Perfect Accompaniment by Jonathan Tesser
Bryan Ames has built a strong band program by reaching out to every student in his school
Ask your typical high school student to write down the activities he or she would most like to participate in at school, and it's not likely "play in the band" would top the list. The stereotype that joining the band is "not cool" is still a strong one, and there are also kids who think playing in the band will interfere with other activities they want to pursue. Overcoming these perceptions can seem daunting, but with some creative thinking and a lot of hard work you can have a program that will engender pride in school administrators, parents and, most importantly, students.
Bryan Ames, the Director of Bands for the Knox Community Schools in Knox, Indiana, has done just that. When Ames began in the fall of 1994 as the Assistant Director of Bands, the program had fallen on hard times as the number of students participating declined. "There have been a lot of ups and downs over the years," Ames explains. "In the '50s, the Knox band was one of the premier bands in the country and was invited to perform at the MidWest Clinic, and in the '60s it was the first U.S. band to play at the Canadian Bandmasters Convention. But by the time I came in there had been a series of turnovers; I was the first assistant band director to stay more than two years, and my first senior class had been through seven staff changes."
Located in rural Starke County in the northwest corner of Indiana, Knox (with approximately 3,700 residents and surrounded by cornfields) is the county seat. Starke is one of the state's poorest counties, and the closest college with a music department is nearly an hour away. As a result, resources for additional support staff and private instructors are practically nonexistent.
Realizing that returning the program to its former glory would be a gradual process, Ames turned the small school environment of Knox to his advantage. "When you come into a situation, the high school is going to pretty much be set in its ways," Ames says. "So we focused a lot of our recruiting efforts on the middle school. One of the nice things about teaching in a program like this is that we see the kids from grades six through twelve."
 |
||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
You Make the Difference Building continuity begins with recruiting. Bryan Ames shares five pointers that have proven successful as he's created and maintained a strong band program. 1. Organize Your Time lines 2. Publicity 3. Demonstration and Information Day 4. Sign-Up Night 5. Recruit All Year |
|
||
|
||||
|
||||
His work ethic has not gone unnoticed by parents, either. There is tremendous support in town for the music program, as evidenced by the many band license plates and car flags on local automobiles, and despite the difficult economic circumstances many families are in, they find a way to get instruments for their children. Ames does his part as well.
"If they can't afford a new one, we'll look for a used one," he explains. "When kids are having a hard time locating a used instrument, we will work with our music stores to help them find a good one that they can afford. Also, a lot of our graduates donate their instruments to the program after they've moved on."
A direct result of all this hard work is that the band program has come to occupy a central role in school life. When Ames first arrived, band students had class every other day. Now it's an everyday affair for a full period, so there are no scheduling conflicts with other classes. In the 2002-2003 school year, almost 85 percent of the middle school students played in the beginning band. That kind of success caught the eye of the local TV station, which did a feature on the band and the overall number of students participating in arts programs.
It's also meant improved facilities. Recently, the band room was upgraded from a plywood space above the gym to a facility with two rehearsal rooms, practice rooms, a music library and an instrument repair room. And because most concerts are standing room only, they are held in the varsity gymnasium, where among those in attendance you can find the school principals, the superintendent and several school board members.
Success has also provided opportunities for the Knox band to take its act on the road. Since 1998 they have traveled to the Statue of Liberty, Virginia Beach, Walt Disney World and the Bahamas. Next year they go to Hawaii, where they will give a patriotic concert at the U.S.S. Arizona Memorial in Pearl Harbor.
How are all of these journeys paid for? "The kids work their tails off," Ames says. "We plan two years in advance. Even though the Hawaii trip isn't until spring break of 2005, we've already started fundraising for it."
Because his students continue to stick with the program year after year, the high school concert bands and marching band have also found success. The concert bands have been annual award winners at the state's concert-band festivals, and the marching band has been the state champion runner-up in three of the last four years.
Ames is justifiably proud of the results he's achieved in Knox, but knows now is not the time to let up. His goal is to make contact each year with every kid who has not signed up for band. "I like to call this gathering the lost sheep," he says. "I'll visit the classrooms, talk to the kids individually and ask them why they didn't sign up for band. If I discover they really did want to, but didn't because they thought it might conflict with playing a sport or something else, I'll work with them or their parents to find a way to make it happen."
Ultimately, it's those one-to-one relationships that form the basis of everything Bryan Ames has accomplished, and that's something any teacher looking to build a strong program can't do without.
