Commentary

Prepare to Meet Your Maker(s)

The Summer NAMM Show has just ended, and another year of new products was shown by hopeful manufacturers interested in your band and orchestra program. It’s fascinating to see what many of these companies come up with, especially the smaller, new companies where the owner is on site and his products were a dream stored in his garage just days before they shipped to Nashville’s Music City Center for display.

No Time Like the Present…

It was an exciting month of May for me, as I had the opportunity to join the National Association of Music Manufacturers (NAMM) on Capitol Hill, who brought in music store owners from around the country.

In the Trenches: So Long No Child Left Behind…

The Every Student Succeeds Act of 2015 and What it Means for Music Education

In March 2015, I used this space to write about proposed changes to federal education law and the significant impact the proposed changes could have if the proposed bill actually made it through the labyrinth of Congress and actually become law. On December 10, 2015 President Obama signed into law a new version of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act and the important proposals discussed in March have now become, somewhat surprisingly, a reality.

Perspective: Another Year Older, and a New One’s Just Begun

A new year is always a promising time when we can think about all of the ways we do what we do. We have another chance to do things right, hopefully again, or to correct things we did wrong in previous years.

In The Trenches: My Annual Gift List for Santa

Dear Santa

Yes… it’s me again. I hope you and the missus have had a fabulous year. It has been busy in these parts and I have a long list of gift suggestions for you so… if you could check with the elves and make sure these gifts are packed on your sleigh I would really appreciate it:

Perspective: What A Long, Strange Year It’s Been…

It’s hard to believe that I am already sending my thirteenth issue of SBO to the printer since taking over as editor a year ago. My first issue was December 2014, and here we are at December 2015. Like that first issue under my tutelage, this is also the annual “50 Directors Who Make A Difference” issue. Once again, we gathered a year’s worth of nominations for this honor from the submissions we received through sbomagazine.com, reading each of them for their words of praise heaped upon their particular nominee. As was the case my first year putting this feature together, getting the information from various band directors was a challenge about 50% of the time. Gathering this info from fifty people in every state is quite a process. To the very last minute, there were phone calls made, voicemails left, more emails sent, text messages, more phone calls, calls to administrators and sympathetic school office staff, there were Facebook messages; I was even tempted to try carrier pigeons. If you’re a band director and you get an email from me out of the blue in November 2016, all I can say is, “please open it and reply promptly.”

Perspective: Of Sticks, Stones, and Glass Houses

This issue of SBO combines our College Search and Career Guide, along with our annual focus on percussion. I interviewed a lot of great musicians who went pro in a major way, including Narada Michael Walden (a former star drum major) and marching band madman Chad Smith, both featured herein.

Perspective: Where Have I Heard this Before?

I spent September 11^th this year at the Schermerhorn Symphony Center, listening to the Nashville Symphony performances of two very diverse types of classical music. The Nashville Symphony is, without a doubt, world-class in its performances, and it is blessed with a most amazing-sounding performance hall. This was my first time visiting the Schermerhorn Symphony Center, and it clearly won’t be my last. 

Music Education Curriculum in Schools: ‘It’ Is Something Worth Fighting For

You know it when you see “it,” and when you don’t. A school that has “it” is different than one that doesn’t. “It” enlivens an entire school because everyone is “making it” and “expressing it” in age appropriate ways.

Some Try to Tell Me Thoughts They Cannot Defend

As I was driving my high school senior to school today, he was telling me that his garage band was talking about what they wanted to perform at some of the upcoming high school open mic nights, put on by the school music department to help raise funds, and increase awareness of school music programs. One of his band mates suggested that they do “Nights in White Satin.” Cool song, right? I mean we all want to play cool old tunes when we perform, and probably have a nice bucket list of songs we all want to have in our repertoire. “That sounds fun, but who is going to sing it?” I asked. “I mean no offense son, but I don’t think anyone in your band can hit the notes on the chorus like Justin Hayward from Moody Blues. Are you planning to recruit another singer for that song?” 

Crickets…

When Mickey Mouse Teaches Band Academics

Now for all you “macho” band directors out there, you may not be too impressed with a lot of “Mickey Mouse” in your band room environment. Especially, when you’re playing “Gladiator”. But that is not what this article is about. Tying our band class to academic achievement is the topic of today’s school instruction. All to some day be centered around Common Core Standards the new big words of the day.
 
For most high school and middle school band directors trying to find commonality with academic subjects is not what we are thinking about most of the time. Our minds are on “Will we finish that field show in time for the next football game?” or “Why can’t the trumpets get bar 27?” and “Why are the clarinets so flat?”, et cetera.

The Times They Are A-Changin’

It was a very busy month for me, starting out with a trip to Ft. Collins, CO to attend the Little Kids Rock “Rockfest” events, immediately followed by the Summer NAMM Show here in Nashville, TN. I learned a lot about a new movement in school music education, which David Wish, founder of Little Kids Rock, has called “Modern Band.” Simply put, Modern Band is a curriculum for school music band programs that go well outside the traditional marching, concert, and jazz band worlds, and focuses on what our NAMM-show-crowd would call the “combo” world of instrumentation. Guitars, bass, drums, keyboards, turntables, technology, and even vocals, to teach students how to play, work together, and perform modern, popular music. An upcoming feature on this movement is in the works, which will provide much more detail on what’s going on with what I genuinely believe I can call a “movement” in the evolution of school music programs. Attending this event immediately prior to attending the Summer NAMM show gave me a lot to consider.