The Evolution of Marching – 1972-1976 [VIDEO] Music Education by Joel Wagner - May 23, 2010June 30, 20100 As we close out the school year and begin looking toward the summer, band directors turn their minds toward marching arts. This year, I'm going through some history and exploring The Evolution of Marching via YouTube. I'm taking you along for the journey as well. Today, we'll look at the first five DCI finals. Since video footage is rare from these days, I am really surprised to be able to find recordings from each of these years. 1972 - Anaheim Kingsmen YouTube Embedding disabled, watch the excerpt here 1973 - Santa Clara Vanguard 1974 - Santa Clara Vanguard 1975 - Madison Scouts Another video is available here but the embedding is disabled. I link to this one because the first is a standstill performance, and this one
The Evolution of Marching – 38 Years of DCI World Champions [VIDEO] Music Education by Joel Wagner - May 22, 2010June 30, 20100 As the school year winds down, band directors invariably begin turning their minds towards the upcoming marching season. This year, I have a 7th grade percussionist who knows a ton of trivia about Drum Corps International. His father used to march and has taught across the country, so he comes to middle school with a much better background of the history of drumming than most students. Over the last few weeks, I've been having some conversations with him and I began to realize that he doesn't know a lot about the old history of marching, and I don't know a lot about recent marching history. So I thought I'd go look through the YouTube archives and watch parts of as
8 Great Websites for Listening to Recordings of Band Contest/Festival Music Music Education by Joel Wagner - January 31, 2010June 30, 20100 The world of band directing has changed over the past few years as a result of the increasing pace of technological development. Back then Contest preparation when I first started teaching way back in August of 2002 went something like this: I began by digging through the CDs that I picked up each year at music conventions to find recordings of some of the band music that might be available. Then I picked up my copy of the UIL Prescribed Music List to see what was on the list. At this point, I went back to the recordings and tried to find whichever of the tunes I had on CD so I could listen. If a friend recommended a piece
Dissection of a Band Director Music Education by Joel Wagner - January 8, 2010June 30, 20100 I saw this cartoon posted on The Yellow Board yesterday and thought some of my musician-type readers wouldappreciate it. The cartoon is by John Bogenschutz (www.johnmusic.com). Over the Christmas Break, a few of the band directors from around the area got together and played some quartets around town. I'm the only one who has played seriously since college, and it's been about 5 months since I did that too. We were all suffering by the time we got to the end of our gigging. So the "Wonders how much longer he can keep his streak of not touching an instrument going" comment really made me crack up when I first saw it. Anyway, I hope you enjoy Dissection of a
But Wait, That Wasn’t In My Job Description! Music Education by Joel Wagner - August 16, 2009June 30, 20106 "Welcome to education." "Deal with it!" "Didn't they teach you in college that you need to be flexible?" 'What do you want me to do about it?" "Wow, I wish I had it that good my first year!" So you graduated and then spent all summer looking for a job. You got your job, get to the school, and suddenly the classes or students you have bear no real similarity to what they told you in the interview. The good news is that you're not alone. The bad news is that this is probably what you are going to be dealing with all year. I recently got an email expressing a similar situation: I'm a first year who was hired
MusicEdMajor.Net Music Education by Joel Wagner - June 15, 2009June 30, 20100 Andy Zweibel (whom I've been following on Twitter for a while now -- @Zweibz7) just started up a blog specifically focusing on topics concerning Music Education students. The blog is MusicEdMajor.net. Andy is currently seeking contributors for the site, and I think this is definitely a worthwhile endeavor. Hopefully we can get in touch with some music education professors and those who have influence in the music education world to try to get more people on board. I know a handful of musicians and music teachers are subscribed to my blog and I hope they will give Andy some encouragement, links, and just send people his way. I also would like to add that he has chosen a very nice,
Welcome to Education: Now Change Your Plans To Fit OUR Schedule Music Education by Joel Wagner - March 31, 2009June 30, 20104 I was supposed to have my Pre-UIL concert tonight, but we were informed yesterday afternoon that the 7th Graders would be having pre-registration that night instead and they need to use the cafetorium, and gym. Of course! By the time I left school at 5:45 this afternoon, parents were already showing up and trying to go into the band hall. Evidently they had meetings scheduled in there tonight also. Lemme tell you, I can't wait to get to the band hall tomorrow morning and figure out what they've done with my chairs and stands that I had set up for our 7am rehearsal! So in my last article, I mentioned that I require pass-offs and also that I cut students.
Last Minute UIL Concert & Sight Reading Preparations: 10 Things I Am Doing To Try To Get Sweepstakes Music Education by Joel Wagner - March 29, 2009June 30, 20108 This Thursday, I will be taking my Middle School band to our UIL Concert & Sight Reading contest. For those who don't understand how the band world works (and even for those who don't understand Texas UIL), here's sort of how it works. How UIL works I will be taking them to perform a concert program of three pieces that we've been working on since February. Following the concert, we go to the sight reading contest. In that, each band is allotted a certain amount of time to look at a brand new piece of music. As a director, I can spend the first part (four minutes for my band) talking them through it and pointing out key changes, accidentals,
Spring Break Is Here…What to Do, What to Do… Music Education by Joel Wagner - March 18, 2009June 30, 20105 Well, I'm sitting here in a motel room in San Antonio. I am trading some of my time with a band director friend. I came here to teach trumpet and horn sectionals yesterday since I'm on spring break this week and he had it last week. In turn, he's going to come in next week and clinic my band. Basically what that means is that he's going to rehearse them for two hours and tell them stuff they can do to make it better. It also gives me a chance to step back and listen more closely. When I'm conducting and everything, I hear things, but not everything. This is why I record my band regularly. As an aside, if you
TGIF, That Means It’s Almost Monday! Music Education by Joel Wagner - January 22, 2009June 30, 20108 Please don't tell me this picture represents your views! As a teacher, and specifically as a band director, I am not a big fan of Mondays. As a worker, I really love Monday. Why? Great question. Why I don't like Mondays Kids generally don't practice over the weekend. This means that part of Monday is spent recovering and getting the band to sound the way I want it to sound again. Anecdotally, I find that the students are less focused on Mondays than they are on Wednesdays or Thursdays. Those days seem to be the best teaching days of the week. Often, I will plan my schedule with that assumption. More on that later. This week we didn't have school on
Christmas Concert Ruminations Music Education by Joel Wagner - December 20, 2008July 1, 20104 My Christmas concert came and went. No, I don't have a "winter concert" or "holiday concert." We don't play winter music at the concert. We don't play Easter or Halloween or Arbor Day music at the concert. We play Christmas music. So it's a Christmas concert. Why is it so difficult for people to understand that concept? Why are so many people scared of offending people that they let fear dominate their lives? My concerts used to be offensive, but that was because my bands didn't know how to play. Now, they sound pretty good, and all that stuff. We have fun. We perform both secular and sacred music. Of course, none of them have words, so there is really
A (Partial) Timeline of Music Education Blogging Music Education by Joel Wagner - November 24, 2008July 1, 201019 In Dr. Pisano's effort to get 100 Music Education (ME) Bloggers by the end of this year, I thought it would be interesting to go through those blogs he has listed and see if I could determine when they all started. 2002 August 30 Frogstory Records' Player Journal starts out with Warming Up 2004 May 12 Educación Musical by Oscar starts out with Aquí comienza la bitácora de Educación Musical 2005 May 13 Catalysts & Connections by Evan Tobias starts out with Mamapalooza August 29 About.com: Music Education by Espie Estrella starts out with Music and Kids - How to Instill the Love of Music in Your Child September 1 Music Matters Blog by Natalie
Overhaul Your Clarinet Section Music Education by Joel Wagner - October 10, 2008July 1, 201011 I hear a lot of bands with good clarinet sections. I have a few bands with bad clarinet sections. I hear a few bands with great clarinet sections. What I will tell you in these next few paragraphs will definitely transform any bad clarinet section into a good one. They could even make a good section a great one. It's all about tone I have recently become convinced that one of the best indicators in the quality of a band is the overall band sound. By that, I mean the way that the band balances between sections, the way that the instrumentalists blend into their section sound, and the way that each person sounds individually. Technique is the easy part.
Positive Steps To Fix A Problematic Band Music Education by Joel Wagner - October 9, 2008June 25, 20161 My band sounds good. My band behaves very very well. My band is going to be great this year. This comes as the result of 6 years of learning from my mistakes. It wasn't always that way. When I got them in August, I didn't know how it was going to work out. They didn't listen. They didn't watch. They talked a lot. They were more interested in being social than in sounding good. They didn't sit in "Ready Position" much of the time. Their posture when they played was bad. Too many of them were on the back of their chair and not sitting up straight. Here is a realistic look at some things I have done this year to fix
Literacy and Power Music Education by Susan Biggs - July 24, 2008July 1, 20104 This is a guest post by Susan Biggs I’ve been meaning to take some time to reflect in writing about the conversation I’ve been engaged in recently with a cohort of National Writing Project colleagues concerning Content Area Literacy. I’m a former H.S. English teacher who now works in professional development with my local writing project, the Western Massachusetts Writing Project, working with teachers to improve learning in our schools. The opportunity to guest post here on Joel's blog seemed like the right time. Power. I can’t stop thinking that it is all about power. This thought surfaced after reading the article, “Why Content Literacy is Difficult to Infuse into the Secondary School: Complexities of Curriculum, Pedagogy, and School