TBA Archives - Teach Like Your Hair's On Fire

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 on-line resource 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:
Teach Like Your Hair’s On Fire – Strategies for Successful Performance Groups without Beginners Everyday (David Puckett, Christopher Sebesta & Jennifer Alcocer)

I originally pulled this one up because I wanted to see what it said about ‘without beginners everyday’ but it actually has lots of great ideas about many different things. Here are a few specifics I loved:

In the first year, our goal for each child is:
1. Look correct
2. Sound as tonally correct as possible
When do you test? Don’t always wait until they are 100% ready! Then they will always be waiting for/following your pacing instead of coming in prepared. If you wait on them and constantly review for them before assessment, you are working harder than them! Put the ownership in their court by allowing recorded retests.
Winter Band Olympics (supplemental handouts about this are on the archive of the clinic)
Cumulative knowledge is always tested in small portions first.
Music preparation – Director should number and mark parts ahead of time. This goes for region music, daily drill and any exercises that will be rehearsed. Director makes decisions and marks in the score and then transfers to their music. We touch every piece of music from percussion to piccolo and decide before the students see it for the first time.

Here’s a link directly to the handout in the TBA archives – There are 50 pages all together – clinic handout, powerpoint slides & supplemental materials!
TBA Archives – Teach Like Your Hair’s On Fire by David Puckett – Keller ISD

If you know of another great resource for archives, please post in the comments.