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.
Hey Joe-
ReplyDeleteI like the way you stress how important attendance is for the students. How cool is it for them to have a big audience applauding like crazy when they perform. It's a great motivator. I like the idea of the phone blast, too.
Hi Joe,
ReplyDeleteI love the picture that you included at the beginning of this post, because I think that you are absolutely right when making the point that even though you might not want to see crowd surfing at your next public school music performance, this is a perfect representation of what the audience should be feeling. You can see the kindred spirits, connectivity and sense of unity that exists among the members of this particular contingency. I had the opportunity to attend the Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival in June of 2012 and this type of atmosphere was pervasive throughout the entire event. Despite the fact that there many have been outlying influences, which added to the "good vibes" that were in the air over those four days in Manchester, Tennessee, the concept of people being brought together through a communal love of music is one that each of us as current or pre-service music educators should strive to emulate in our respective programs. I think that both 'Than and you are spot on in reinforcing the concept of "seeing as believing", because to be faced with an enthusiastic, engaged and active audience, is unlike any other experience that a would-be performer could have. Musicians, actors, visual artists and their cohorts across all artistic disciplines feed off of the energy that observers bring to the concert hall, dive bar, gallery or theater. The meeting of minds that occurs in these venues must be felt, in order for one to believe in the awesome power that is generated as a result. We have all witnessed the astonishing results of a musical performance that truly meant something. In the case of a public school setting, all parties concerned will be impressed. Administrators will begin to see or reconfirm the inherent value that a thriving music program has for their particular institution, parents will be thrilled that their children are part of something, which is having an incredibly positive influence on their development, and most importantly students will feel an overwhelming sense of pride to belong to an organization that has an identifiable place in the community, both within and outside of school. Your suggestions for publicizing any concerts, recitals, public performances or presentations are spot on. During my time as a student, staff and adjunct faculty member at the Jackie McLean Institute of Jazz within the University of Hartford's Hartt School, a website that was dedicated solely to the activities of this wonderful department was something that never came to fruition, and as such, we absolutely lost out to other programs in the Northeast that we were constantly competing with. People are online all day, every day in 2015, particularly when you consider how widespread smart phones have become. The website needs to be updated on a regular basis and should be linked to other applicable organizations, perhaps some of whom a director's program might have or look to build partnerships with. Sending a letter home to each student's parents is extremely personal and emphasizes the point that every family within your program is equally as important as all others. Posters that can be placed throughout the school and community are a great way to catch people's attention as they are on the move. This might also be a way to collaborate with students from the art department, in order to showcase talent from multiple areas of the school environment. The phone blast has become commonplace with the current generation, and if it can be used to inform parents of a snow day or early release, why not use it to promote school events? You have some terrific ideas here my friend and I enjoyed reading your writing!
-Matt Chasen-
How important is it that STUDENTS attend? Should it be required (like attendning mass at a Catholic school). I'm always amazed at people who "love music" and sit home.
ReplyDeleteGood point Mr. Schneider, I never really considered getting other students at the school to come to concerts. I usually think that school concerts are widely attended by mostly parents and family but getting other students to come watch would definitely increase performance output. Most students aren't looking to impress their parents, they already think their children are great, but students want to impress their peers. With peers in the audience, students on stage will want to perform better. The question is how to get students to come. I have seen teachers use strategies such as giving extra credit for getting a ticket stub from the concert or writing a review or critique of the concert. Other teachers in the school can offer these opportunities to help promote the school concerts.
ReplyDelete