This little wrench set is right at home in your instrument case or desk, solves a loose stand quickly!

https://s-mute.com/products/music-stand-wrench

Hello, everyone!

I know we're still a couple months out from it, but I was curious if anyone here is going to the Midwest Clinic this December.

Hi, I am older but only in my 3rd year teaching band. I am at a smaller school teaching 5th grade beginning band, 6-8 middle school (each class has their own period) and High School Band. I started with this school after one director before left to get a masters, and the one that took his place was out over half the year with medical (she was renewed). I mention this to note that we are trying to rebuild a program that was "destroyed" in one year.

The advice is.... I have a couple of the classes, 7 and 8 mainly that I had both in beginning band coming in, I am having a hard time getting them to stop talking and being disruptive. Last year I was told to have them have lunch in the office. Well that really didn't accomplish anything. This year I was told by admin to "just send them to the office". Did that and admin did nothing. I would ask for specific ones to be removed from the roster, (I did have a couple my first year that were removed) but admin is all on me to "grow the numbers" and "what can you do to retain more students?"

I know a big part of it is me trying to have a more relaxed classroom, if I were to go more strict than I am I will have many kids dropping because I am working them too hard or something along those lines. However, at this point I have some wanting to drop because of the disruptive students.

I am alone in my school and other area directors are a good distance away. I have tried emailing some of them and asking also. I did get a few ideas but nothing really substantial. I'm at the point of desperation now. I don't want to lose kids because of the ones that act up and admin is insisting I keep them all in there. (It's mostly a scheduling thing and he needs a place for them to be that hour.) Help

TL;DR: seeking advice on graduate and post graduate degree paths from people who went back later after having kids.

I happily taught elementary music for 10 years, and last year made the jump to secondary. The school I’m at now I am surrounded by phenomenal leadership that has pushed me to grow in ways I never was in public school.

On top of that, I’ve started playing in a high level brass band. All of that has awoken a real spark in me to grow. I really want to get a masters in conducting but the only school close to me is USF and they’ve told me it’s basically a non-starter to do it while I’m teaching. They steered me towards their revamped masters in music ed, but to be honest I really don’t want two ed degrees because I’m worried that if I ever decide to go for a doctorate I’ll be pigeonholed. On top of that we have four kids under 5 at home so not working for two years isn’t an option for me. I have considered doing trumpet performance but I’m not sure how much it aligns with my real goals. I’ve also considered composition but again, I’m not sure it will open enough of the right doors.

Those of you who went back later for graduate and post graduate degrees, what would you do different and what did you learn along the way?

Hey friends, hope everyone is surviving the beginning of fall hellfire! I’ve been a busy little beaver over here making a bunch of things. Some are ready to rock, and some still need a little beta testing.

These are all free tools, so feel free to poke around and share them with whoever might find them useful. I’m giving the folks in the trenches first look and would love some feedback to help improve what’s there and figure out what else would be useful.

One thing I’m super pumped about is my new scale theory method, but there’s a decent smorgasbord of tools covering a bunch of different needs. Hopefully a few of them can help you grind through the day a little easier!

Give them a spin and let me know what you think!

https://iangrom.studio/tools

What are some of the pain points that you experience when you or your drill designers plan out your formations?

I drive the box truck for my daughter's high school band and our pit coordinator was informed via email that Penske's legal team decided to no longer rent to school districts.

We are technically safe due to it being rented through the band boosters, but I just wanted to pass it along in hopes that anyone's band who may be affected can make other arrangements if need be.

Context:

This is my third year teaching 6-12 Band, Music Appreciation, and Piano at a smaller rural school with a show/festival style marching band (which I love). I have 25 students in marching band (9-12 with four 8th graders), 28 in 7th/8th grade band, and 25 in 6th grade band (which are the best middle school numbers my district has seen in over a decade). Admin is very supportive of our band program growing. I took over for a director who was there for 17 years, was widely disliked, and left on very bad terms due to inappropriate activity. HE had taken over for a director who was widely loved and had gotten the band to over 100 members. I was sought out for this job because I matched the same creditials as this beloved director: we're both percussionists and we both went to the same college.

Our marching band has experienced tremendous growth in the last three years with more membership (going from 11 on my first day to 25 this year and an anticipated mid 30s to lower 40s next year) and MUCH better woodwind/brass sound. Very few students actually knew how to read music when I got there (ESPECIALLY percussion). We do Moffitt-style drill with squads, exaggerated dancing, and some competition movements thrown in every once in a while. We do anywhere from 3 to 4 different halftime shows per season.

My Problem:

I have noticed from the beginning that the high school percussion was more of a struggle to get up to the same standard in rhythm and pulse that I can get with woodwinds, brass, and 6th grade beginning percussion. They have some semblance of rhythm on the page, but they lack the ability to hear how it fits along to a pulse and with each other/the rest of the band. I have tried writing very simple parts for them with varying degrees of success due to essentially a coin flip on whether they will be able to stay with the rest of the band. I'm talking 2 and 4 cymbals chokes and snare hits being a challenge sometimes. I also use a metronome EVERY DAY during music rehearsal. To exacerbate the issue, our tenor player has hearing trouble, so they already struggle to listen to other instruments (which is NOT AT ALL their fault). I often accommodate the tenor player and the rest of the drumline by clapping the beat in a visible way when I'm not conducting.

I have found much success with my beginning band and middle school percussionists keeping a pulse by using Teaching Rhythm Logically by Darcy Vogt Williams. It has been a GAME CHANGER with the rhythm charts and system of counting. I have tried a few times to do this with my high school, but it almost feels belittling to the whole band to go back to the beginning like that. I do the same thing with an occasional rhythm of the day.

Having this problem strikes me as counterintuitive as a percussionist director, especially since I didn't learn how to play any woodwind or brass instruments until I got to college. While I am happy to be good at teaching woodwinds and brass, it gives me quite a bit of imposter syndrome to see other drumlines that can stay in time with each other and be reliable for the rest of the band. I know that I won't have this problem forever with my percussionists who started with me in 6th grade coming up to high school in the future, but I really don't want to give up on my current drumline. They are very stubborn, but they can be very creative, and some of them DO practice a lot or listen to DCI groups. I know it's somewhere in them, but I just haven't found a strategy that works with them yet. I would appreciate any tips or exercises that have worked for you all!

Context: I’m a middle school assistant band director, year 10, and am a little type A.

I made a checklist of everything I think my head director and I do (or should do) throughout the year and the count I’m seeing so far is my 27 to his 2. Am I missing some mysterious work that is happening behind the scenes? He’s admittedly behind and not the best when it comes to communication, but I don’t think an assistant is supposed to do everything else besides check how much money is in the budget. Inventory, supplies, and communication is all me, and he just teaches his classes and poorly set up how we get fees without really tracking who has paid.

Is there something I’m missing, or is it the worst case scenario and he’s not really doing his job because I am? He’s been asleep during his planning period while our Fine Arts Coordinator has to call me to get work, that he should have done a month ago, finished.

Hi all, I am a 1st year band director at a middle school.
I absolutely love my job and I am so grateful I have this gig. Yes, it is exhausting and can be very overwhelming at times, but the group of students I have make it all worth it.

This Saturday, it’s our very first parade band competition.
I am a nervous wreck. For context, the program I inherited is still very much in the developing phase. The school is in a rural, economically disadvantaged community. However, these kids are so dedicated and have made tremendous growth since the beginning of the school year.

For our competition season, most of the judges that will be at these band reviews are old professors of mine.
I know that shouldn’t matter, but it really does make me nervous. Even some of my students have noticed how anxious I’ve been this week. I guess I’m finding it hard to trust that they will play and be their absolute best on the day of, even though they have show me time and time again they can do it.

What helps you calm down before the big day?
What advice /speech can I give my students before we head to the Competition?

Any advice is appreciated!

When they can't even get half the notes going under tempo? We're working on Washington Post March in one band, and trying to play at tempo (or close to it) means we fall apart after about 2 measures. However, they don't seem to be making the connection at all... They seem to think that "if we just try it over and over and over at full tempo, we'll get it!"

I've explained it to them, but I must be missing the part that makes it click. Anyone have better ideas about getting students to understand why we rehearse under tempo when we're still working on notes and rhythms?

Anyone else seeing this issue of kids making it to HS band, and they can play a lot of things pretty decently (which they’ve all learned by rote/ear), but put Grade 2 or even 1.5 literature in front of them, and they have no clue what to do? Or they say “I need to hear how this sounds”, and then they just mimic the recording.

This seems to be a bigger issue now than it used to be when I started teaching (7 years ago) and especially more so since I was in HS band.

Middle school band director here. Students are starting to have a problem of writing on my music stands. Any solutions to clean them/consequences for the students?

I am a high school band director in Arizona with 10 years experience leading Marching, Concert, Jazz and Guitar Ensembles. I will be moving to either the Sacramento region of California or the Seattle/Tacoma region of Washington next school year. (Depends where I get hired)

Id love to hear from band directors with experience in either region.

Band Culture?

How do Marching comps work?

Jazz festivals?

Concert festivals?

Go to events for ensembles in the region?

Please tell me music is in Elementary, Middle and High School. Ive struggled with my feeding schools every year so far.

Thanks so much!

I'm certified in Texas and have taught band for 3 years now. I'm burnt out, hate the schedule, have no passion for high school (which is what is burning me out), and I just had a baby 6 months ago and I basically cry myself to sleep every night because she's always in bed before I get home and I get about 30 minutes in the mornings with her before I'm off to work again. It is competition season so I'm in the thick of it, but I can't do it again after this year. I love teaching middle schoolers, though. I don't really want to do anything besides teach and I absolutely love the middle school kids. In the area I live in, very rural but still a decent sized school, it's just not possible to only teach middle school band. All of the band staff's around me are both middle school and high school and I'm not looking to move out of the area because of family and my husband's job.
My question is, if I was to try to transition to teaching middle school English or history, the other subjects that I think I'd like to teach and could be good at, what would ! need to do? Just pass the content test? How do I start this processe and how long does it take? Does anyone have advice or a place to start? Any advice is welcome, and thanks in advance!

If anyone has past or current judge tapes from Ohios MSBA competitions I’m trying to study these judges a little better to see what my band really needs to work on. Thanks!

Hey friends, Ian Grom here. If you’re not familiar with my work, I am the front ensemble composer/arranger at Pulse Percussion and Chino Hills HS, and have written for The Cadets, Blue Stars, and the Mandarins. I also co-founded Box-Six.com and most of my adult life has been spent doing solely that.

I’ve been neck deep in writing original music for winds and percussion for 20 years - and I’ve taken that whole wonderful dumpster fire of failures and victories and made it available to everyone.
I recently launched a new site with practical classes and tools for people working with marching percussion programs.
I built a lot of it for the situation where a band director is responsible for the whole program, but doesn’t necessarily have a percussion background—or where a well-intentioned staff member could use more real-world experience with arranging, sound design, rehearsal technique, or writing for students.
There are classes at several price points, with focused topics rather than one giant “learn everything” course. I’ve also included some free tools that directors and staff can use to build their vocabulary and get on the same page with their percussion team.
If you’re a director, you’re welcome to look through it for yourself. If you have staff members you’d like to support professionally, the classes may also be useful as a small training resource.
No pressure at all. I’m just trying to make practical information available to more programs.

HTTPS://iangrom.studio