Episode 12 starts at motivation — the kind that follows action, not the kind you wait for — and lands on the practical problem every director was facing in November 2020: what do you put in front of kids when the band might be ten players or fewer? Charlie, Tim, and Paul work through serious literature versus popular music, then bring in Mike Sweeney, Hal Leonard’s Director of Band Publications, for a deep dive on the Correlated Arrangements, the Favorites collections, the Hal Leonard Score Play YouTube channels, and the brand-new Flex Band grade 1.5 level.
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Inside this episode
Tim opens with a backwards take on motivation: nobody waits to be motivated to do something — you do the thing, and motivation shows up. So get the horn to the face, even on distance learning, even on far-from-perfect audio, and the engagement follows. From there the conversation turns to repertoire. Charlie pushes the line that articles telling teachers “don’t play popular music with your students” have it backwards — play unpopular music, get unmotivated kids. Tim picks up the metaphor: nobody starts a carnival on the bullet, they ride the merry-go-round, the Ferris wheel, the Tilt-A-Whirl, then the bullet.
Steve Smith brings up a feature most EEi teachers haven’t discovered — the “all music studio,” a blank recorder that lets students record anything, not just the method-book lines. It came out of an early teacher training in Texas where someone raised their hand and said, “we don’t just play Essential Elements in our class.” Now students record contest pieces, fundamental exercises the teacher wrote, or anything they made up themselves — then save, title, and keep it in their vault.
The anchor is a long visit with Mike Sweeney, Director of Band Publications at Hal Leonard and a writer-arranger Paul has worked beside for several decades. Mike walks through the Correlated Arrangements (writing music with both hands tied behind your back, then making it work), the Favorites series — graded collections every part of which carries the melody for solo practice and the band part for ensemble play — the Hal Leonard YouTube Score Play channels with 1,200+ concert band recordings, and the Flex Band catalog (130+ titles, grade 2-3) that became unexpectedly perfect for socially-distanced bands. Headline news: a new grade 1.5 Flex level is coming early-to-mid November with 10 new titles, four parts instead of five, built for second-year players in 10-piece-or-fewer ensembles. Plus a fond tribute to John Higgins, one of the founding fathers of this work, recently retired from Hal Leonard.
Read the full transcript
Motivation comes after you start
[00:04:01] Charlie: The topic I want to chat about before we bring in Steve and Mike Sweeney is motivation — ways we can motivate our students and get them excited about playing in band. One of the ways is just to get them playing. Tim: The whole thing about motivation is kind of funny because everybody waits to get motivated. The truth is you can do something and then you’re motivated. Intrinsic motivation comes after you do something. Or what Nike said: just do it.
[00:05:09] Charlie: In this time of distance learning and far-from-perfect technology to hear our students live, we still need ways to keep them playing. Paul: EEi lets kids record themselves, but it’s more than just recording and sending to the teacher — it’s a great motivational tool that lets them hear themselves, improve, motivate themselves to play again, more correctly, and actually self-assess.
Serious literature versus the music kids actually want to play
[00:06:32] Charlie: We need to provide students music they want to play, at the level where they are. Tim: I think about my mother buying me books of the classics in junior high — if I’d read four or five pages I could go out and play. I had no idea what I was reading. Sometimes that’s how it is with music too: they play the notes instead of playing from the heart.
[00:09:35] Charlie: When I present to teachers I always make the point: we have to play music that engages kids. Articles tell teachers “don’t play popular music with your students.” No — play unpopular music with your students, and you’ll really keep them motivated. Tim: You don’t go from Hot Cross Buns to Lincolnshire Posey. You started a carnival on the merry-go-round, then the Ferris wheel, the Tilt-A-Whirl, the bullet. Communicate in their language.
[00:11:12] Paul: We’ve opened the ever-present can of worms — serious music versus popular music. Today’s kids hear popular music in their ears in a way we didn’t. There was no YouTube, no internet. The really good directors find the right recipe to balance long-lasting literature with the popular music coming in and out of kids’ lives. At Hal Leonard we have Aaron Copland on one side of the building and Prince on the other side. We try to do our best with all of it and let the directors choose what works for them.
Steve Smith on the all-music studio
[00:13:36] Charlie: Steve, talk about the feature in EEi that lets students record things other than the lines in the method book. Steve: You also have to think about what parents are hearing their kids practice at home. No kid ever came to me when I taught and said, hey, I want to play this for my mom, it’s her favorite — the third clarinet part to the third movement of English Folk Song Suite. So make sure kids get a chance to play the melody.
[00:14:55] Steve: When we started with EEi we were all excited — kids can record Essential Elements lines and background tracks. It took about two teacher training sessions in Texas before someone raised their hand and said, “we don’t just play Essential Elements in our class. Is there a way we can record something else?” That’s where the all-music studio came from — a blank recorder. Kids can record anything: a piece you’re working on in class, a fundamental exercise the teacher wrote, something the kid made up. Save it, title it, keep it in their vault.
Mike Sweeney — the Indiana pipeline to Hal Leonard
[00:23:05] Charlie: Michael Sweeney, Mike, welcome to the podcast. Mike: Great to be a part of this and great to see everybody. Charlie: How long have you been director of band publications at Hal Leonard? Mike: I started with Hal Leonard in ’82, director of band publications since 2000 — about 20 years.
[00:23:44] Mike: Came from Indiana, where they have a long history of tremendous music programs. I was a hotshot trombone player in a small town — my goal was to be a hotshot trombone player professionally. When I got to Indiana University, there were 30 or 40 trombone players already there who could play circles around me. So I quickly had to find a plan B. I studied music education and absolutely loved teaching. Les Taylor got me started writing — he had a music theory class before school started, a handful of devoted kids who got up early.
[00:25:37] Mike: Speaking of Herman Knoll — he hired me at Hal Leonard. We both taught at Greenwood High School south of Indianapolis, not at the same time. He gave me a call to come join Hal Leonard. Paul: We’ve had this incredible music-ed talent pool come from Indiana to Hal Leonard — Mike, Herman Knoll, Frank Cofield (longtime director of band publications). How lucky are we? Charlie: Next thing I know, you guys are going to be talking about Bobby Knight and basketball.
Correlated Arrangements: writing with two hands tied behind your back
[00:26:44] Charlie: Today’s focus is providing motivation for our students beyond the method book. Mike: Our goal with Essential Elements was to provide supplemental material that could quickly motivate them beyond fundamentals. We have five levels of correlated arrangements. Once a kid gets to a certain point in the book, we can throw some real live music at them structured for exactly where they are.
[00:28:31] Paul: “Correlated” means absolutely tied to the level and the skills students have learned. Open any Essential Elements teacher’s manual and you’ll see that roadmap page in the front. The Explorer series is at page 11 — you can be assured everything in Explorer has no elements that haven’t been taught up to page 11.
[00:29:53] Mike: We used to joke when we did those arrangements — you’d have the staff paper in one hand and the chart of musical elements in the other. “I can’t use a B-natural at this level. I can’t use an eighth note at this level.” Paul: You’re not writing with one hand tied behind your back — you’re writing with two hands tied. At the Explorer level we only have six notes. So you get into all the fussy stuff: we can’t make an F triad without a natural. It’s a puzzle. Make sure tubas get the melody at some point.
[00:31:39] Paul: The method book itself has 12 arrangements throughout written by John Higgins, and they’re fantastic. The correlated arrangements go beyond that and include popular music. Mike: We Will Rock You by Queen, Jurassic Park, Linus and Lucy, Disney tunes. The trick is finding popular tunes, getting them at the easiest level possible, but keeping the integrity of the tune so the student feels like they’re playing the actual tune rather than something watered down.
Favorites books — the accidental duet book
[00:33:23] Paul: You have the Favorites books too — each is graded from easier to more difficult. Mike: Each Favorites book is graded throughout. Even if you’re not using Essential Elements, all these arrangements are very doable. A really good buy especially for a teacher who teaches beginners and older students.
[00:34:17] Paul: The Favorites books are correlated arrangements with an added feature — every part has the melody written out. So a trombone player has the band part AND the melody all the way through. It’s a solo book and a band book, two in one. A couple of years ago a teacher told us: “it’s more than that. It’s a duet book. I have two friends playing different instruments — one plays the melody, the other plays the band part. They have in their mind a duet.” It may not be the most ideal duet, but it’s two friends having fun together on the same piece. We call that a duet.
[00:36:01] Paul: We’re working hard to deliver the Favorites books in new ways — digital, or possibly through EEi. Up until now they’ve been primarily a printed book product. The other aspect is putting a backing track with them, particularly for the solo players.
Score Play — 1,200 recordings on YouTube
[00:37:00] Mike: Score Play is our internal term for our YouTube channels. You can view for free or subscribe for free. It’s a great way to view the entire score and hear the entire recording. Primarily a tool for examining a piece before you buy it. We try to put everything we publish up there now — not just easier levels, but advanced levels too. You can immediately see and hear and judge if it’s appropriate for your program.
[00:39:00] Paul: Score Play is part of the Hal Leonard Essential Elements channel too. We actually have kids who enjoy these channels just to hear the music — they normally wouldn’t have access to the professional recording. A flute player takes their flute part home, gets Score Play up, and plays along, then comments to their friends. They’re engaging with music in ways they didn’t before. Steve: Friends ask me what program we use to record those. They’re too clean, too good. I say: actual musicians. It’s a 50-piece professional concert band, which floors a lot of people.
[00:40:52] Steve: A teacher figured out a clever trick — he has his kids open the EEi all-music studio to record, then open another tab to the Score Play video of what they’re playing, route it through speakers, and record themselves playing along with the Score Play. They submit that.
[00:42:30] Mike: With the pandemic we weren’t able to record our spring releases — some of the YouTube videos there now are in fact MIDI demos just because we couldn’t get 50 people in a room. Hopefully we get back in the studio soon. Charlie: 1,200 recordings for concert band on YouTube. If I’m a college professor listening to this right now, guess what I’m using in my methods classes. Paul: Some college teachers are already using Score Play as their distance-learning tool.
The new Flex Band grade 1.5 level
[00:44:44] Charlie: You didn’t realize a pandemic was coming and this was going to be the new in-vogue way to introduce music — the Flex Band series. Mike: Paul and I developed it back in 2007-2008 for small programs with good players but not enough students for a complete instrumentation. Five parts; each part has an option for brass, woodwind, or strings. As long as you have one player per part, the arrangement will sound complete. Now over 130 titles, primarily grade 2-3 — from serious contest works to holiday pieces.
[00:46:55] Paul: My colleague Jim Gagne computed the number of permutations — hundreds of thousands of instrumental combinations. You could play it with just five people. If you don’t have a particular part, there’s always a concert-pitch keyboard part. As few as five players. Percussion is in there too.
[00:48:59] Steve: From an educational standpoint, Flex Band creates a new level of accountability. In a section of 15 clarinets, sometimes you think if you make a mistake nobody’s going to know. In a five-person Flex group, if there’s a mistake on part three, it’s probably Susie because she’s the only one playing part three. It’s chamber-ensemble thinking applied to band.
[00:52:16] Mike: One thing we’re working on right now — a release coming up shortly with 10 new Flex arrangements at a new year level: grade 1.5, typically geared towards second-year players. Rather than five parts, this new level is four parts. So it should be more attainable for the younger players. Look for that coming out early to mid-November — 10 new Flex titles. We’ll get those up on our YouTube channel as soon as we can.
[00:53:59] Steve: There’s a Flex Band playlist on our YouTube channel — search Hal Leonard, concert band, Flex Band. 123 titles up there, with more in a few weeks.
A tribute to John Higgins, and signing off
[00:55:11] Mike: Whenever you’re looking for music to keep kids engaged and excited, no matter how scattered they are online — look for as much variety. Throw them as many different types of music. Maybe they don’t like one style, but they’ll relate to another. Pick what works for you and try as many different types of things as you can. The kids will connect with something.
[01:00:08] Paul: We’d be remiss if we didn’t say a few more words about our colleague John Higgins. He recently retired from Hal Leonard but was a big part of this. For anybody who’s played good music, John Higgins is a big part of what we do. One of the founding fathers of all of this. Another great talent to work with.
[01:00:54] Tim: The motivation is the harvest for having them play. In the Little Red Hen story the real winner was the Little Red Hen, because she actually put in all the effort and energy. That’s what we’re trying to do. We’re making people better people. Charlie: When this pandemic finally passes — and we know it will — our students will return to band more anxious than ever to make music.
[01:02:53] Charlie: If you have a question or comment, send me an email at bandtalkcharlie at gmail.com and we’ll answer it on a future podcast. Thanks for taking time to join us for Essential Elements Band Talk. Until next time, this is your host, Dr. Charlie Mangini, saying thanks for listening.
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