Texas Bandmasters Association
Bandmasters Review • September 2012
9
Achieving Maximum Potential
With Minimal Time: Effective
Strategies for Marching Band
As band directors we always
hope that our students’ final
performance will be their best
one. It can become difficult to
engage students in rehearsals while
working to clean every last mistake
in the final weeks of the marching
season. The question then becomes,
how can we develop our ensemble
to reach its fullest potential given
the amount of time that remains?
Whether you have one week left or
one month left, read on for a few
concepts and strategies that can be
implemented for continued growth
all the way to the final performance
of the season!
Ut i l izing the “mixed setup”
as a means of increasing
student performance
accountabi l i ty
After a couple months of
marching rehearsals, it can
become difficult to see and hear
new problems to address with
your students. To find and solve
performance issues, we suggest
increasing student performance
accountability by rehearsing in a
mixed arc or mixed circle.
Rehearsing in a circle or an arc
increases student accountability by
providing clear lines of sight and
sound between the director and
students. When the director stands
in the center (focal point) of the
circle, he or she can see and hear
each student’s performance equally
and provide feedback
to the appropriate
individuals. The
students quickly
become aware that as
a result of the setup,
they are unable to
“hide” within the
group. Instead, they
must fix their own
performance issues, rather than
rely on the players next to them to
do their jobs for them.
Picture this: A band director has
her band set up in a circle, with each
instrument group standing together
in sections. The band members
perform an excerpt from their show,
in the middle of which a trombone
player makes a bad sound. Imme-
diately, the director turns to the
trombones and addresses them as
a section, asking them to make
better sounds. We hope that the
student realizes their error and will
attempt to fix it. However, we have
no way of knowing whether or not
the student will be aware of his or
her mistake.
In an effort to hold students
more individually accountable for
their performance, set up in a
mixed circle or arc so that no
two of the same instrument are
standing next to
each other. This
allows the director to
isolate the individual
sounds within each
section more easily.
If the director in
the example above
had her trombones
spread
evenly
around the circle, she could have
immediately turned to the area
of the circle where the bad sound
occurred, identified the student,
and provided direct individual
feedback.
There are many other advantages
to rehearsing in a circular setup.
Students, all of which have a clear
line of sight to the director teaching
at the center of the circle, will be
able to receive instruction more
effectively. Students are also able
to see their peers on the opposite
side of the circle. As such, their
peers act as visual reminders of the
instructions and as excellent peer
motivators of performance quality.
Bob Chreste and Evan VanDoren
Picture this:
A band director
has her band set
up in a circle
wi th each
instrument group
standing together
in sect ions.