Believe me. I’ve been there.

There’s so much to think about when teaching a classroom full of teenagers all playing different parts on different instruments who all have different needs (don’t forget about percussion or they’ll set fires back there). You have to constantly remind students of the basics like posture, breathing, dynamics, phrasing, intonation, balance, and so much more.

When preparing for an upcoming concert, it’s easy to want to skip the “extra” stuff like singing, moving, improvising, and composing. There’s not enough time for all that when the clarinets are hopelessly fumbling through their soli!!

But what’s the goal for your students as musicians?

Do you want music to be part of their lives after they graduate? Do you want them to be independent musicians, capable of learning how to play the music they love outside of school? Do you hope that music can be a way for them to express themselves?

What are you doing to lead them there?

The purpose of this website is to provide ideas and resources for YOU, my fellow band director, to teach repertoire with musical understanding. If all you do is hand out music, play it really well, and pass it back after the concert, the message your students receive is that making music requires a teacher to hand out sheet music and 40 other people to make it happen. I want to make it easier for you to teach repertoire and performance skills at a high level AND teach the fundamentals of musicianship and creativity that are essential to the development of independent musicians.