Teaching/Programming

• Work on individual tone above all else.  Then teach blend and balance.
• The piano is an excellent filler for melody played by everyone else!
• They can do hard songs too! Just keep looking — you’ll find the right piece that will fit your instrumentation. 
• Teach the fundamentals, don’t be afraid to play easier music, and there’s nothing wrong with flex band music.
• Seek music with extensive cross-cueing and thick scoring
• Know how to use adaptations to cover missing parts (e.g. clef/key-change to let a Bari Sax play from a Tuba part; scan/revise in notation software  
• Meet the kids where they’re at, select quality rep and provide them with similar experiences to larger school bands. 
• Pick the repertoire very carefully, this will be good for retaining students and hopefully encouraging new students. 
• Become familiar with notation software, purchase new music and rearrange for your ensemble.
• Utilize Flex instrumentation
• Let them play the instrument they are passionate about and rewrite parts to cover the missing instrumentation.
• Give attention to every student’s technique and musical development.  Small bands can sound great too! 
• Never be scared to rewrite parts, reharmonize or simplify.  Kids deserve to hear all the notes.
•  Whatever your instrumentation, just go with it.  It’s better to have students play something they love than to have the “right” mix of instruments.
• Don’t be afraid to play duets and trios if you don’t have the instrumentation for flex band material
• Don’t play music that is above skill level
• Duets and trios are great places to build confidence. It doesn’t have to be “hard” to be educational and a foundation for growth
• Learn all you can about backing tracks, Band-In-A-Box, and other similar options. 
• Encourage them to play with confidence, strong rhythm, and a clear melody! 
• Focus on fundamentals always, and don’t be afraid to try songs that use limited instrumentation to allow students to play the parts that work best for them
• Program literature that is more rhythmically and articulation focused (small bands can play exceptionally cleanly compared to larger groups) and don’t be afraid to combine student grade levels. The younger players will rise to meet the older students.
• Add bass guitar!
• Accept everyone and every instrument. You’ll make it work! (i.e. cello doubles low brass, guitar doubles alto or soprano, violin doubles flute, etc).
• Focus on excellence.  You don’t have to give up on excellence just because you are small, but you do have to work harder to make sure every kid can succeed, because in order for your band to succeed, every kid has to succeed.  There is nowhere for them to hide when often you are 1-2 kids per part.  
• Choose appropriate music, focus on fundamentals, build great habits, measure growth, record..record…record!
• Teach quality of sound above all
• Assume the only time kids will look at their music and/or play their instruments is in your class, and plan around that.
• Encourage students to try a school owned instrument if needed to round out your band
• Have a self-paced curriculum like “band karate” so students can work towards their own goals.
• It’s not the number of students that matters it’s that the repertoire highlights the strengths of this you have well.
• Double parts as much as possible.  
• Play and demonstrate with students at all times.
• Get creative to make as many levels of sound as possible. If you don’t have horns, have some saxophones cover the part. If you don’t have enough clarinets, have some of the flutes cover that.

Community/Relationships

• Relationships are paramount – get to know your students, give them a chance to buy-in to the program and what you’re trying to do – give them chances to succeed early and along the way. 
• Take them out of school to play in the community. This will give them a “field trip” experience and the community will see what you do, come to your concerts and back you when you need it.
• Seek advice from others in your similar-situation cohort group.
• Be willing to collaborate with other schools & community groups. 
• Do your best to get parents and the community involved and build a program that students will want to join – they will come when they see their friends having fun and making music together.
• Get to know EVERYONE in your community.
• Use the opportunity to build strong teacher-student relationships. 
• Get them on stage quickly and always build on momentum 
• There are resources and people out there to help you. They might be in a neighboring district or a social media group, but help, collaboration, and support are there! 
• Get your name out! The more kids who know you before you recruit them – the easier they’ll be to recruit to your program. Make connections early – and get them in your room! 
• Get to know every student by name. · 
• Build relationships with your students and their families. It goes a long way in a small school or community and is an easy way to recruit. Everyone knows everyone and talks, whether good or bad!
• Build rapport with the families and the community. This will pay dividends when funds need to be raised or props need to be built. Get your band out there and perform for community events.
• Recruit recruit recruit! 
• Be understanding that your students are probably involved in a lot of different things, so oftentimes the band will have to be flexible with other commitments.
• Have guests visit your bandroom. Your students deserve to feel like their director is advocating for their music education.
• If you’re able to work with sports instead of against them, you’ll retain more kids because in a small school, most of the “good” kids do both/lots of activities.
• Always be looking for ways the band to be seen and heard
• Build from your younger grades and keep them interested. 

Mindset

• Success breeds success and the only person who knows the true “difficulty” of your rep is you and people who support you. 
• Invest in them and ask “who would you like to see join band” and “what would they need to get started?” 
• Ask for Help.  We are not islands. We do not have all the answers. And pretending we do only leads to burnout and bitterness.  Ask other directors. Ask local musicians. Ask your booster parents. Ask your students. You do not have to build this program alone. In fact, you cannot.  
• Small bands are not a problem to be solved. They are a gift to be developed.  
• You get to see every student grow. You get to build something from the ground up. You get to be creative in ways that large bands never need to be. 
• Love your small band. Build your small band. And watch what happens when every student is seen, every student plays, and every student knows they matter.  
• Be very aware of what the traditions and expectations are in your program, school, and community. Small bands come from schools that do things just a little bit differently from other places. You don’t want to step on any landmines by changing something that you didn’t even know was a big deal.
• Focus on the band family.
• You don’t need to do All The Things. It’s okay for your program to look different.
• Don’t try to do everything at once. Keep a running log of things you would like to do or try and try one or two new things a year. They won’t all work and that’s ok.
• Small Bands are opportunities — opportunities to be creative, to be flexible, and to remember why we started teaching in the first place.  
• Do not underestimate the power of enthusiasm. Small bands are often young bands. They have energy. They have curiosity. They have not yet been told what they cannot do.  So let them be excited. Let them be silly. Let them love what they are doing. 
• Celebrate what you have. Build from there. 
• Don’t compare your band to other bands. It’s not fair to you or your students.
• Measure your group’s success on their own progress.
• Teach the students you have, not the ones you wish you had. 
• Measure growth. 
• Remember that you’re lucky to teach small groups. You have the opportunity to work more closely with all your students, and small groups will help foster musical independence – they don’t have many other people to rely on to help them with their part. They might not even have you conducting them if you need to pick up an instrument to cover a missing part!
• Bigger is not better.  Small does not equal poor quality.  Excellence can happen at any size.  
• Quality is always better than quantity.
• Provide daily undeniable value (yes, even “fun”!) to the participating students in your program. 
• Make it about the students – you are there to help them sound good. They are NOT there to make you look good. It’s NOT about YOU, it’s all about THEM.
• Look for solutions that work for YOUR group, the solution doesn’t always need to be what’s “traditional” – ex- having unexpected instruments playing melody when needed.
• Accept everyone, encourage everyone…students will bring friends and the program will grow.
• Do what you can with what you have. Focus on each individual’s progress. 
• Don’t underestimate the ability of your small band to make big and glorious sounds! 
• Everyone Participates. Everyone Plays. Everyone Marches. Everyone Is Seen. There is no hiding in a small band. Every student matters. Every student is essential.