Seventy-six trombones and a violin

It's been a while since I blogged about my 5th grade beginning band kiddoes. Last I mentioned, they were circling around me like a flock of sparrows around bread, wanting their instruments.

Now that we've had several weeks to work on learning their instruments, I feel they are at last, at least, getting a little comfortable with the whole idea of holding this strange cold metal thing in their hands, blowing into it, or banging, or what have you, and making a loud noise.

Notice I didn't say music, we're not yet making music, but that'll come. It usually does, with time, patience, effort, and a lot of chocolate for the teacher.

Because I had so many trombones available, I now have a lot of trombone players in the 5th grade. Girls, guys, small, large. Each class has at least four, which is awesome. The Lord willing and the creek don't rise, I'll have a killer low brass section in a couple of years. I tried very hard to balance the drum players with the rest of the instruments, because, unlike trombones, you can have too many drummers.

And then there is the gal who asked if I would let her play her violin in band class. Honestly, since I was strapped for instruments, I decided sure, if it was ok with her parents. (Turns out her dad has a trumpet in his closet, but whatever.) I don't know if I've mentioned this yet or not, but I only know the first thing about playing violin. I mean, I've seen so many good players I can show her how to hold it, how to create a good sound with the bow going across the strings, but it remains a mystery to me where to put your fingers for the correct notes.

I told her I'd learn along with her. Now I can play Hot Cross Buns on eleven instruments!

Every day that I teach beginning band, and I'm paying attention to what the kids are doing, the more I realize how much of the learning process of music is about discipline and self-control. In other classes, it usually doesn't matter how a kid sits (unless the back of their chair is about to tip over). It doesn't matter at what speed they do their work, and they don't always have to be paying attention to the teacher in order to be participating and getting their work done.

In a group rehearsal setting, one must: sit up straight and hold the instrument properly, feet must be on the floor, body positioned so that you can see the conductor and the music; one must be sharing a music stand and place it at the correct distance; one must play the right notes, or try to at all times, and one must pay attention to the conductor at all times, unless of course, your stand partner asks a (whispered) question about the music or you need to mark your music with a pencil; you must raise your instrument to play when the conductor indicates, non-verbally, with his or her hands, and only lower your instrument when the conductor lowers his or her hands, even if the song is over and you're dying to analyze with your stand partner where exactly you got lost or played the wrong notes.

And most of all, you must not talk or play the instrument when: the teacher is working with another group of students, when the teacher pauses to answer a question, when the teacher asks you to turn the page to the next song, when the teacher is instructing, when the teacher is asking (non-verbally, remember) you to play or not play or hold your instrument up or put it down.

It's an extremely internal, exacting, self-disciplined process, I'm realizing (with a little help from being on the other side of the baton at grown-up band). How did I not know this after 30 years of being a musician and playing in ensembles under a conductor?

Because it was so second-nature that I didn't know that process really has to be learned. In other words, beginning band students who see me for 40 minutes every other day and who are ten years old, have to be reminded over and over again and shown, and you have to be patient with them, and you have to cajole them and remind them and then go eat some chocolate when they leave to go running back to their classroom.

And then in a few years, if you're lucky, the creek hasn't risen, and the kids have stuck it out, you've got a decent ensemble with those habits beginning to be ingrained.