Tips That Click Phi Beta Mu


Mentors - Part II


This is the second installment of interviews asking veteran band directors to describe their “first mentor” in the profession. Everyone has one of these stories, and they are always interesting and sometimes surprising! I hope you will enjoy what follows.


band director I had that actually was trained in music and that was one thing that set him apart from the others. He took a special interest in us and took groups of us to concerts in the region so we could experience top rate performances. He continued to keep up with me when I went to study at Clark University in Atlanta and when I took my first job at Calvary Hill Junior High in Huntsville. His advice was very valuable as I prepared my group to perform at the State Competition at Alabama A&M. We got a Superior Rating that year, and I was so inexperience that I did not know what that meant! Mr. Watson continued to teach in various schools in Gadsden and retired after forty years of service. His nurturing certainly meant a lot to me in my formative years as a musician and teacher.


Mr. William T. Robinson is a member of the Alabama Bandmaster Hall of Fame, and produced outstanding bands for many years in the Huntsville area. He also served as in leadership roles for Phi Beta Mu and the Alabama Bandmasters Association during a career of over 30 years. He currently is a private lesson teacher in his retirement with his private students consistently selected for membership in the Alabama All-State Bands. He shared a very interesting story with me about his mentor. “My first mentor was Harold Watson, who was one of my band directors at Carver High School in Gadsden in the mid 1950’s. He came to us my Sophomore year and left after the first semester to fulfill a military commitment. He returned to us my Senior year and the band was very happy that he returned. During those years we were used to beginning with a new band director every September. Things were very different then; the directors we had were not formally trained music teachers, just whoever the principal could find with band experience. Mr. Watson was the first


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mentor in Rodney Dasinger. “To say I was “green” that first year of band directing would be an understatement. Rodney was teaching at Guin High School in Marion County and was widely respected for developing a fine program in a small community. I was blessed that he took an interest in us younger directors. He was always so positive and full of good advice. Of particular help to me was how he encouraged me to have my group participate in the Alabama Bandmasters Association events. I was pretty intimidated by this as I was teaching at one of the tiniest high schools in the state, with less than stellar instrumentation. But Rodney was right, and I learned a lot from preparing and taking my group in that first year. I stayed at Phillips for two more years and Rodney Dasinger was always a source of experienced information.” After leaving Guin, Dasinger went to Hartselle and then to Rutherford High School in Panama City, Florida where he taught for 29 more years.


Mrs. Deborah Basinger retired after 37 years of service to the band students of northwest


Alabama, mostly in the


Florence City Schools. After graduating from the University of Mississippi, she taught one year as an itinerant music teacher in Lawrence County, Tennessee -- providing instructing for every student in five different elementary schools. She began looking for a job in a position that would require less travel and found one at Phillips High School in Bear Creek, Alabama -- the week of the first football game! During this year, she found a


As we begin this year, I encourage all experienced teachers, active and retired, to reach out to the new teachers we have in the profession or those coming to new positions. Your listening and processing skills are needed desperately as we insure that there is a supply of candidates to lead stable programs in the future. You can make a real difference just by “checking in” or showing up for an occasional visit and word of support. The membership of Rho Chapter of Phi Beta Mu wishes everyone a successful and fun year of making and teaching music!


Rho Chapter of Phi Beta Mu International Bandmaster Fraternity is committed to improving bands and band instruction in the state of Alabama. Have an idea for a future article or interview? Email: pemin@mac.com


August/September 2014


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