At Centreville HS one of the issues with the hybrid (online and virtual) environment is that students have been asked to be solo players throughout the past year.  As solo players you don't necessarily know how to blend, balance, or even produce enough sound.  Our current situation at Centreville has teachers on stage and students spread throughout the auditorium audience seats. This allows for ample spacing for students and surpasses CDC and FCPS guidelines.  The biggest issue we were finding is that students were afraid to play out. They were afraid others were going to hear them.  One thing we noticed that was not aiding the students was that they were having to breathe very constantly and were not using enough air to produce a full sound on their instrument.  When I began taking over warm-ups I included breathing gym. Mrs. Hall had done a great job with teaching breathing gym online but once we moved to the hybrid model it was evident that students weren't breathing correctly.  I began introducing new breathing exercises and explained why and how breathing gym was necessary for all instrumentalists (yes even percussionists). The students started off with basic exercises and were still having issues breathing "low" and completely filling up their lungs. I introduced the "in sip sip hiss exercise".  This exercise heavily encourages students to completely fill up their lungs to max capacity and then take more sips of air in and slowly release it.  I turned the exercise into a game to see who could go the longest on the "hiss".  The first few times with this specific exercise, students barely made it 30 seconds. Currently, our highest score is 62 seconds!! Yes the point is not to see who can go the longest but it has made a bunch of students learn to space their air out evenly.  Another analogy I used that helped students learn to breathe "low" and not from their shoulders was the Santa analogy.  I told students I wanted them to expand their stomach out as much as they could to be like Santa Clause.  I also had them place their hand on their belly area to feel the expansion as they breathed in.  Some other exercises I incorporated to help students use more air included 4's 3's 2's 1's.  As linked below, this exercise makes students take in air for 4 counts and completely fill up, then push all air possible out until they are empty, then the same for 3 counts, 3 counts, and 1 count. These exercises pushed students to expel their air as past as possible and eventually led to them putting more air through their horn.  Now students are playing at a pretty consistent mezzo-piano/mezzo-forte dynamic which is a huge improvement from the pianissimo in March!  I have attached the breathing gym slides and video below for reference. 

VIEW BREATHING GYM SLIDES AND VIDEO

At River Bend Middle School, the current band directors take a non-traditional approach with teaching music.  In Loudoun County, band class does not start until 6th grade in middle school.  My background in Fairfax County Public Schools had strings open in fourth grade and band open in fifth grade. In our 6th grade classes we taught everything by rote. Instead of starting with note identification and rhythm identification we started with aural skills. This style of teaching allows students to have well developed aural skills and an overall better individual sound.  Some challenges brought by teaching by rote include; difficulty blending with others and identifying and performing written rhythmic and pitch notation.  7th grade is normally the time when the teachers begin introducing written notation.  Due to the ongoing pandemic, 7th graders were behind in note identification.  In each class I presented slides and gauged student understanding through polls and chat answers. The students in 6th and 7th grade generally did ok with notes on the treble staff.  I noticed that they were having consistent issues with ledger lines. In 8th grade, students were confident in note identification but had challenges with key signatures. I created slides to teach students note identification and key signatures for their respective areas. After introducing and reviewing the new material I developed and led fun identification slides which spelled fun words like "no cap, cabbage, spill the tea" and other various phrases that the students could identify within their own pop culture. Students were very proactive in participating as 90% of students engaged and answered the questions and activities in the slides. After I completed my student teaching at River Bend the students completed a note identification quiz and a key signature quiz. Everyone passed the quiz! I have uploaded some of my powerpoint activities below! 
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CLICK HERE TO REVIEW POWERPOINT SLIDES

In this post you will get to hear an interview with an individual who hasn't taken part in any music education throughout high school. 

Podcast
Some of the key points in this interview were that

• music education isn't really inclusive of student's interests. 
• Students have interest in learning instruments/singing but if they don't get to make the music they like, then they are less likely to continue.  
• Music is an escape
• Music education is focused on success rather than participation

I learned a lot from this project.  I specifically learned a lot about the "outsiders" view of music education in schools.  What shocked me the most was that while students may not be participating in music courses, they are aware of what goes on in music classes.  I get annoyed about how many my younger professors say, hip-hop music is what kids want to do.  I was never that kid.  I didn't think that other students would ever be interested in playing Drake or Kendric on their saxophone.  But after interviewing Amanda, I realized that students really do want to play the new music that they already listen to.  No matter how simple or hard it might be, they are more interested in playing that as to playing fundamental building pieces or classical pieces of music.  I really enjoyed knowing that "outsiders" while not participating in music education, still have a huge emotional connection to music.  It was enlightening to know how much music plays a role in people's life.  The last thing I found interesting was that participation in the younger levels is sometimes very scary.  When people agree to model or participate, it is important to acknowledge them on their participation rather than the product in lower levels of education.  This project not only stretched me in my knowledge of the "outside" but also stretched me in my technical abilities.  I first tried record the phone interview on speaker phone.  I then adapted and purchased an app that directly records calls.  It was very helpful because I really wanted to interview my cousin.  I also was challenged in editing.  The hardest thing about editing was lining up fronts and backs.  

I visited a preschool, elementary school, a middle school, and a high school.  The biggest impact I received was from the high school so I will focus my post on that experience.  Some of the cool things I observed in the younger groups of kids was how willing all of the kids were to explore and put themselves out there even if they weren't going to play it perfectly.  They also sing a lot more in preschool and elementary school.  Teacher use songs to help guide activities and to get the children focused.  Over Thanksgiving Break I observed Herndon High School as they prepared for their performance in the Philadelphia Thanksgiving Parade.  I thoroughly enjoyed watching and analyzing the balance of teacher and student leader responsibilities.  I observed three sections primarily; the trombones, the trumpets, and the baritones. First were the trombones.  The student leader of the trombones was very dedicated.  The first thing they did was tune as a section.  Some of the comments I found interesting and helpful were; we can't be in tune if we have drastically different intonations, lets try for a warm, open, dark sound.  Just like that they were in tune.  The next thing they worked on was balance and memorization.  They worked on intonation and balance simultaneously.  The memorization was the cool part.  To memorize the music they worked on small chunks of the piece and split into a few groups of three (one on each part). They had each group play the section and then one or two of the groups would make a comment.  This took some time but had a great pay off.  Onto the trumpets.  the trumpets had a different balance of student leadership to teacher responsibility.  The trumpet student leader didn't seem to car about band as much and let everything slide.  This put more responsibility on the sectional teacher.  The sectional teacher asked them to play with a lot of air.  They didn't change anything so the teacher had them do some breathing gym exercises.  After the breathing gym exercise he had them play a section of the parade music and it was about 1/4 louder.  Small improvement but still improvement.  Lastly I visited the baritone section.  They were working primarily on articulation and entrances.  The student leader of the baritones had them try one part of the parade music with a Toh articulation, then with a tah, then with Du, and lastly loo.  They all decided that the majority of the parade route would have a toh or du articulation.  When they ran their music once through again it sounded much cleaner.  They clapped rhythms and sang their parts to help line up entrances.  They also briefly mentioned staggered breathing. So that their was always a full sound coming from their section.  The biggest thing I took away from this observation was that student leaders can be a huge help or a huge burden.  The other small things I took away from this experience were different ways to memorize music, and some new breathing techniques that can be used to optimize the sound of the band/section.  

Their Performance is listed below

https://youtu.be/bXAzfvkUIFQ?t=45m7s​ 

https://www.herndonband.org 

I have engaged with others through music by being the Drumline instructor of the Falls Church High School Marching Band.  I've worked with this program for two years and the students never cease to amaze me.  They don't have to best equipment, the best practice field, or the best circumstances, but they have the drive and the passion.  We were able to engage in music and dig into different musical elements that are only possible if the want and drive are in the students.  I went from having a 7 person pit with 2 of them reading music to a 9 person pit with everyone able to read music, know 5 scales, 2 warm ups, and the entire show memorized in 2 weeks.  It's all about how involved and interested the students are. I am lucky that I had students with the passion that they had.  They also went from having one of the weakest pits to winning best percussion.  The relationships you build with students are also vital to success.  If I had come in and taught everything like a traditional class with a smartboard and teach them note by note, they would've all lost interest.  We went on trips to parks, various walks, and they even went hiking together after I left.  These relationships and friendships that students build are much more valuable to an educator than natural talent.  
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Click here to see where we had come to after 4 days of rehearsal.