through experimenting with student-centered engage- ment and discovery. It’s okay––really––to put the students in charge of their learning. You might think or feel like you’re not “teaching” if you’re not in the front of the room disseminating knowledge, but remember, teaching isn’t telling. Let go of the control of their learning, and provide them a seemingly messy space to informally learn on their own; you and your students decide the project idea and the administration of the project, then step away from the students and see what they create.33


Providing the space for your students to discover and work together on solving real-life musical projects allows you to free yourself from the oppression of thinking that teaching is only being in front-and-center and “in control” of the classroom. Take a risk and use your ensemble space differ- ently this year—at least for one project and see what kinds of truly creative outcomes the students will produce. Guide and challenge your students’ thinking about creative artistic processes and for at least one unit or project, release your- self from training the behavioral technique of playing and learn to ask deep, thought-provoking questions.34


To begin the process creating your new version of band or ensemble teaching, think through the questions in Figure 1, perhaps do this exercise with a colleague and share your re- sponses and challenge each other to grow into 21st Century ensemble teachers.35


I hope something in this article might spark a bit of change in your band classroom this year:


Figure 1. Questions to ask yourself: Strive for a new ver- sion of band or ensemble teaching in a way that inspires you and your students. Ask yourself “Why?” or “Why not?” aſter each question. • Are you making all of the musical decisions in re- hearsals? • Are you choosing all of the literature? • Are you deciding all performance outcomes and public performances and venues? • Are you controlling the instrumentation based on some archaic band tradition? Let the student who plays bass guitar or Quechua qina (a traditional Ande- an flute also known as the quena) into your ensemble. • Are you creating all the assessments and doing all the evaluation? • Is all of your music performed still traditional band music? Does this type of music keep a lot of students from wanting to join band? • Are all of your concerts solely of your bands or do you partner with community groups of different medi- ums or styles of music? • Are beginners allowed in your high school program? • Do your students still sit in a traditional seating arrangement every rehearsal?


31


• Are students always seated by chair tests? Do you rotate their parts? • How do you facilitate peer learning and assessments in band?36 • Do you foster discussions for musical decision-mak- ing that involve everyone? • Is your jazz ensemble only for certain instruments? • Is improvisation only for jazz ensembles or combos? Who does this leave out?37 • Are your uniforms like the military and gendered? • Are all leadership positions open to both genders and all races? • Do you fundraise for private lessons or benevolent outreach? • Do your music teachers in your district look like the students in your ensembles? • Do your ensembles engage in more than one artistic process aligned with the new national music stan- dards: create, perform, respond, connect? • Do you foster multiple music literacies: composing, improvising, playing by ear and reading music? • Do you ask your students to listen in your ensemble rehearsals, and do you help them hear? We oſten make assumptions that they can hear what we ask them to be listening for.38 • What ways are you integrating technology to help your students be creative and expressive?


__________________________________ 1


America,” Music Educators Journal 95, no. 1 (2008): 33. 2


tennial, CCO: Glenbridge Publishing, Ltd., 2009): 287. 3


33–40.


Jill M. Sullivan, “A Century of Women’s Bands in James Keene, “Te Rise of Instrumental Music,” in A


History of Music Education in the United States, 2d ed. (Cen- Sullivan, “A Century of Women’s Bands in America,” 4Raoul Camus, “Band: American Wind Band,” New


Grove Encyclopedia of Music and Musicians, 2nd ed. (New https://www.bandmasters.org/about-us/histo- Ibid.


York: Oxford University Press, 2001), 635. 5


ry/169-iowa-band-law.html 6


7Jill M. Sullivan, “John Phillip Sousa and the Great


Lakes Navy Music Program during World War I” (Research presentation: Biennial Conference of the IGEB: Te Interna- tional Society for the Promotion of Wind Music, Hammelburg, Germany, July 2014); James A. Keene, A History of Music


Education in the United States, 323–25. 8


York: Routledge, 2009), 54. 9


Steve Kelly, Teaching Music in American Society: A


Social and Cultural Understanding of Music Education (New Keene, 325; Michael L. Mark and Charles L. Gary, A


History of American Music Education (Reston VA: MENC [now Randall Everett Allsup and Cathy Benedict, “Te


National Association of Music Education, 1999]), 271. 10


Problems of Band: An Inquiry into the Future of Instrumental Music Education,” Philosophy of Music Education Review 16,


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