One Week to Go

Anybody got any good ideas for the last week of the quarter leading up to spring break. Kids get so goofy, lazy, and unmotivated. I am not the kind of person that handles this well. I don't like to waste time.

I Wonder

I wonder if more band directors become choir directors or is it the other way around?

Four Noses

Today I asked my colleagues to share their favorite breathing exercises. Here is one I really liked that two recommended.

I'll call it "Four Noses."

The premise is to have singers pretend they have four noses equidistant around their waist. Breath in all noses at once. I like it. Simple but quite useful I think. Can't wait to try it.

Starting Out

I am a Band Geek. I have been a Band Geek over thirty years. After high school and a four year stint in the Army I went to college and majored in Music Ed. I had the idealistic vision of being a middle school band director who would impact young lives in much the same way my own middle school band director had impacted my life. A band geek mentor. Well, the short story is I have been a band director for 14 years. I have never had more than 25 in my band and I have only been to large group festival a few times. I haven't had a large enough group to take to festival in ten years. My bands have averaged about eight members in the last 5 or 6 years.

In addition to band I have been the choir director at my school for 12 years. My previous choir experience is minimal. As I said, I am a band geek. For reasons I'll not go into just yet, my choir has been much larger then the band over the years. We usually have around 40 students in the one choir we offer. So, we come to the reason for the birth of this blog.

This blog is part of my efforts to gain the knowledge to become a better choir director. I hope to collect and share ideas. Ideas that will help me and other band geeks like me in the world of vocal music.