Episode 9 takes the show to Clark County, Nevada, where Clint Williams and Dr. Andrew Smouse have turned Rancho High School’s band into one of the most visible programs in the district — and a Midwest Clinic invitee. Steve Smith joins to walk through the EEi tutorial videos, recording rubrics, microphone calibration and the new interactive PDFs that grew straight out of the EEi teacher Facebook group.
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Inside this episode
Charlie opens on sports as a leading indicator — March 11, Rudy Gobert’s positive test and the NBA shutdown — and argues that as football and the NBA come back, schools and band programs will start to find their normal too. Tim and Paul agree that the answer for teachers right now is to plan: don’t get caught flat-footed in January when face-to-face returns. The mantra of the episode is Paul’s wireframe metaphor — write the plan down on paper, then vary off it, but at least have a starting point. Loop the principal, the supervisor and the music dealer into the conversation, communicate constantly, and quote George Quinlan from earlier in the series: we cannot afford to lose an entire year of music instruction.
Steve Smith brings the EEi update. New tutorial videos for the freshly re-skinned EEi landing page; a steady drumbeat of teaching-tips and EEi-tutorial posts on the eeiblog.com side, including Erin Cole’s contributions; a deep walkthrough of the recording rubrics that let students self-assess before submitting; the upcoming video-submission feature for embouchure and hand-position checks; and the interactive PDFs born out of an EEi Facebook group thread — students will be able to fill in note-naming and worksheets directly in the browser and submit them without ever printing a page. The Facebook group itself, Steve notes, has become the fastest path from teacher question to working answer.
Then Clint Williams and Dr. Andrew Smouse of Rancho High School in Las Vegas. Eight years ago Clint inherited 47 kids in band at an inner-city school that was 80% free-and-reduced-lunch with a 58% graduation rate. Last year the program played Midwest with clarinet, brass and woodwind choirs. This year there are 350 students in band, the graduation rate has climbed to 97%, and the school carries five concert bands, four orchestras, four choirs, five mariachi groups, theater and dance — 1,500 to 2,000 students performing across roughly 250 performances a year. Their freshman band pulls from 32 to 42 different middle schools, so the first semester is straight through Essential Elements Book 1: make the clarinets all sound like they came out of the same factory. In their first 17 days on EEi the program logged 631 student recordings and 12,000 pass-offs in the nine-week period. Steve hands them a target: the current EEi recordings leader is at 15,499.
Read the full transcript
(Note: machine transcript looped briefly from 32:27 to 35:00 with a stretch of repeated “I’m glad to be here / Thank you” filler — conversation about EEi beginner videos resumes from 35:00 below.)
Welcome & show open
[00:00:00] Welcome to Essential Elements Band Talk with Dr. Tim Lautzenheiser, Paul Lavender, and host Dr. Charlie Menghini — a weekly program for elementary and middle school band teachers, with regular visits from Steve Smith and special guests addressing issues vital to teaching band. Made possible through the support of Hal Leonard.
[00:01:46] Today’s guests are from Las Vegas: Clint Williams and Dr. Andrew Smouse, both high-school directors who are getting beginners through advanced students going as the year starts virtually, using EEi as a platform.
Sports as the bellwether, planning as the answer
[00:03:03] Charlie: things are getting real — face-to-face classes pivoting to online, others having success. Paul, what are you hearing? Paul mentions a veteran general-music teacher pushing a cart, exhausted, feeling like a first-year teacher. Tim: held hostage in Bluffton, Indiana, but in more contact with teachers worldwide than ever before — some getting it done, some not, some back face-to-face, some back online.
[00:05:22] Charlie: schools and band programs will follow the lead of sports in America. It started March 11 when Rudy Gobert tested positive and the NBA shut down. People are looking for a sign — a sense of normalcy. Tim agrees, but reminds: wear a mask, social distance, wash your hands.
[00:08:34] The throughline: at some point we have to start thinking about what we’ll do when things are deemed safer. Teachers who didn’t start beginners can’t get so wrapped up in virtual that they forget to plan for January.
[00:10:00] Paul’s wireframe metaphor: in web development you wireframe — a blueprint, a plan. You’ll vary off it, but at least put something on paper. Walk into the principal’s office with a plan and watch the response. Walk into a parent meeting with a plan and watch the support. Quote George Quinlan from an earlier podcast: we cannot afford to lose an entire year of music instruction.
Steve Smith on EEi: tutorials, rubrics, calibration, interactive PDFs
[00:14:50] Steve joins. New videos on EEi and the EEi blog — born out of teacher requests on Facebook. Re-skinned landing page; new beginner videos for getting into the site; tutorials on EEi blog covering five easy ways to start; full webinars uploaded; Erin Cole contributing classroom-management ideas.
[00:17:36] The recording feature is robust. There’s a tutorial on assigning recordings, but the next-level piece is creating rubrics: students fill out self-assessment when they submit. “What the kid thought of the recording is almost more important than what you think of it.” Worst case, the kid sees the rubric, realizes they don’t check all the boxes, and redoes the take.
[00:21:25] The new video submission feature coming to EEi. Teachers want it for different reasons — embouchure and hand position, practice environment, making sure it’s the right kid. Steve says: “we’re going to be happy to provide that for whatever reason teachers want them.” Mix audio and video submissions, all in one place.
[00:23:23] Interactive PDFs — also born of an EEi Facebook discussion. Teachers were tired of kids printing PDFs, writing on them, sending them back. Now students will fill out note-naming and worksheets directly in the browser, save to their computer, send the file. “We love adding to our list.”
EEi Facebook community as feedback loop
[00:25:00] Steve on the EEi teacher Facebook group: started last spring, slow at first, now a teacher posts a question and another teacher answers in 10–15 minutes. “We want EEi to grow based on teacher need, not just on what we think teachers need.” That group is where Clint Williams first reached out.
Meet Clint Williams & Dr. Andrew Smouse — Rancho HS, Las Vegas
[00:26:25] Clint Williams: arrived in Las Vegas about 10 years ago for graduate work at UNLV with Tom Wesley. Clark County School District opened Rancho High — one of the district’s largest — and the principal, Dr. Kuzma, had a vision for performing arts. Eight years ago: 47 kids in the first band. This year: 350.
[00:28:53] Tim asks about Midwest. Clint: in the first meeting with the principal he named three goals — Midwest International Band Clinic, BOA marching finalist, and the National Concert Festival. The principal laid out the reality: 47 kids in band, 80% free-and-reduced lunch, 58% graduation rate. Last year, with his financial and logistical support, Rancho played Midwest with clarinet choir, brass choir and woodwind choir.
Feeder schools, standardization & EEi as the bridge
[00:30:32] Rancho is an inner-city school of about 3,400 students next to the old Fremont Street strip. The freshman band pulls from anywhere between 32 and 42 different middle schools depending on the year — quality control is the challenge: tone, counting systems, terminology all varied.
[00:31:21] The solution: the first semester of freshman band runs straight through Essential Elements Book 1 from the very beginning, even with advanced kids — “make all the clarinets sound like they came out of the same factory, all the saxophones from the same factory.” That’s been the practice since day one with the 47-kid year.
[00:35:00] Clint: the EEi videos have been great for the kids — they can watch how to get a first note, how to hold the instrument, as many times as they need outside class. “It’s almost like a game — how few times can I do this to get the perfection we’re looking for?”
[00:36:02] The kids learn to be their own greatest critic: “that’s not going to be what Mr. Williams or Dr. Smouse wants — I need to redo that.”
High-school beginners, mixed feeders, and what EEi solves
[00:36:24] Clark County is the fifth-largest school district in the nation. Some areas start beginners in sixth grade; some don’t. Some Rancho feeder schools have no band at all. So Rancho takes them at ninth grade — they need a fine-arts credit to graduate anyway.
[00:37:38] Rancho runs five concert bands all year — two advanced, two intermediate, one true beginning. This year 81 students in true-beginning band, all ninth-graders.
[00:38:54] Dr. Smouse: in three weeks of school EEi has helped beginners almost teach themselves through the modeling videos. Kids need to hear what a clarinet, what a trumpet should sound like — and EEi’s clarinet model is a world-class symphony player. “It’s just as if a world-class clarinet professional were sitting right next to that student putting the right sound in their ear.”
The middle-school problem: COVID killed periods
[00:40:00] Clint on the feeders: COVID quarantine hit around March 13, exactly during recruiting season for this year’s class. Hard for middle schools to recruit virtually. But the bigger issue — middle schools went from six periods to four. Band has been removed from several middle schools just for this year. Rancho’s main feeder has banned 100% of band this year. “We’ll see a real big hit in two-to-four-to-six years.”
631 recordings in 17 days, 12,000 pass-offs in nine weeks
[00:41:22] Steve, looking at the EEi portal: Rancho started using EEi 17 days ago — 631 student recordings already. Andrew: 12,000 pass-offs this nine-week period. Steve sets a target: current EEi leader is at 15,499 recordings.
[00:43:00] How Rancho uses the recording feature: kids are also getting a mini-lesson in recording — play at the microphone, play at 45°, play at 90°, with headphones, without. Use their ears to find the sound that makes them sound best.
[00:43:55] The EEi microphone-calibration button — Steve explains how it works. Every computer microphone has different latency, the calibration button aligns the recorded track with the high-quality MP3 background so kids don’t hear echoes. Clint: kids are submitting takes then emailing “please don’t grade that — I need to calibrate first.”
[00:45:19] Andrew on grading: the platform calculates averages automatically across pass-offs 2, 4, 6, 8 all the way down 40. No more typing them into an external grade-book — “a plain old good time saver.”
Advice for directors fighting to hold on to their kids
[00:48:41] Tim asks Clint and Andrew for advice for directors scrapping to hang on to kids. Clint: get your principal involved — they could be a coach, a math teacher in their background, doesn’t matter. “A band can change the spirit and culture of an entire school.” And optics: even in a lower-socioeconomic school, Rancho gives every one of the 350 students a school-owned instrument. Build a website out of your own pocket. “Kids today have lots of options — we want band to reign supreme.”
[00:50:32] Clint: “we teach so much more than just music — we teach behavior, we teach life skills.”
Graduation rate: 50% → 97%, and a four-star school
[00:54:02] Clint on the principal’s vision: Rancho was about to be taken over by the state — graduation rate was around 50%, attendance around 50%. The principal’s view: kids have to be involved in the school community — sports, band, choir, orchestra, mariachi, theater, dance.
[00:55:46] Today: five full concert bands, four full orchestras, four choirs, five mariachi groups, five sections of theater, eight sections of dance. Between 1,500 and 2,000 students performing at any given point; about 250 performances a year.
[00:55:52] Graduation rate last year: 97%. Started at around 50%. Rancho is now a four-star school — “even better than some of the upper-crust suburban schools we have here in Las Vegas and Henderson. We wear that as a badge of honor.” Charlie has to mute his microphone — “it’s a family show.”
SEL is what this looks like in practice
[00:57:02] Paul: “what you’ve described is what we label SEL — social-emotional learning. You’re in first place for that right now.” Andrew: just keep the kids playing. Recording playback brings a smile to your face — it brings a sense of belonging, a sense of normalcy in a non-normal world.
[00:58:06] Clint: “It’s sad to walk down the hall and not hear kids practicing — six months since I’ve heard a kid play an instrument live. Just keep the horn in their hands, be patient. When we come together, it’s going to be all the better.”
Signing off
[00:58:49] Charlie thanks Clint and Andrew. Tim: “Their students aren’t going to fail. You become like the people you hang around.” Charlie: “Tim, you’re a broken record.” Tim: “I know it. And I love it.”
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