Creative Band Recruiting?

Vessehune · Posted: Thu Aug 25, 2005 6:28 am Post subject: Creative Band Recruiting?

Anyone have ideas for Creative band Recruiting? I am student teaching at a smaller school with a dying program. I want to try and get as many people in the band as possible, but a lot of kids have quit because of a bad teacher in the middle school. Any ideas would be great!
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blasticore · Posted: Thu Aug 25, 2005 7:09 am Post subject:

Emphasize the fun and good times, rather than all the things that persons of youth tend to steer clear of (work, not talking, etc.).
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trumpetmike · Posted: Thu Aug 25, 2005 7:34 am Post subject:

Play a good variety of music - newer tunes that they will know, older ones that they might not - slow/fast etc.

Have a sense of humour.

vivace · Posted: Thu Aug 25, 2005 8:37 am Post subject:

have a big ol assembly. And play a whole ton of funn stuff the kids will love. We had some back home both by the instrument suppliers and local musicians. Both went well.

Play a whole bunch of stuff they will enjoy. There was a Brass quintet that came. They had all sorts of stuff, star wars, cool jazz stuff, some oldies, and some crazy techincal stuff that really impressed the kids. I privately tought 2 kids that loved them and wanted to play like them.

maybe get a manditory music/sports policy. I know some schools do that, and lots of kids don't like sports, so they do band.
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StradJapan · Posted: Thu Aug 25, 2005 11:26 am Post subject:

After my 5th grade recital, I didn't think I was ever going to play again. I was ready to return my Bundy rental at the music shop. But then the middle school band director came up to me personally and said that I sounded good and he really wanted for me to continue. Looking back, I think he was just desperate, but he really made me feel good.

My point is that the personal attention was a huge reason why I continued to play.

Seiji
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ralphnz · Posted: Fri Aug 26, 2005 6:56 pm Post subject:

Maybe get the kids to listen to some recordings, to see what their instruments are actually capable of.

trumpetjennifer · Posted: Fri Aug 26, 2005 7:10 pm Post subject: Re: Creative Band Recruiting?

trumpetmike · Posted: Sat Aug 27, 2005 2:27 am Post subject:

Encourage the current members of the band to go out and do the recruiting for you - maybe have a prize for the person who recruits the most players?
We did this a couple of years ago with a local school - one young lady recruited 15 (I think) people for the band - the band is now flourishing, as is the band in the local area that they joined outside of school.

david johnson · Posted: Sat Aug 27, 2005 2:36 am Post subject:

my retention/recruiting problem is different. schedules for curriculum additions required by the state have done me in!! the only real solution for me would be for the admin to hire all the teachers they really need in other disciplines so multiple sections of those classes could be offered. then my kids don't have to choose between ap math/band.

this disater-creep began in 6th grade beginner class 3 years ago. i've kept admin advised & been as flexible as i can, but it's still grim. i started the band at this school 20 years ago & we've done well.

right now, i'm branching further out into some pr & trips for my remaining players while i keep my brain wheels turning. i've done this work since 1972, & i'm damned if i'll retire before i fix this problem.

dj

KevinPierce · Posted: Mon Sep 05, 2005 1:43 pm Post subject:

A great song to play is Soul Bossa Nova. I know one of my old band directors really made alot of people want to be in band. She made it look so fun.

KevinPierce · Posted: Mon Sep 05, 2005 1:46 pm Post subject:

This year our drumline got much larger, thanks to the efforts of one of our snare drummers. He got a full bassline, friends of his who knew just a bit about music. They can play, but they can't read music very well or anything.
I'm sure next year they will have learned though, and we will have some good tenor and snare players from them.

Tristan the man 2000 · Posted: Mon Sep 05, 2005 2:14 pm Post subject:

Hold their parents hostage and demand that they play in band to get them back. Actually, dont do that, I shouldn't of said that.

But in all seriousness, what we did at my school was send the jazzband/drumline/colorguard to middleschools and have them play. The little ones love it when you scream solo's on your trumpet, when you blast them away with drumlines and wave pretty flags at them. Recruitment was up like 50% from last year when we did that.

Also make sure that you talk to the parents and get to know them. Parents always want to feel involved in their students lives, and their opinion on if they should continue band might mean more than yours.

Also introduce some "cool" kids in your band to the littleluns. If they see that band might allow them to hang out with some cool dudes rather than a bunch of band nerds, they might not want to miss an oppurtunity at some sweet freindships. I still remember the seniors from my freshmen year. Those were the days...

And if all else fails, play some Maynard Fergusson for them...
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LittleRusty · Posted: Mon Sep 05, 2005 3:08 pm Post subject:

One, don't repeat the bad teacher's mistakes. Go to some of the people who dropped out because of him(her) and ask them what they would have changed.

IMHO, the biggest thing is to challenge each member. Don't dumb your program down just to keep the worst player. (don't challenge them too much either) If you do this you will lose your best players, and you won't be able to do the next step.

The biggest single recruiting tool in my experience is success. Make the group you have a excellent as possible. Enter contests, get trophies, play for assemblies.

As people see the success they will want to join.

trumpetgirl612 · Posted: Mon Sep 05, 2005 7:22 pm Post subject:

bring up the younger kids to sit in a rehearsal <with slightly easier music> with the big kids....its super encouraging
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Tristan the man 2000 · Posted: Mon Sep 05, 2005 8:37 pm Post subject:

Yes, the girl above me makes a good point. Every year, the SDSU University band does that and we play our music together as well as introduce ourselves. It's always a lot of fun.
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ralphnz · Posted: Mon Sep 05, 2005 11:20 pm Post subject:

Yeah I remember being young and in the "auxiliary" brass band, and sitting in a senior band rehearsal once a year. I couldn't wait to get better and move up (naturally, the standard of the senior band dropped and I was principal cornet before you could say "But Trumpetmike told me to play it on trumpet...") I did really enjoy being temporarily included in a much better band though. Inspiring.

Something I've learned from bands like these is that it's hard to appeal to outsiders, especially kids, and not just look, well, lame. So before you go out and attempt famous tunes in front of a few hundred young critics, put yourself in their position.

Jazzy_Mike · Posted: Tue Sep 06, 2005 6:15 pm Post subject:

You could always use a poster similar to this. It may hep bring in some band members. Just kidding.

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