Habits Resources for Teachers and Music Education Students

Children should never be defined by their neighborhoods, their zip codes, or their bank accounts. All students are teachable, regardless of their financial situation. This resource is about making a difference in young people’s lives, one student at a time.

The book’s primary author, Linard McCloud, shares his personal experiences as a band director at his alma mater, where over 90 percent of the school’s predominantly black student population is low-income. He has been teaching at this school for 44 years, and he shares his incredible knowledge and wisdom to help all band directors create a culture of excellence in their programs. While the principles and solutions outlined in the book are at times unique to low-income teaching situations, many are universal to all music education settings.

Choosing Help Over Hurt provides suggestions and solutions for making a difference in low-income teaching situations and covers important topics such as:

• Loving your students
• Challenges in Title One schools
• Various roles of the band director
• The band booster community
• Band class enrollment influences
• Student recognition programs
• Leaving a legacy
• And much, much more!

Habits of a Successful Music Education Student covers important topics such as:

• Band and String Pedagogy
• Curriculum and Instruction
• Recruitment and Retention
• Beginner and Supplemental Method Books
• Technology in the Classroom
• Concert Programming for HS and MS
• Marching Band, Jazz Band, and Percussion Ensemble
• Repertoire for Multiple Ensembles and Soloists
• Score Study and Music Making
• Creating a Culture of Excellence
• and much, much, more!

Being a band director is more than a career—it is truly a way of life. Demanding and extended hours are par for the course. Then there’s the stress of concert performances and managing students and budgets, let alone the parents!

How does a band director sustain a happy and healthy career? How best to balance work life and family life? Who should band directors turn to for support and guidance?

Written by two veteran music educators, this indispensable book is for anyone who struggles in dealing with the hazards of the profession, be it a first-year teacher or a seasoned veteran of more than 25 years. Quality of Life Habits of a Successful Band Director can be especially valuable for preservice music education students, and can help solve many problems before they start.

This practical yet wise book is insightful, meaningful, and gripping. Authors Scott Rush and Jeremy Lane have written a true classic—a book to return to again and again, the results yielding a long and happy career in music education.

Habits of a Significant Band Director is the journey from pedagogical prowess to being musically and personally significant. This book will inspire young and veteran band directors to teach with more insight and embrace the power of positive leadership. The book is divided into four sections:

• The Nuts and Bolts of Pedagogy
• The Interpersonal Philosophy of a Band Director
• The Introspective Process of a Successful Band Director
• The Transcendent Power of a Significant Band Director

This journey is presented through the model of the Five Key Practices: knowledge, communication, positive energy, musicianship, and who you are, which synergistically work together to provide a framework for success. Other topics include goal setting, assessment, the teaching inventory database, and quality of life issues.

Habits of a Significant Band Director is a comprehensive book of information and inspiration. You can be both successful and significant as a band director. Success stops at retirement, but musical and personal significance lasts for generations and generations to come. Being significant is how you “Leave a Legacy” and is the definition of true “success.”

Intended for both novice and experienced band directors, this companion to Scott Rush’s bestselling book Habits of a Successful Band Director is designed to:

• Present effective teaching principles with more depth and understanding
• Challenge readers to look deep within themselves to find solutions that will lead to more effective teaching
• Pose questions and suggest activities to put these solutions into action and cause readers to set goals through self-discovery
• Establish the classroom as a true laboratory for making music
• Provide a study guide for college methods classes using Habits of a Successful Band Director

This user-friendly volume is chock-full of ideas for solving common technical problems and, more importantly, creates a framework for band directors to reevaluate and improve every aspect of the job. This book is designed to be an invaluable companion for the entire breadth of a band director’s career.

In Habits of a Successful Band Director, Scott Rush provides:

• A how-to book for young teachers
• A supplement for college methods classes
• A common-sense approach to everyday problems band directors face
• Sequential models for instruction that are narrow in scope
• Solutions, in the form of information and probing questions, that allow assessment of a classroom situation
• Valuable information in a new format and references to other helpful publications
• A contemporary text for all band directors

Some of the topics covered in the ten chapters include: classroom organization and management, working with parents and colleagues, the importance of the warm-up, rehearsal strategies, selecting high-quality literature, and student leadership. The appendices provide valuable outlines and reproducible forms such as medical releases and pitch tendency charts.

This is an accessible resource you’ll want to turn to again and again! This book, which quickly became a classic, is newly revised and reissued by GIA.

Building on the successful Habits series, Scott Rush and his team have created a practical guide to all aspects of the middle school band program, including:

• Recruiting for beginners
• Mouthpiece testing and instrumentation
• Running an effective middle school rehearsal
• Teaching strategies for middle school
• Repertoire suggestions
• Warm-ups for beginner, intermediate, and advanced middle school players

Additional sections address musicianship, classroom management, working with parents and colleagues, assessment, technology, the middle school mind, minor instrument repair, private lessons . . . even traveling with middle school students.

Habits of a Successful Middle School Band Director is a resource to turn to time and again for ideas and inspiration. This is a comprehensive book that will grow as teaching skills grow, a book that will serve as a constant and essential companion throughout the career of any middle school band director.

Habits of a Successful Choir Director presents effective teaching principles and provides a practical approach to everyday issues choir directors face. Building on the successful Habits series, Eric Wilkinson and Scott Rush have created a practical guide to all aspects of a successful choral program, including:

• Program organization and management
• Teaching the components of singing
• Rehearsal strategies and ensemble fundamentals
• Music literacy and repertoire selection
• Strategies for assessment
• The significance of music making

Additional sections address musicianship, classroom management, working with parents and colleagues, the importance of warm-up time, building student leadership, professional development, field trips, fundraising, schoolwide scheduling, developing a mission statement, and quality of life issues.

This is a comprehensive book that will exponentially inspire as teaching skills grow. It will serve as a constant and essential companion throughout the career of any choir director.

Christopher Selby and his team have created a resource that is rich with practical strategies for developing a successful orchestra program. This book will inspire young and veteran orchestra directors looking for fresh ideas about teaching orchestra students of all ages to:

• Perform with refined intonation, expressive musicianship, and a beautiful tone
• Develop advanced performance technique, rhythmic precision, and ensemble skills
• Sight-read better, rehearse more efficiently in class, and practice better at home
• Become orchestra leaders and take greater pride and ownership in your ensemble

Additional sections address rehearsal strategies, classroom policies, long-range planning, assessment, tips for building an orchestra program, and suggestions for communicating with parents and principals to better support the orchestra.