Sharing Band Kids with Orchestra: Food for Thought

I was told early in my teaching career that you needed to befriend your school secretary (she's really the one running the building), custodian, football field maintenance guy, and the list goes on and on! But what about your colleagues? In many cases, you are all vying for the same kids even to the point of sharing several students. So being able to communicate with the choir director, drama director, stagecraft director, and orchestra director is huge. You don't have to like them, but you must be able to work with them.

When I arrived at my final-destination school, I found that I would be sharing a space with the orchestra director! Oh my, that was a whole new and different experience! We shared space, students, and many other things. I learned a lot in the 19 years with 3 orchestra directors, that I think may be helpful for some of you who have wind and percussionists that play in the school's full orchestra.

With the world so topsy-turvy, now might be a good time to re-evaluate what you do to help with your student involvement in school orchestra.

Things we did that seemed to work:

• Help your orchestra director choose the wind and percussionists.
  • Audition students at the end of marching season.
  • Use honor band or regular band audition music.
  • Remember, it is the orchestra director's ensemble so be supportive.
• Encourage your students to practice the orchestra literature on their own and be prepared for rehearsals.
  • Schedule wind sectionals and help students on difficult passages and practice techniques.
  • Be available during full orchestra rehearsals to advise winds.
  • Remember that this is a much different listening environment than band so help them learn what to listen to and for.
• Hold your students accountable.
  • Be sure your students communicate with the orchestra director if they can't be in rehearsal.
  • Be sure your students can play their music.
• Travel to full orchestra contests and attend full orchestra concerts.
  • Students appreciate that you are visible and interested in their performance.

Early in the sharing process, I learned that my students felt incredibly important playing in the school orchestra, but that importance didn't always transfer to them playing well. I found that when I held them accountable for playing well in the orchestra and encouraged them to "do no harm", the performance level of all our instrumental groups just morphed to a higher level. Remember, it's all about communication and relationships.

Susan Clothier is a native Oklahoman. She attended Oklahoma City University where upon graduation, she immediately started her teaching career. Susan taught in Oklahoma Public schools for 37 years. She took two years off to complete her Masters degree at Hardin-Simmons University in Abilene, TX. Susan spent her entire career in Oklahoma, teaching at Western Heights, Washington, Tuttle, and Tecumseh before returning to OKC to serve as Director of Bands at Putnam City North High School for 19 years until retiring in 2018. During her time at Putnam City, Susan also served at the District Coordinator of Bands and was the Fine Arts Department Chair at PC North. Susan was named Oklahoma's Band Director of the Year and has been inducted into the Oklahoma Bandmasters Hall of Fame.