I teach in an isolated, rural area. Many of these students can probably talk hunting with anyone for at least a day or two. I've often thought of taking up the sport just to better understand them. Just kidding, I am not a hunter. It's not going to happen. Anyway, it is rather impressive to watch these country kids get into jazz.
My first year, I had nine kids. One alto sax, two flutes, two trumpets, two trombones, a drummer and a clarinet player that wanted to play guitar. Thankfully, she was a good sport and agreed to take up bass. Also, thankfully, she was a really great musician that caught on quick and stayed with us for three years. These kids were my portal to understanding the rest of the music program that I had just became the director of. I was able to sit with them and ask about their past experiences, what they thought of the program, what they would like to see happen, and most importantly, I was able to see what level of musicianship they were at. They were the ambassadors of the rest of the musicians. Once I figured out what they knew, and more importantly what they didn't know, I understood so much more of what I needed to do with the rest of the groups.
So, I took my nine kids, very thankful that at least we were a balanced group, and we started looking at music. I had no idea what to work on, most of the music in the library was way above our heads, I had less knowledge of good beginning jazz music than I did of good concert band music, so that was no help to anyone. We all laugh about it now when we talk about working on Green Onions. It took us a week to get the intro and first 12 bars or so down. Then, just as in marching band, we hit sixteenth notes. We didn't make it much further in that song, because I came to find out, they couldn't count eighth notes! I was a bit baffled, then reminded myself, "Teaching is the art of explanation. It is YOUR job to teach them how to count." Now, I am not saying that they weren't ever taught about eighth notes, but it was clear they did not know what to do with them.
I got these wonderful rhythm charts from my music ed professor in college and he made us play this little game he called "Rhythm Bee" where each person gets one measure and you go around the circle and count. If you miss, you are out. I am sure many teachers have a similar game, but I thought, well, let's see if it really works. I had to show them how to subdivide and count the eighth notes. The charts are progressive, so we could start with Chart 1 and work our way through. Two to three days a week, we got out our rhythm charts and played rhythm bee. They HATED it...at first. After they mastered a chart, we would move on to the next one, and they started to realized that they were the rhythm masters of the full band, and of course, I implemented the game into full band and then every ensemble because I saw how fast they improved. It wasn't long before they were asking to play the game (so did my choir! They loved being able to read the rhythms on their own....but that's a different story).
About the same time I realized they needed to learn how to count, one of the seniors told me that they had these red books with some really good charts that the last teacher used. I looked through the method books in the library and found the Best of Essential Elements Jazz collection. That really got us moving. Good music that I could teach them about, music that I knew, and it was at a level that was on their playing field! On Broadway and Basin Street Blues were two instant hits. I had a kid that actually wanted to solo in Basin Street, we got our first "gig" at a school assembly, and we were finally a real jazz band!
After we worked on the same three songs for what seemed like forever, I started to teach a little more about different jazz musicians and the evolution of jazz. It wasn't anything incredible, but you started seeing them take more pride in being a jazz musician.
We would have days where we would listen to music, and days where I made them get up and dance to the music! Oh my, those were so much fun! You always had the two or three kids that hate dancing...but I told them you HAVE to move, it's not an option. I was worried about how this was going to go over when I went through it in my head. I was still new to them and they already thought I was a bit nuts. They went with it, though! Now, their dance skills were a little scary at times, but they got rid of those nerves....of the fear that they'd play something wrong, and when they went to play, you could hear the difference. I would always dance and get into the music while I was conducting. Partly because that's what I always do, even when I play, but also to show them that I am enjoying the music, so they should be doing the same. When they enjoyed it, they listened better and sounded better. It was a beautiful thing to experience all together.
Throughout the year, I moved one of my flute players to tenor sax. The other tried sax, but it didn't work out so well. So she went back to flute. I bought a tune or two that worked for beginners, found another couple in the library that we worked on, and by the end of the year, I had kids that really enjoyed playing, and I was a first year teacher that saw some success in my group and gained confidence in my own abilities. It's important for people to recognize those events, especially musicians. We are GREAT at finding our faults and beating ourselves up.
Now, I'll be honest, even though we came a long, long way from the beginning of the year, we still had some major intonation problems and overall musicianship issues. We could count, but we didn't know much of anything else. The important thing was that we were learning. I was learning, and they were learning. I learned so much from that group of kids. I learned about jazz, being a conductor, about my new program that I was teaching, about what kids can relate to, what they care about, how much more they like it when you laugh with them and have fun, and most of all, I learned that I must meet them where they are at before we could ever move forward...it was something that I will never ever forget and take with me through all of my teaching experiences.
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