coke and Pepsi advertise so should you.

Phone Blast:  Schools now have the power to send phone blasts to parents about all events.

Blast your concerts even with an exciting charismatic message. 

Fundraising for your program

When fundraising for your program there are some very important things to consider.

Are you fundraising for something specific or just trying to raise money in general because the district budget does not fulfill what is realistically needed to maintain a music program?

I believe fundraising for a trip or a specific is actually a good thing. It can bring a community together, especially parents whose children are directly affected by the outcome.   If it’s a trip for the band to play at a competition and needs money for bussing as well as uniforms I believe fundraising is justified.  I also think it’s purposeful if there is a written goal.  For example the band really could use a new Tuba.

Tubas start at over three thousand dollars.  For some schools that is their entire budget for the arts, others it’s beyond the monies budgeted to arts program.  I believe in these two examples it shows the direction that the band director has a vision and needs help to get there.

I think fundraising without a stated goal isn’t necessary. If I was asked on an interview do I believe in fundraising, I would answer this question exactly the same way.  Too often music program budgets are getting slashed.  If I were to concede to fundraising rather than getting a budget from the school I would be saying that the students in the music program don’t really need much and they can get buy on very little. It would also show that I don’t have a vision of building a program that is better than when I walked into the job on the first day.

There are new tools for music technology, instruments, music literature, and repairs that need to be met in order for students to get the best possible musical education they can.

Thunder Soul

My definition of  good teaching:

The student walks behind them,

The student walks with them,

The student walks without them.

This is the lesson I saw taught in the movie “Thunder Soul” and I believe that the Legacy left by the music director at Kashmere High School, is what every music educator would hope to achieve.

 

Conrad “Prof” Johnson (pictured above) brought his experience and discipline to students who had none, he brought pride to students who had none, he brought a positive male role model to those who had none and thus infected a school, families and a town to believe that a change can happen and its starts with one dream.

Conrad “Prof” Johnson did not see himself as a musician 24-7, he saw himself as musician, husband, father, and teacher.

This is an important lesson and one that could be taught in college.  “Why do you want to be a teacher”? It’s not for the money, can’t be for the insurance, and vacations.  You should become a teacher because you see yourself helping younger students become great at something they love to do, or inspire a child to try something they never tried.

What Conrad “Prof” Johnson did is something more than most people will do, but he is what we hope to achieve.  He is the epitome of a teacher. His students not only went on to be musicians and teachers but they brought his presence with them.

This movie is an incredibly inspiring documentary and because it is a documentary it touches the heart of education more than most “teacher” movies.  The live footage and testaments are from the actual students and the interviews are as comical as they heartfelt.

I recommend this movie to all teachers, beginning and especially to those who have been teaching for a long time, it gets the juices flowing again!

Thunder Soul trailer

10    Minute lesson reflection.

Objective: Students will show an understanding of how to write a minor scale using the musical alphabet and standard notation.

Objective: Students will show an understanding of how to play the minor using their smart phones.

Initiation

·        Review whole steps and half steps in regards to the major scale

·        The layout of the minor scale

Student Learning Activities:

·        Sing a major scale using solfeggio.

·        Using the website “virtual keyboard” (VK). I will play along with the students while they sing.

·        Students will review major scale using their smartphone using a downloaded keyboard app.

·        Then compare what they play to a worksheet.

·        I will talk about a minor scale and show students, what it looks like when we play it using the VK website.

·        Ask students what is the feeling they get when they hear a minor scale.

·        Play it again, and ask students what scale degrees changed.

·        Ask students to play the natural minor scale along on  their phones.

·        On the work sheet students will write out a minor scale.

The reflection

I felt like my lesson was planned well and the execution was good.

The outcomes were exactly what I wanted and planned for.

I really think tapping into the different modalities of the learning process is important.

The students performed, sang, wrote, communicated and listened.

I planned the lesson for how students learn differently.

Students process information differently so planning a lesson with that in mind can be challenging at first but I have made it the cornerstone of most my lesson plans.

It’s a lesson based on differentiation without making any student feel that their needs are being left behind.

What I could have done better….

·       More independent student learning that had more of a student role.

·       Less talking on my part.

With more than 10 minutes I could have…

·       I could have had students research a song in a minor key to present to the class.

·       I could have students write a 2 measure melody in a minor key with specific composition techniques in place.

·        

I