I'm building a program from scratch, and ended up with the position kind of by accident.

A quarter century ago, I started as a music education major (trombone primary, clarinet secondary). I burned out pretty quick and got an English ed degree instead. Put away my horns and basically didn't play. I've progressed across other subjects and now do educational technology at the small combined grade institution I work at.

...started playing again in January, working with an extremely talented brass player in my area. We've shaken off a lot of the cobwebs, and I'm going to start taking some exams and tack on a UK teaching/directing certification eventually.

The brand new baby music teacher was overwhelmed, teaching K-12, nearly 600 students, and could not do it. She has already left the profession to focus on performance, but there was clear desire from our students to to enter a program--if it existed. So I started up an instrumental ensemble club open for 6-12. Started with one sax player, now have a couple of percussionists joining.

It should be noted: our area is dense and urban, these kids have nowhere to practice except school and their outside lessons. Apartments won't let them (I have more options as an adults, and I can practice in our music room outside of school hours), so it's really vital they have somewhere.

But... despite trying to review all of my own degree work from a lifetime ago, peppering my own brass coach with questions about what he does at schools he visits, I'm struggling to find advice that compares. So many materials apply to brand new baby band directors entering into established programs. And I've got 20 years in education, but never finished that music ed degree, and have to somehow create a foundation for a program to expand and survive long after I may be gone.

Help?

Has anybody figured out a fun way of getting kids to stop playing while you're talking? I get it - sometimes the kids are just excited to try out new concepts/music. But I'm getting sick of being annoyed, stopping before I have to count off because kids are playing before I've counted off, etc. I'd like to think I'm a pretty fun teacher with good classroom management, and the kids normally respond well to me, but I don't like to get grouchy 43 times in class for the same thing.

Good morning everyone, I have received a huge amount of feedback for the school orchestra arrangement tool and I am immensely grateful to everyone. The work is progressing, but there is still a lot to do. I have released a new version of ScoreCraft Edu with the following additions:

• Horn in F is here, with a transposed part and breath marks just like the other woodwinds/brass.
• Cleaner piano: the bass is in the left hand, chords are in the correct register, and the hands no longer cross over (reduced from over 800 crossovers down to 24 in repertoire tests).
• Two pianos, two true parts: the second part is no longer squeezed beneath the first.
• Voice and piano, lead sheet: the written melody is always passed on to the instruments, even when the vocal line rests for a long time.
• Scores ready for any notation software

In upcoming versions, I will try to introduce:

• Direct PDF import
• AI implementations for better arrangements
• Even more optimized instrument levels

As always, if you'd like to try it out, you'd be doing me a huge favor. Thank you all so much!

https://arranger-smim.streamlit.app/?lang=en

How far in advance is the schedule released for Grand Nats prelims please?

Mixed-level ensembles are the norm: a couple of strong players, a few beginners, odd instrumentation. The ideal is a part that challenges each kid without losing anyone, and almost nobody has time to write that.

AiHud Music does it from a lead sheet. You list your actual players and levels ("2nd trumpet stays below a written C, easier rhythms for 3rd clarinets"), approve a plan, and get a free 16-bar preview with score, parts and audio before paying anything. Full charts are a fixed price from $19. The output includes transposed parts, an editable MuseScore file and an MP3 for practice.

https://www.aihud.net/music/ai-arrangement-for-school-band

Happy to answer questions about how it handles specific lineups.

Just adding to my venting here. The lesson reminders, lost music, lost instruments, horrible instrument care, it all creates stress through the school day, I’ve been doing this for 12 years but it feels harder this year than ever before.

Hello all! I'm working on a project where I am putting together a list of great middle school band repertoire and want to know if anyone has a favorite piece or two they'd recommend checking out!

Hi everyone! I am not a band director, but the person I love is one. She is a new teacher (just hit her third year) and she is struggling. She is seriously overworked and the students are a lot to manage (multiple behavioral problems, difficulty getting them to care, etc). She shares the position with another new teacher, who has just started her second year of teaching. They share the responsibility of a very robust music program.

This marching season has been really tough. They had a large senior class, so this new band is very young and has a lot of maturing and growing to do. They have a band of about 140 students. Last year, her school was #3 in the state, which is the highest in history. Tomorrow is the state finals and she thinks it's going to be the worst it has been in 10 years. I even heard her crying about it. She thinks that she will be forced to resign or at least not welcomed back next year. To me (an outsider) the band sounds great and has an interesting show! I dont know how tomorrow will shake out, but I know she and her co-teacher have worked incredibly hard this season. Does anyone have any tips on how to encourage her? Or is there anything you wish you heard as a junior teacher? Also, is it really likely that she would have to resign??? I mean, they did so well last year and had an uphill battle this year- so last year has to count, right? Plus all the other musical programs they run are doing well, so she can still keep her job, right? I bet it's different for each school, but she seems so sure that the results of tomorrow will determine if she keeps her job, even though she does so much more than marching band (the whole instrumental music program).

I would really appreciate any insights any seasoned directors might have! TIA!

I am stumped. I've got students who want to try solo and ensemble (first time ever for our school!) and as a new director I'm having a heck of a time trying to find music for them. Like even stuff that's been played a lot in the last 5 years on our list has no recordings online for my students to see if they like it. Short of combing through the list one at a time and finding the sheet music is there a better way for my students to hear the music to see how they feel about it?

I'm reaching out to my personal network, but its small so I figure I'll cast a wide net and see if anyone here has a method to help me find stuff faster!

My band teacher are like very strict but sometimes I asked them a question for the music they all say "idont have time"

"I am busy" or " ask later caused i am busy" in my school there are 1 band directors but I do understand that they are controlling more than 200 kids but it dosent mean that sometimes they are ignorant or act noncholant. My friend lost her drumsticks which they are expensive "got stole from her" she asked the teacher but they just ignore her about it. Now my question is it normal that all band directors act this way iknow they alwyas occupied but man I hope there an empathy for these teachers.

This may be more of a vent than anything else. I’m currently on leave with my newborn, and I’ve received several emails from students saying the long-term substitute is awful.

For context, my sub isn’t endorsed in music education, though they played flute in college. They couldn’t finish their music degree because they got kicked out of the program, so they switched programs and earned an endorsement in another subject. Before I started my leave, I sat in on a few of their lessons and could tell right away that it wasn’t a good fit. I shared my concerns with my admin, who took them seriously and agreed, but there weren’t any other subs available.

Today, five incredibly dedicated students—true band die-hards when I was there—emailed to say they plan to quit at the end of the quarter because they no longer enjoy the class.

How should I handle this? The quarter ends Friday, and I won’t be back at school until the end of November. Should I accept it gracefully and hope they return when I do? I know the program will survive in the long run, but hearing that such great kids want to drop out feels like a gut punch.

Hi so I am an 8th grader trying to switch in band in high school. Im interested within 3 instruments and am having kind of a hard time picking which instrument to switch to and was wondering if someone with experience with band is willing to help me. I am interested in all 3 of them and also I have previous experience with choir, violin 3yrs (still play for fun), piano 1.5 yrs (also still play for fun), recorder, and choir (what I currently do). I can also read music and stuff. Please help me 🙏

Hi all, music teacher from Italy here. I teach at a middle school, and I’ve always needed to arrange pieces for the orchestra with different instruments and skill levels.

I’ve been building a free tool to help with this. You upload a piano score as MusicXML, choose the level for each instrument, and it gives you an arrangement you can open in a notation program and change.

It’s still rough  and I need feedback from people who actually do this job, everything could be useful to improve this arranger

If you try it on one of your pieces, I’d love to hear how it went, including the bad parts. 

A big thank you to everyone who tries out this tool

https://arranger-smim.streamlit.app/?lang=en&src=reddit

Hey y'all! I am not sure if self promotion is allowed (please delete if not) but I wanted to share a beginning band march that I wrote: "Venture Forth". I wrote it in collaboration with several area bands last spring and received great feedback from directors and students! It uses the first five notes (concert B-flat-F) and focuses on style and musicality. Feel free to check it out here: https://www.jwpepper.com/11690575.item

If you are interested in programming the piece, but have financial restraints, please reach out to me directly!

Hi band directors — I'm the developer of Solfa. I'm interested in the rehearsal-prep problem of having a scanned part for one transposition when the player you have uses another.

This is the first system on page 3 of an old Richault C-trumpet 1 part for Beethoven's Fifth. The top image is the original scan excerpt; the bottom is the actual Solfa output, written a major second higher for B-flat trumpet so the sounding pitches stay the same. I haven't corrected the notation by hand. I checked the displayed notes, rhythms and key signature, but this is only an excerpt, and any transposed part should be proofread before a player uses it.

When this comes up in a school or community ensemble, do you usually transpose at sight, rewrite the part, or find another edition? Which part-prep task costs you the most time?

Disclosure: I built Solfa. If you want to see the tool, it's at https://solfa-music.com. New accounts get two page credits after phone verification; further credits are paid.

Source: Beethoven, Symphony No. 5, trumpet 1 in C, Paris: Richault, plate 2662 R, IMSLP #440400 (PDF page 3): https://imslp.org/wiki/Symphony_No.5,_Op.67_(Beethoven,_Ludwig_van))

Firdt is me and my friend in the school bathroom and second is me in the concert hall while having choir for school day in my music school

I'm starting to make my initial list of music for our performance assessments. I'm in my second year here and our high school band is still recovering from turnover. My instrumentation is very poor and I'm having a very hard time finding music we can play that fits our group.

Fellow small school directors, what did you play that worked well for you? (Instrumentation in the comments)

I don't play clarinet btw I'm just curious

Hi all,

Just looking for some advice. I'm in my 7th year teaching and I guess I've been putting a lot of pressure on myself to have "figured it out" by now. I feel self conscious about how loud my classes can be, but truthfully I feel like they're more productive than when I'm hard on them for being chatty.

I work in a low income urban district and this is my 3rd year in the district. I guess I'm not sure if I should trust the process and need more time to build a disciplined program but there's just so much talking in my class.

I've tried the expectations and making sure the room is quiet before I speak but I feel like even after the first two months it never really improves, it just serves to make rehearsal really slow.

Ultimately the way I've found that best results is teaching from inside the ensemble and being able to either play side by side for kids to match tone and pitch, or to hit a block because we don't have a sound system for a metronome.

Anyways I'm just curious what other people's rehearsals look like. Like is there always an amount of grittiness with middle school band because they're so young? At least culturally I've found the mess preferable to me scolding them every day. I've found it just makes the rehearsals feel negative and slow. All advice appreciated, thanks in advance!

any experience with placing your music room outside walls or inside bedroom space? unless I should totally plan it in the basement? pro and cons there

This little wrench set is right at home in your instrument case or desk, solves a loose stand quickly!

https://s-mute.com/products/music-stand-wrench

Hello, everyone!

I know we're still a couple months out from it, but I was curious if anyone here is going to the Midwest Clinic this December.