I am not a "band teacher." My degree is a Bachelor of Music in vocal music education. I am trained to teach classroom music and choir. Sure, I had "Basic Instrumental Techniques" for a semester at St. Olaf which was basically a crash course in each family of the orchestra just in case we would ever find ourselves in a situation similar to that in which I find myself today. I honestly never thought I would need to use it.
When I was offered the job teaching K-8 classroom music, band, and choir, I honestly had a hard time with the idea of teaching band. I am a person who likes to do things the best that I possibly can do them and I really don't like the idea of doing a less-than-fabulous job at anything, especially when I am getting paid to do it. I knew that with my experience playing clarinet in band from middle school through high school (and even one semester in college) and the minimal training I had at St. Olaf that I could totally fake my way through teaching band. The problem was that I didn't want to just fake it. I wanted to be good at it and that in and of itself was a problem.
I haven't been trained in how to teach beginners to play instruments. I can totally figure out how to make a sound on pretty much anything, but teaching beginners how to do the same really seemed like a daunting task. Nevertheless, I decided to make the most of the 30 minutes twice a week that I had in my schedule to teach band.
I would be lying if I said it was easy to jump right in. It would also be a lie to say that I have enjoyed every moment of my first year as a band director. In all honesty, that part of my job has probably been the most frustrating and yet tonight it proved to also be one of the most rewarding.
Last Thursday I was preparing myself for a disaster. To my ears, the band (which consists of two drummers, three trumpets, three saxophones, four flutes and one clarinet) sounded terrible. I had no idea how they were going to manage to pull it together for the concert. Yesterday's rehearsal was a little more promising, but I still wasn't convinced that I wanted to be standing in front of this group of kids taking credit (or blame?) for their performance.
This afternoon we had our dress rehearsal. It went okay. I knew the kids were nervous performing in front of their friends and I hoped that the evening's performance would be better since it would be for their parents, after all, that is the audience that really matters.
The kids were antsy before the concert. At the last minute we decided to add "Ode to Joy" back into the lineup. During this afternoon's rehearsal we had made the decision to cut it because it was the worst song in the dress rehearsal. After a conversation with a fellow teacher who told me that song was her favorite of the afternoon, I started to have a change of heart. When we lined up to go on stage I spontaneously asked them to vote thumbs up for "let's do it" and thumbs down for "I'd rather not." Thumbs up won. We proceeded to enter the gym and walked up on stage and those kids played their songs the best they have ever played them. No, they weren't perfect, but you don't expect perfection from a beginner band. Each of those students worked so hard to play to the best of his or her ability and the result was their best performance to date.
I am so proud of those kids. Teaching band is still something I struggle with, but I can honestly say that it was worth every headache. To end the year with a performance like that and to be greeted by that whiteboard message when I returned to my room made it all worthwhile. This is why I love what I do.
Congratulations on a job well done. You should be proud! :) It's nice to see kids appreciate their teachers for their hard work.
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