We worked so hard...but no one comes to appreciate our hard work!

Somehow, this always seems to be a struggle for music directors. We put in hours upon hours of work, only to see a dismal showing of an audience for the concert. How can we fix this?

Here's my take on a few different ways.

The first thing to look at is are you advertising the concert?

Yes: That's a good start, but maybe you can do more. Try involving the art department to make posters, involve some of your students that have an art background to make posters, have small choirs sing invitations at lunch time, have small jazz trios or quartets play at lunch and make announcements, invite either the middle school or elementary school to come check it out free of charge (what a great way to recruit too!). The list goes on and on but these are some of the ideas I have.
No: Start advertising now! ...and see the above ideas...

Do you have a bunch of small chamber concerts or a few big ones?

This is one that you can experiment with. If you have a bunch of small group, short concerts with either just choir or just band, maybe you can combine them so you have the friends and families of each of the ensembles. This could in theory, if the ensembles are the same size, double your audience. On the other side of it, if you do just large concerts, maybe you could try doing smaller showcases. It would allow each group to play more pieces and at the same time, it may draw more people because its music they want to listen to instead of music they have to listen to.

Invite guest artists or soloists

I've seen a few schools invite in guest groups to play a concert with jazz ensembles. The high school ensemble would go on stage first and play their set list. Then, a jazz group like Tower of Power would come out in the second half and play a concert. After all of that, the high school ensemble was able to get on stage and perform with Tower of Power. What a great experience for not only your students for the chance to play with such an iconic group, but also a way to draw more people from the area who may not have attended otherwise. It's also a great way to expose a group other than a marching band to the town so they can appreciate all the hard work that you put in as an ensemble.

Do a combination art show and chamber concert.

Team up with the art department at your school and plan an event. If you use a multitude of rooms in the school, you can have different "galleries" open at different times of the night. In each gallery, have a different small ensemble or choir performing. This could be barbershop groups, jazz choirs, a cappella choir, jazz trios, brass quintets, woodwind quintets, etc. By staggering the times that galleries are open, it will ensure that individuals pay closer attention to not only the artwork in each gallery, but the group that is performing as well.

These are just some of my thoughts as to how we can improve our audiences and provide our children with a better experience. Please feel free to let me know if you have tried anything like this and what was the end result.

Man, I love music...and performing. But how can I create that same love with my kids?

That can either be the easiest thing or the hardest thing in a music classroom. Everyone has a reason that they are in band. It is up to us to figure out why that is and find a way to love it.

Take the documentary "Chops" for example. This is a documentary that follows 3 schools around in their quest to reach the Essentially Ellington finals in New York at Jazz at Lincoln Center. After watching the film, I realized that these kids have such a true passion for the music they play and you can see that every note they play means something to them. We as directors need to find ways that we can get our students to feel the same way.

One way of doing this may be through jazz. Improvisation is all about what you feel when you are playing. You are telling your story to the world. There is no right and there is no wrong.

I think the best way to create a love for music and performing with our students is through exposure to different types of music. This can be done in a number of ways both in and out of the classroom. In the classroom, we can watch videos of various artists, listen to recordings, or better yet, have guest artists like the Funky Dawgz Brass band or Tower of Power come to the school and perform for the school as a whole.

Outside the school, there are countless opportunities for your groups to find what "makes them tick." As mentioned before, there is the Essentially Ellington jazz competition for traditional style jazz bands. Otherwise, each state has music festivals each spring for concert band, jazz band, and choirs. Outside of that, there are festivals held at larger venues like Six Flags, Washington D.C., or even Disney! These festivals give our students a chance to not only perform in front of audiences that are larger than they are used to, but they are also able to listen and appreciate the music that individuals their age from around the country are producing.

Let's say you already do festivals like this. What else can you do? What about tickets to see an opera at the Met, or take your students to go see a matinee showing of STOMP, Blue Man Group, Jazz at Lincoln Center, or the New York Phil. Day trips like these can be a great way to open your students' eyes and ears to different styles of music and possibly, like in the case of STOMP or Blue Man Group, encourage more students to try percussion instruments and create a percussion ensemble.

So, once again, how can I help to create the same love for music in my students that I have? Exposure.

Tempo in 10 minutes...GO!

It wasn't terrible, but I think it could have gone better.

What went well:

Overall, I feel like I more or less got my point across. My goal was to show my students that there is more than one way that we can identify the tempo of a piece of music. In addition to that, I wanted to begin to show my students the "tip of the iceberg" so to speak about the words used to describe tempo.

What I could improve on:

While they were scratching the surface of an understanding of tempo, I think I could have done more with it. At first, I wanted to lay a groundwork so my students had a comfortable knowledge of tempo before getting into any activities. Now, I see that I could have set up various stations with pieces of music and hands on activities. If I started like that and circulated to the small groups, I would be able to explain the tempo of that station, as well as provide a translation and further reinforce examples of that tempo. By doing instead of sitting and listening, my students will have a much stronger understanding of different tempos in the long run.