Earning Your BBS Degree

Wow, it hardly seems possible that the school year is upon us already. As I sit down to write this article I know that many of you have already started marching band camp. Others who don’t have to worry about marching band are busy planning their programming for the fall and thinking about the best pieces to use to teach their students in the beginning of the year.

Before I get into the main topic of this issue, I wanted to take just a moment to comment on the selection of the performing groups for the 2009 MMEA In-Service Workshop. President Copenhaver has already listed the bands selected to perform in his article, and I want to add my congratulations to those bands and their directors. Forty tapes were submitted, and the committee had a very tough time selecting the top eleven groups while trying to maintain a good cross-section of school sizes. A comment I have heard over and over is that there aren’t enough bands from small schools selected to perform at MMEA. Having taught for 31 years in a class 2 school, I often had that same thought. However, this year there were no Class 1 tapes, only one tape from a Class 2 school and one from a Class 3 school. This makes it really difficult to have a good representation from those “smaller” schools. So, I encourage you to make a tape and send it in. Remember that making the tape is a great learning experience for both you and your band, and the more tapes we have, the better chance of having a representative group of all class sizes.

OK, now about this BBS degree. Many years ago I attended a workshop on this new incentive program called “Renaissance”. I know that many of you have heard of this program now, as it is a very popular incentive program in many schools. I went to this workshop because my school wanted to check out this new program, and Jostens invited us to attend. At the very beginning of the workshop, the facilitator said we were all going to leave the conference with a BBS degree. I guess some had heard this before, but it was new to me. He went on to explain that BBS stood for Beg, Borrow and Steal. He said that there were many ideas out there for this particular program, and all we had to do was pay attention, ask questions and be willing to adapt what we saw, read or heard to our own school situation. In other words, there was no sense “re-inventing the wheel” to make this program work. I have had an opportunity to do some clinics, and I always incorporate this idea into my workshops. There are so many great teachers, both young and experienced out there, that all we have to do is watch, listen and ask questions to make ourselves better at what we do. I will give you a few thoughts as to how, without a lot of effort, you too can earn a BBS degree. By the way, we all got a certificate at the end of the workshop that said we now held a BBS degree. I still have it and proudly put it to use often.

This fall many of you will be taking your band to marching band festivals. What a great opportunity to see and hear some of the best teaching in Missouri. Too often we get so wound up in our band’s performance that we don’t take the time to sit down with our students and watch other bands perform. Undoubtedly you will see something that you think is really great in a field or street performance and wish you knew how they did that. So why not ask them? Take a minute and find the director and ask how they got their band to “turn that corner so well” or “get that symphonic sound on the field.” Everyone has a different situation, but by taking what they do and adapting it to your band, maybe you can make an improvement in your performance.

All of the MMEA Districts have an All-District Band. Why not volunteer to help with auditions this year? Even if you don’t have any students who are ready to audition, go anyway and volunteer your time. It is great for the profession, plus spending some time listening to other students and discussing audition preparation procedures with a colleague or two may give you some insights on how to better prepare your own students for auditions. On the day of the rehearsal and/or concert you have a great opportunity to talk with a number of fellow band directors about various rehearsal techniques, pieces of music or other band related subjects. Just sitting and watching the guest conductor rehearse the group can give you some new tips on how to run a rehearsal and insights into a piece of music you may not have heard before or possibly have heard many times. Of course you Junior High and Middle School folks have this opportunity as well in most districts. This affords you an opportunity to talk with others who are experiencing many of the same things you are on a daily basis. I know in the Northeast District, they even have two or three mini clinics on the day of the rehearsal/concert presented by directors from the district.

Of course there are the MMEA and MBA conventions. What a terrific time to share ideas, ask questions and just listen to some of the best in our business talk about how they do things. Many of the best ideas I have heard have come around the pool at MBA late in the evening or around a table in the lounge at MMEA. Building relationships with our colleagues will make it easier when we have a question or problem and need someone to talk to. I can’t remember a time in my thirty-one years of teaching when I ever heard a band director tell another band director that they really wouldn’t share how they did something.

What about District Music Festival or State Music Festival? I know that many of us are running around like a crazy person on those days trying to get our students prepared for the best possible performance. I found last year, that if I sat down with my schedule and the master schedule of other performances, I had time to hear several other groups that were not from my school. This accomplishes two things. First, you get to pick up ideas and techniques you can take back to your rehearsal room, and secondly, you are supporting your colleagues and their students. It doesn’t get any better than that!

There are many other opportunities we have during the year to spend time with other band directors. The ones listed above are but a few examples of very easy ways to learn and share. One thing all the above suggestions have in common is that they all take an effort on your part to put yourself in the position to beg, borrow or steal. Whether it is finding a director at an event or calling them on the phone afterwards, you have to be the one to ask the questions. You have to take the initiative to call a neighboring band director (high school, middle school or college/university) and make an appointment to meet for a soda and some conversation. We are all very busy, but we must remember that we can never stop learning. Our students deserve everything we can do for them and earning that BBS degree will do nothing but pay dividends for them in the end.

So here’s wishing you a great start to your school year. Remember that there is always help out there and all you have to do is Beg, Borrow or Steal.