Every week that I teach in front of the NSMS band teaches me something new about my own method. I learn about my strengths, weaknesses, and new concepts that I hadn't even considered. There are so many ways to fix a particular problem that I know I can't ever not solve one. It's just a matter of thinking about these solutions. For instance, to help the students internalize their music, I would have them sing the starting note before playing. I thought this might help the brass players who are playing the wrong partial. However, afterwards, Mr. Knasas gave me an even better idea: buzzing the right note into the mouthpiece. This not only helps from a musical standpoint, but from a brass standpoint as well.
Something else that I feel that I need to grasp is my means of pacing. There are obviously some issues that each section of the band has to deal with. However, I have ten, fifteen minutes at the most to work with them. As much as I would like, I can't solve everyone's problems in that amount of time, especially while trying to keep the attention of the other sections. The best that I can do at this point is articulate an idea to the section and give them an idea of how to practice it. I can also work on having the whole band participate and comprehend that section's music by bringing it up on Smart Music. I have been using the program more in my lessons, but I know that there is even more that I can do with it. My main challenge at this point is accepting that I can't fix every problem in ten minutes, and I should work on improving the band's sound as a whole with small pockets of time devoted to individual sections.
Something else that I feel that I need to grasp is my means of pacing. There are obviously some issues that each section of the band has to deal with. However, I have ten, fifteen minutes at the most to work with them. As much as I would like, I can't solve everyone's problems in that amount of time, especially while trying to keep the attention of the other sections. The best that I can do at this point is articulate an idea to the section and give them an idea of how to practice it. I can also work on having the whole band participate and comprehend that section's music by bringing it up on Smart Music. I have been using the program more in my lessons, but I know that there is even more that I can do with it. My main challenge at this point is accepting that I can't fix every problem in ten minutes, and I should work on improving the band's sound as a whole with small pockets of time devoted to individual sections.
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