What is your best advice for concert and contest day preparation? – Readers’ Collaborative Post In our recent survey, we asked Band Directors Talk Shop readers, “What is your best advice for concert or contest day preparation?” With hundreds of responses to the survey, we came up with this ... Read More about What Is Your Best Advice for Concert or Contest Day Preparation?
Articles
Let Festivals Become Your Program’s BFF
Music festivals – they can be your worst nightmare, or your absolute best friend. In my thirty-five year teaching career, I found festivals were some of the very best moments in shaping both the musical development of my students as well as my own personal growth as an educator. Many ... Read More about Let Festivals Become Your Program’s BFF
Bassooner the Better: Tips for Starting Beginner Bassoonists
It's no surprise to any band director that when asked to express preference for a beginning instrument, young band students are not typically drawn to the bassoon. Bassoon is a rare, challenging instrument, and students may not know anybody who plays it. At the same time, double reed instruments can ... Read More about Bassooner the Better: Tips for Starting Beginner Bassoonists
From Fundamentals to Fluency: Flute Teaching for Non-Flutist Band Directors
Merriam-Webster defines fluent as capable of moving with ease and grace, effortlessly smooth and flowing, and having or showing mastery of a subject or skill. Musicians require fluency to perform with ease, and mastery of fundamentals builds fluency. Fluency leads to freedom. Consider this: ... Read More about From Fundamentals to Fluency: Flute Teaching for Non-Flutist Band Directors
To Perform or Not to Perform?
Channel your inner Shakespeare when planning your next band trip. As Shakespeare once wrote, “all the world’s a stage.” For performance groups, that idiom can become literal! For many band directors, the decision to perform while traveling is not an easy one; it can incur additional expenses ... Read More about To Perform or Not to Perform?
Beyond “Gamification”
Video games are a waste of time for men with nothing else to do. Real brains don’t do that. ~ Ray Bradbury Video games have been blamed for many things in our modern society, but I offer a radically different view: I think that video games are far from the problem… in fact, they may well ... Read More about Beyond “Gamification”
