EE Band Talk Episode 6: Three Scenarios and Kevin Lynch

The year nobody could have imagined

[00:02:28] Charlie: As we were getting ready for school last year, I don’t think anyone could have imagined our world would be trying to figure out how to deal with a virus pandemic. And here we are, six months after we learned of it. Talk about a different start to the school year. Tim: Some schools have already started. Some are hybrid, some are all online. There’s a couple that everybody went and there’s some breakdowns already. We’re Lewis and Clark — trying to find our way across to the destination.

[00:03:45] Paul: Here we are in our sixth week and we thought we’d know a lot more by now, but it just seems to get even more uncertain. We see both ends of the spectrum — incredible, creative, effective ideas, and teachers who are just struggling to figure out how to get through the week. Charlie: Maybe we should queue up the theme from Jaws. We’re going to need a bigger boat — or at least a bigger toolkit.

Make a list, talk to everybody, write things down

[00:05:32] Tim: The one thing we have control over is our attitude, how we’re going to take it on. There are people doing magical things, creating scaffoldings where the kids are more interactive than they’ve been. They don’t have anything else going on. So — attitude. Charlie: Teachers are going to fit into one of three primary boxes: starting online, teaching face-to-face, or hybrid.

[00:07:08] Charlie: Everybody’s going to need to be talking to all their constituencies — administration, parents, music dealer, colleagues. They need to get a picture of what everybody thinks. And right now, people need to write things down. Ideas, thoughts, concepts. So when it comes time to plan instruction, you’ve got something to jog your memory. Tim: Research says writing it down imprints on your brain. Pencil and paper is old-fashioned but works.

[00:11:35] Charlie: A veteran high school director told me this week, “I feel like I’m a first-year teacher all over again — but I’ve got all these things I already know.” Tim: Not making a decision is a decision in itself. Make a list. Make a second list. Make a third. You may be cross-pollinating from one list to the next, but you’re putting on your flexibility hat. Paul: John Higgins told me once — “Good books aren’t written. They’re rewritten.”

Scenario 1: virtual, beginners delayed

[00:14:05] Charlie: Your district has decided to begin the year virtually and right now there’s no plan to start beginners, or perhaps they’ll delay. Tim: I wouldn’t be in remorse — that’s wasted time and energy. If that’s the edict, let’s go from there. Get with my administrator and lay out the blueprint. Get to the dealer to see how we can lock arms. Paul: And then the parents. Fifth or sixth graders’ parents have already anticipated the start of band. They need to be comforted with the new plan.

[00:15:22] Steve: If a teacher is only teaching beginners and they’re not going to start beginners this year, they’re sort of on alert. They could offer to help out with other band classes online. Charlie: A great time to do a conference call or Zoom with the school music dealer and administrators — the dealer can let the administrator know what’s going on in other districts. A real chance to softly educate your administration.

Scenario 2: virtual, beginners starting

[00:17:14] Charlie: Virtual, but you ARE starting beginners. Steve: EEi is totally set up for this — lots of resources for beginners, music theory, videos. I was talking with teachers last week who had a great idea: in Zoom you can have all the kids practicing at the same time, then unmute somebody to help one person, mute that person, go to the next. Chaotic in a regular class, but actually works in a Zoom call.

[00:19:13] Paul: EEi was originally designed as a distant-learning tool — to extend the classroom when teachers were pressed for time, in a web environment on any device. We never imagined it would be USED this way. But now this tool designed for one thing is going to be used for something similar but completely different. Tim: EEi is the blueprint. You add the secret sauce — the enthusiasm of teachers — and we’ve got a shot of coming out of the gate in good shape.

Scenario 3: face-to-face, with new beginners

[00:21:47] Charlie: Face-to-face, starting new band students. Paul: Band kids are in the same environment with all the other classes — new rules, new situations, new safety concerns. It could be as few as six to eight students in a room at a time. Every district has a different situation. But beginners coming to school means a level of comfort — they’re with their friends, one of the big reasons they joined in the first place.

[00:24:31] Steve: Procedures, procedures, procedures. I was a procedure person when I taught beginners — how you come in the room, where you put your case (right side of your chair, latches even), how to carry the case so the lid hits your leg if it falls open. Now you’ll need to think about teacher safety too. Those days of having a kid blow on your hand to feel airspeed are gone for a little bit. You may even reevaluate — why did I ever put myself in the position to have a kid accidentally spit on me?

[00:28:01] Steve: In EEi we have a parent portal where parents can sign in and watch what’s going on in your class. Anything you share with the kid gets shared with the parent. We don’t talk about that enough. Make a video of your procedures, have fun with it. Parents are going to be comforted to know.

Kevin Lynch — Tenuto, Penn State, and the Stafford team

[00:33:07] Charlie: Our guest today is Mr. Kevin Lynch. In addition to running his own band podcast called Tenuto, Kevin is in his fifth year of teaching and serving as the director of bands at Shirley Heim Middle School in Stafford County, Virginia. Kevin: Such an honor to be talking music ed with some of the best in the field.

[00:35:47] Kevin: My middle school director had this before-school jazz band we’d audition for. He played at local restaurants with his own jazz band, and he’d say, “hey, come check us out, bring your horn.” I’d be in the audience and he’d look at me and say, “you got your horn?” — and I’d go up on stage with him. That was the experience that hooked me on music forever. My high-school director was Matthew Haas, a trombone player like me. The reason I gravitated toward middle school band is because I just saw how an amazing program was run.

[00:37:12] Kevin: I went to Penn State — studied with Dennis Glocky (wind band), Richard Bundy (marching band), but the main reason I went was for the trombone professor, Mark Lusk. Everybody in music needs a mentor. Mark is that for me, even past college. Started teaching in Stafford in 2016 as an assistant band director between two middle schools. EEi was already in place when I got there.

Starting beginners virtually — the unanimous decision

[00:42:16] Kevin: This year my school is starting virtually and we ARE starting beginners. This is a decision the ten band directors in our county made together — unanimously. Our county isn’t going to start back face-to-face until at least January. There’s too many things up in the air. These kids signed up for beginning band, not music theory, not music appreciation. We want to give them that band experience. We’re going to collaborate. We’ve got wizards in this county — Arlene Manduda’s been teaching 35 years and has a crystal ball.

[00:44:35] Steve: How are you getting kids on instruments? Kevin: Average is around 70 beginners. We’ll split into 32–33-person classes. At the start of the year we’ll help them make informed decisions about instrument choice. We have four local music stores, at least two of which are offering fittings — letting kids touch and feel the instruments. In a normal year the band directors go out to the elementary schools and do fittings; we don’t feel comfortable doing that this year, but the dealers do. That’s a huge plus.

[00:47:00] Kevin: Sixth grade this year may not get as far in the method book as sixth grade last year. They might not become as developmentally or technically skilled — but they don’t know what sixth grade last year did. Our job is to encourage these kids to stay with it. Maybe in the first month they only learned how to put their instrument together without breaking it — I’m going to make sure those kids are excited that they can do that.

Tools for parents: EEi, Bandmate, and the COVID Companion

[00:48:14] Kevin: I love the resource part of EEi — videos already made with proper technique, fingering worksheets to instill mastery. I project EEi up on the screen in class. Kids vote on background tracks — piano, classical, rock. We’ll do small groups: this time just the clarinets, this time just the horns. The horns struggle so much with partials — with EEi at home you can hear if you’re matching pitch.

[00:48:58] Kevin: A friend of mine, Chris Grappis, just completed his master’s in music ed and produced this beginning-band COVID Companion. A website with super-detailed videos on assembly and disassembly, maintenance, mouthpiece exercises, first notes and tones on every instrument. Foolproof. “Put your instrument together, do this, stop, let’s check for completion. Does yours look like mine?”

[00:51:40] Kevin: I plan on having a virtual meeting with parents of the beginners, teaching them how to use EEi — there’s so many options that get overlooked. I also love this app called Bandmate Chromatic Tuner. Brass players will be playing too high or too low but have the right fingering and slide position — they think they’re doing everything right. Bandmate shows them with their eyes. So many parents think they aren’t musically inclined and can’t help. Parents can play a huge role in fostering this music education this year.

Signing off

[00:53:54] Charlie: You’re optimistic about what you and your fellow teachers have in mind. Kevin: I’m so optimistic because we have such a great team. It’s not me by myself — it’s me and nine of my closest friends who are working on this together. That’s rare in the world of teaching. Our county is super innovative — our arts director is talking to a startup called Light the Way and we’re experimenting with Soundtrap (cloud-based GarageBand-style composition) with seventh and eighth grade.

[01:03:33] Charlie: We still haven’t gotten it right — we’ll give it another shot next week. Thanks for joining us for Essential Elements Band Talk. Tell your friends about the podcast and the EEi blog at eeiblog.com. This is your host, Dr. Charlie Menghini, saying thanks for listening.