Texas Bandmasters Association
Bandmasters Review • September 2015
20
While many music programs
have a Tri-M
®
Music Honor Society
chapter in their middle, junior, and
senior high schools, many more
do not.
gives
lots of reasons for starting one.
Lots of reasons are given for not
starting one. More often than not,
it’s a time crunch that’s blamed
as the #1 excuse for not starting
and maintaining and active Tri-M
®
Chapter. The society is designed
as a way to “recognize students
for their academic and musical
achievements, reward them for
their accomplishments and service
activities, and to inspire other
students to excel at music and
leadership.” It’s these last two—
music and leadership
—that might
be the #1 reason to start doing
something with
all your students
.
A Tri-M
®
chapter can be much
more than just another “step to get”
or “certificate to achieve” in your
school. Imagine what might happen
if more music students started
making things happen in your
community? Developing student
leadership is very different from
just picking leaders or giving them
a certificate suitable for framing.
Part of our pledge is to promote
wider opportunities for sharing joy
through music both within our
school and within our community.
Tri-M
®
creates the opportunity as
well as the environment outside
the classroom or rehearsal for your
students to:
• Develop and practice their
leadership skills.
• Fine-tune their leadership
abilities.
• Increase their leadership
awareness.
• Demonstrate and share their
musical abilities.
• Experience how to
constructively make a difference.
• Improve their individual
positive attitude and influence
others as to the impact music
and leadership can have beyond
the band room, the choir room,
or the orchestra room—into the
community.
In my presentation at the
2015 TBA Convention/Clinic, I
suggested two movies to watch as
a homework assignment that might
creatively illustrate and inspire you
as well as your students:
Pay It Forward
(2000)
Warner Bros.
/
Sister Act
(1992)
Touchstone Pictures
/
While the main emphasis
of Tri-M
®
is service, leadership,
and community involvement,
too many times activities end up
being solely self-serving for the
music department (such as setting
up and tearing down concerts,
helping out with music-related
school activities, maintenance of
equipment, etc.) Ultimately, “giving
back” would ideally reach beyond
your own program and into the
broader community.
Warning: If
your students perceive you’re simply
trying to “honor them” so they’ll
do more for you, it might seem
shortsighted, self-serving, and
backfire!
Sure your students can host or
perform concerts and music-related
events to fund-raise, to demonstrate
their musicianship, or to offer small-
ensemble opportunities. Yet what if
you could do that in the context
of something greater than your
own program? How can you “bring
the community in on it” especially
in ways that reach beyond your
normal concert-going crowd of
parents and booster supporters?
Question: How many times have
you found yourself passing out some
music advocacy pamphlets to all the
parents who already know the value
of music education?
Sure we want
to fan the flames. Yet what about
sparking some fires in the hearts,
minds and souls of those who don’t
have students in your program?
Fran Kick
Making a Bigger Impact with Music
In Your Community
