Two Things That Worked Well for the Honors Band Last Year

Reflecting is a big part of successful teaching. In reflecting on last year with the Honors Band, I think there were a couple of things that helped the band in its preparation for UIL (the Texas assessment). These two things helped push the band to another level in earning a sweepstakes trophy for the program. One thing I did was teach five general rules of music. I would ask the students if they were following the rules and focus their listening throughout rehearsals. I made this poster and referenced it a LOT. We have a poster maker at our school that I used to print a 16 X 20 poster that I also laminated. 

The rules helped focus the students on general rules of music beyond just playing in tone, in time and in tune. The rules focus more on phrasing and musicality. With the rules I was able to talk about breathing life into the music. 

The second thing that helped us a lot was using tuners. I purchased enough tuners for each wind player in the Honors Band to have one assigned to them. I used a white paint marker and numbered the backs of the tuners and stored them in fabric hanging shoe caddies. I used a black sharpie marker to label the pockets of the shoe caddies with numbers to correspond with the tuners. Each numbered tuner was stored in its numbered pocket. I hung two shoe caddies on the walls which accommodated storage for the tuners well. I created a contract for each student to sign and turn in before handing out the tuners. I went over the rules, how to use the tuners and my expectations for using the tuners. Here is the contract: 

Students were expected to use the tuners during the warm-ups which they had memorized. Since they didn't need to read their music, they could look at the tuner and learn the tendencies for their instruments. I would tell them when to turn off their tuners so they were using their ears and not just looking at a box. I helped them to discover alternate fingerings and how to adjust their embouchures, tongue positions and air to help their tone and tuning. I also taught the reed players about how reeds affect tuning, volume of air and temperature in general affects intonation. By using the tuners and discussing intonation, there was more intense focus on playing in tune. 

I think in general, these two areas of focus really turned on the students' ears and strengthened their level of listening. I have PDF versions of both the poster & contract in a folder in my personal google drive that you can access here. If either are useful to you, that's super!