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How do you keep the students from getting tired of your UIL music?

Posted by TiredOfIt on 3/24/2023, 8:15 pm

Hello everyone. It is my first year conducting a band, and I was feeling pretty confident with our progress at the pre-UIL contests. Now that we have come back from Spring Break, I am finding that my group seems to sound worse as the days go by. They are making more mental errors (wrong notes, rhythms, lack of dynamics, no articulation differences, not watching, brass blasting, woodwinds squeaking or getting out of tune mid piece) etc. And we had ended the week before Spring Break on a very high note. I know the kids are tired of the same music (heck, I am too!), But is there a way to bring back morale and motivation? Anyone else have suggestions to not lose momentum before UIL, or at least some validation that my group is not the only one reaching this stage?

Re: How do you keep the students from getting tired of your UIL music?

Posted by MS on 3/27/2023, 4:15 pm, in reply to "How do you keep the students from getting tired of your UIL music?"

Depends on the maturity of the kids, but I like to group sections together at this point during sectionals.

I have trumpets/clarinets/flutes come in together and then divide into small trios or more as needed. I have a leader in each group and they work on matching articulation and intonation. Gives them a little more control and responsibility and they enjoy that I'm not hammering them.

It really helps open their ears and it helps develop more ownership of their own success. They also don't like to be the weakest in the group.

I typically have upper winds, low winds, and middle winds. Also helps to cut down the number of sectionals as I'm starting to get worn down.

Re: How do you keep the students from getting tired of your UIL music?

Posted by Percy on 3/25/2023, 11:00 pm, in reply to "How do you keep the students from getting tired of your UIL music?"

Make it about education and not about 1's and you'll do fine. The more you indulge in the corrupt system of needing 3 random outdated judges to commend your kids on how they performed at one single contest with no knowledge or care of what those kids have accomplished the worse off you'll be. Make it about the kids, not the need to make yourself look better on paper.

Re: How do you keep the students from getting tired of your UIL music?

Posted by Mr. Orange on 3/25/2023, 1:54 pm, in reply to "How do you keep the students from getting tired of your UIL music?"

Keep in mind that Spring Break hangover is a thing. Especially if you teach junior high and/or non-varsity. For me, it hasn't been a lack of interest, it's more about shaking the rust off.

In my region, non-varsity junior high bands go to contest the week after Spring Break. It doesn't matter how much I try to prepare them or warn them, they always come back from break sounding like butt and then entire week we're trying to get back to where we were before break and hopefully a little bit better by Thursday or Friday. It's stressful. If we went a week later, it would be easier.

Just be aware that it's a thing that happens with young bands/musicians and know that it's not going to be good immediately after the break.

The good news is, they are capable of recovering fairly quickly.

As far as interest, just make sure you're not peaking too early. And you get more experience, you'll figure out how to time it so the band isn't maxing out their performance ability prior to UIL. That's when disinterest occurs, when the band has peaked, isn't getting any better, and it becomes stagnant and just doing the same thing over and over with no discernible progress.

Re: How do you keep the students from getting tired of your UIL music?

Posted by DesertJazz on 3/25/2023, 10:14 am, in reply to "How do you keep the students from getting tired of your UIL music?"

I think the key if you have an April contest date is to not just focus on UIL 5 days a week. When I was the JH varsity director I would always have 3 or 4 spring concert pieces that I would dabble on once a week on Fridays usually. We'd run the program and record it, then work on something like Krakatoa, Zooveniers, Hercules vs. the Hydra, Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, Wizard of Oz, etc. For the kids that caught on quickly on the UIL music it gave them something to work on beyond it, and let us be better prepared for the spring concert.

Generally with my HS band we have a day of full-band or I hit a spring piece with my wind ensemble if we do a full week of not combining. (I'm in a small 3A, our kids do everything, so in the spring there are almost always days where the Wind Ensemble or the second band are hit with so many absences it just makes more sense to combine groups that day)

The other thing is I think a lot of times the idea of being sick of them is a reflection on us too. Find new things and tricks to add to the pieces. More dynamics, be pickier about tuning a particular chord, style in certain places, etc.

Re: How do you keep the students from getting tired of your UIL music?

Posted by MS on 3/25/2023, 7:17 am, in reply to "How do you keep the students from getting tired of your UIL music?"

My region had UIL before spring break. Even though we have less time than other regions, I constantly monitor my band for signs of peaking or boredom. To combat that, I will change class up a bit by introducing post-UIL music for a brain break or I will invite people to come listen. Doing so creates an impromptu performance environment that puts a little more pressure on the kids.

Even this year, 3 days before UIL, I had a rehearsal where we didn’t even touch the music. We did spring concert music. I would never have done that in my earlier years because my thinking was that any day away would cause them to get worse. Now that I have implemented that more, I’ve flipped my thinking as my bands have demonstrated that a day away gives them a change that they often need to come back refreshed and focused.

Good luck!

Re: How do you keep the students from getting tired of your UIL music?

Posted by Oldie but goodie on 3/25/2023, 12:26 am, in reply to "How do you keep the students from getting tired of your UIL music?"

Remember to always put into perspective that the whole reason y’all are working so hard is to win. Sometimes kids forget that there’s dozens other bands just like them all trying to win. If we forget that we lose our competitive drive and become complacent as it sounds your kids have.

Time to fire them up! Tell them what you’ll do if they win. Tell them what they get from you when they win. Set a winning mentality with them and they will buy in.

Re: How do you keep the students from getting tired of your UIL music?

Posted by Dies Irae on 3/27/2023, 7:47 am, in reply to "Re: How do you keep the students from getting tired of your UIL music?"

"...the whole reason y’all are working so hard is to win."

I hope this is a joke. THIS is not what music education is about. Yes, this is part of the problem.

To the OP:
It's ok to pass out non-UIL music as a palette cleanser. We have three pieces that we rotate through out UIL season that isn't UIL related.

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