Texas Bandmasters Association
Bandmasters Review • September 2015
14
In 2014 at the TBA convention,
my good friend George Little, the
Band Director at New Diana High
School in East Texas and I were
visiting about the start of the school
year with beginner band students.
I was looking up to George as we
visited because I have a great deal
of respect for him as a teacher and
because he is about a foot and a half
taller than I am. As we talked about
things, we began to realize that we
had many things in common about
our approaches to organizing our
beginning band programs despite
the fact that the schools where we
teach are quite different. George
teaches in a rural school district
with one Class 3A high school,
which is fed by one Class C middle
school. The band hall is a building
that sits between the HS and MS. I
teach at a CCC middle school in a
large, urban district with five high
schools and eight middle schools.
It became apparent to us that there
are certain things that must take
place in order to have a successful
beginner band program. These
things are true regardless of the size
and demographics of the school
where you teach, or whether you
are a really tall band director like
George, or a short one like me.
This article is going to focus
on several topics that could all
be a complete article in and of
themselves. There have been many
great articles written about each
one of these topics as well as clinics
which have provided great detail at
TBA and TMEA conventions and
The Midwest Clinic. Our purpose
is to provide a “Big Picture” view of
some of the most important aspects
of starting Beginners.
Recruiting
There are two primary goals of
recruiting students into your band
program: (1) selecting an instrument
that is physically and academically
suited for each individual student;
and (2) providing the entire
program through HS with an
instrumentation that will provide
the best opportunity for all the
students to experience success
as they perform in the program’s
ensembles for the next several years.
It is important to communicate
to parents that their students’
success—both individually and as
a member of the band—is your
focus as a band director. Early in
the school year, find out when
registration will take place for
next year’s beginning students and
begin to establish a plan for how
to best recruit students for your
program. Be sure to communicate
with the counselors/administrators/
secretaries
who
coordinate
registration and find out what they
need from you as far as registration
is concerned. The better your
relationship is with them, the
smoother your school year will
start.
Discipline
From the first day of beginner
band, it is important to establish
a positive climate that is focused
on success. Students who are
not in control of their behavior
have a hard time controlling their
instrument. It is much easier to
deal with small discipline issues
before they escalate into large
ones. We have found that the most
effective way of solving discipline
problems is communicating with
parents, asking for their help
first and then letting them know
what the problem is. If you are
an inexperienced teacher, asking
a veteran band director to come
watch you teach can be a very
effective way to improve your
classroom management skills as
well as your pedagogy.
Starting the School Year
The first two weeks with
beginners can be very time
consuming, dealing with both
school and band administrative
tasks. In both our situations, we are
blessed to always have two directors
available when we have beginners.
This allows one director to provide
instruction and begin working on
some basic skills such as playing
Starting Beginners—
The Tall and the Short of It
Chris Brown and George Little
