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Student-Led Rehearsals Day 1: Identifying Potential Problems

Today I introduced the task at hand: Each class will be selecting, as a group, one piece to perform for our Winter Concert-- without my direction. The Goal: To perform this piece to the best of our ability; to make it "YouTube"/Social Media worthy, something that everyone at the end of the experience would be proud to share with their friends and social circle.

Surprisingly, it did not scare them as much as it does me. But, I did see my fair share of skeptical eye rolls.

The first step towards our goal was to identify possible problems/roadblocks in accomplishing our goal. Each class was asked to create a list on the board of potential challenges we may face before we begin. It was very interesting to observe the dynamic of each class as they navigated even this first step, communicating with one another to complete their list. Sometimes, they chose to continue the "teacher/student" paradigm where one person wrote on the board and called out to others with their hands in the air. Another class chose to have each person come up and write a problem as they thought of them, while those who didn't write sat back and watched/discussed.


What surprised me most though was that all the issues discussed in all three classes boiled down to the same two issues: Trust and Respect. Some trust issues included students not trusting each other to take their work seriously, to find focus, and to listen to each other. Respect issues included not respecting each other's voice, opinions, ability to put personal differences aside, etc. They aren't wrong: if we can't trust and respect one another, there's no way we can be successful. So in band, so in life.


Companies, classrooms, teams, staffs, ensembles.... trust is a requirement for any healthy organization.


After some discussion, I posed one last question: Are there any of these problems we can't solve? With a decent amount of hesitation, they eventually determined all these problems could be solved. Would it be difficult? Absolutely. Messy? You bet. But in the end, all of these have solutions. And in solving these problems, not only will they be able to communicate and rehearse more effectively with one another, but they will have more concrete life skills to take with them on any of life's paths.

That's one small first step for band, but one giant leap for band-kind.

Next up: Finding workable solutions...

Comments

  1. I will be interested to hear how the selection process goes. Is there funds available to order new music or are the students selecting from your files?

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    1. We are starting with a short list of pieces for each group that I have pre-selected from what we already own in our library. However, I am considering allowing students the opportunity to pick music we do not currently own for the future. (Would love to see them find new music/composers and presenting options once we have established a vernacular for the process!)

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