You Want Band in the Community - Delayed Gratification and Citizenship by David Willson
Each year I see the directors in the country have more hurdles thrown at them making it harder to have band where they are. These hurdles start with national testing, new graduation requirements, scheduling, and the list is endless. We as a society need to sell the real value of band to all in the community instead of getting stuck on the spirit or public relations area that all see and recognize.
Each year I see the directors in the country have more hurdles thrown at them making it harder to have band where they are. These hurdles start with national testing, new graduation requirements, scheduling, and the list is endless. We as a society need to sell the real value of band to all in the community instead of getting stuck on the spirit or public relations area that all see and recognize. Employers should be the energy of this Why Band? movement for the band world.
Every employer in our nation should demand that there is a good band in their community. We have heard how music helps all parts of the brain develop more coordination. Music helps test scores go up, etc. Let us talk about the real reason why band is important for the community. Building citizenship is the reason band is important to the community. To do that, we first have to determine or explain why band is different than ANY other subject in the school.
First, most band classes are different in size and scope. Most academic classes in secondary schools have 20 to 25 students per class. Generally, the room has approximately that many desks, where the students take notes from the lecture, do desk work, or participate in discussion. Band classes generally are larger and definitely different in scope. Band halls look different! Most are larger, do not have traditional desks! These typical desks are replaced by chairs, music stands, and numerous band instruments placed carefully in the hall. In place of a text book and other traditional class room necessities band students have instruments, many with different parts to assemble, music stands, and chairs. Every instrument requires a specific type of instruction and each student has a different set of physical attributes that require the directors to have to be more analytical and detailed with their instruction. To have any form of success happen with this type of INDIVIDUAL instruction each student must have tenacious self-discipline and the group discipline must be exceptional as well. With the experience of band, the students learn they alone do not make a band and without them the band is not as strong. This type group experience is a great citizenship learning tool.
Secondly, everybody must achieve excellence in band to have a successful program. In traditional classes you can sit on the front row, study hard, and make an A or you can sleep on the back row and barely get by, or flunk out and your performance does not affect anyone else. In band, one person with an immature tone quality, bad pitch or sound can affect everyone else tremendously.
Unlike other organizations like athletics, choirs and orchestra, band is different. Everyone is not physically inclined to participate in sports. There are thousands of students that have grown up singing in church choirs that can join choir almost any time that they want to in our school systems. Orchestras are somewhat the same as band, but they do not have to march outside in all kinds of weather and withstand the heat, extra rehearsals, and the peer pressure of marching and playing at football games. It would be very difficult for one to find (probably less then 1%) where an individual not started in beginner band was able to walk in and participate in a superior level established high school band program. How much time and effort individuals dedicate to coordinating the very small muscles in their lips, their lungs, tongues, their eyes, their fingers, and their toes over a sustained period of time is 99% of the ingredients needed to be a good band student. Students achieve excellence on their own merit and again this type of achievement teaches a valuable lesson in self-discipline and citizenship as they are doing so in a group experience of peers working towards a common goal.
Thirdly, every student has to make a sizeable investment. Generally speaking, less than 5% of the instruments are provided by the school district. Most have to go into a considerable amount of debt to purchase an instrument and eventually transfer that to an upper-line more advanced quality horn. To do this, there is not only the time investment but a sizeable financial investment. This experience is like taking a job and having to buy your desk and every tool that you need to produce in order to be a part of your employers company. Most other activities in schools do not require that. When one invests not only their time and money, parents are more likely to support, and insist that their child gets more out of what they are doing rather than asking band to be an “easy in, easy out” as many things in our society are today. You cannot go to any large department store and buy an instrument, come home and program it through the computer, and be successful in one night.
And that’s the final step – DELAYED GRATIFICATION! It takes years of having short steps of growth over a sustained period of time to coordinate every aspect of the body to learn how to play an instrument, even at a modest level for the high school grades. Students have to be pulled against every other academic subject, athletics, dating, working, and family obligations, and the likelihood of someone sticking with this lengthy process is very small. What a child does learn is the art of delayed gratification which is something that is often missing in our society. One cannot buy a wind instrument, program it electronically, and play it over night!
When students go through the process of having to have tenacious self-discipline along with investing their own time and money, learning the art of delayed gratification in a group setting while making it on their own merit they become better prepared citizens for our communities. These are the type people we want as the backbone of our adult citizens in our country. Those that are not necessarily getting the highest accolades for beauty but going to work for the team and learning what it is like to stick with the company through thick and thin. I hope that every employer in America would make sure and demand that their communities have outstanding band programs for this reason. The time and effort will pay dividends for generations to come.
David Willson is a “band director’s band director”. His teaching at all levels has been the catalyst for his mission to serve others through directing bands and bettering his profession. He is in his nineteenth year as Director of Bands at The University of Mississippi where he was named Teacher of the Year in 2007 and given the Frist Award for his service to students in 2005. Under his direction the University Wind Ensemble has performed live for Mississippi Public Radio, featured on national public radio, and toured throughout the south. The Pride of South Marching Band, also under his direction, has flourished and is considered one of the nation’s finest.
Prior to coming to Ole Miss Willson served sixteen years as a public school band director in Mississippi. His bands were award winning in every category consistently in local and national competitions including receiving the prestigious Sudler Award in 1990. He placed many students in the Mississippi All-State Band and served as conductor/director five times including trips to Brisbane, Australia and the world championship trip to Seoul, Korea. Willson was named Mississippi Outstanding Band Master in 1989.
He is past-President of the Mississippi Band Masters Association, the Delta Chapter of Phi Beta Mu, state chairman for CBDNA, NBA, and served for four years on the National Federation of Music committee. He is active in many professional organizations. Publications by Willson include “Starting Beginner Band Students” and “Band Calisthenics” and “Mr. Willson’s Warm Up”, which are used extensively throughout the mid-south. His articles have frequently appeared in the Instrumentalist, BandWorld, and NFIMA and Phi Beta Mu Journal. He is active as a clinician and speaker throughout the United States.
Professor Willson has always put a strong emphasis on training students fundamentally and has been equally concerned in developing students as well-rounded citizens through his philosophy of being all superior “Everyday in Every Way”. He is most proud of his former students that are successful band directors.
