Solo & Ensemble

You get to a point with students where you just throw your hands in the air and say, they'll sink or swim on their own.

These last few weeks since the Large Group Contest have been a bit haphazard, with state tests and holidays and stuff like that interfering with the kids' time in class to prepare. It was this week that I had to say, sink or swim.

I was out of the middle-high band class for one day, and during the time they had a sub I realized that without me to keep a lid on them, they would not do what they were supposed to do.

So today I told them to get their instruments out and sit, we would have a master class. Basically, what I told them, was that they needed to prove to me they were ready or go home and practice over the four-day weekend. If they didn't come get their instruments after school I'd call home and find out what the problem was.

I wish I could have lined them up across the back wall, such was my mood. However, I let them sit where they felt comfortable and had them stay silent, or try. One by one, they came up and played for me. Most of them I got all the way through, some I stopped halfway because I was satisfied with their progress one way or the other.

I told the kids that I just needed to know so I didn't lose sleep. (Not that I'm losing sleep over that, I'm losing sleep over dreams about astronauts and rockets.) But it was also to show who was ready and who was not.

At one point one kid asked why we were not giving feedback. I said, the time for feedback is over. You all know what you need to work on. Some of them came up and futzed with their reeds trying to blame their lack of progress or tone quality on that, and I said, it's not the reed, it's your brain. I offered constructive criticism to those I knew would take it, and made sure the rest of the class knew what they needed to do.

I got through about 2/3 of this class of 7th-8th-9th graders. I sure as heck am not going to lose any sleep over THEM. It's the Rachmaninoff accompaniment I'm worried about.