Taking risks, nurturing growth.
“My students won’t like this piece”, said the brain. “Are you sure?”, cried the heart.
“Will my students like it?”. That’s what most band directors consider when selecting repertoire (as projected in a recent survey). Whilst I fully appreciate and comprehend this consideration (on various levels), I would also like to interject another equally important consideration… growth through risk.
Let me explain…
When my daughter was starting on solids, a friends’ Mum gave me some very sage advice:
“Always put the broccoli on the plate”, she said. “Don’t make up their mind for them, one day, they’ll have a nibble, and then another, and then another, and soon, having different coloured and shaped vegetables on the plate will be normal.”
She was right and gosh it made dinner time so much less stressful when I didn’t expect her to try everything. It was just there, on the plate, part of the everyday meal. True to her word, one day, she took a nibble at something new. Exploration became part of meal time and she developed a healthy, happy relationship with new food.
What if we took the same approach to the band repertoire we select for our students?
What if, we simply placed music in the band folders and starting rehearsing it without fuss or friction about whether or not you (or they) “like it”? What if, we just got on with making music of ALL kinds?
I can tell you what will happen, you’ll be surprised. Surprised by what music the students DO like and surprised by how much playing different-sounding, “risk-taking” repertoire helps the students grow.
“Always put the broccoli on the plate.”
“Don’t make up their mind for them…”
RISK
A school band in Australia recently commissioned and premièred a new work of mine. It’s a very different sounding work to the usual Grade 2 repertoire and is a statement about the current dire state of our beloved Australian koala. The piece pushed both the director and the students well out of their comfort zone, they all took a giant step forward as well as a significant risk.
The day before the concert (after a shared rehearsal), a student came to ask me a few questions about the work. They seemed fascinated with the project. The next day I learned that that particular student was autistic and had really struggled with the work at first. The struggle occurred because the music wasn’t measured, it wasn’t evenly metered (it changes time signature at times) and it invites the students to make decisions about how to interpret some of the material. This didn’t fit inside what they believed music to be. Being autistic, they found this introduction to “different” music harder than most.
“The Little Bush Buddha”, Grade 2 #conservation series
NURTURES
After the première performance, that same student declared to their trumpet teacher that my koala piece, “The Little Bush Buddha”, was now their favourite work. They had even been online and listened to more of my pieces because they now wanted to play more music that was “different”. Why? Partly because they were “cool”, but ALSO because that same student now firmly believed that they COULD play music like this. They had grown.
If that amazing, risk-taking band director hadn’t commissioned the work, if they hadn’t taken their students on a journey, if they hadn’t placed the “broccoli on the plate”, then that student would still believe that all music was even and metered and that they weren’t capable of playing anything else. And maybe, just maybe, by now knowing that all MUSIC isn’t the same, they will begin to see this same concept in other aspects of their lives. Potentially, a whole new universe has been opened up for this young person that will help them in ways we cannot even imagine. All because that amazing, risk-taking band director “put the broccoli on the plate” and let their students make up their own mind.
GROWTH
So next time you hear yourself thinking “my students won’t like this piece”, catch yourself. Sometimes, tastes are acquired. Yes, they can take time but usually, these new tastes and flavours are worth the earning and greatly enrich our lives for many years to come (imagine if you’d never acquired the taste for avocado?).
What I know for sure is that those students who premiered “The Little Bush Buddha” aren’t the same people they were last week. And one more thing, they are ridiculously proud of their performance and what they achieved.
Risks Nurtures Growth
Learn more about my ‘Conservation Series’