James Divine – Music Educator and Motivational Speaker

Less is More – Focus on performing two songs really well rather than filling the time with three songs. In many cases, less time on stage will also result in more clinic time (for festivals that do a clinic afterwards). 

Not too easy; not too hard – Select repertoire the students are able to make sound musical. If they are struggling with technique they are not going to sound as good musically. At my 2nd school, I made the mistake of selecting a grade 4 piece when the students weren’t ready yet. They hadn’t been to a festival ever. I was the 8th director in 7 years. As soon as I brought them in, they were on automatic – I might as well have left the stage. We scored a IV. I learned from that mistake and programmed easier music. The following year we scored a III. They years after that we were always at Is and IIs. 

Wait for a cue from the judges before proceeding – 

Prep kids in advance regarding their scores – Remind them this is just a moment in time.  I’ve seen directors get all worked up because their students scored a two. One even stated ,”My students are not used to scoring a two.” It seemed really strange to me, because I’ve always prepped my students, even that year they received  a four. They knew that was coming. We talked about receiving great feedback from great judges. And that we’re going to learn how to improve. I once withheld the scores from my students until the next morning. Despite talking about how unimportant the scores were, as soon as we got on the bus, they were saying, “Mr. Divine, Mr. Divine, what’s our score? What’s our score?” I decided on the spur of the moment that we were not going to find out our scores till the next day in rehearsal. They were a little mad at me, but they understood why I did that. 

Check in with the percussionists before starting each piece – If you’re not careful, you might start a piece while the percussionists are still moving their equipment or tuning the timpani, or getting ready. Get eye contact with them before you start each piece. 

Order your scores early – When I was at the suburban high school we would perform our festival songs at the November concert. I’d evaluate – did that song work – was it appropriate – can we take it to the next level? We would put it away for a while, but at that point, I would order my scores, the three extra copies that I needed for adjudication. In January, we would start working on the pieces again. I’d bring a clinician in. I never had to worry about the scores being backordered or out of print. I had plenty of time to deal with that.

Pick Pieces That Cater To Your Instrumentation: Early in my tenure at the second school, I had a small band. One year I only had one clarinet player and two trumpet players. The clarinet player and 1st trumpet rocked!  I picked a piece that showcased them. We scored a I-Superior and received all kinds of compliments from the clinicians. 

Hire A Clinician: I suggest bringing someone in 4-6 weeks before your performance. This gives you a chance to work on their suggestions. A different ear on the same music that you’ve been working on can make a big difference. No money for a clinician? Check out ASBDA.  They will often sponsor a clinician from the organization to come and work with your group. Contact a local college with a music program. Most of those directors have time built in to their schedule to reach out. 

Record Your Rehearsal: After recording, playback for the students. Have them rate themselves using the Large Group rubric for your state. You might start with a talk about what each of the ratings mean. I have found that the students are pretty accurate in their evaluation (although there are outliers on both ends).

Pray, pray, and pray some more: I’m not kidding about this. This is part of my daily routine. I NEED the wisdom of God to be able to serve my students. 

Pack the music yourself: This may depend on the development of your group. I had too many times of missing essential pieces of music because the student forgot their folder. Now – as soon as we finish our last rehearsal – I have the students place their music into the folder. I collect all the folders and have a wheeled tote I use to carry them to the festival site. It has saved me many headaches.

Listen to other groups: Many festivals require this, but even if they don’t, stay and listen to a few groups. Train the students in proper listening procedures and why it’s important. Train them to learn from and not compare to. 

Check your zipper:

Sight Read Weekly or Daily:

Double and Triple Check The Buses: I can’t emphasize this enough! It’s not enough to get confirmation from the bus barn. Check a week out. Check the day before. I can count at least three times when bus didn’t show up and the bus barn said they didn’t have the paperwork available. I once had the principal and secretary load up their vehicles with students and instruments to take us to the site after buses didn’t show up. So thankful for that principal!

Avoid The Standard Repertoire Too many ingrained assumptions that many of the clinicians and judges have. And they’re going to listen based on those assumptions. Plus those are pieces they’ve probably performed a hundred times themselves, so they are very acquainted with it.

James is retired from full time teaching. He has served private, suburban, and Title 1 schools and now teaches half time at a charter school. Find out more about James at www.jamesdivine.net Subscribe to his podcast Almost Everything I’ve Learned About Teaching Band.

Have you ever wanted to teach improvisation to ALL students but you weren’t sure how? Check out www.jazzfromthestart.com for a curriculum to teach improv as soon as students know 5 notes.

Order a copy of my latest book, Almost Everything I’ve Learned About Teaching Band 

12 Rehearsal Room Hacks

Mark The Floor With Tape for Easy Chair Set-up
I like my rows of chairs neat and orderly, but I don’t like to reinvent the wheel each time I set the chairs up. I often mark the floors with tape. Not the entire floor – I usually just put one small piece of tape to show where the legs of the end chairs in each row go. I usually use duct tape, just a one square inch piece. It usually lasts all school year. You can also use velcro, sticky side down, on some carpet.

Buy A Tool Bin With Drawers For Storing Reeds

Label the drawers (alto sax 2.5, clarinet 2, clarinet 3, etc.). You can usually find these at Home Depot or Harbor Freight.

Mark Off An Area For Sousaphone/Drum Parking

Storage space in band rooms is often insufficient. When I taught marching band, I had a decent size classroom but not enough storage for all the drumline equipment. I had sousa storage. It was on a high shelf – fine for long term but not good when we were using them. I marked off areas in the back of the rehearsal space that were out of the way and trained the students to store the equipment there between rehearsals. It helped my sanity and gave the students a guideline to help with keeping the room orderly. If you don’t give the equipment a parking area, the students will tend to leave it in different spots every day, right in the middle of the timpani section or right next to the flutes, someplace inconvenient. 

Install a Pegboard On The Wall For Auxiliary Percussion

I think this works better than a cabinet, but you will have to train the students not to play with the instruments (it can be done). Get the percussion section leader to enforce this. Students think that if they see an auxiliary percussion out it means that they can play it. They don’t do that with a clarinet or trumpet (or at least they shouldn’t).  

A Tray For Collecting Paper

Have a tray that sits by the door to collect permission slips, forms, etc. instead of collecting that and spending several minutes of class time.

Collect fundraising money at the door in a locked box

Office supply stores have locking boxes with a slot big enough to put a large envelope into. Place these at the front of the class as the collection box for fundraisers. Print out a set of instructions for the box. For example: Take an envelope. Write your name on it. Place checks inside. Seal envelope. Place it in the box. Make sure to empty this box daily and don’t leave it unattended. 

Place Extra Cords on Wall Hangers.

This way they’re easy to find, can easily be put away, and you know at all times what you have available. These can be extension cords, guitar cords, and more. This hack works well if you have a jazz band with a lot of students needing to plug in or if you’re using a sound system, you can even hang the microphones up. 

Place Your Seating Chart in a Page Protector

This makes for easy attendance taking! Use a dry erase marker to put a slash through students who are absent. If they show up late, change the slash to a T for Tardy. 

Write the serial number of school owned instruments directly on the case

This simplifies checking instruments in and out. You might still want to glance at the instrument to make sure someone isn’t changing out instruments with you, but you won’t have to find the serial number each time.

I hope these hacks make your life easier.

James is the author of Almost Everything I’ve Learned About Teaching Band. He has served private, suburban, and Title 1 schools and now teaches at a charter school. Find out more about James at www.jamesdivine.net Subscribe to his podcast Almost Everything I’ve Learned About Teaching Band.

There’s an old Newhart Episode where Dr. Switzer is seeing a counseling client. He offers her profound words of wisdom for her problems. “Stop It,” he says. That’s my advice to you.

Earlier in my career, I often found myself comparing myself to other teachers.

Look at their facilities…

I wish I had their students…

Have you seen her budget…

Wow, he’s doing it all – teaching, performing, speaking…

Stop It! 

Every band program is unique. Every band program has its own problems. Every band program has its own joys, challenges, and blessings. This comparison trap is easy to fall into.

I taught for 13 years at a suburban high school. Most of the families were middle class. Most could probably afford lessons, but most did not take lessons. Out of approximately 180 students, I had just a few who took private lessons. I had a retired colleague who told me, “If you want to take your program to the next level, you need to make it required that students in your top band all take private lessons.” That worked at his school but would never have worked at my school. I beat myself up over that for many years. Yet I maintained high playing standards and we did well. Several students made it into all-city and all-state bands each year. We consistently scored Is and IIs at festival. Concerts were appreciated and attended well by our community.

At my state music educator’s conference one year, I bumped into a colleague who had the best middle school band in our region. I asked how he was doing. He said it was a tough year. His bands had a slight “drop” in their performance. Some parents were saying, “Maybe Mr. Band Director has lost his edge.” He had not lost his edge. It was just a slightly down year. We all have them.

A friend of mine has a philosophy of “it is what it is.” At first I hated that expression. I interpreted it as meaning you don’t need to do anything to try and improve. In reality it means do the best you can, then you take what you have and make the best of it. For example, if you have zero tuba players and had recruited extensively but could get no students playing tuba, go ahead to the festival and contest anyway, making the best of what he had. It is what it is.

Another colleague taught at an urban school in our area. He had old facilities. He had old instruments. He had students who had really difficult lives. He held them to high standards. They rose to the challenge! I was always very moved by his concert and marching band performances. Other bands scored higher than his, but his bands put forth the most effort.

A college professor colleague of mine taught at a small college in our area. Most of his students were from the local commuting area. He took students that were “7” on a scale of 1-10 and demanded a performance of “9” from them. They sounded better as an ensemble than as individuals. Other colleges which had huge music programs only accepted students who were “9” already and then had them perform at “9.5.” Which group worked harder?

Maybe you’re the K-12 music teacher. You happen to also teach band. Instead of 4 auditioned levels of band, you only have one band of 30 students. You’re not going to sound like the bands from the school that has four bands. I heard a performance by a band from the eastern rural plains of Colorado – from a small town – Kit Carson. The district had less than 100 students in K-12. Their 30 piece band – manned by students in grades 4-12 – sounded amazing! However, they did not sound like the top band from the suburban school district with 6 bands and 2 teachers. Stop comparing!

Some bands have better facilities…

Some bands have several teachers…

Some bands have better funding…

Take what you have and do the best you can. It is what it is. Stop comparing!

James is the author of Almost Everything I’ve Learned About Teaching Band. He has served private, suburban, and Title 1 schools and now teaches at a charter school. Find out more about James at www.jamesdivine.net Subscribe to his podcast Almost Everything I’ve Learned About Teaching Band.

I’m now closer to 100 than I am to 1. I can remember the days when teachers were respected almost 100% of the time. Parents always had a teacher’s back. Admin always supported the teacher. It was a trinity of leadership to support making the young person a better human being. Although we no longer have that level of support, you can still instill high standards.

I’ve been a teacher for over 27 years. I find myself facing more and more resistance from parents. Parents are worried about their kids’ feelings. Too many people’s feelings get hurt. It’s often easier to just back off, but that’s not the right thing to do. You didn’t get into teaching to do the easy thing. You got into this field because you’re going to do the right thing and hold students to high standards. 

One marching season, we were really pushing the physical standard. We kept getting responses from judges saying, “You came out with lots of energy, but you didn’t finish with it.” Many had suggested implementing a fitness program. We instituted one. Many of the upperclassmen stated, “This is stupid, nobody’s going to stay in the marching band”. If I had listened to them, we would have backed off on the standards. I didn’t listen to them. There were a couple of people who did drop marching band. Most of the students understood what we were doing and bought into it. 

My first teaching position was 4th-12th grade band at a small private school. Often when students reached 6th grade – their third year with me – they’d say, “Mr. Divine, you’ve changed.” I would answer them. “No, you’re the one who’s changed”. “Everyone’s quitting band, because they don’t like you anymore”. Everyone meant that student + one friend. I occasionally had students quit. They didn’t want to face the higher standard of middle school band versus what it was for them in elementary school. 

Here are some things you can do to instill high standards in your group…

Watch and Listen To Other Bands Often just seeing what other bands can do will inspire students to do well. Have them write a reflection paragraph. That way you can incorporate the standards of reading and writing across the curriculum.  As you watch and listen to great bands, have them list the things that the bands do well, have them analyze and compare their playing to what they’re seeing. I have an enlarged, laminated wall chart in my band room of the large group rubric. I can write on it with a dry erase marker. We listen to our own performances, or maybe even a group that we admire. Then we rate them. This gives the students a better ear for their own performances. 

Focus On The Good – Not Just What Needs Improvement When they do something great, focus on that, encourage them and say, “Hey, we’ve really improved. Now we need to do more”. The students have to be the ones who want and demand excellence. I had a marching band that was resistant to improving, at least when that improvement and desire for improvement came from me and the marching band leaders. Once they began to desire it for themselves, I started seeing huge improvement in what the marching band was doing. Success breeds success, but it doesn’t happen overnight. 

I once taught at a school where I was the 8th director in 7 years. My first year there, I brought my band to a regional large group festival. They had never been – at least not in recent memory. They scored a IV. I had prepared them for this, because I knew they wouldn’t do well. We got on stage and everything we had rehearsed – dynamics, tempo changes, balance, blend, musicality – none of that happened that day. I could have just started them and left the stage. They didn’t follow a single conductor cue. They were like deer in the headlights!  They understood where we were coming from, where the program was at that point in time, and that this was feedback we were receiving. We went back the next year and scored a III. After that we consistently scored Is and IIs.

That was my “advanced” band. I had about 20 students in it and another 28 in intermediate band. After several years of holding students to high performance standards, we ended up with three leveled bands. There were about 40 in the top group, 55 in the middle group, and 30 in the lowest group. The top band that first year was not as good as the bottom band in my 13th year. It all started with that bottom group, really building that.  Not everybody was enthusiastic. About 80% of the students came along and 20% were very resistant and they remained in the bottom band or ended up dropping band.

Uphold and maintain high standards and you will see positive results.

James is the author of Almost Everything I’ve Learned About Teaching Band. He has served private, suburban, and Title 1 schools and now teaches at a charter school. Find out more about James at www.jamesdivine.net Subscribe to his podcast Almost Everything I’ve Learned About Teaching Band.

Air Will Get You There

In 90% of cases, brass players are either not using enough volume of air or are not using a fast enough air speed. Check those two things first.

Sirens

Demonstrate a siren sound on a trumpet mouthpiece (you can obtain these for cheap here). Have brass students perform these in class once in a while just using their mouthpieces. Instruct some of them that they may need to practice more sirens at home

Oh-Ah-Ee

Create and print out a word document with these syllables printed out in large letters. Have the students exaggerate these sounds. Teach them that Oh is for the lower notes, Ah is for medium notes, and Ee is for higher notes.

Shoot The Marble

Pretend a marble is stuck in your bell and you’re trying to shoot it out. A low note would equal shooting it near their feet, a medium note shooting the marble out three feet, a high note they’re going to shoot that marble across the room.

Bottom, middle, top of the mouthpiece

Aim your air at the lower third of the mouthpiece for low notes, middle third for medium notes, upper third for higher notes

Stir The Waters

Have a small tub of water handy. Have a trumpet player dip his/her bell only under water, then blow and try to create a bubble bath.

Hold the paper using air only

Take a piece of paper, place it against the wall, then let go while blowing from 12 inches away trying to hold up the paper for 4 seconds using your air only. A lot of times students don’t realize the force of air needed to play an instrument.

Blow out the candles on your grandfather’s birthday cake

Have students pretend to blow out the candles on a cake with 50 candles.

Use half the aperture and twice the air

Draw some consecutively smaller circles on the board to demonstrate smaller and smaller apertures. Or explain in the context of rapids in a river. When a river gets more wild, it’s not that more water is suddenly going through, but that the same amount of water is trying to pass through a smaller passage. Ultimately students need to take responsibility for improving. Hold them to high standards and teach them these techniques.

James is the author of Almost Everything I’ve Learned About Teaching Band. He has served private, suburban, and Title 1 schools and now teaches at a charter school. Find out more about James at www.jamesdivine.net Subscribe to his podcast Almost Everything I’ve Learned About Teaching Band.

Why do I call it classroom structure and management and not discipline? The word discipline implies that some things are going wrong. I once interviewed for a job where one of the questions was, “It’s the day of the spring concert. Students are running around acting the fool. Nobody is listening and there is complete chaos. What would you do?” That was a hard one to answer. I paused, then stated, “I would never let it get to that point.” Everyone on the interview committee was relieved! I found out later that the director before me had this exact scenario happen.

In almost every interview since then, when asked about my classroom discipline philosophy, I answer that if you provide students with the proper routines and procedures and structure, you’re going to prevent 95% of disruptions BEFORE THEY HAPPEN. That’s the key. 

Attendance: I used to work with a teacher who started every class just like substitute teachers do…she called out each name waiting to hear a “present” or “here.” These were high school students, so they liked to try to make it funny. It took up 5-8 minutes of class. I asked her why she did this; why not just create a seating chart. “I don’t like to take their freedom away from them.” It might be okay for a substitute teacher to do this, but it is not acceptable for an experienced teacher. What do you do?

Create a seating chart. Put it in a page protector. When there’s an empty seat, make a slash through that name using a dry erase marker. If the student arrives late, turn the slash into a T for tardy. Attendance is complete in less than 30 seconds. It’s easy to wipe off the marks.

Announcements: Do you use the start of class to make announcements? I think that makes it harder for students to settle down and focus. Try jumping right into a breathing exercise, or a short technique or scale warm-up. THEN make announcements. It’s clear to students that class has begun. More of them pay attention to these announcements. In addition to providing the announcements verbally, post them on the whiteboard and refer students to that. 

Classroom Set-up: There’s a more detailed explanation earlier in the book. Basically I advise leaving an “aisle” up the middle and also opening up the space between rows so you can move about the classroom. Then get off the podium and move it move it move it. This allows you to be within about eight steps of any student in the classroom. While warming up, go up and down the rows. Throughout the class you’ve been within arms reach of each and every student several times. It allows one to hear things you might not normally hear. It allows one to see things (posture, phones) you might normally see. It allows one to smell things you might normally smell (if you teach middle school). 

Are you their friend: You DO need a good relationship with your students, but friend is a strong word. I am not their friend. We can have times when we are talking, making jokes, hanging out, but my primary role is always as their teacher. At times I tell students that I don’t care what they think of me now or what their reaction is to me. What I do care about is what kind of 20 year old, what kind of 30 year old they will be.

Most teens don’t even understand what true friendship is. Many times I’ve seen a student not want to “tell on” their friend who is considering suicide because “I promised him I wouldn’t tell.” A true friend is willing to lose the friendship if it means the best for that person.

A true friend is going to tell on that friend, if it will make them a better person, even if it means losing the friendship. 

Whether you use the term friend or not, it doesn’t matter.You’re their teacher first. But you’re also their friend. You’re their teacher first. But you’re also their mentor. You can be all these other things, but the teacher role comes first always and forever. My son was in my high school band. He’s over 30 years old now. When he was my student, we both came to a really good understanding of when I was his dad and when I was his teacher, and every time we were in class, that teacher role always superseded the dad role. We both understood that and it worked out well. 

James is the author of Almost Everything I’ve Learned About Teaching Band. He has served private, suburban, and Title 1 schools and now teaches at a charter school. Find out more about James at www.jamesdivine.net Subscribe to his podcast Almost Everything I’ve Learned About Teaching Band.

These tips were developed at a Title 1 school where my classes were very large and the students did not have a good culture of behavior in their other classes. They behaved in mine, but I had to work at it.

#1 Pray

I’m not kidding! I pray for wisdom on an almost daily basis. An idea on what to do often comes to me after praying, something specific that works for that group only.

#2 Keep Them Engaged

Play. Play a lot. Talk less. When you think you’re talking less, reduce it even more. Review. Review again. Fix one thing and then review; don’t try to fix the 25 things that are wrong. When students seem distracted – like they might on a snow delay day or the day before a break – I sometimes chuck most of the lesson plan and go back and review – which means we play – then quickly go to the next exercise. I also test a lot. You don’t want to take a whole class period just for testing, especially with beginners, they’re going to get unfocused, undisciplined, sidetracked. I usually test two to three at a time. Then we play another exercise. Test two or three more, another exercise.

#3 Develop Routines

How to walk into class. How to get your instrument. How to sit down. You may need to practice this (see what to do the first week of school). You may have to meet your students in the hall the day after a bad day. Start with “this is how we walk into the classroom.” They WILL resist, but they will learn.

#4 Use Student Coaches/Teachers

Let some of the advanced kids coach some of the ones that are struggling. Keep this short. Keep it voluntary. Not all of them have the right personality for this. Some of the more outgoing students will be ready to do this. Send them into a practice room (that you can see in) for two or three minutes, then have them come out and show you what they’ve been working on. This helps to keep them accountable. 

#5 Standing On The Podium Means Redirect

When I step up on the podium, it means all talking and playing has to stop. In some classes this alone didn’t work. In that case, I made everybody stand when I stepped onto the podium. We practiced that until everyone had it right. There were lots of complaints, but eventually we had everyone being quiet. Then and only then did I remove the standing requirement. Sometimes we still had to practice standing again. One class took 13 times of standing to learn. You have to hold them accountable. No talking. No noise. No whispering.

#6 Allow Short Bursts of Individual Practice

Here’s how I do this with beginners. I demo the new exercise. I tell them to take one or two minutes on their own. And then we all play it together. This is especially effective when they’re learning a new note or a new technique, something that’s going to be a little bit different for them. Give them two minutes. What if they don’t use that time wisely? It takes me a week or two, but I tell students that I am giving them practice time and I expect them to use it. If they don’t, I assume they know the material and are ready to test on it.

#7 Reward Positive Behavior. Punish Negative Behavior

Try to focus on the positive.  There are many students in class who hate it when other students disrupt their learning. My philosophy is that I won’t allow a student to disrupt the learning of others. I’ve used band bucks, a $1 bill with my picture superimposed and copied onto green paper. Students earn these for positive things they do, and then can spend them in a school store. Be careful with incentives as some students can end up feeling entitled.

#8 Incorporate Rest and Play Positions

This is especially effective when you’re trying to give instruction between songs and you don’t want anyone noodling on their instrument. Orchestra and guitar students like to make noises on their strings. Rest position for orchestra…instruments on their lap, straight up and down strings facing me. Guitar rest position…face down on your lap. This prevents them from being tempted to play while I’m talking. Have students practice these positions. Demand 100% compliance. State, “We’re going to keep doing this until everyone does it quickly.” Call out the student’s name who’s not getting it quickly enough. This technique uses peer pressure for positive behavior. 

#9 Play First – Announce Later

In my early years of teaching, announcements were at the beginning. I would take time out for attendance. Now we start playing within three or four minutes of class beginning. If I have announcements, I put those in later. For attendance, I have my seating chart in a page protector. I take attendance with a dry erase marker. Slash through those absent. It takes me 30 seconds. 

#10 You Control a Valuable Commodity – Time

Are students talking when they’re not supposed to? Are they sitting with poor posture even after constant reminders? During the three minutes I allow everyone to put their instruments away, those students have to see me instead. We practice posture. We practice not talking. They complain and claim they won’t have enough time to get to their next class. I only have to do this with students a few times before they get the message that I will hold them accountable.

I hope that these 10 tips for managing a large group of beginners have been helpful to you.

James is the author of Almost Everything I’ve Learned About Teaching Band. He has served private, suburban, and Title 1 schools and now teaches at a charter school. Find out more about James at www.jamesdivine.net Subscribe to his podcast Almost Everything I’ve Learned About Teaching Band.

Getting More Parent Participation

We all want more parent participation. It’s going to look different depending on where you teach. You can change the culture, but it will take time. There’s no magic fix. It’s a process. If you’re new to a program, give it some time.  

At the start of the year, I send out a form. You can also create a google form to use. It includes a band pledge. Students promise to practice regularly, to come to concerts, to give their best in class every day. The form includes a check box area for parents.

Here’s a sample…

Parents, we need and want your help. Please place a checkmark next to ways you might be able to help out…

• Help set-up for concerts
• Chaperone band trips
• Bringing Baked Goods
• Organizing others to bring baked goods
• Supply a case of water or snacks for marching band
• Filing music
• Towing the marching trailer
• Other _______________________________

I always leave a section for “other”. Sometimes you may get a parent who has a master’s degree in euphonium performance and they want to help out in sectionals.  In my experience, most parents are willing to bring baked goods/snacks, but many of them are too busy to do anything else. You’re building relationships. That takes time. It’s the same thing with getting parents to participate. 

It’s ok to let things go for a while. For example, a parent said to me, “It would be great for the marching band if we had water and snacks for the students at halftime.” I told her it was a great idea, but also said I didn’t have the time to organize that. I asked if she was willing to organize it.  She jumped right on it. She called parents. We had to set aside part of a practice room for snacks and water. We had enough for the entire season for 60+ students. That worked well for several years. When her child graduated, I could not get anyone else on board to organize that. I let it go.

Don’t assume that parents are receiving your emails. I don’t know if it’s communication overload (be careful about contributing to that), but many parents tell me they don’t see my emails. If you don’t hear back from a mass email, don’t be surprised. It can be tempting to think “nobody cares; I can’t get parental involvement.” Try sending single emails. Instead of a mass email, “Is there anyone who can do _________,” try “Good Morning Mrs. Smith. I’m looking for someone to do _____________. Are you possibly available?” I get 100 emails a day. Maybe five of them are ones that I want to keep. Everybody is inundated with emails, inundated with Facebook messages, inundated with all kinds of notifications. Sometimes it might be best to pick up the phone. Parents want to be involved. Many are just very busy in their own lives.

James is the author of Almost Everything I’ve Learned About Teaching Band. He has served private, suburban, and Title 1 schools and now teaches at a charter school. Find out more about James at www.jamesdivine.net Subscribe to his podcast Almost Everything I’ve Learned About Teaching Band.

Repertoire Selection Tips

Repertoire selection can make or break your performance! It can affect student focus, enthusiasm, motivation, and it can even affect your classroom management. Repertoire selection can help musicianship or it can hinder musicianship. If the students are too focused on technique and getting the right notes, they’re not going to be focused on musicianship. It’s better to find a piece that they can play musically. Some tips…

Sight read to the point of silliness

If you have a large enough library, pull out pieces frequently for the students to sight-read. You may be surprised at what works and what doesn’t work, but you’ll never know if you don’t try. I often have 3-4 times the amount of music we need for our next concert in the folders. When I have inherited programs, I’ve pulled out music of all levels to sight-read simply because I don’t know what level the students are at. 

Having the folders stuffed makes it easier when the time comes to add or drop a piece; you already have others to go to. 

Younger students often are not able to envision what they are capable of and will dismiss a piece that’s too hard before even working on it. Keep it in the folder and introduce it in short bursts – maybe even playing a professional recording of the piece.

Older students sometimes dismiss a piece because it’s “too easy.” We will sight-read it and it ends up a train wreck. It becomes a teaching moment when we talk about how the individual parts may be easy, but when we put it all together it’s more difficult. 

Don’t be tempted to always play that jewel you loved in college. Many college bands are full of music majors who love and want to be there practice two or three hours a day. That’s not your typical 6th grade or even high school band! 

Score Study

It’s important! Realize your limitations. I’ve had clinicians say “You should spend 4 hours in the score for every hour of rehearsal.” That sounds great! I’d love to do that. Then they confess that class only meets 2 times a week and it’s their only class, or one of 2 classes. Most of us don’t have that luxury.  Spend thoughtful time studying the score. 

Consider instrumentation

In some of my early jazz bands, I had limited or incomplete instrumentation. I would pull out what I call “Wall of Sound” arrangements. These had the trombones, trumpets, and saxes playing the same thing. 

Consider ranges, abilities, and size of your group 

More advanced songs usually would not work if you only had one clarinet player. But then again, if you have a super strong all-state clarinet, then maybe it’ll work! One year I did a piece with that one clarinet player. We rocked it! The band scored a Superior at festival. Two years previously, I had challenged that same group (my first year there) with a Grainger piece that was way too difficult. They had never been to festival, froze on stage, and scored a 4. I learned from that and never made that mistake again. 

Don’t be afraid to quit a piece

Sometimes we program a piece thinking it’s going to be great. We start working it and feel committed because we are halfway to perfecting it. Don’t be afraid to quit! Maybe it’s worth practicing but not performing, just so students get exposure to it. At other times you may decide to perform a piece at a regular concert but not at festival.

Getting a good handle on repertoire selection takes some experience. Hope these tips have been helpful.

James is the author of Almost Everything I’ve Learned About Teaching Band. He has served private, suburban, and Title 1 schools and now teaches at a charter school. Find out more about James at www.jamesdivine.net Subscribe to his podcast Almost Everything I’ve Learned About Teaching Band.

In 2005 I was a new teacher at a high school with about 50 students in band and no marching band. Everybody was required to play in pep band during football games. We grew to 80 students the 2nd year, then 100, then more than 100. I was trying to do everything myself! It was insane.

I created a drum major/student conductor position. It allowed me to monitor attendance and behavior while the student was conducting. A few years later, we developed a marching band. The drum major position required an audition and additional training by me once selected. In those early days I had too many pep tunes – we did not perform them well. It’s better to do eight pep tunes well than to have 20 that you don’t do well. You can continue to add more. I eventually ended up adding many more. Here are some rules and tips for playing at football games. 

• Don’t play when the ball is in motion. Have your drum major practice making a lot of cuts. You have to teach them not to hesitate. The first game you might need to stand by their side and yell out “cut now.” The drum major has to be bold starting and stopping songs.
• Play right after an extra point. There’s usually a little bit of extra time. The clock has stopped. Offense and defense are switching out. 
• Play during a timeout. They tend to be a little bit longer. However, don’t play when there’s an injury on the field. Some fans look at it as disrespectful. How do you know when there’s an injury?  Typically the players will become very quiet and everyone takes a knee. They’re waiting to see if the injured person is going to be okay.
• Play the recognizable parts of a song. Don’t use up time rehearsing the unrecognizable parts of the song. For example, the ditty that opens up Smoke On The Water is recognizable, but most people don’t know the rest of the song. Focus on what the crowd will know. Many pop songs are like that – take an 8 measure section of it to play.
• Remind students about balance. When you are playing a ditty and everyone is on the melody, you don’t need to blast your sound. Tell students to fit their sound into the clarinets or the low brass. Good tone and sound quality are important whether playing indoors or out.
• Play as often as you can. Most students want to play. The crowd wants to hear the band. Sometimes there is someone in the box who likes to play recorded music. I have often had a talk with that person about the band needing to be the main thing we hear rather than recorded music. Too much recorded music and band members start saying, “Why are we here?” You do have to be aware of chops endurance. If you have a halftime show don’t wear the students out before the show. For first down, we always played “Tomahawk Chop”. The fans loved it. The band loved it. We painted an old bass drum in school colors. That drum became the opener for “Tomahawk Chop” every time. The honor of starting it went to the percussion section leader. If your community has something special like that, dive into it.
• Get to know the coaches and the cheer captain. Get to know the coach before the first game, and find out if they have likes and dislikes. Most of them could care less what the band is doing. Don’t take this personally.  They’re focused on the game. But I’ve had some coaches who were very specific about something. I tried to honor their requests. Have the drum major meet with the cheer captain every single time before the game begins. This helps eliminate misunderstandings. They get to know each other, talk and plan. That way, there are no hurt feelings. It’s very easy to play over the top of cheerleaders. Then they get mad. Then the captains get mad. The drum major may not even realize he’s playing over the cheerleaders. This avoids most problems. 

I once had a student who was on the football team and in the pep band. He tried to tell me all these things that were important to do, and why we should play this song at this spot. And we should do this here. And this helps to encourage the players by doing this certain thing. I remember thinking, “wow, that’s a lot to be worried about”. I went to talk to a coach. I asked the coach about what the student was telling me. I wanted to honor this football player who was also in the band. The coach responded with “There’s a band playing?” (“I’m exaggerating slightly).

• Don’t use a whistle. The referees are going to get angry at you if you do because it will interfere with what they’re doing. Some ways that you can communicate with the band:
  • number the songs and then have the drum major hold up their fingers for a number or a sign with a number on it. 
  • Have large cue cards with a shortened version of the song’s name
• Where are you going to be located? Are you going to actually be in the stands? On the track in front of the stands? I’ve done both. In some ways the stands were nicer, but as we grew we became too big. Our “audience” is the fans, so when we moved to the track, we faced the stands. We developed a signal so that the students could watch the game and be ready in a short time to come to attention and play. I found it worked out best to keep students in a marching band column set-up. 

In closing, make sure that whoever’s leading the music – whether it’s you or the drum major –  is bold with starting songs and bold with cutting songs.

James is the author of Almost Everything I’ve Learned About Teaching Band. He has served private, suburban, and Title 1 schools and now teaches at a charter school. Find out more about James at www.jamesdivine.net Subscribe to his podcast Almost Everything I’ve Learned About Teaching Band.

This technique worked really well when I taught marching band. Like many great ideas, I stole this one from my colleague Keith B. You divide the technique into learning and rehearsing.

Learning

• March and count one set (1)
  • Do the counting out loud
  • Without instruments

• March and sing one set (2)
  • Sing out loud like you would play
  • Without instruments
  • Side note – the music should already be well-rehearsed so their parts are ingrained into their brains

• March and count one set (3)
  • Do the counting out loud
  • This time holding instruments

• March and play one set (4)
  • Play a Concert F quarter notes
  • 4 quarter notes in 4/4 time, 3 in 3/4, etc.
  • You’re reinforcing the beat/pulse and focusing on the marching

• March and play one set (5)
  • Play Concert F notes
  • This time play the rhythm you have in the music on a concert F

• March and play
  • Play in place through the whole set once (6)
  • Then march and count that same set (not playing) (7)
  • Then play in place at the end of that set (8)
  • Play AND march through the set (9)

You will find that if you do this, you’ve gone through each set 9 times! It sounds like a long amount of time, but by that point, it’s going to be in their muscle memory. You’re going to see some great success. 

Thank you to my colleague Keith. That tip that has been so effective in my own marching band.

James is the author of Almost Everything I’ve Learned About Teaching Band. He has served private, suburban, and Title 1 schools and now teaches at a charter school. Find out more about James at www.jamesdivine.net Subscribe to his podcast Almost Everything I’ve Learned About Teaching Band.

Repertoire selection can make or break your performance! It can affect student focus, enthusiasm, motivation, and it can even affect your classroom management. Repertoire selection can help musicianship or it can hinder musicianship. If the students are too focused on technique and getting the right notes, they’re not going to be focused on musicianship. It’s better to find a piece that they can play musically. Some tips…

Sight read to the point of silliness

If you have a large enough library, pull out pieces frequently for the students to sight-read. You may be surprised at what works and what doesn’t work, but you’ll never know if you don’t try. I often have 3-4 times the amount of music we need for our next concert in the folders. When I have inherited programs, I’ve pulled out music of all levels to sight-read simply because I don’t know what level the students are at. 

Having the folders stuffed makes it easier when the time comes to add or drop a piece; you already have others to go to. 

Younger students often are not able to envision what they are capable of and will dismiss a piece that’s too hard before even working on it. Keep it in the folder and introduce it in short bursts – maybe even playing a professional recording of the piece.

Older students sometimes dismiss a piece because it’s “too easy.” We will sight-read it and it ends up a train wreck. It becomes a teaching moment when we talk about how the individual parts may be easy, but when we put it all together it’s more difficult. 

Don’t be tempted to always play that jewel you loved in college. Many college bands are full of music majors who love and want to be there practice two or three hours a day. That’s not your typical 6th grade or even high school band! 

Score Study

It’s important! Realize your limitations. I’ve had clinicians say “You should spend 4 hours in the score for every hour of rehearsal.” That sounds great! I’d love to do that. Then they confess that class only meets 2 times a week and it’s their only class, or one of 2 classes. Most of us don’t have that luxury.  Spend thoughtful time studying the score. 

Consider instrumentation

In some of my early jazz bands, I had limited or incomplete instrumentation. I would pull out what I call “Wall of Sound” arrangements. These had the trombones, trumpets, and saxes playing the same thing. 

Consider ranges, abilities, and size of your group 

More advanced songs usually would not work if you only had one clarinet player. But then again, if you have a super strong all-state clarinet, then maybe it’ll work! One year I did a piece with that one clarinet player. We rocked it! The band scored a Superior at festival. Two years previously, I had challenged that same group (my first year there) with a Grainger piece that was way too difficult. They had never been to festival, froze on stage, and scored a 4. I learned from that and never made that mistake again. 

Don’t be afraid to quit a piece

Sometimes we program a piece thinking it’s going to be great. We start working it and feel committed because we are halfway to perfecting it. Don’t be afraid to quit! Maybe it’s worth practicing but not performing, just so students get exposure to it. At other times you may decide to perform a piece at a regular concert but not at festival.

Getting a good handle on repertoire selection takes some experience. Hope these tips have been helpful.

James is retired from full time teaching. He has served private, suburban, and Title 1 schools and now teaches half time at a charter school. Find out more about James at www.jamesdivine.net Subscribe to his podcast Almost Everything I’ve Learned About Teaching Band.

Have you ever wanted to teach improvisation to ALL students but you weren’t sure how? Check out www.jazzfromthestart.com for a curriculum to teach improv as soon as students know 5 notes.

Pre-order a copy of my latest book, Almost Everything I’ve Learned About Teaching Band coming out June 2025.

It’s often easy for percussionists to become unfocused and unengaged if you’re not careful in picking the right repertoire and thinking about different things that pertain to percussionists. Do teachers who are percussionists find student percussionists easy to deal with?

#1 – Pick Good Repertoire – Pick repertoire that utlizies them. Somne grade 4-6 songs have uninteresting percussion parts.  I know this isn’t always possible. 

#2 – Avoid Having Too Many Percussionists – You are the one who is in control of this. My first school I taught band grades 4-12. I was able to attain almost ideal instrumentation after about three years, because I was the one recruiting them. I created incentives to help with that. Too many percussionists can make life difficult. You might feel like you don’t have much control over this. Talk to your feeder program if you’re a high school director. This may be controversial, but I don’t even allow percussionists in my current position. In 2nd year band, I train some students to take turns playing percussion. It’s not that hard to have a tuba player fill in on percussion, but next to impossible to have the percussionist fill in on tuba.

#3 – Create a Percussion Ensemble – One year the band was working on a very lyrical piece which was boring for the percussionists. Usually the percussion part involved 2,864 measures of rest with a triangle ding in measure 2,865. I would occasionally have the percussionists practice with us and made a deal with them…”If you count your measures and play that triangle ding at the exact spot it’s required, I will find a percussion ensemble piece that you can work on in the practice room.” They were running the sectional themselves and were working on a bucket drumming type of piece. I’d sometimes listen in to make sure they were making progress. They really enjoyed it. They ended up performing that piece for the concert. It was very well received by the audience. 

#4 – Have the percussionists play the flute or oboe part on a mallet instrument – Use this tip when there are not enough percussion parts for everyone, especially if no mallet part is written. It usually blends well.

#5 – Move them to the front – Suppose there’s a piece that’s tacet for percussion and you can’t or don’t trust them to be on their own. Move them to the front. Print out rating sheets for your large group festival. Have the percussionists rate the band and provide comments. 

#6 – Assign parts – My preference is that drummers work out a rotation among themselves. I don’t want them to become specialists. Some drummers have a hard time with this and need guidance from me. I create a spreadsheet and list them by rehearsal date. All of them rotate through all the parts until 2-3 weeks before the concert, at which time I assign them to a specific part.  

I hope that these tips have helped.

James is retired from full time teaching. He has served private, suburban, and Title 1 schools and now teaches half time at a charter school. Find out more about James at www.jamesdivine.net Subscribe to his podcast Almost Everything I’ve Learned About Teaching Band.

Have you ever wanted to teach improvisation to ALL students but you weren’t sure how? Check out www.jazzfromthestart.com for a curriculum to teach improv as soon as students know 5 notes.

Pre-order a copy of my latest book, Almost Everything I’ve Learned About Teaching Band coming out June 2025.

I wish there was a quick fix to playing in tune, but there’s not. It’s a long process of training the ear. The process never ends. As a pro musician, I ALWAYS feel like I’m out of tune and striving to fix tuning. It’s a journey. Here are a few tips to help in that journey.

Tune to a fixed pitch but don’t stop there. We do this about once a week in my classes. However, I don’t have each student play the note and tune unless I hear problems and I’m trying to discover where it’s coming from. I teach the students that this gets them close – but it’s only one note and will change every time we play. Occasionally teach them how to hear the “waves” of out of tuneness. I’ll do this by having one person play and have another purposely pull out far. The students can hear the waves and can hear the waves get smaller as we bring the tuning closer – then finally the waves disappear.

Teach them that our ears hear flat better than sharp. I don’t know why this is the case. If they’re not sure which way to adjust for tuning, have them pull out. I even go the wrong way at times! Teach them, “If you feel like you are in tune, or if you know you’re in tune, you’re probably not.” 

The interesting thing is that if you have good balance, and you have good tone, two thirds of your intonation problems will go away. Focus on getting students to play with good air and with good support. Remind them about the tuning slide for low D on trumpet. If they don’t use it, we go back and replay that spot. 

Chorales! Chorales! More chorales. Check out Function Chorales which can be performed in any key.

Tuning is an every day, every rehearsal technique we must teach and incorporate.

James is retired from full time teaching. He has served private, suburban, and Title 1 schools and now teaches half time at a charter school. Find out more about James at www.jamesdivine.net Subscribe to his podcast Almost Everything I’ve Learned About Teaching Band.

Have you ever wanted to teach improvisation to ALL students but you weren’t sure how? Check out www.jazzfromthestart.com for a curriculum to teach improv as soon as students know 5 notes.

Pre-order a copy of my latest book, Almost Everything I’ve Learned About Teaching Band coming out June 2025.

You may be surprised to find out just how much time I spend on fundamentals. The longer I teach, the more I focus on fundamentals, scales, breathing, warm up exercises, and more. When I first started teaching a 45 minute class would consist of 10 minutes on fundamentals and 35 minutes of working on the music. Now it’s about half and half. I find that fundamentals transfer over to what the students are doing in the music. We work on breathing, tone, chorales, scales, arpeggios, tuning, and rhythmic exercises. When we do get to the music, I usually only have 2-3 songs selected for working on that day, and not even entire songs – 2-3 sections of the music. Our aim is to perfect those sections today. There might be a rhythmic goal, or a tuning goal, or some other goal. There might be 100 things you know need to be fixed. You can’t do all 100. Pick 2-3 items that will make the performance better and fix those.

In the short term, they don’t feel like they’re paying dividends. I’m going to share 4 tips that have helped me. You know these things already! We all need reminders. 

It’s so easy to let Student Posture slack. It’s so easy to just pay attention to the front row of students and ignore those in the back. I set up my room to be able to walk around. When you’re actually up close to a student, you might find posture problems you don’t see from far away. Some students tuck their feet underneath them.

Call students out on their Stand Height. I don’t just say, “Hey, students raise your stands please.” Many of them will think I’m not talking to them. After I’ve explained a couple of times what proper stand height is – you can see music and me, you’re not looking down, you can play your instrument properly – I’ll call out specific students whose stands are too high or too low. I also do the opposite; talk about stands that are just right. 

I do Breathing Exercises every day with every class – band, orchestra, drums. It cleanses the mind. It gets us ready to focus. It helps us be in unison. Students will easily get lazy with this exercise. I stress the importance and aim for 100% participation. As we incorporate this into our performance, I talk about the importance of sound all the way from the start of a not to the end of the note. Almost every ensemble plays well in the “middle” of the note. The skill that splits the good from the great ensembles is playing well at the start, middle, and end of a note. We often talk about where the release of a note is. For example, a whole note releases on beat 1 of the next measure. The release is where the next note begins.

Put the responsibility for sounding great on the students. They need to take responsibility. We’re so used to taking charge as directors. Use questions to get students to think. Instead of “trumpets were overblowing here” say “What did you notice about the sound at letter A? What could we improve?”

Try to Keep The Rehearsal Flowing at all times. If something is taking too long, move on to the next item. There might be a different strategy you need to incorporate. Sometimes music just needs to sit for a little bit. I’m amazed at the number of times we run through something, experience a train wreck, and come back to it a few weeks later with it sounding decent. The rehearsal should be about playing. Many directors – and I’ve been guilty – spend too much time talking. Aim for 90% playing. You don’t always have to explain what went wrong. Sometimes the comment can be, “I know you can perform that better – let’s do it again.” 

James is retired from full time teaching. He has served private, suburban, and Title 1 schools and now teaches half time at a charter school. Find out more about James at www.jamesdivine.net Subscribe to his podcast Almost Everything I’ve Learned About Teaching Band.

Have you ever wanted to teach improvisation to ALL students but you weren’t sure how? Check out www.jazzfromthestart.com for a curriculum to teach improv as soon as students know 5 notes.

Pre-order a copy of my latest book, Almost Everything I’ve Learned About Teaching Band coming out June 2025.

Jazz is my forte. Yet in my entire career I have worked with small – sometimes tiny – jazz bands. I have started jazz bands from scratch several times. Here are four strategies for working with a small jazz band.

#1 – Jamie Aebersold Play-Alongs
These have been around at least since the 1980s when I was in high school. It used to be LP Records, then CDs; now they are digital and online. These play-alongs have a recorded rhythm section that repeats a lot so you can practice improvisation. I have even used this as the accompaniment for very small jazz bands with no rhythm section. I just started a jazz band this year. We use play-alongs. Here’s a link. You can also search for “Name of song” + backing track on Youtube to find free rhythm section backing tracks.

#2 – Combos With 2-3 Parts

This works if you have a great rhythm section. The minimum for a rhythm section is a set player and a bass player. If you have just these 2, you can make anything else work, especially if you have at least one of each instrument. 

#3 – Wall Of Sound Arrangements

These are arrangements in which almost all instruments are playing at the same time. If you look at the score closely, a lot of doubling is happening. The bari sax is playing the same thing as the trombone. The 4th trumpet is playing the same thing as the 2nd tenor sax. In many advanced jazz band arrangements, every single individual has their own unique part. These usually don’t work well for programs in development as those arrangements sometimes feature the trumpet section for 16 measures, then the sax section, then the trombone section. The Wall of Sound arrangements feature everyone throughout the entire song. Many of these arrangements will also include parts for flute, Horn in F, baritone, and clarinet.

Don’t be afraid to ask students to double. Some of my best tenor players were actually clarinet doublers. I’ve also had a lot of success with flute players on trombone. 

 #4 – Improvise. A lot!

Call and Response. Start simple – make it harder as the students get better. Start with 2 notes. Keep adding notes until you have the entire scale. Teach them a blues scale. Improvise over 12 bar blues. Check out my curriculum Jazz From The Start.

Scales. Scales. More scales. Until they feel like a fish!

James is retired from full time teaching. He has served private, suburban, and Title 1 schools and now teaches half time at a charter school. Find out more about James at www.jamesdivine.net Subscribe to his podcast Almost Everything I’ve Learned About Teaching Band.

Have you ever wanted to teach improvisation to ALL students but you weren’t sure how? Check out www.jazzfromthestart.com for a curriculum to teach improv as soon as students know 5 notes.

Pre-order a copy of my latest book, Almost Everything I’ve Learned About Teaching Band coming out June 2025.

It’s normal to make mistakes. Here are the Top 13 Mistakes Director’s Make – and I’ve been guilty of all of them.

#13 – Not Planning Enough: You need to plan, plan, plan, have a calendar, whatever works for you. I need a visual calendar showing me a month at a time. I plan the entire year out. The longer I’ve taught the further out that I plan. As I write this it is November of 2024; I just printed out a 2026 calendar. I’m always the one begging HR for the next school year’s dates. I’m often asking in January! Sometimes I just needed to know the start date of the school year because everything was based on that. 

#12 – Not Using a Metronome: The Metronome doesn’t lie. Sometimes my clapping does. Sometimes stick clicking does. The metronome? Never. Don’t use it forever. Wean the students from it. Don’t use it the entire rehearsal. I tell my students that I hate it as much as they do. As soon as we can maintain a steady beat, I’ll quit using it. I tell them that it’s a tool that shows us where we’re wrong, and helps us to be better musicians. And they seem to understand.

#11 – Lack Of Classroom Management: Become a student of classroom management. I stunk at this my first two years of teaching. I studied. I improved. I called mentors. I observed master teachers. I became an expert.

When I was interviewing for my second position, one of the questions was, “It’s the day before the final concert. The kids are totally out of control, running across the stage, not doing anything they’re supposed to do. What would you do?” I was silent for a good 30 seconds mulling this over in my mind. I answered,”I would not have let it get to that point.” All the interview team was relieved! I found out later that was a real scenario from that school.  If something is not working, and you keep doing the same thing, that’s the definition of insanity. Find different strategies, look into what your colleagues are doing, have someone come in and observe. One caveat – if you have admin that don’t follow through on school-wide discipline, no technique or strategy will work very well.

#10 – Being either too rigid or too lax:  There’s a balance somewhere in the middle, where you can have fun with making music, you can have some fun with the students, while maintaining professionalism. I’ve seen some people who believe in a totally silent rehearsal the entire time. I don’t agree with it. Maybe it works for some. In my rehearsals, we have times where it’s really strict. Then we have times where it’s more relaxed. 

#9 – Bringing work home: When you leave school, you need to have a life outside of school and do something different besides teaching. I gave up teaching lessons for a while. Even though I could make really good money teaching lessons, it felt like a continuation of my school day. Now I perform quite a bit. And I enjoy that. That feels more like it’s a hobby, it’s something that I do, that’s totally different from what I do at school. I do not put school email on my phone. I can’t tell you the number of times I thought to myself, “I’ll check email before I go to bed”. There’s an email from an angry parent. I couldn’t sleep that night. 

#8 – Taking Student Behavior Or Quitting Personally: I’m in my 27th year of teaching, and I still struggle with this! I’m getting better at it. I’m developing a harder shell to where I’m not too bothered by it. What I’ve discovered is that almost every single time when a student has quit, it’s made the group better. It might not seem like it at first. But there’s a negative energy that the student who doesn’t want to be there brings, I personally try to do everything I can to keep the student. But if they decide they’re going, I just let them go. And then I don’t talk about it anymore. 

#7 – Replying To An Email From An Angry Parent Without Thinking: It’s so easy to hit reply and let our emotions pour through our fingertips. Strong emotions is what makes you a great music teacher.  But we have to be careful to keep that in check. Run your response by a colleague. I often run emails by my choir colleague, asking how does this response sound. She can help me tweak it a little bit and make it sound better. Sometimes just wait 12 hours to respond. I do this with discipline decisions for students as well. I’ll leave school and make a note to myself that that’s the first thing I’m going to think about when I get there the next day. I give myself 12 to 14 hours to sleep on it and think about it. Sometimes I calm down and realize that a gentler, more forgiving approach is going to work better than the harsh approach I initially was thinking of.

#6 – Not Knowing When To Shut Up: As a new teacher, I recorded my rehearsals a lot. I discovered there were times I was talking for half the rehearsal. INo, no, no, don’t do that. Can something be communicated with the baton? Do that instead. Train your students to watch the baton. When they’re not following, cut them and simply say, “Nope. Watch the baton.” You’re forcing them to watch instead of telling them what it is that you’re trying to get them to do.

Sometimes it’s knowing when to shut up when we’re dealing with a parent. Sometimes we just need to listen. I was in charge of the Solo & Ensemble festival. It was hosted at my school for about seven years. We were in a new building. For some reason it was not showing up on Google Maps. We were in a new building but we took the old name with us.  The old building became the middle school. GPS would send people to the old school, which was about a 15 minute drive away from the new school. Parents would show up late because they were misdirected. They were mad. They wanted to know who was in charge. Some of them would yell at me because the GPS took them to the wrong school. I have no control over the GPS! I learned to just listen to them. I Learned that what they were really worried about was that their child would still get to perform. I learned to say, “I’m so sorry that this has happened. Have your student go to the warm up area. We’re going to fit them into the schedule. When I learned to shut up and listen to what the real issue was, then the parents calmed down. 

Know when to shut up when dealing with your principal. When your principal is trying to give you feedback, it’s normal to get defensive and want to jump in and say something. Often principals don’t know exactly what we do. Think of it as you’re training your principal. 

#5 – Trying To Be Someone Else: Every program is different. Take things to the next level. Don’t compare. 

I once brought in a retired director from a highly regarded program as a guest. I was in my 1st year at a school in which the band program needed serious rebuilding. I was the 8th director in 7 years! He came for a 90 minute clinic. He spent 90 minutes on the first two measures of the song. Most of the students didn’t even get to get to play. Now I understand what he was doing. He was approaching it as if my band were like the band he just retired from. Instead he should have decided – as a clinician – let’s work on some bigger picture things like tone and balance. I was too young and inexperienced to ask him to approach it differently. Take the program from where it’s at today and make it better tomorrow.

#4 – Relating the number of hours spent at school to success: There is very little correlation! You can’t be lazy, leave at noon, take long lunches, not plan, not respond to emails and think you’re going to be successful because you’re not. You have to know that there’s a point where you need to turn off your computer, leave school, go home and do something different. I once taught at a school that was 30 minutes from home. My son attended that school. He was in wrestling. School ended at 3:00; wrestling practice ended about 6:30. I thought I’d get a lot of stuff done!

There came a point where my brain wasn’t functioning. I was staring at the screen, and nothing was working in my brain. Yes, I did get a lot done. The first hour. Then there came a point of diminishing returns. I would leave my desk, walk, watch movies, read – anything except school related stuff. 

#3 – Over programming: It’s better to do easy songs that the students can do well than to try to perform every song you thought was cool in college. Build to more difficult songs. Have easy songs and more difficult songs in the lineup.  

#2 – Underestimating the Importance of Relationships with EVERYONE: Non-music colleagues. Arts colleagues. Parents. The Secretary. She’s the one who submits your payment requests! The janitor. 

#1 – Letting Your Ego Get In The Way of Teaching Music: It’s all about what is best for the kids. That’s always been my guide! Not what is best for me or my ego. 

I hope that the top 13 Mistakes new directors make has helped you to avoid these mistakes.

James is retired from full time teaching. He has served private, suburban, and Title 1 schools and now teaches half time at a charter school. Find out more about James at www.jamesdivine.net Subscribe to his podcast Almost Everything I’ve Learned About Teaching Band.

Have you ever wanted to teach improvisation to ALL students but you weren’t sure how? Check out www.jazzfromthestart.com for a curriculum to teach improv as soon as students know 5 notes.

Pre-order a copy of my latest book, Almost Everything I’ve Learned About Teaching Band coming out June 2025.

We hear so much about doing the proper score study to prepare for instrumental ensembles. In my earlier years of teaching, I really struggled with it. No time. No energy. Through the years, I found a way to make it a little bit easier.

I sit down with my scores, a pencil, and a notebook. After a few years teaching experience, you start being able to anticipate where the problems will be in the music. I start writing the anticipated problems down. These become my “goals.” For example, it might look like this…

• Letter A clarinet rhythms
• Letter B tune the chord from the bottom up
• Measure 24, 1st trumpet has a high D that some students might not reach
• Measures 64-68 the woodwinds have 16th note runs

In about a half an hour to an hour of score study, I can get several pages worth of goals written down. I use those in my lesson planning. 

In my written lesson plans – some admin want you to go into way too much details – I simply list my warm-ups, my technique review (this is easier to plan/map out than rehearsal strategies as you are building skills throughout the year), and then the songs we will be working on. The specifics of the details are in the notebook. When I have had jobs that required me to submit lesson plans, I’ve included a copy of the notes I’ve written. All the admin I have worked for have been happy with that.

Now as I rehearse, the notes I’ve written become my to do list. I check them off as we master each item. I check it off so that I know we’ve completed that. At any moment, I know the next thing we need to work on. You probably have discovered that sometimes students will learn a rhythm or pick up on technique very quickly, something you thought would take 10 or 15 minutes. Other times the reverse happens, something you thought would be simple takes 10-15 minutes instead. This has made lesson planning so much easier! I don’t have to sit down every week and think about what I’m going to do with the students. I already have it planned out almost to the next concert.

James is retired from full time teaching. He has served private, suburban, and Title 1 schools and now teaches half time at a charter school. Find out more about James at www.jamesdivine.net Subscribe to his podcast Almost Everything I’ve Learned About Teaching Band.

Have you ever wanted to teach improvisation to ALL students but you weren’t sure how? Check out www.jazzfromthestart.com for a curriculum to teach improv as soon as students know 5 notes.

I soon tired of finagling with grades and trying to account for everything! Pencils, participation, pejorative looks.

Can you keep up with all of that? If so, great. It seemed too time consuming to me. My system has evolved over 26+ years of teaching and is VERY simple.

The “old” way of doing things is totally focused on math. It takes very little account of effort, a bad day, or huge improvement in a student’s abilities. 

I really like to look at grading in band as pass/fail. I know that’s not how our system works, but it works exceptionally well for coaches. And a percentage system is not really true to life.

Suppose you have your all at work Monday-Thursday, the students had your full attention, you worked through lunch, you dehydrated yourself so you didn’t even have to take a break to pee. But then on Friday you say to yourself, “I’ve worked hard all week. Today I’m going to kick back, read the paper, scroll through my social media, and take a long lunch. My boss will understand.” You’d be looking for a job after the first time of doing that. Why would you be fired? After all, four days of 100% followed by a fifth day of a big fat zero averages to 80%. Isn’t that a B-?

I tell students I’m looking for progress and improvement.

And I’m looking for them to take charge of their learning versus earning a specific score on an assignment. I tell them that – although band is not an easy A, it’s easy to get an A.

On performance assessments, I only give two grades – an A+ or a retake. I learned this from the soccer coach. Let’s compare a soccer coach to a math teacher.

The math teacher often teaches a new concept, assigns homework on that concept, then does this again over several day. After a few weeks, that math teacher gives a grade. The student who doesn’t understand the material receives their paper back marked with a D and thinks they stink at math. But watch what the soccer coach does.

The soccer coach teaches the students a new skill, how to drill the ball into the goal (forgive me if I’m not using proper soccer terminology). Then he lines the students up. They practice drilling into the goal. Thep practice some more. Then they practice more. The coach doesn’t wait two weeks, give the students a grade, then move on to the next concept. If there are some students not meeting the standard, they keep practicing drilling to the goal. They receive immediate feedback. They practice some more. They practice until they get it right.

I do give a grade for each performance, and I require a make-up for every missed performance. Do I ever excuse a performance? Yes, if a student tells me way in advance they are going to miss and they are normally a hard-working student, I excuse them. If a student who I know would never miss a concert has appendicitis and misses, I almost never give a make-up assignment. 

Here’s the make-up assignment I give.

I’ve been assigning this for nearly two decades and never has a student even attempted it. I don’t know about you, but usually the 1-2 students who skip a concert are already struggling in band, and those same students are struggling in all their classes. It’s not because of a lack of ability or anything. It’s because they don’t utlizie help from me or their other teachers, they don’t put forth any effort, and they often (not always) don’t have parents that issue consequences to them. Perform live and in-person – or record and submit to me – all the songs from the concert. I will grade it using the solo and ensemble rubric. Not once has anyone completed this assignment. It seems fair to parents. It seems fair to admin. It seems fair to the students.

What does your gradebook look like right now you might ask? I teach part time – 2 classes – and have 55 students total. There is one F, three Cs, and 51 As. The one F is a student who doesn’t care about anything, the three Cs care but are always playing catch up (and have several Fs in their other classes).

Keep grading simple. I no longer grade on whether a student has their pencil. I give one overall grade for participation, then each performance assessment and each concert is a grade.

James is retired from full time teaching. He has served private, suburban, and Title 1 schools and now teaches half time at a charter school. Find out more about James at www.jamesdivine.net Subscribe to his podcast Almost Everything I’ve Learned About Teaching Band.

Have you ever wanted to teach improvisation to ALL students but you weren’t sure how? Check out www.jazzfromthestart.com for a curriculum to teach improv as soon as students know 5 notes.

Marching Band should be a part of the program at all high schools.

Do you agree or disagree? Why? I have found that many who disagree have been hurt in the past by a school that has abused their time and led to burnout. 

Marching band adds to students’ lives in so many ways. I actually started a marching program from scratch at a high school I taught at, after being advised against it by many people. Here are three reasons why marching band is needed now more than ever before…

There are no benchwarmers

After graduation, students will increasingly find themselves working as part of a team in their careers. All members of a team must give 100% all the time for a team project to work! When one student is gone from marching band, it affects the whole team, just like in real life. If one person quits marching band, it affects the whole team. If one person gives less than 100%, it affects the whole team. Everyone participates. There are no benchwarmers in marching band. What great preparation for the post education world. 

Marching Band is a non-digital activity

Young people are spending more and more time in the virtual world, especially recently since the pandemic. This isn’t inherently bad. But like anything else, it takes practice to learn how to relate and interact with people. It takes time face to face to develop relationships. Experts say that more than 70% of communication is nonverbal. That’s why bad news in an email is not an effective way to communicate. Students do have their electronic devices out at times during breaks in marching band, but most of their interactions are face to face with their peers and with their coaches. They learn how to talk to people, how to express differences of opinion, and how to hold a meeting to deal with problems and issues that arise. 

Marching Band Helps Develop Leaders

Most of what I learned as a leader came from reading about leadership. I often had to jump right into a leadership position and learn on the job. I watched what bad leaders did and did the opposite. Students in marching band have a chance to develop and hone leadership skills in a safe environment. Almost everyone who wants to be a section leader is given a chance to do so after being in marching band a bit. Drum majors have more authority and responsibility but they have had a chance to prove themselves and make mistakes as section leaders. 

When I taught marching band, every start of the new season, my leaders would come back to help even though they had graduated. In what other endeavor do the former participants come to help voluntarily and share their experiences? Every one of my leaders who graduated came back to help at camp…every single one. I didn’t ask them to. They came because of what marching band did for them as people. What has marching band done for you?

Don’t let fear of the unknown keep you from starting or expanding a marching band. You’re the one in control. You set the rehearsals. You set the expectations.

Although we held our own and even made it to state one year, we were not the most prestigious marching band to be in. However, the students were smart.

“Mr. Divine, how come we can’t be like X High School?”

“We can be. Here’s their rehearsal schedule. Should we incorporate that schedule next year?”

“No way Mr. Divine. Let’s keep it how it is.”

James is retired from full time teaching. He has served private, suburban, and Title 1 schools and now teaches half time at a charter school. Find out more about James at www.jamesdivine.net Subscribe to his podcast Almost Everything I’ve Learned About Teaching Band.

Have you ever wanted to teach improvisation to ALL students but you weren’t sure how? Check out www.jazzfromthestart.com for a curriculum to teach improv as soon as students know 5 notes.

Add Some Spice To Your Rehearsal

Spices take something that already tastes decent and makes it just a little better. That’s what these ideas can do for your rehearsals. Don’t try to incorporate ALL of these ideas in one day. You’ll drive yourself crazy. Try one a week, or one a day, or one a month, or just the one or two that you like. 

Say Something Positive Every Time You Stop

We are so trained to look for the problems that we often focus on what is going wrong. The song could be almost perfect and the best that the band has ever played it, but we tend to focus on the one thing that went wrong. I have to fight against this all the time. Before jumping into correction think of something positive to say. 

Stay Off The Podium Two-Thirds Of The Time

This is my daily goal! I find myself failing at it all the time. I have to constantly remind myself to step off the podium. First, it gives us a chance to be closer to the students in the back. That’s where you often have discipline problems. Most of that is due to proximity to the teacher. If you’re walking around all the time, then the students don’t know at any moment where you’re at.  I teach beginners. Sometimes students who I thought had good posture from the front of the room, when I get behind them, I can see errors in their posture. 

Make One Comment About Tone To Every Section In The Band

What do they need to improve? More air? Clarinets, smile to make your embouchure tighter. Don’t do this every time you stop, but try to make one comment to every section during a class period. 

Use The Last 10 Minutes Of Rehearsal As A Run Through

In my rehearsals, we often focus on a concept, spend time practicing it, and work with deep concentration. A run-through helps dissipate some of that tenseness. It also allows you to hear whether the teaching stuck. I like to keep it going quickly. I don’t stop for in-depth teaching, but might stop if they completely rolled through something we had worked on. 

Learn Something New About One Student Each Day

This could be it’s own chapter about relationship building. It can be very interesting, especially at a title one school,  to find out about a family’s history or their family situation or their living situation.

Make Lots Of Eye Contact

We can get so buried in our score sometimes that we forget that we’re making an emotional connection with the students. They will know that we care when we’re making eye contact with them regularly. 

Engage The Entire Band
I once had a clinician – well known and respected – who spent an entire 90 minute class period working on measures 1-8 of the piece with my low brass section. I was too young to think I could ask him to move on. The band hated it. It can be easy to just with whatever section we’re working with. How do we engage others? Get them to clap. Get them to play “air instruments.” Sometimes I have my percussion players “air play” without actually hitting the drum head. 

Pick One Exercise To Play Faster and Faster

And faster and faster, all the way to the very end of class.This gives a chance for the advanced students to be challenged. I usually use the metronome when I’m using this technique. I start with a tempo that I know everybody can play. I keep increasing the tempo, lose a few, increase, lose, increase. I go until I lose everybody. Then we might try clapping it at the super, super fast speed and bring everybody back in. They realize it’s almost impossible to clap it at that tempo. It always makes for a lot of fun. It humbles many students who think they’re better and are always asking for increased tempo.  

I hope that these tips have helped add spice to your rehearsals.

James is retired from full time teaching. He has served private, suburban, and Title 1 schools and now teaches half time at a charter school. Find out more about James at www.jamesdivine.net Subscribe to his podcast Almost Everything I’ve Learned About Teaching Band.

Have you ever wanted to teach improvisation to ALL students but you weren’t sure how? Check out www.jazzfromthestart.com for a curriculum to teach improv as soon as students know 5 notes.

8 Strategies For Surviving

I absolutely love teaching! I love teaching music! But there have been MANY times I thought of leaving the profession. At those times, I had to dig deep and remember my calling. I’ve had to look at other jobs and think, “What would those be like,” ultimately deciding that I didn’t want one of those other jobs. Here are six tips for surviving the stress bubble of teaching.

Find a hobby

I love to perform. I love riding my bike around Colorado Springs on a warm day. I love to read and often get through 40+ books a year. However, for me, giving lessons is not a hobby. I can make a lot of money doing it, and have gotten back into it since retiring from full time teaching, but when I taught full time it felt too much like I would be carrying work home if I taught lessons. Find something you enjoy doing – it could be music related but might be better if it’s not – and get involved in that. It could be a sports team, karate, gardening, walking, cooking, playing chess, belonging to a Toastmasters club, camping, creating art – just about anything.

Set boundaries

Don’t put school email on your phone

Don’t bring work home

Don’t feel like you have to lead every activity happening at school

Don’t give out your personal phone number

Don’t connect to students on social media

Learn to say no

Leave when school is over

Exercise

This wasn’t always a priority with me. And because of that when I was 40, I weighed 30 lbs more than I do right now. The doctor wanted to start me on cholesterol and triglycerides reducing medicines. I knew I just needed to change my habits. I did, lost 30 lbs, and felt much better. There’s no right or wrong exercise. If you want to stay in this profession for a long time you have to keep your body moving. A one hour walk every day can work wonders for your sanity. My goal is to move 7-8 miles a day walking, jogging, or bike-riding.

Reflect On Your Priorities

One of mine is family. I’ve been married 38 years as of this writing and have 4 grown kids and 10 grandkkids (and counting). I occasionally take a day off to make a three day weekend so we can see our out of state grands. I once thought I couldn’t afford to be away. I left a job with over 100 sick days accumulated. Did they pat me on the back with a reward when I left? No, I basically got the boot. If I could go back, I would have taken many more days off.

Get together with others – in the band field and out of the band field

If your only circle of friends are other band teachers, you’re not expanding your horizons enough. I’ve learned so much from English teachers, and History teachers, and mostly from Coaches. One of the most important lessons I learned was from Coach White. He coached soccer and taught History. Our discipline styles were totally different…

Me as I handed out a detention…(nasally voice and extremely emotional)…”Didn’t I tell you about a million times that if you didn’t follow instructions you were going to get in big trouble and have to suffer the consequences? Why didn’t you do what you were supposed to? Look what’s going to happen now. You have a detention and it’s all because you didn’t do what you were supposed to.” This usually created high anxiety in me and the student.

Coach as he handed out a detention…(calm, quiet voice)…”I told you if you did X you’d get a detention. Here’s your slip. Now let’s go play basketball.” This usually kept him and the student calm and preserved the relationship.

Have some friends you hang out with – teachers or not – that you get together and DON’T talk about teaching.

Don’t take things kids say too seriously

I’ve been called all sorts of names…Stupid, Racist, Ugly.

I’ve been told my breath stinks. 

I’ve even been accused of trying to kill a student by her mom. (I had ordered pizza and served it to the students. The place I ordered pizza from had small slivers of sunflower seeds on the pizza – who does that. Mom said I KNEW about the seeds, KNEW her daughter was allergic, and purposely tried to get her to eat the pizza because I wanted her dead).

Sometimes there are consequences to things students say, but I try not to take it personally. I care and love all my students no matter what they’re going through or have done. I respect their right to disagree with me, and even to share that respectfully. I treat them the same no matter what their grade in band or their personal opinion of me.

Get enough sleep

I don’t know how I became this way. But ever since I was young, I always made sure I got enough sleep. And when I would go to army schools, minus basic training, of course, there would be students who would stay up late studying because they wanted to make sure that they could pass all their classes. We often slept in these big bays, where there were 12 bunk beds. You just shared a room and it was noisy, and the lights were always on. It was hard to sleep. 

I would put in my earplugs, put the pillow over my head and go to bed at nine o’clock. My classmates would ask, “How can you go to bed?  You know we need to study. How are you going to pass the test?”. I figured that if I slept well, then I could pay better attention in class. It’s not that I didn’t study I just didn’t stay up late studying. Almost every course that I went to in the army, I ended up being on the Commandant’s list top 20% of students. It must have been beneficial! Our brain functions better when we get enough sleep. It helps us to not be irritable and grouchy. Iif you’re irritable and grouchy that can have really negative effects on your relationships to students, admin and your significant other. Make sure you get enough sleep. 

Caffeine is not a replacement for lack of sleep. You can have the occasional times where you miss out on sleep. But you can’t make that a lifestyle and expect to have good health. I need seven hours a day. My wife needs about 10 hours a day. How do you tell how much sleep you need? Spend about a week going to bed at the same time each night while not setting an alarm. However many hours you sleep is about how much your body usually needs.

Listen to beautiful music every day

My favorite – anything by Yo Yo Ma.

Dr. South was one of my professors in my master’s program. He said sometimes we forget why we got into this field. Personally, I like to put on some beautiful music, lay down, close my eyes and listen to it. No analysis. No thinking about it. No conducting. Just letting it flow into your spirit. 

Hope these strategies help!

James is retired from full time teaching. He has served private, suburban, and Title 1 schools and now teaches half time at a charter school. Find out more about James at www.jamesdivine.net Subscribe to his podcast Almost Everything I’ve Learned About Teaching Band.

Have you ever wanted to teach improvisation to ALL students but you weren’t sure how? Check out www.jazzfromthestart.com for a curriculum to teach improv as soon as students know 5 notes.

Spend some time on your resume’ (but not too much). Some of this may depend on what point you are at in your career, but generally speaking, prospective employers don’t care that…

• You led your kindergarten class in number of pennies raised for haircuts for vets
• You were the section leader in your junior high band
• That you worked for McDonalds January-February, Wendys March-April, BK May-June and then quit to become a lifeguard July-August

They might care that…

• You worked for McDonalds for 5 years, eventually becoming shift manager
• You were section leader grades 6-10. Your junior high director was so impressed she brought in in for the next three school years to teach after school lessons.

What they care about the most…

• What do you bring to the table for their needs
• Are you going to be committed or is this just a stepping stone

Have an expert look at your resume’. When I say expert, I mean someone who has to look at hundreds of them a week because they work in HR, or a friend who is a principal and has an idea of what to look for. Many openings – unfortunately – don’t even give you an opportunity to provide a resume’. You fill out a nameless, faceless online application.

The good news (or bad depending on your reputation) is that most jobs are obtained because you know someone who knows someone and they put in a good word for you. I have taught at four schools. Here’s how that looked for me.

1st school – principal was my neighbor; his daughter was a teen and watched our young kids; he knew I was a musician and asked me to apply when they had an opening.

2nd school – the dad of one of the kids I taught at school #1 was a math teacher at this school; he knew I was considering leaving, encouraged me to apply, and put in a good word.

3rd school – a principal friend of mine knew I was looking; she was friends with the music coordinator of the district and put in a good word for me.

4th (current school) – I found this job on Indeed. Everything lined up (and God opened the doors) for me to fill this role that is perfect for me at this point in my career (retired from full time teaching; hired to start a band program from scratch; teach half time here).

Actually God was looking out for me in all the positions, but the story of that might fill an entire small book.

Job-Hunting Math: 30 to 6 to 3 to 1

I am surprised by the number of people who tell me, “I applied at my dream job a few weeks ago and haven’t heard back from them yet.” Sometimes they even talk about quitting the profession. No! Don’t. There are several things wrong in that short statement.

#1 There is no dream job. There are jobs that are better than others. Often – through hard work, perseverance, and bravery – you can make a job into more of what you want.

#2 One application, or 5, or 9, is not enough!

In 2005 and in 2018, I found myself looking for a new position. Both times the math was almost identical.

• I applied to 30+ positions
• I was invited to interview for 6 of those
• Out of those, I was offered the job at 3 places
• I picked one and served for many years

In every position I’ve held, I have been stretched out of my comfort zone.

Keep your normal routine. Eat well. Sleep well. Exercise. Try not to be discouraged. Check out each and every available job board, including the actual district sites as well. Some places post everywhere, some only on one or two. Checking the job boards twice a day is probably enough.

And don’t be afraid to possibly take that last minute position that opens up right when school starts.

At my 2nd school, I was the 8th director in 7 years. When I told my colleagues I was accepting the job, many of them said, “Are you sure you want to go there? It seems to be a career ender.” I was able to grow the program exponentially and (mostly) enjoyed my 13 years there. I was planning on finishing my career there. Unfortunately the last few years became toxic.

Good luck, or as they say in Italy In bocca al lupo (into the mouth of the wolf).

James is retired from full time teaching. He has served private, suburban, and Title 1 schools and now teaches half time at a charter school. Find out more about James at www.jamesdivine.net Subscribe to his podcast Almost Everything I’ve Learned About Teaching Band.

Have you ever wanted to teach improvisation to ALL students but you weren’t sure how? Check out www.jazzfromthestart.com for a curriculum to teach improv as soon as students know 5 notes.

Guest Post by Gary Barton

Though heterogeneous beginning band means that all instruments are being taught simultaneously in one room, the scenario may not be the same from school to school.  Some schools have mixed instrument classes but more than one teacher may be assigned. I have seen classes with just one teacher, but other directors may come in periodically or contract teachers may be utilized. If the teacher gets help, no matter how little, the situation is different from the truly one-teacher class, the class where students have never met another director.

Disclaimer: While I believe that the like-instrument class is the best way to teach, this is not always possible and some of the best programs are started by one teacher working alone. If there is only one director and the closest people who can help are great distances away, even good budget resources may be of little help. A school district with one band director is common in some parts of every state. Some would say that you must constantly advocate for help and I totally agree, but what to do before that happens?

Embrace What You Have

If you really think your situation is impossible and you teach with that mindset, then you have defeated yourself before you start. Consider what is good. If you have a schedule that allows plenty of time to teach and there aren’t built-in obstacles to recruiting, there is your starting point. If you don’t have these in place, then you must confront this problem before you can build numbers in your program, as increased enrollment is the only way administrators will consider hiring more staff. While you are growing your student numbers, there are ways to teach the mixed-instrument class effectively.

The Biggest Worry: Getting Started

As I read posts in groups on social media, I most often see concerns about keeping all students engaged while getting everyone started on their instruments. Assembly, maintenance, accessories, hand position, even how to pick the instrument up and how to lay it down can be daunting when all are anxious to get started. I have a simple solution: all students must be engaged in every part of the class. 

Students in the most effective band rehearsals are aware of every part of the process. They are learning how all parts work together, how their parts support and balance other instruments. I tell the students that we are like a team. Every player on a baseball team must understand the role of the pitcher, the shortstop, the catcher. Every football player must know the job of the quarterback. I compare us to a play. Actors must know the lines of other actors in order to know when to say their own lines. The best place to begin this standard is the beginning class. Develop the culture that it is “beginning BAND”, instead of “beginning flute” or “beginning trumpet”.

At the very beginning, students are excited about all the instruments, not just the one they are going to play. Instead of trying to find something to keep the other students busy while you are working with one instrument group, engage every student with that instrument. Start with the clarinet as it is the most complicated assembly. If possible, provide every student with a clarinet. The clarinet players can use their own instrument while others use school inventory. This is a great way to use old unrepairable instruments that may be around your district. All students learn how to apply cork grease, assembly, even how to properly set up the mouthpiece and reed and how to swab and store the instrument. The reeds are not going to be played, so just save a bunch of old reeds for practice assembly.  Continue this with all the instruments while pointing out any similarities from instrument to instrument. You’ll find that the more the students understand all the instruments the more they will be engaged in the class.

They All Have Their Instruments Ready! Now What…?

Begin teaching proper hand position and posture. You must insist that every student is paying attention. Teach small pieces of information and repeat until mastery is near. Teach left hand placement on the woodwinds, brass hand position. Model and repeat these until all fingers are where they should be on all instruments. Teach embouchure and those first sounds the same way you would in a like-instrument class, the difference being that you must use smaller information bites, keep the energy high, and move quickly from instrument to instrument. Repetition and review are imperative, and small bites of information and exercises are more easily drilled than large, lengthy concepts. Once everyone is playing a tone on their instrument, the following are some things I found that really work:

1. Play long tones, four beats of sound and four beats of silence, every day. You may not be able to start on the ideal note for each instrument, but long tones are a must. Concert D and concert F work well at the beginning. 
2. Knowledge of the keyboard will make introducing flat and sharp notes much easier. Explain the black and white keys, how they work with each other. It will be so much easier  on that day when you introduce F# after they have been playing F for months. Use the term “enharmonic” daily. A little keyboard drill for two minutes each day will eliminate many questions.
3. Model each instrument as much as possible. If you are uncomfortable on an instrument, model that one often. By the end of the year you will play it as well as your students. Move around the room. Beginning band doesn’t need a podium.
4. Rhythm is a concrete. It doesn’t change from instrument to instrument. Drill your rhythm vocabulary daily using your board at the front of the room, rhythm charts, and the musical exercises in your book. Use the same vocabulary that your high school directors will be using. This is not an option.
5. Scales can be introduced as early as you like. If the class meets every day, concert F, Bb, Eb, and Ab, at least one octave, are possible as a minimum in a mixed setting. The maximum is up to you. Next to good tone, scales are the greatest gift you can give your beginners.
6. If you are using a class band method book, start at the very beginning each day for the first weeks. On Fridays for the first semester, I always started at the beginning of the book and reviewed what we had learned so far. The kids love doing this and realizing their progress. I was fortunate to have several sets of different band methods. After Christmas, I would use one on Fridays. Having the students use a different book, starting from the beginning, fills in gaps and is great sight-reading practice.
7. There is no magic band book. If you have learned a book, learned what exercises strengthen your students, simply live with that book. I knew a gentleman who used the same band method book for forty-two years. His middle school band played at the Midwest Clinic three times.
8. A separate percussion class is needed, but that may not be possible. If percussion is included, the keyboard percussion must be the emphasis. If good keyboard skills are in place, battery percussion can be developed. Emphasize the total percussion concept.

Accept that some things may not happen in the mixed setting. The many woodwind fingerings may be difficult and comprehensive percussion skills may be lacking a bit, but good tone and rhythmic stability should not suffer at all. Those two things alone would make many high school band directors happy. Long tones and short bites of vital information and repetition will bring your heterogeneous class a long way.

Gary Barton retired from the La Porte, Texas Independent School District after 37 years of teaching in 5 states. He received the Bachelor of Music Education from the University of Louisiana-Monroe and the Master of Science in Education from Indiana University. A Past President of the Arkansas School Band and Orchestra Association and Past 2nd Vice President of the National Band Association, he has written for numerous publications and has done clinics and presentations in 16 states. He may be reached at bartonglp@gmail.com

In 1986 I attended the Army School of Music or – as we affectionately called it – The Pool of Mucus. It was a great time for me, although it was also a very busy time. I started school in October 1986, was married in December of 1986, and was determined to “advance out”, to finish early and go to my first band assignment at Fort Lee, Virginia. I did advance out in mid-February of 1987. 

Recently I was visiting my in-laws in Virginia Beach, Virginia, and went to the Little Creek Naval Amphibious base for an early morning run and for the memories.

I actually “grew up” right outside NAB Little Creek. My step father was in the navy and we lived in housing. There was a time when a gate led right onto base – you didn’t have to show an id or anything. Those days are gone. Here’s a picture of where I lived from 1982-1986.

I knew every nook and cranny of that base – at least within a couple of miles of the housing. I spent many hours in the BX, at the putt-putt course, in the movie theater, at the McDonalds – all before I ever joined the Army. I often went by the dining facility and could smell bacon and eggs cooking, not realizing one day I would get to eat there myself. Here’s a picture of the place.

After I joined the army and actually ate there, I realized the smells were better than the tastes (although the food was actually decent). Navy mess halls are split by rank. There’s an E-1 to E-3 area, E-4 to E-6, and a CPO (Chief Petty Officer) section. After many years, I returned to the SOM for an advanced course and got to eat in the CPO section. It was the same food, but with tablecloths on the tables.

The main action we saw as students was in Building 3602, a three story building full of classrooms and rehearsal areas. I never went to a “normal” music college. I enjoyed my time at the SOM. Many music college graduates did not like the way the Army taught theory and counting, but I now wonder if it’s just because it was not the way they were used to. I was fine with their methods. The day was full of theory, ear-training, ensemble rehearsal, and marching band. Most of what I know now and what I still use as a musician came from what I learned at the SOM. A few unusual memories…

• The great antique instrument showcase the navy had on display on the first floor.
• The cockroaches – specifically the ones that lived/worked/ate in the coffee machine on the first floor. I never was desperate enough to get a cup of joe from that machine
• The endless “chits” you had to put in for any request. I don’t know if that stood for something, but it was a form the navy used for almost all requests.

Some pictures of the main building…

Across the street was a bowling alley and Jimmy’s Pizza, where we often hung out if we had some free time in the evenings after individual practice. Jimmy’s is no more.

Although I never lived there, Shields Hall holds many memories. Most of those memories are not good.I escaped having to live there through a loophole – since I lived less than a mile away AND I was getting married a few months after I started, I put in a “chit” to request to live off-base with my parents and avoid the barracks. It was approved.

When I was at the SOM, we had drill sergeants assigned to us. The grass in front of Shields was where we did about 1,000 sit-ups and push-ups a day – all the way to total muscle failure. Every. Single. Day. Sidenote about Shields Hall. At one point, there were beer vending machines in the day room.

(outside of Shields Hall) 

After total muscle failure, we would embark on a run in the humidity of Norfolk, Virginia, in the summer, in the afternoon! Our run often took us by the golf club.

(picture of the golf club – it hasn’t changed much)

I remember when my main goal in life was to land a job at the club. My mom told me the tips were great. I applied and visited the HR people many times but was never hired. Probably because I was too young to serve alcohol.

Sometimes our route also took us by the CPO Club. It  looks as though it has not changed much. As a kid, this was forbidden territory! It was for adults. Even when I became an adult, it was still forbidden. I was only an E-4 when I went to my first course at the SOM. I was an E-6 when I returned for my 2nd course (BNCOC in the army). It was still forbidden… you had to be an E-7 to enter. What magical things happened on the other side of those doors? What great experiences were to be had in those closed areas? What delights awaited those privileged enough to enter? I got to find out when I attended ANCOC (the advanced course) and was finally privileged enough to enter.

I went one night with anticipation of what awaited me. I swung open the door and entered. What did I find? A dark, skanky, greasy bar area that I had no desire to spend time at! It was over 20 years of anticipation for nothing!

(outside of the CPO club)

Finally our run took us to the private beach area on NAB Little Creek. This area contained many memories. In the past, there was a huge covered picnic area that could hold groups of a hundred or more. There was a snack bar that mom worked at. My sister and I would spend the day at the beach. We could go anytime we wanted to get an ice-cream cone at the snack bar at no cost to us – and probably illegally. Mom gave us money to pay, but when we tried to pay, whoever was working the register would say, “Your mom told me she’s paying me later,” and scoot us away. That’s how all the kids of the snack bar employees were treated. 

(this is where the huge pavilion used to be)

On another morning, I ran along the Virginia Beach oceanfront. Here are a couple of pictures:

Midway through my time at the Pool of Mucus, I married my bride, my HS sweetheart, my best friend. We celebrated 38 years last month. We spent our honeymoon at the New Cavalier hotel, which has since been torn down. The picture below is of the historic Cavalier, which is still standing. I was SO excited because our honeymoon suite included a free continental breakfast. Doesn’t that sound like a big breakfast? I was saddened to find out it meant a croissant and juice. That’s not breakfast. That’s a snack.

I received a great music education from the SOM. Here I am 38 years later working full time in the same career I started back in 1986. I feel blessed. Many people tolerate their jobs for the check. I love what I do!

James retired from the Army Band in 2006. He retired from full time teaching in 2023, but he is in no way “retired.” James continues to teach half time at a charter school. He spends the rest of his time performing, creating curriculum like www.jazzfromthestart.com and sharing the speaking stage with Billy Bob Joe, his 105 year old saxophone. Together they help you realize that – although you may be scratched, dented, and abused – like Billy Bob – God can still use you to play a beautiful symphony to the world. Find out more at www.jamesdivine.net.    

Three community members in a two month period!

A couple of years ago, we lost the district superintendent. She was hit while riding her bike – and many in our community witnessed it happening! Shortly after, a student was killed in a car accident. Soon after that, a student committed suicide. WE got the word about the third community member  passing while in jazz band rehearsal.

The counselors sent us a statement to read. A grief team was in place. It was a very difficult class period. The students talked about it, sharing stories, feelings, and just letting their grief go. Of course the lesson plans for that day went out the window.

I asked the students if they wanted to talk more or if they wanted to play music. Unanimously they chose playing music. We didn’t stop to rehearse or anything; we simply played through a bunch of songs we were already familiar with. In some ways, it was some of the best playing they had done. The emotions were coming out through the music.

The previous summer, an entire family – mom and three kids – had perished in a terrible car accident. Dad was not on the trip. Two of those students were part of my 20 member string orchestra. On the first day of school, the counselors and a grief dog came to my class. We shared stories about the students, cried, and poured out our hearts. The students wanted to dedicate the next concert to their fallen classmates and wanted to raise money to put up a plaque in the rehearsal room – which they eventually did. This was all student led and directed. I was proud of them!

When one particular student passed, there was a candlelight vigil held. It was organized by students and led by students. Admin had been told that they could not take the lead on anything like that, nor could they dent students access to the grounds who wanted to lead. Unfortunately – what happened was that one student had a vigil and another had none. Students – and some parents – blamed the school. In my case, because I had made no mention on social media of the two kids in my orchestra who had passed away, many students thought I didn’t care. (Side note, I no longer connect to students on social media, but at that time we had an unofficial band page that I led). Once it was explained to them that different people handle grief differently, they understood. Be prepared for many misunderstandings and hurt feelings. Address the issue if at all possible, taking care that many drive differently. Get advice from the school counselor as well.

Allow the kids to process differently…

• Some act out
• Some withdraw
• Some immerse in nature
• Some immerse in books
• Some immerse in music
• Some want to talk
• Some don’t want to talk
• Some want to sit by themselves
• Some want to talk to a counselor
• Some don’t want to talk to a counselor

A band mom once passed away, leaving her husband and two daughters in grief. One of those daughters was in marching band. She was not in school for several days. However, the day after her mom passed, she came to practice just to be with her “family.” We took a pause in rehearsal and comforted her. Marching band recorded our own version of amazing grace that was played via video at the memorial service. It was our way of processing the grief!

Remember that it’s ok to cry. It’s ok to want to speak to a counselor. It’s ok for the students to see you cry. And if you’re a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ – or even if you’re not – prayer can be very healing and comforting.

Losing a life is NEVER easy. You and your students will come through this. You can then reflect on the good memories of the life that was lost.

James Divine is a retired band teacher. He still teaches half time at a charter school, spending the other half leading Professional Development and creating curriculum like Jazz From The Start to teach jazz and improv to young students. Get an early edition of his book Almost Everything I’ve Learned About Teaching Band.

A Master’s Degree does not have to cost a fortune. I earned mine for less than $9,000 at www.swosu.edu

NO, it wasn’t when dinosaurs roamed the earth. I completed a master’s at the age of 45 in 2012.

Read more in this article.

www.jamesdivine.net

www.jazzysaxman.com

Warning! 

Don’t try to change everything when you are new to the position. Listen to the “why things are done this way” of your community. There may even be a reason to keep a “bad” tradition for a time.

When I started at my 2nd school, I noticed that there were absolutely no traditions to speak of – except one which I detested. I was informed by the older students that “the band director brings a bunch of candy for the pep band when we play at the football games.” This tore my heart out! But it was their only tradition, so I reluctantly continued it, even though it went against everything I believed in about kids eating while they are playing.

I immediately worked at creating new traditions. My second year, I told them we were discontinuing the candy tradition, I told them why (and why I had kept it) and explained to them now we have these other traditions. They groaned about it at first, but then bought into it.

Sometimes you have to put up with a tradition that just doesn’t jive with you because it is tradition. Creating a great culture means loving and caring about PEOPLE and creating your own TRADITIONS that reflect your personality and the group as it is today, not what it was ten years ago. And it’s okay to get rid of traditions that have outlasted their time.

Reinstitute awards (or create awards)

I noticed at this same school that there had been a longstanding tradition of awarding the major recognition awards, like the Louis Armstrong Jazz Award, the John Phillip Sousa award, and more. I noticed there had been a gap of about 8 years in awarding these (I was the 8th new director in 7 years). I created a written criteria to be eligible for the awards and then began issuing them out at our yearly pot-luck awards banquet (which was a new tradition I had started). Many groups have an awards banquet that costs too much with terrible food. I decided to make mine a potluck so it would allow everyone to attend.

I also taught an orchestra class and created an award specifically for an orchestra student.

Many of these awards had names that went back into the 1980s. I started teaching there in 2005. When I ran out of space on the plaque, I took off one of the names to add the new name and thought nobody would notice. It turned out someone did – our head custodian had graduated from that school and his cousin’s name was the one I removed. I added it back and sent profuse apologies his way. I had a local engraving shop create an inexpensive “add-on” to the plaque. It was just a square piece of wood that he attached to the bottom of the wall plaque with an attractive chain that added an additional 20 spaces for names. 

A few more traditions we created…

• Pizza at every home game: The students paid for this themselves. At first I collected the money, I ordered the pizza, I picked up the pizza. Eventually I assigned this to one of my student leaders.
• Water balloon fight the last day of marching band camp: Loads of fun! We set the expectation from the start that if you participate, you also help clean up all the broken balloons. Half the balloons were aimed at me!
• Head shave challenge: I told the students if marching band made it to state or if the concert band made all Superior ratings at festival, they could shave my head. They made the goal twice in 13 years.
• Brownies: In beginning band, I have a karate system in place for achievement. When every single person completes the requirements for a belt, I make brownies. I have become an expert at making brownies. I’ve used this tradition for 7 years now and have 100% achievement, and my standards for passing are high. Students help each other and the students who still can’t pass see me for help.
• A snack every day: During the pandemic, I had one class that met in the afternoon. It only had 3-4 students and they all worked hard every day. I ended up bringing them a snack every day. It was our tradition. I’ll probably never do that again, but it was all boys, several hours after lunch, a 90 minute class, and they were hungry.
• Jazzy Sax Man Live: I often perform at my school. At one location, that looked like playing short ditties in the hall during passing period. At my current school, it involves playing 3 songs at every lunch (K-5 each have their own lunch and then middle school) once a month. I’m exhausted by the end, but the kids appreciate it and it actually helps with recruiting.

James Divine is a retired band teacher. He still teaches half time at a charter school, spending the other half leading Professional Development and creating curriculum like Jazz From The Start to teach jazz and improv to young students. Get an early edition of his book Almost Everything I’ve Learned About Teaching Band.

Teaching a Brand New Drum Major

The first and most important thing is to teach the drum major how to sound a roll off, usually in conjunction with the drummers. Here’s a decent example of a roll-off. Have your drummers learn a cadence. When the drum major wants the band to play, he/she will blow a long sound on the whistle. The drummers will pay attention to that and when they get to the end of that eight bar segment of cadence, they will sound the roll off like you hear on the video. The sequence looks like this.

• Band is marching forward.
• At the very start of the cadence, drum major extends hands upwards and sounds long blast on whistle.
• At the end of the 8 measures, the drummers sound the roll-off sequence.
• Basically the sequence goes like this…
  • 1       2          3              4          5,6                     7              8
  • Dun dun – crash – dun dun – crash – roll for 2 beats – dun dun – crash
  • The numbers represent the beats
  • The crashes represent cymbal crashes (and also where the wind instruments will snap)
  • When the musicians are new, the crashes symbolize literal crashes between musicians (just kidding)
  • The very next beat is the downbeat of the song

Practice having the drum major give the command on your cue, and change it up. If you have a brand new program, you might get a drum major who hesitates too long. This happened to me early on in our marching band program when it was new. I overcame this by having the drum major give the command for roll-off 30-40+ times. Eventually I stop giving the cue and I instruct the drum major that “”I’m the reviewing stand – make sure you are playing when you reach me.” Then I move to various points ahead of the band.

The track (if available) is a great place to practice parade marching. If you have safe streets near the school, actual street marching is the best. It’s more real and little kids will come out to see what’s going on (and be motivated to join band).

Where Does The Director Go

This may be mostly personal preference. Here are a few possibilities:

• Traditional: create a file to the right of the first row of the band that is just you. This is what I did in the Army and what I did when I first started teaching marching band. You march with the band, in step with the band, and become part of the band unit. I quit doing this after a while because it felt too formal.
• Informal: now I walk alongside the band – I don’t try to stay in step with them; I’m usually slightly ahead. From there, I interact with the audience; I give kids high fives; I see and hug people I haven’t seen in a long time who recognize me.

Regardless of which option you choose, it’s your job to monitor the students. If it’s hot, watch them for signs of heat exhaustion. If it’s cold, watch for a student who is shivering uncontrollably. You end up finding out you have two kinds of students. “Slacker Man” complains about everything that is a little difficult.

Slacker Man: Mr. Divine, this clarinet is too heavy to carry for the parade.

Mr. Divine: No it’s not. Have you tried the bass drum?

This is the minority of students in band in my experience. The other type is Superman.

Mr. Divine: You look like you’re about to fall under the load of that bass drum. We’ve been going 3 miles, it’s 108, and you ran cross country this morning. Do you need a break?

Superman: No Mr. Divine; I’m good to go.

You watch for heat exhaustion in their faces, in their steps, in their eyes. It’s hard to explain, but you end up being able to tell when a student is getting close.

I had my flag and percussion coaches follow the band. They would pick up any sticks, uniform parts, or anything else students dropped and – if needed – stay with a student who has dropped out (or more likely who I have made to drop out).

What Should The Director Wear?

Once again, this is an item of personal preference. In my opinion, the director should be one level higher than the students. Nothing bothers me more than when I have seen directors in shorts and t-shirt when their students are in full wool uniforms. Are students in shorts and t-shirts? You can be in slacks and a polo shirt. Are students in full, hot uniforms? Time to get the suit and tie out. Wear a hat! It helps cut the heat from the sun.

Don’t Be THAT Director

I’ve gone through the whole gamut of marching band. I was in the parade in high school. I was in the parade in the Army Band. I watched the parade when my kids were in high school. I led the students when I taught high school. Now my hope is to be in the reviewing stand someday!

Don’t be THAT director, the one who follows his students as they are marching and is constantly trying to correct their feet, or align the rows and columns. It’s too late on parade day! I have never seen a band be better because of this last minute correction. It brings everyone’s attention to the problem, creates stress for the director, and leaves the students feeling STRESSED OUT. Relax, enjoy, be calm. Fix the step later. 

And Don’t Wear These Shoes

It was the early 1990s. I was in the army band stationed in Japan. We had a parade, and I had a pair of new Corfam shoes – those really shiny dress shoes we wear when dressed up in the army. I could FEEL them starting to cut into the area above my heel. The pain kept getting worse until finally, the blister popped and the blood flowed freely. Ah, with the lubrication provided by the blood, the pain went away! After the parade, I was able to pour some blood out of my shoes.It took two weeks to heal completely. Don’t wear new shoes in a parade!

James Divine is a retired music teacher. He still teaches half time at a charter school, spending the other half leading Professional Development and creating curriculum like Jazz From The Start to teach jazz and improv to young students. Get an early edition of his book Almost Everything I’ve Learned About Teaching Band.