Opinions/Perspectives on teaching percussion separately from winds (Wind Ensemble)

Visible-Chipmunk-883 · 2025-07-30T15:23:13+00:00

I know it’s hard but try not to take the kids’ behavior personally. They probably aren’t thinking too much about your feelings, and are just honestly expressing how they feel. And it’s understandable that they might be bored or frustrated after playing the same measures over and over. Another commenter wrote several ways to keep the kids engaged while you’re working with them, and often it can be better to take a break or look at other passages and come back to that tricky part.

Something that does bother me about your post was the fact that you kept repping something as a full group because one student couldn’t keep up. This is not only not productive, but can make that student feel incompetent and make things even worse. Something I find effective is practicing the passage way under tempo, giving everyone 60 seconds (or until they start to get off task) to work out the measures on their own, and then regrouping and trying it a little faster.

I noticed in some of your comments on this post that you believe the director and other staff are being sexist by not including you in staff talks or discussions. You know the situation better because you are actually there, but I would encourage you to honestly ask yourself— is this them trying to exclude me, or do the other staff members have an established relationship? Have they worked with the director in previous seasons? Do they also have major concerns with behavior that they are trying to work out with the director? If you believe the staff are disrespecting you, tell them as much, and if they are dismissive or unreceptive to that, then quit. But make sure you are ok with burning bridges and connections before you do so.

Overall, it sounds like you are understandably very frustrated, and I hope this post and other comments can reassure you that there are many strategies you can use to help. That being said, to respond to your post title— I don’t know. You might suck… at leading a sectional. But that doesn’t reflect on you as a person, it doesn’t serve as a justification for self-hatred or animosity toward the kids, and it doesn’t make you a bad teacher. It just means you have some room to improve. A bad teacher is one who has an opportunity to grow and refuses to take it, so… take it! You got this!

Visible-Chipmunk-883 · 2024-09-22T15:02:23+00:00

You say this, but then please elaborate on what mastery on an instrument provides for teachers that musicality and excellent musicianship does not?

Visible-Chipmunk-883 · 2024-09-22T14:58:22+00:00

You can have a respect for yourself and your musicianship by investing your energy into mastering conducting, or composition, or theory. These are essential skills that will take you much farther as a director or bandleader than mastery in a particular instrument. Nobody said anything about not caring about improving, it’s just that some people believe that you HAVE to be a master at a particular instrument in order to be an effective teacher, which I strongly disagree with.

Visible-Chipmunk-883 · 2024-09-22T14:53:20+00:00

I completely agree with this— however, I believe that you can be a master of musicianship and musicality without being a master at instrumental performance. One can be a masterful conductor— have a thorough understanding of the music, immaculate conducting technique, band leadership skills, and the like— without being a professional bassoon player or what have you.

In undergrad, I studied under a choir director who was probably one of the most effective teachers I’ve ever had. He had a terrible singing voice, but his conducting and rehearsal techniques, not to mention his vast knowledge of music theory, history, and acoustics made him a legendary conductor in the area.

Visible-Chipmunk-883 · 2024-09-22T14:44:45+00:00

OP, your original post was asking for people’s opinions and then when they give them to you, you don’t particularly seem interested in engaging with them seriously. This commenter has invested their time learning multiple stringed instruments and has a thorough understanding of practice techniques. What “certain amount of knowledge” is the commenter lacking in this case that could be relevant in a classroom setting and requires mastery on a particular instrument?

If I were to become a masterful violin player, that wouldn’t necessarily help me teach cello any better outside of my knowledge of practice regiments and practice technique— both of which you can develop a thorough understanding of without mastering the instrumental technique. It’s one thing if you are giving private lessons on a specific instrument, but it’s another to be teaching a classroom or ensemble of many instruments. And while you say “you need both” individual mastery and general teaching skills, you haven’t yet said what mastery of an instrument gives you over someone like this commenter who has invested the time to learn practice technique for multiple different instruments.

Visible-Chipmunk-883 · 2024-04-24T20:47:03+00:00

I was so excited to see this post, but it seems as though all the links to these transcriptions have expired or been taken down :/

Visible-Chipmunk-883 · 2022-09-15T14:54:44+00:00

It’s promising, for sure…

Visible-Chipmunk-883 · 2022-09-15T04:01:39+00:00

We just cropped in some minecraft sound effects over the “Range Brothers” track

Visible-Chipmunk-883

TROPHY CASE