Marching Band rehearsals can be… well… a lot. And you, as the teacher leading the rehearsal, have a lot of demands placed on you! Here are 13 tips to improve your rehearsals that you can implement today!
Students must have all the things!
Nothing slows down a marching band rehearsal faster than logistical elements being missing. For students, not only will they not be able to learn at the highest level, but it also sets a dangerous precedent that the student does not have to do what the director says they have to do! I encourage you to have a specific list of supplies and where they go during rehearsal and do consistent supply checks often throughout your season. Taking care of these logistical details will create an environment of being “detail-oriented” that will positively impact your performance.
Make certain the students can hear you!
It’s best to amplify your voice when teaching outside. Ensure that the sound of the amplified voice is clear and loud and does not break up in any way. For students to follow procedures and implement positive change, they must first be able to hear the director!
Focus on systems and processes!
The exercises above employ a system that is similar throughout all exercises. The more your students can get comfortable with the systematic procedures you utilize, the better they’ll be able to focus on creating positive change in their performances. Even if it causes you to move a little slower at the beginning of something, take the time to solidify your systems and processes!
Have a schedule!
It is crucial to have a detailed schedule. Begin with a schedule in long form (spanning the entire season), where you identify big-picture goals for each week. Then, create weekly schedules that break down how you’ll achieve that week’s goal each day. Include your “tempo plan”: what tempo you’ll learn each movement at and how you will gradually speed it up over time to achieve quality performance!
Have a goal, one at a time!
Always identify the one goal you want students to aim for. Make it specific, tangible, and simple! You should teach using the following procedure (except for full marching band/drill rehearsals). Following a procedure for your teaching will allow you to be more effective!
- Identify what you want the students to change (i.e., the “goal”), and how you want them to change (i.e., the information)
- Allow students 3-5 repetitions to accomplish the goal, providing very short snippets of guidance along the way.
- During these repetitions, the teacher should assess whether change is taking place (i.e. Are the students accomplishing the goal you set out for them to accomplish?).
- Tell the students whether or not they accomplished the goal.
- Give the students more information about how to change the same goal further, or provide a new goal and new information.
Praise often!
Students need lots of positive feedback on an ongoing basis. However, be cautious not to give false praise. For example, rarely is anything “really good” in August! In the absence of quality performance, where possible, praise effort.
Create a risk-free environment!
Especially at the beginning of your season, work to create a risk-free environment for your students to get better! When a student gives a wrong answer, praise their effort, or the small part of an answer that might lead in the right direction. If a student makes a foul sound on the field in an effort to play while moving, praise their effort for doing so! When a student enters early (in silence, for example), but with a big, full sound, praise them, and then encourage them to count more carefully. Marching band is an uncomfortable task, and students need to be given lots of chances to try and fail so that one day, they succeed!
When it doesn’t sound good, start with the visual responsibilities!
Often, when something sounds bad musically, it’s because students are challenged visually. I would encourage you to slow down and work on the student’s visual responsibilities first, slowly layering in musical responsibilities.
Let your drum major conduct everything!
There’s no huge need for a band director to conduct a marching band. The ensemble is often receiving their pulse from an audible tempo source behind them anyway! Additionally, the band director does not conduct during the show… the drum major does!
Use your staff!
For those directors who are fortunate enough to have multiple band directors or multiple staff in some capacity, I would encourage you to utilize your strengths as much as possible. The “lead” director doesn’t have to “lead” everything. If a second staff teacher is more skilled or experienced in a certain area, then utilize that person’s strength in that specific way! Where you can divide your group into multiple, smaller groups, do so! Your staff teachers are your greatest resource.
Consider your setup!
Your classroom setup should allow your students to have space to do step-outs and mark time, in addition to exposing their individual performances. I suggest you explore setting up in arcs or circles of mixed instrumentation, and that you avoid block set-ups. The more individual performance can be exposed, the more quickly improvement will occur!
Always move your feet unless there’s a specific reason not to!
As described earlier in this guide, your band’s success hinges on your ability to marry music, movement, and breathing concepts. As such, you want to have your band do those three things as often as possible! There will certainly be times when it will make sense not to move and play. For example, you may want to readdress tone production or isolate a musical challenge. These and more are great reasons to stop moving your body. However, when you address and improve that musical concept, immediately add the visual responsibilities. Ultimately, it doesn’t count in marching band unless it’s on the move!
Rehearse marching band music during classes!
During the school day, most band programs are divided up into more ability-based classes. This is the perfect opportunity for you to work with smaller groups to improve the performance of your larger ensemble. Be sure to set up similarly as you set up with the full group, on a smaller scale. Avoid sitting in chairs. Instead, have students standing, moving their feet, and doing step-outs, just as they’d be doing outside. Mix up the instrumentation to better isolate individual students’ sounds. If you have an outdoor field available during the day, use it! The more you can expose student performance in realistic show settings, the better your performance will ultimately be!
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