Shockingly (for a tuba player), I took Latin in high school, hence my erudite use of Tempus Fugit instead of “Time Flies.” It literally seems like just last week that we had reached the end of the school year and now it starts again. Holy Sisyphus! (Are you impressed now?).
Last week I attended and made presentations for the Colorado Bandmasters Association. I hope all our readers have taken the opportunity to attend one of the many professional development events held for music educators this summer.
My dear friend of many years, Dr. Tim Lautzenheiser was one of the speakers and when he asked how many of the attendees would be starting some type of band camp the following Monday (July 21st), over half of the hands went up! So much for having the summer off!
The passion I witnessed among the attendees was palpable as was the genuine camaraderie.The excitement for our profession I witnessed left me wondering why there are shortages of music educators throughout the country. I believe it’s a combination of several things, including a misperception that there are inadequate job opportunities when there is nearly a 100% placement rate for new music teachers, and an emphasis by way too many higher ed institutions on music performance degrees.
A coalition of the major music education advocacy groups has been formed to increase the number of highly skilled young musicians seeking a career as music teachers. I encourage you to visit TeachMusic.org and to read a little bit about them on page 29.
We will keep nominations open for about a month longer for you to tell us about the publishers, instrument lines, methods, and other products that you think are the most helpful to you in the classroom. Please go to https://sboplus.net/tca/ and make your voice heard.
About five years ago I wrote an article about the principles I have developed over the years to set up concert bands. Recently I found out that it has been one of the most read and shared articles that SBO+ has published in its decades of existence. In that article I offered to customize a set-up for anyone who sent me their instrumentation and have completed over a hundred of them. So, an updated and hopefully improved article appears as this month’s UpClose feature. But it doesn’t apply just to concert bands. As you start the new school year, think about how all of your ensembles can be arranged to facilitate better listening. I was recently working with a fabulous jazz band set up in a traditional method. We changed to a square and immediately their ability to hear each other and to communicate skyrocketed. Too often, we arrange our groups the way we saw it in college or the way it’s always been done. Try something new!
