quit band because they could no longer chew gum during band. Regardless of whether they had been allowed to chew gum with the previous director, there was no way I was going to allow that in my rehearsals!! Of course the parents weren’ t going to allow them to quit because of that but I was pretty demoralized. Looking back, I could have waited a few days or even weeks to allow the students to become comfortable with my style and then perhaps reason with them about the gum chewing.( Although reasoning with a seventh or eighth grade student is akin to reasoning with a terrorist ☺). Pick your battles wisely!
* Still in my first year, after a few months I had parent conferences. I was fairly pleased with my first interactions with the parents. That was until I met with the parents of an eighth grade flute player who didn’ t get the solo on one of the pieces. The pompous father stated that he“ thought the music program had gone to hell under my leadership”. Whereupon I responded with“ and where did you get your music degree?”. Needless to say, don’ t take things personally. Not everyone will agree with your style, especially if they were enamored with your predecessor.
* There will be times when you might receive students from another music teacher. Sometime the students may not arrive as prepared as you would like them to be. A quote from a veteran music teacher was“ Yes, they may not know it now but someone has to teach it to them. It might as well be you! That’ s what they pay you for!”
* I had developed some basic instrument repair skills such as pulling brass tuning slides etc. I had a small workshop set up in a back room of the rehearsal space. Having spent a few weeks getting the students’ main tuning slides operating smoothly I reminded them that they should keep them greased occasionally with petroleum jelly. One day one of my younger trumpet players came to me with a frozen tuning slide after I had spent considerable time freeing it up. I asked if he remembered to put some petroleum jelly on it. His response was“ we didn’ t have any petroleum jelly so I used apple jelly instead.” A trip to the local repair shop and some time with a blowtorch remedied the situation.
* Again, in my first year, I was directing the high school jazz band in addition to my middle school bands. The Director of Music thought it would be great for the high school jazz band to perform for the high school student body. Being a new teacher of course I couldn’ t see any problem with this event. With the jazz band on stage behind the curtain, 1200 students piled into an auditorium that seats 750 people. There were no teachers or administrators in attendance. By now, even a rookie teacher reading this may suspect this event may not go as planned. The Music Director acted as the master of ceremonies opened the concert with“ Hey, got a minute?” directed at getting the