In The Beginning: Part Two by Steven Sacco
Tips for nurturing and sustaining your school's newly established instrumental music program
This article, with its previous installment, documents my experiences beginning a new instrumental music program in a public school district in New Jersey. Part One dealt mainly with organizational procedures needed to launch the program; this installment focuses on ways to nurture and grow a fledgling program.
Three years into our program at Midland School, we had sufficient numbers of advancing students to start an instrumental TAG ("talented and gifted") program. This program was devised in collaboration with the vocal music teacher to invite our most advanced students to perform extra-challenging pieces and to be showcased in performance. This is an especially good means of highlighting the talents of individuals in the eighth grade, when they perform their last year of school concerts. This program is open by audition only. For instrumental TAG, there is a repertory list as well as scales in various keys that students are required to play for their audition. The TAG ensemble meets once weekly and is part of the rotating pullout schedule (detailed in Part One).
Performances are important to the development of any musician, and to be confident and comfortable in performance, students must be given ample opportunity to perform in front of an audience. On average, the concert band and TAG ensemble will perform about eight or nine times each school year.
In-school assemblies give a mutually beneficial opportunity to our ensembles to perform before an audience and to our youngsters in the general audience to listen attentively and perhaps get motivated to sign up for instrumental music at the end of third grade. We also incorporate community service into our performance schedules by performing winter and spring programs at the Rochelle Park Senior Center. Our board of education has had us come twice a year to perform at their public meetings, and in the spring, we perform at the MENC band festival and on a float in the Memorial Day parade.
The annual MENC festival is an important trip for us, when students get to hear other bands from around our state. I remember telling my students before our first trip to expect to hear really good groups, as band directors will take only their best bands to the festival. Also, this is an adjudicated event, and students get to speak with the judges after their performance. The judges are kind and supportive, offering sound advice and encouragement. In addition, the school gets a plaque for participating in the festival, which we post in the band room, which gives the band greater presence and credibility.
In early June, after the performance season is over, I set up demonstrations for the third-grade homeroom classes. I go into the classrooms to do the presentations, taking principal players from the concert band to do the playing. With each third-grader, I send home a letter outlining the instrumental program and a contract for instrument rental. I give a deadline of two weeks for the parents to sign up their child and to hand in all materials for next year. It is important that the contracts for instrument rentals are in by the end of June; otherwise, the instruments will not be delivered in time for September's program. Since many successful music dealers have years' experience in recruiting for beginning band, it's best to work with your favorite instrument dealer to set up a beginner band recruiting and instrument delivery schedule.
Also in June, I go through a clean-up process in my room, where I organize all our music, evaluate all our instruments and send out what is in need of repair over the summer. The Educator Toolset on the Conn-Selmer website (www.conn-selmer.com/toolset) provides a method for keeping track of instrument values and repairs to make this job much easier. I inspect our stands and have ones that are broken replaced. I also send an end-of-year letter home to parents and students.
Attached to that letter is a summer practice assignment for each group. There are two summer practice assignments: one is designed to maintain the student's level over the summer, and the other is designed to push them slightly ahead. My experience is that most opt for the maintenance program and that works just fine for me. When we return in September, they are playing almost as well as they were playing at the end of the year.
These experiences can be replicated by school districts and music teachers who are interested in starting an instrumental music program in elementary or middle schools. This model has worked well for us at Midland School. I view the program as a constant work in progress, always in need of assessment and revision.
The success of the program is due to many factors, all working in concert. I am fortunate to have the support of my colleagues, the administration, the board of education and the parents. All work collaboratively, and for that, I am grateful. The result is a robust program of motivated students who learn skills each day and get to demonstrate them in performance–all the while enjoying an organic musical experience with their peers.
Steven Sacco divides his time between teaching instrumental music at Midland School in New Jersey and serving on the faculty of the Mannes College of Music, where he teaches composition, theory and musicology.
