Texas Bandmasters Association
Bandmasters Review • September 2012
14
of learning. Be flexible. Keep your students number
one in your plans.
On the other hand, I also suggest you expect more
and tolerate less. Expect high performance and tolerate
less distracting behavior. Teach your students to
aim high and to consider themselves
capable of great things. Expect the
same of yourself. Be patient, for
patience and perseverance have a
magical effect before which difficulties
disappear and obstacles vanish.
If you are struggling, ask for help
from veteran or more experienced
teachers. They will be more than happy
to share their wealth of knowledge, to
help to mentor you, and to share what has worked for
them in the past. Remember, “master” teachers do not
know everything, but they do know where to find it.
As for your master teaching plan, realize that
teaching and dealing with students is a continuous
cycle, an evolving process. Every week, make a plan,
and at the end of the week evaluate the effectiveness
of the plan. Adapt the plan for the following week and
start the cycle all over again.
Texas Bandmasters Association hosts clinics during
the year in addition to the annual Convention/Clinic
in San Antonio. Perhaps in your community there is
a chapter of YES, Young Educator Seminars started
by Lynne Jackson at SMU about five years ago.
TheYellowBoard.com
is another place
you can go for answers to your
questions/problems.
It’s never too late to be what you
could have been. And, “wisdom,”
as Jessica Tandy the famous actress
has said, “is learning from all your
experiences, which means maybe you
don’t make the same mistakes over
and over again.”
I wish you all the best as you pursue your career
in teaching music to young people. There is no
higher calling than education. You can and will make
mistakes. Admit them; laugh at them; you can even
point them out. Perfection is hard to live up to. Your
students and their parents will admire and respect
your pursuit of perfection, but like and love you when
they see you are truly no more perfect than they are.
Barbara Lambrecht received her education at Texas Tech University and the University of North Texas. She has recently retired after forty-two
years of teaching band at every level, from elementary through university. In 2009 Barbara was inducted into the Texas Bandmasters Hall of
Fame, and was instrumental in creating El Paso’s Edge of Texas Concert Band. She presently serves as music director and conductor of the
band.
Mrs. Lambrecht, wife of UTEP Horn Professor and assistant conductor for The Edge, Richard Lambrecht, has written for and served
as Contributing Editor for The Instrumentalist. She also writes and arranges music for band. Hal Leonard, E.C. Schirmer, and RBC Music
Publishers publish her band pieces.
Honored numerous times by her colleagues, Mrs. Lambrecht has been the recipient of Texas Tech University’s Distinguished Music Educator
Award, Tau Beta Sigma’s national Outstanding Service to Music Award, the Texas Chamber of Commerce Cultural Award, National Band
Association Achievement Award, Texas Music Educators Association Achievement Award, and twice had her “day” proclaimed by the city
council. Most recently she was chosen as one of the 2000 Outstanding Musicians of the 20th Century, and was named to Who’s Who of
American Women.
Her bands were named State Honor Band in both Texas and New Mexico, received the John Philip Sousa Foundation’s Sudler Cup,
performed at The Midwest Clinic, played on the White House lawn for President Ronald Reagan, was selected Most Outstanding Band at
numerous competitions, and marched in the Washington D. C. Independence Day parade.
Barbara currently mentors young directors in the El Paso area, works with bands across the city, teaches fute sectionals and lessons, and
subs with the Roswell Symphony Orchestra. She is an active clinician, adjudicator, and conductor across the United States.
Rewind and Start Again
You have two
choices of att i tude
in the classroom:
posi t ive or neutral .
You are not al lowed
to be outwardly
negat ive.