Tips That Cl i c k Phi Beta Mu
Preparing for Concert Adjudication for the First Time
Tips That Click this month is devoted to a discussion of assisting a young band director preparing a band for concert adjudication for the first time. I was able to talk with three experienced directors who shared with me the experience of taking a group to contest for the first time and the lessons they gleaned.
Scott Thompson taught for 25 years at Gardendale High School, Clay-Chalkville High School, and Bragg Middle School. He began his career at Cordova High School in Walker County and conveys a reflection of that year: “The first thing I would tell any young director is – just go, don’t wait for the next year unless it is just impossible to put the group together. I came into a situation where the students had not gone to concert festival for several years. Many of them were pretty resistant to idea of going at first and I had to sell the benefit to them. There is no doubt in my mind that making the commitment to perform at festival focused their efforts AND mine on what occurred daily in our hour in the band room. We both accomplished and learned a lot! My school was one with very few resources, but my students were exposed to some of the best band directors in the state. I was able to get very successful university and high school teachers to come to rehearse and help my group as we prepared. These people will come and assist you as well….but only if you ask. That first year I did not make the highest ratings, but I may have done one of my best jobs of teaching considering where we started”.
Dennis Carroll is the Associate Director Of Bands at Hoover High School and the current President of ABA District IV. He began his career at Phil Campbell High School, a small Class C size school in a rural area. He shares his reflection from his first time preparing a band for concert
ala breve
adjudication: “ I was fortunate that I followed an experienced teacher that took the band regularly to District and State contest, so the students were already used to working hard and going to these events. I learned two prominent lessons that first year that I would advise young directors to consider. The first is to choose your music carefully and prudently. Music selection is one of the few factors over which you have total control. Make sure that the music is appropriate for the entire band, remembering that inner parts and the students playing those parts will require a great deal of attention to get a polished and effective performance. Get the advice of others that know your band well! The second factor that is often overlooked is making sure that you understand the logistics of the day of Music Performance Assessment well in advance of the event. That first year I personally went and scouted out the trip from the school to the performance venue at University of North Alabama just so I would have a clear idea of where we would need to arrive to unload the students and equipment. I then travelled the actual route we would take from warm-up to the stage, and from the stage to sight-reading. This helped my nerves tremendously, plus it helped me prepare the students for just what they would be experiencing that day”.
Dr. Johnny Jacobs has earned one of the most distinguished records of any teacher in this region. He has served as a President of both the Alabama Music Education Association
and the Alabama
Bandmasters Association and is a member of the Hall of Fame of both organizations. For those of us that have known him, it is hard to believe that he would have ever had anything but the highest level of musical excellence at any of his festival appearances, but he admits that it took a
few years for him to attain the results he desired. Here is his remembrance of his first trip to concert festival with the Dixie Junior High School Band over 45 years ago: “ I remember working very diligently preparing the performance for those adjudicators. I think however, that I learned my best lessons not from the comments of the judges, but from actually sitting down and listening to other performances after we had finished. It became obvious to me very quickly, that while I had done a good job in teaching the students to make good sounds on their instruments and monitoring accurate execution of notes and rhythms, I had far to go in learning how to mold these elements into a true ensemble sound. In particular, I remember being inspired by the Pittman Junior High band and their director, Charles Hulgan. With the sounds of that band and others that I admired, I went directly to work developing the concepts of a blended and more nuanced sound in my band. An analogy would be while characteristic tones are primary colors, a great painter can mix and blend those colors in infinite variation to produce great art”
The advice from these experienced directors should guide all of us as we prepare for our evaluation performances this Spring and in future years. I hope this is the best performance year for all bands in our state!
Rho Chapter of Phi Beta Mu International Bandmaster Fraternity is committed to the improvement of bands and band instruction in this state. Comments on this column and ideas for future columns are welcome! Please email:
pemin@mac.com
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