TBA Archives - Building Success in the Small School Band

If you’re at a small school or in a small town (or in a similar situation) this post is for you!

The TBA Archives refer to the Texas Bandmasters Association archives of clinic handouts from past conventions. Conventions are one of the best ways to learn new things, spark new ideas, ask questions and be inspired. The only problem is all of that new knowledge is thrown at us in about a 48 hour window and it’s hard to retain much of it.

The TBA archives are a great resource on-line that can be beneficial to use when you have time to remind you of things you learned at conventions. It can also give you some ideas you may have missed out on if you weren’t able to attend convention.

In these posts on BandDirectorsTalkShop.com we will choose a clinic handout that can give you good ideas even without the actual presentation. We’ll highlight a few great quotes we noticed and give you the link to the full handout. Clinicians spend a lot of time preparing the handouts and they can be a wonderful resource if they don’t get lost in a pile on your desk. I will try not to comment or analyze because I don’t want to misinterpret the clinician’s meaning.

Today’s Highlighted Clinic:
Building Success in the Small School Band
by Jim Cude, Jim Rhodes & Robert Vetter

Here are a few specifics I loved:

Be invested in the school. Changes don’t occur in 1-2 years. Be invested in the community.
Select quality music and good arrangements when possible.
Marching time is the best time to sell your program. You are most visible during this time of the year.
Take time to write thank you notes. You will be rewarded a hundred-fold.
Get used to students missing class for many things. Especially in the spring.
Get help. Use any source you can for help: college, another school that is close, friends, etc.
Show your kids you care about them.

Here’s the link to the full handout:
TBA Archives – Building Success in the Small School Band
by Jim Cude, Jim Rhodes & Robert Vetter