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Band Lessons from the Choir Room

One of my favorite band director sayings is "Excuses are like dirty gym socks... everyone has them and they all stink." Well today, not only were we able to debunk the "I'm not in choir, I'm in band" excuse regarding singing during rehearsals, but did so with an enthusiastic (!!) response.  Here's how it happened...

In honor of the 200th anniversary of the classic holiday tune Silent Night, all three concert ensembles are currently working on Mannheim Steamroller's Stille Nacht for our upcoming Winter Concert. It's a beautiful arrangement by Chip Davis of this timeless melody; I've enjoyed both playing it and directing it with many ensembles. The last time I directed it was during my first year at SCHS as our very first "megaband" piece (meaning all three concert ensembles learn the piece and then we perform it together for our concert grand finale). It was during that performance that our headlining picture for our website was snapped:



But no matter how many times I've directed the piece, one of the challenges of performing it is helping kids to sing. It's a well-known tune, students are only asked to sing on "Ooo", it all seems simple enough. But for this band director- who's choral training is really limited to the church choirs I used to sing in years ago- it's always been difficult getting students to sing. 

So I turned to an expert. 


Not only did my kids sing better in that short 5 minute singing crash course than I had ever been able to get them to do, in all my time directing this piece, but it was such incredible professional development to watch my colleagues work with my students. That short observation was a very healthy reminder for me of a number of fundamentals that are true for both band and choir:

  • There is a difference between speaking on pitch and actually singing. There is also a difference between blowing into an instrument and actually playing it. The difference is in the support and production of the sound: you can not have both poor posture and truly sing/play. It is not possible. You may blow into an instrument/be on pitch, but you can not have both poor posture and produce a clear tone, regardless of how much plumbing you might have in your hands. 
  • The same goes for the breath. A singing/playing breath is very different from a normal breath. (I like to call the normal breath a "couch" breath. You can't breath the same way you breath when you are sitting on your couch when you're making music.)
  • Shape and placement matters; no matter if it's vowels, consonants, and pronunciation; OR Embouchure, articulations, and styles. 
  • As helpful as teacher demonstrations/singing are, ultimately those making the music (students) are responsible. "You can't be a passenger in my car. You need to drive the car yourself."
So the next time your students try to tell you "I didn't join band to sing", please feel free to steal my gym-socks line, maybe invite your choir colleagues into your room for a few minutes, and show them just how much "singing" they have to do in order to REALLY play their instruments. It was a fantastic experience for us!

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