Recruiting, and the retention of those recruits, is a primary issue that band directors address on a yearly basis. Band directors across the nation spend countless hours and resources developing the beginners of their programs. These efforts however are met with numerous challenges that originate from a multitude of sources in terms of retention. Would a district-mandated piano class at the elementary level improve retention of beginning band? Researchers have found that beginners quit band after their first year of instruction for a variety of reasons including scheduling conflicts, cost of instrument, and the time commitment. Hartley (1966) and Gamin (2005) found that these factors, as well as difficulty of instrument and academic
Band teaches life skills. Where independent thinking is the model in most academic classrooms, teamwork is essential in band. Band students learn to work with and for each other. The three R’s in band include Respect, Responsibility, & Reliability. Our students learn to appreciate one another for their individual talents and their contributions to the organization as a whole. They learn positive social skills –the most important factor in our program –where we teach such qualities as confidence, pride, and self esteem; all values that will serve these young people well throughout the course of their life. Citizenship, team motivational skills/leadership skills, time management, organization skills, dependability, and honesty are instilled into band members. Band teaches students to face challenges and strive to reach higher and higher goals.
Payne, B. (1997). A review of research on band competition. Bulletin of the Council for Research in Music Education, 33(1), 1-21.
Once this is accomplished, students gain personal pride in achieving this new skill. Music programs offer lots of chances for students to develop new talents, whether that is playing an instrument or singing a song. “Music programs in public schools help to foster a student’s sense of pride and self-confidence” (Hoffman 1), and with this newfound pride, students will develop more experience in other areas, like working with others and communicating with different people. Music plays an active role in student’s lives, and as core subject grades begin to rise, “music education remains a key component in a student’s academic success and in positive social and emotional growth” (Hoffman 1). Music forms dignity in a students abilities, offering to give the students a chance to develop their communication and social skills in a safe environment, and give themselves positive feelings about their accomplishments. Without music programs in schools, students will have less pride in their abilities and will not let them gain that safe environment to achieve these experiences with
Sheftel, B. (2002). Music Education Curriculum in Public Schools. PageWise, Inc, Retrieved August 6, 2003
I have played an intrinsic role in my school’s band and orchestra department through helping organizing performances, teaching classes, and tutoring individuals. On a regular basis, I am responsible for directing and teaching classes including beginning band, with grades ranging from fourth to twelfth, and more advanced ensembles like concert band and marching band. I also play an important role in their performances sometimes by directing and other times by contacting venues to organize dates and times for the shows. I also dedicate time during the week to help beginning players
Companies used various methods for recruitment, such as online job search engines, job data bases, in house advertising, billboards, employee referrals, and word of mouth. These methods have both caused company growth and company regression. Some methods hinder certain groups from completing an application and others promote an equal playing field for potential recruits. Company’s typically use various metrics to consider employment for available positions. An initial method used by companies is cost-per-hire which contributes to the money spent on recruiting, training, developing, travel costs, and company equipment cost. Staffing efficiency ratio is also a major metric which is the firms recruiting cost divided by the total starting compensation of new
Madsen, Clifford K., David S. Plack, and D. Patrick Dunnigan. “Marching Band As A Recruiting Organization for the University: A Case Study.” Journal of Band Research 43.1 (2007): 54-62. Web. 16 Mar. 2014.
The program ran this year at the New Smyrna Beach High School Barracuda Band this year could be summarized by one word: sound. The sounds produced by our ensemble during marching season had crowds across the state cheering us on, and earned an overall superior at our Marching Music Performance Assessment. The sounds during our concert season have been even more impressive, earning a straight superior at our District Six Concert Music Performance Assessment and sent thirteen performances to our state level Solo and Ensemble. This year the program was also sound, in the sense of it settling down. A previous year of bumpy roads and crash landings finally came to a smooth journey, and this was caused by many factors. Some of our more negative members left our ensemble, either via graduation or variance, other members came to terms with our situation and decided to battle for the band and no longer against it, and our leadership team for the 2013-2014 school year was much improved in comparison to our previous team.
...formations of the American band movement, both inside and outside of the public school setting, and its implications on the field of education. Having now established my topic, I should ask myself the following questions: when did the idea of having a concert band in the public schools begin to take shape? What was the instrumentation of these bands? How many students were in these groups, and how did that compare with the population of the school on the whole? Was the size of these bands equivalent to those employed by institutions such as the military? What was the purpose of these bands – were they valued as a means of entertainment or were they viewed as a curricular group? Was this perspective in any way similar to how we view today’s public school concert band? These question will serve as my initial catalyst into research on this meaningful, enriching topic.
Many schools today have instituted several different art programs. These programs range from music programs, both vocal and instrumental, visual art, drama and dance. The music classes encompass both vocal and instrumental teachings. Typically, children have specified music classes they ar...
“Recent studies show that being involved in music classes makes it easier to learn other subjects and improve skills in other classrooms” (Brown, “The Benefits of Music Education”). A lot of people tend to overlook how much music education has an impact on the success of a student. Because of this, schools should be required to offer fine arts and music classes as electives for the students. Not only will this improve the students test scores, but it will also give the students a broader imagination and more creativity in and out of the classroom. In a lot of schools, fine arts and musical classes are the first to go when there are budget cuts. “Seventy-one percent of the nation’s fifteen thousand school districts have cut instructional hours spent on music and other subjects” (“State of the arts: should music and art classes be brushed aside”). Not only is it affecting the teachers who have specialized in the study of fine arts, it is affecting all of the students and parents who are actively involved in these programs. “Johnson, professor of music education and music therapy and associate dean of the School of Fine Arts at KU, found jumps of twenty-two percent in English test scores and twenty percent in math scores at elementary schools with superior music education” (Lynch “Music Boosts Test Scores”). With that being said, schools should be required to offer music and fine arts classes as an elective for their students.
Whenever kids join band, they typically have their mind set on the instrument they want to play, and for me, this was percussion. In sixth grade we had the opportunity to join band, and become part of prestigious and successful group at our school. I dreamt of being the lead percussionist and leading the band by keeping the beat and making sure everyone was always together. I had my heart set on percussion ever since I was little, seeing my uncle play drums, banging his head around wildly, hitting drumsticks so hard they broke, and having so much fun with it; I wanted to have that much fun, too.
In order to help spark that passion inside of others I must accomplish my first goal of obtaining my bachelor 's degree in music education and gaining my teaching endorsement for K-12. I intend on accomplishing this goal by attending the University of Nebraska at Omaha starting the fall semester of 2016. After attending UNO for 4 to 5 years I will begin my search for a high school instrumental music employment opportunity. Once I am employed I will be able to begin fueling the fire of passion in some students.
Step one to take an assessment of your situation is an extremely important step that is often disregarded. Organizations often look at the challenges they face but they don’t necessary identify membership opportunities. While working for AmeriCorps I was a part of the team that worked with state commissions to help their state nonprofit programs run well. This position also required that I participate in the yearly grant review process. Basically we would read through all the applications and pick chose the “best of the best” based on things such as the needs in the state, if they were focusing on a presidential initiative, how they have done in the past and what they plan to do. This process only weeds out a few and than we look at their potential for success. This always goes to recruitment and retention. If you can’t recruit and retain your program will have little to no success. For those who were unsuccessful during the grant review, were encouraged to work with their programs at the beginning of the year to identify their shortfalls and later this assessment process became mandatory. An important point that Levin made was that an organization needs a historical perspective, meaning it is helpful to be aware of their successes and failures and to learn from them (364).
Friedrich Nietzsche once said, “Without music, life would be a mistake”. Music is almost as old as the human race and is as much a part of it as anything. So why would anyone choose to get rid of it? An Increasing number of schools across the nation are deciding to cut music education programs. This includes band, orchestra, choir, and general music classes. In 1991, 55.4 percent of public school eighth-graders took part in music classes at school. In 2004, this figure was just 49.1 percent. Money plays a huge role in this statistic: “...when funds are scarce, arts courses are usually the first to be dropped from a school’s curriculum” (“Arts Education”). While many argue that music education is an unnecessary cost for schools, it improves student’s overall well being.