At the end of 2022, I published my book “How to Get Good”. Up until that point I’ve been referencing it to a lot of my students and I think they were curious but didn’t entirely understand what I was talking about. Then came the new iteration of my junior percussion ensemble and I decided to really methodically follow the steps of my book and apply these principles to the ensemble setting. I started by setting a group goal with them that they were involved in setting. They set the parameters of the goal, and they set the time frame for it (with my assistance of course) but they guided the process. They all closed their eyes and imagined themselves onstage, performing our pieces to an audience of family and friends. They imagined playing their parts effortlessly and with beautiful technique and tone.
And the amazing thing I think is that there were students that were not strong on particular instruments that decided to challenge themselves. They chose to work on things that they were not “Good” at with the objective of doing something that’s good for the ensemble in the long term rather than just doing what’s easy for them. This also showed itself when they would all arrive and start rehearsing straight away. I have come in regularly to rehearsals and they are there already setting up and rehearsing pieces together for about 15 minutes before rehearsal starts. One student usually rounds them all up, counts the piece in, and by the time I’ve walked in, they’ve already done 2 run-throughs of their pieces.
My ensembles are all working to prepare for the Queensland Catholic Colleges Music Festival. It’s a music festival here in Brisbane that has sections ranging from percussion ensembles to concert bands, rock bands, choirs and string groups. We set a goal as an ensemble to be awarded a Gold Award at the competition and to do this by performing our pieces excellently (obviously) and without a conductor!
Every student has a copy of the recordings of the pieces, performed by professionals as demos online, and was asked to listen to these recordings regularly. They are frequently celebrated for their successes and encouraged through their struggles. And throughout the entire experience, THEY have supported EACH OTHER. When one student cries because he is making mistakes and having a tough week, the other boys give him a pat on the back and tell him he’s doing a great job. They look at each other’s parts and help each other with rhythms. They ask questions about who else has a part like theirs. And it’s all in the pursuit of not only a worthy goal as a group, but for their growth as individuals.
A regular practice we have is I ask them to each close their eyes and give a rating to their personal performance in a run of a piece. 1-10, with 10 being a performance with perfect notes, rhythm, articulation, dynamics and technique. I ask them to close their eyes and to answer in their heads to prevent them from being affected by other people’s answers. I do this many times in every rehearsal and no matter how many times I do it, by the end of the rehearsal they are always rating themselves higher than earlier. When I started this exercise, it was interesting to see how they each rated themselves. No kid was ever rating themselves lower than a 6 haha! And as time went on, I reiterated to them “How we rate our performance has nothing to do with our quality as people. It’s just a reflection of where our skills are RIGHT NOW.”
The beautiful thing to me is that now, almost a year later, they are brutal with their ratings of themselves, sometimes giving themselves zeros and twos, but yet still very excited by how they are progressing. They accept feedback with purpose and intention to grow. Performance in the moment is no longer blown up to be a reflection on who they are throughout all of space in time.
I cancelled the junior percussion ensemble rehearsal this week because I’m in rehearsals for a show. More than that, I’ve also told them that I won’t be able to conduct them at the music festival because of this show so they really have to perform without a conductor. With 3 weeks until the music festival, we talked as an ensemble on whether we will be ready to achieve our goal by the time we have to perform. And I offered the idea to organise a group rehearsal at another time during the week and said, “If you boys would like to organise a rehearsal together during a lunch break, I will make sure the room is made available for you to rehearse. I trust you to take care of the space and rehearse all that you need to be ready.”
They enthusiastically thanked me for the rehearsal and looked at each other with conviction.
That was last Thursday.
Three days later on a Sunday, the youngest member of the ensemble (in grade 5) sent the entire ensemble an email
Hi Everyone,
Are we all ok to do a practice on Thursday the 3rd of August at playtime Break 1 where we usually have rehearsal, because we don’t have rehearsal in the afternoon? Please let me know.
Soooo, it looks like I’ve outsourced my percussion ensemble to the students in it hahaha.
But more honestly, I feel an invigorating sense that I’m onto something with this system.
If they get a Gold Award or a Silver Award at the music festival, to me, the goal was never the measurement, it was the development of skills and the support of their growth as people. I’ll be happy to see them come together and debrief and give each other feedback after the festival. To see them walk into the next rehearsal and tell me which pieces they want to work on. To talk to them about what they thought of the other ensembles. To start setting a group goal once again.
He copied me into the email but finished it with “Please let ME know”. The youngest member of the ensemble took ownership of organising a group ensemble rehearsal. At the age of 10.
In the movie ‘Patch Adams’, a quote that always sticks out to me is when he addresses the medical board and says: “You treat a disease, you win, you lose. You treat a person, I guarantee you, you’ll win, no matter what the outcome.”
And that to me is a fundamental approach to teaching. Though we often identify ourselves as teaching a subject, the profession is delivered more like a lecture or public speaking and should instead be treated like regenerative farming. Quit focussing on teaching a subject to a kid. Cultivate the growth of a young PERSON.
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