Episode 2 takes on the year-one problem head-on: how do you start beginners when nothing about the recruiting playbook still works? Charlie, Tim, and Paul welcome veteran Chicago-area music dealer George Quinlan Jr. (Quinlan & Fabish Music Company, Burr Ridge IL) and EEi’s Steve Smith for a practical look at instrument selection, pre-band classes, and the new video-submission feature inside EEi.
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Inside this episode
Tim opens with a one-liner that lands: the light at the end of the tunnel is not an oncoming train. From there the conversation moves to recruitment and retention — the two cornerstones every band director was rethinking in summer 2020. Charlie tells the story of being a first-year teacher who finally got a baritone saxophone approved by his principal… and watched a stranger walk in with a sax pulled out of a cardboard box full of packing peanuts. No case, no neck strap, no mouthpiece. “I need a real music dealer.” The case for the dealer-educator partnership is set.
Steve Smith brings two pieces of EEi news. First: audio feedback inside EEi — teachers can now respond to a student recording with their own voice, not just a grade or a text comment. The how-you-say-it carries more than the what-you-say. Second — with appropriate drum-roll — video recording for students is being added. Teachers will be able to see embouchure, posture, and hand position, not just hear it. Heavy lifting on the development side, so be patient, but it’s coming.
The anchor segment is a half-hour with George Quinlan Jr., a fourth-generation music dealer Charlie calls “the hardest working music dealer in the world.” George opens with a Stockdale Paradox callback from a webinar he’d just attended: it’s not always the optimist who fares best — it’s those who confront the brutal facts and retain faith they’ll prevail. He walks through how recruiting moves from general to specific (“would you want to learn an instrument?” → “I want to learn trombone and I believe I can do it”), why beginning band typically fits the social-distancing model because it’s already taught in small groups, and the under-known history of pre-band classes (Howard Lyons and the Lyons Band Instrument Company invented the listening test and the rent-to-own plan in the 1930s; Adeline Anderson and Nancy Plant took a Lockport Illinois fifth-grade class through a pre-band semester and were performing at the Midwest Clinic two years later). New for 2020: tryout kits with plastic head joints and mouthpieces that families can use at home.
Read the full transcript
Light at the end of the tunnel is not an oncoming train
[00:02:50] Charlie: I’m so glad we’re forging ahead weekly. With everything going on, band directors need to know that the light at the end of the tunnel is not an oncoming train. Tim: The one thing we know is we’re learning stuff all the time. It’s changing per hour. But that’s the key — to be ready to improv when the chords change. If you’re going to play jazz, or going to teach band, I guess that’s what you got to do.
[00:03:33] Charlie: The 2021 Tournament of Roses Parade is canceled. California high school football pushed back to late fall or spring. There’s going to be more cancellations. (Note: the machine transcript looped briefly around 04:00; resumes at 05:00.)
Recruitment, retention, and the year you can’t get back
[00:05:07] Tim: We come back to our two cornerstone buddies — recruitment and retention. We can talk about the extrinsic circumstances all day, but regardless of what happened we got to recruit them, we got to retain them. That’s the one constant mainframe. Charlie: And there’s a good chance recruitment is going to take on a totally new look.
[00:06:11] Tim: One time when I was in high school, I was going for a date with this girl. I cleaned up the car but was out of time, so I only cleaned up one side. When I pulled up to her, all that side of the street was taken; I had to pull up on the other side — the dirty side. When she got in the car she goes, you ought to wash this car. You can’t get away by just doing part of it. You got to do the whole enchilada when it comes to communication — administrators, colleagues, parents, students, and a great music dealer.
A baritone sax in a cardboard box
[00:07:00] Charlie: I remember when I first started teaching, I finally argued enough with the principal that he was going to get me a brand new baritone saxophone. First-year teacher — didn’t have a dealer. So we put it out on school bid. About three months later, this guy walks in with a cardboard box. He pulls out from packing peanuts a baritone saxophone. That was it. No case, no neck strap, no mouthpiece, no nothing. Just a baritone saxophone. Right then and there I realized: I need a real music dealer.
[00:08:13] Tim: It’s more than selling horns. The value-added is the relationship you can have with them where you lock arms because it’s a symbiotic relationship. When they win, you win; when you win, they win. To save 30 bucks by going somewhere else for a horn — and then there’s nobody to service the horn — it doesn’t work.
[00:09:11] Paul: George used the term when I talked to him about this — it’s the year you can never get back. We have to not only get these beginners in, we have to help them be successful. If we don’t, we’re going to pay for this down the road.
Steve Smith — audio feedback now, video recording coming
[00:15:33] Charlie: Steve, remind people where to find the EEi blog. Steve: eiblog.com — a ton of stuff there. We designed it first and foremost to help anybody who is in EEi: tutorials, how to get students set up, how to navigate the tools. Constantly adding things. We also have general teaching tips: classroom management, rhythm writing, grasp practice tips, things you can use even if you’re not using EEi. There’s a big subscribe button on the upper-right.
[00:18:02] Steve: We’ve had many teachers tell us they do a weekly video just to say hi to their kids — especially during the pandemic. They drop it into EEi resources. We also added a feature where teachers can give AUDIO feedback when a student submits a recording. The way the teacher says it can be so impactful. Someone could say “you did a really horrible job” in the nicest manner possible, and then give them the ways to fix it. It allows them to connect with kids on a different level than text or a grade.
[00:21:20] Charlie: Steve, you’re working on a new feature that might roll out this fall? Steve: We are adding VIDEO recording for student assignment submissions. Teachers want to see embouchure, posture, hand position. To start, the student submits a video; the teacher’s audio response feature is already there. Lot of heavy lifting in the development world — there’s security issues, recording considerations. Just want teachers to know it’s coming. It’s way up on the request list.
George Quinlan Jr. on the Stockdale Paradox
[00:26:22] Charlie: One of the finest music dealers I know is joining us — George Quinlan Jr. of Quinlan & Fabish Music Company in Burr Ridge. George: Honored and humbled to be part of this prestigious panel. This whole year is going to require creative solutions.
[00:27:01] George: Earlier today I participated in a webinar with Joe Lamon — he referenced the Stockdale Paradox from Jim Collins’s Good to Great. Admiral Stockdale survived the brutal torture of the Hanoi Hilton. It was not always the optimist who fared best — it was those who accepted the reality of the situation, retained faith they would prevail, and confronted the brutal facts of their current reality. We must be prepared to face the reality of the present. We must be bold, fearless, and creative.
The general-to-specific path of recruiting
[00:28:46] George: It’s a plethora of model school return-to-learn plans, adapting and changing every day. But recruiting always moves from general to specific. The first questions are: would you want to learn to play an instrument? Would you like to join the band? Then we go through a lot of processes to get to the point where the final product is “I want to learn to play the trombone, and I believe I can do it.” Most years that’s involved a lot of human contact — instrument demos, testing, fittings, parent interviews. That might not be a reality this year.
[00:29:32] George: The good news is that beginning band typically fits the social distancing model because it’s typically taught in small groups. That might actually be a benefit for beginning band and orchestra students. Paul: That’s one of the things that doesn’t need to be rethought. Ensemble rehearsal is a bigger challenge.
From the 1930s Lyons listening test to pre-band class
[00:31:53] George: Did you know the study of recruiting actually began in the 1930s by Howard Lyons and the Lyons Band Instrument Company? They developed a listening test, a tone app (a pre-band recorder-like instrument), and they invented the rent-to-own plan for making instruments affordable for families. The listening test developed into the Selmer Music Guidance Survey we used for years. Lots of tools out there that are contact-free or less contact than we’re used to.
[00:33:18] Paul: I was the proud owner of a tone app as my beginning pre-band instrument. Charlie: That explains a lot, Paul.
[00:33:50] George: One model that might come into play this year more than others is the pre-band class. First time I heard of that was in the late ’70s — two teachers, Adeline Anderson and Nancy Plant, started a band from the beginning at Homer Junior High in Lockport, Illinois. Two years later that same set of fifth graders was a performing group at the Midwest Clinic. What they did was a pre-band class for a full semester — pitch, harmony, rhythm, trying instruments, and more importantly learning about each student’s punctuality and cooperation. Things that may be more important to success than a physical feature of lips or teeth.
[00:35:50] George: An innovative tool that has come out lately is tryout kits — a plastic head joint, a plastic brass mouthpiece with small and large cup, a reed mouthpiece. Teachers can send the kit home with the student and do a video conference: let’s see how you sound on this, let’s see how you sound on that. Followed by an information meeting via Zoom where they explain how the whole beginning program is going to work. (Note: machine transcript looped from 37:00 to 39:59 — a short technical hiccup; conversation resumes below.)
Hard is not impossible
[00:44:36] George: We’ve been in constant contact with teachers since March and they seem to be coming up with creative ways around the problems. There is no template for that. Paul: Necessity is the mother of invention — there could be some very good things that come out of this for band, strings, and music education in general. Tim: We’re most creative in our moments of chaos. Nothing motivates like no alternative.
[00:46:34] George: It’s going to be hard, but hard is not impossible. Please know that folks like us — we’re operating local music stores and we want to help. Together we have faith in our ability to help prevail and confront the brutal realities of this situation. We aim to be bold, fearless, and creative.
[00:47:14] Charlie: George, I’m getting personal here with great love and respect. When I met your mom she was confined to a wheelchair and had the most positive attitude of any person I’ve ever met. She dealt with adversity better than anyone. And at her memorial service you said — not every race is a sprint. Some of them are a marathon. When we look at people dealing with the inconvenience of teaching in a weird situation and we look at people like your mom — that’s all we got to look to to reframe things.
Signing off
[00:48:30] Tim: People are really lucky to have George Quinlan working with them. I’ve worked with him for 23 years and he is simply the best. Did we mention he’s president of the Vandercook board — the school that teaches only music teachers. He’s an impassioned guy about music teachers.
[00:49:36] Charlie: Special thanks to George Quinlan Jr. and to Steve Smith for keeping us updated on EEi. Special thanks to you for listening. Without you, music would be silent. We simply can’t thank you, the teachers, enough. This is your host, Dr. Charlie Mangini, saying thanks for listening.
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