maybe students realized how they held up their team in the hot lava race because they weren’t paying attention to the other students as they discovered the right path through trial and error. Great---apply that same focus to setting drill! Each session ended with a short Q & A to totally clarify these concepts so students knew exactly why they were doing these games and their purpose to improving our performance as a marching band. Te momentum from these activities carried us through much of the school year but the intentionality of these exer- cises was something that ended as soon as our band camp performance was over. As a few years went by I became more curious as to whether or not doing these types of ac- tivities would be of benefit during the school year. However, with as valuable as time becomes, especially as performanc- es and festival evaluation deadlines approach, do directors choose between building relationships or strengthening our performance? Which would be of great benefit and do they even go hand-in-hand? Was there a balanced, middle ground between these two activities or could there be a good marriage between the two where one wasn’t taking away from the other but in fact working together for the greater good of the ensemble?
As I dove deeper into the topic and began my research for my thesis, I focused on a few key data points: 1) director interviews, consisting of what types of leadership develop- ment and team building they did and their thoughts on it’s effectiveness, 2) my current class of students doing pre and post reflections/surveys, and 3) my own observations re- corded periodically throughout the 6-8 week period of data gathering we were allowed for the study.
Te biggest eye openers from the study were the fact that many experienced directors who had taught 10+ years utilized some type of leadership training, whether it was simply giving them more task related responsibility all the way up to running warm-ups and student led sectionals, the challenge being the more you responsibility you give your students the more time invested in training and developing them to do those upper level tasks.
Aſter band camp, very few directors do intentional team building activities due to our hectic schedules. However, most directors allow the team building to happen organ- ically, whether it’s scheduling an optional performance in and around the community just for fun followed up by a tailgate party or band bonfire or it’s reserving the local movie theater for the new hit Star Wars or Avengers movie that just came out---no blindfolds, ropes, or wooden planks required!
Lastly, I polled the students on if they understood the purpose of the team building activities we do at band camp
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and if they felt they were useful to creating camaraderie and improving peer-to-peer relationships. In my survey, 46% of the students said they preferred both the camp type team building exercises and 27% said they preferred the organic type performance based team building exercises (many students said they simply loved being on the bus and going to a fast food restaurant on the way home from festival). As directors, it’s safe to say that if we do both types during the school year we can impact 75% of our students and their relationships with one another.
As team building and leadership development becomes more of a focus in our schools, we as music directors have a unique opportunity to impact our students, not only with the amount of time that we get to influence them and the years we get to see them grow and mature, but we get to challenge them with doing very difficult and high pressure tasks. We then watch them step up to the challenge, counsel and coach them, and then celebrate with them on their ac- complishments. It’s one of the reasons that I’m proud to be in the music education profession---there’s so much more learning that occurs in the band and choir room than sim- ply playing an instrument! Excellent musical performances just happen to be a great outcome of that learning!
Recommended Books
Maxwell, J. (2007). Te 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership: Follow Tem and People Will Follow You (2nd ed). Nashville: Tomas Nelson Publishers.
Maxwell, J. (2013). Te 17 Indisputable Laws of Teamwork: Embrace Tem and Empower Your Team. Nashville: Tomas Nelson Publishers.
Burchard, B. (2008). Te Student Leadership Guide (4th ed). New York: Morgan James Publishing.
Brady, C. & Woodward, O. (2007). Launching a Leadership Revolution: Mastering the Five Levels of Influence. New York: Business Plus (Grand Central Publishing).
Bryan Akers has been teaching mid- dle school and high school band for 9 years and choir for 1 year. He cur- rently teaches at Columbia Central High School in Brooklyn, MI and resides in Horton, MI with his wife Allison and their three children. He has a Bachelors Degree in Music Ed- ucation from Spring Arbor University
and is finishing up his Masters of Education Degree, also from Spring Arbor University.
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