Watch Session Recording
Participants will observe and experience an abbreviated process for teaching a song to Modern Band students from song selection to performance. Student performers and attendees will have fun making music together, and participants will gain ideas and strategies they can apply to their Modern Band classrooms.
NAfME Executive Director Mike Blakeslee will address and discuss many of the current issues in music education, from advocating for your students, working with peers towards achieving diversity, and how Modern Band can be a tool for engaging students as well as a strong component of a balanced, standards-based school program. This session will include Q&A and discussion with the audience to collaborate on ways to help make sure every student succeeds.
For the last three years, I have infused modern band into my orchestras, concert bands, symphony, and choir. Nyasha has done the same with her Steel-Pan ensemble. We want to show music teachers who might be just starting out on their journey with modern band, or who have additional ensembles how to integrate modern band into these already established programs. By doing this, we hope to encourage teachers to work with the programs they are already successfully running, and include modern band instrumentation and methods in these ensembles to create rich musical experiences for students.
In our session we will show you how to:
1) Adapt modern band for their ensembles.
2) Arrange modern band repertoire for alternative ensembles.
3) Incorporate modern band teaching strategies into these ensembles.
4) Include alternative instrumentation into the modern band setting.