Eyes Up! Ears Open! Retaining Members With Inspired Rehearsal Planning
Wendy Bauer Reeves is in her twenty-first year as band director at Sells Middle School, and her 25th year as Assistant Director of the Dublin Coffman Marching Band. Prior to teaching band, she taught choir and general music for five years, also at Sells. Mrs. Reeves graduated from The Ohio State University School of Music in 1993, and received her MA in Music Education from OSU in 1998. While at OSU, she played tuba in concert ensembles and sousaphone in the OSU Marching Band. She enjoys conducting middle school honor bands and has presented sessions at the Ohio MEA State Conference several times. She was a clinician at the 2013 NAfME National Conference, 2010 and 2015 Capital University Complete Band Directors Workshop, the International Meeting of WBDI in 2017, and several state MEA conferences. In addition to OMEA and Women Band Directors International, Mrs. Reeves is a member of the American School Band Directors Association and has presented at the ASBDA regional conference twice.
Eyes Up! Ears Open! Retaining Members With Inspired Rehearsal Planning
I. Who is our audience?
A. Young Learners
1. Maturity vs. desire
2. Positive vs. negative attention
3. Concrete vs. abstract learning
B. Current trend in education
1. Collaboration
2. Frequent and consistent feedback
3. Frequent questioning
C. Finding Balance between Rehearsal Discipline and Engagement
1. Maslows Hierarchy of needs in the band room
2. Attention Spans
3. Pacing
4. Engaging rehearsals find balance between:
a. Challenge
b. Skill
c. Reward
II. Planning of lessons
A. Yearlong lesson layout of concepts and fundamentals
B. Using a rolling plan format to improve efficiency in planning rehearsals
C. Front-loading lessons into slideshow format
1. Efficient presentation of repeated concepts
2. Engaging presentation of concepts
3. Clear and concise communication to students
D. Reverse lesson planning at the end of every day
1. Record of what was actually taught for accountability.
2. A guide for planning the future year.
III. Lesson Ideas and Example
A. Concert Band Rehearsals Middle School and High School
1. Communication of Rehearsal Goals and other information
2. Understanding conducting
a. Graphs
b. Video lessons
3. Color coding of melodic/counter-melody/harmonic lines
a. Isolation of parts
4. Understanding of ensemble concepts, balance, musical ideas
5. supplementary information to enhance musical understanding.
B. Young Band Classes
1. Communication of Rehearsal Goals and other information (slide 36)
2. Bringing new concepts to the front of the classroom (slides 37-45)
3. Full group teaching of etudes before using the book (Slides 46-54)
4. Expansion of etude teaching to improve interest and retention (Slides 55-84)
5. Teaching of concepts that enhance learning, comprehension, and retention
(slides 85-97)