You Need a Gig, You Can’t Just Practice.

We started our band on a lark. It was just a bunch of friends that played their instruments alone and decided to get together and form a band. When it started the practices were great. We would hang out, talk, play, eat and drink, learn new songs, and generally just practice. Eventually we just got tired of practicing. We would look at each other and say "What are we practicing for?" None of us had an answer. We were practicing for nothing. After we figured that out, practices became boring and meaningless. I mean what was the purpose of practicing and not playing.

We needed a gig. Who would hire us? We were a bunch of middle age amateurs. We looked at a bunch of open mike nights but it was too intimidating. A real paying gig was out of the question because of our skill level.

We ended up creating our own gig. We set up on a bandmember's porch, tempted our friends and families with free burgers and hot dogs and a moon bounce for the kids. Other bands wanted to play with us (we found some like minded individuals). They invited a few friends, about 100 people showed up. We even got an offer to play another party.

In our preparation for the gig, practice got better. There was a purpose. Everyone was concerned and wanted to not look awful.

This is what a class needs...a gig. We spend a lot of time in class practicing reading, writing, math, science and a bunch of other topics. We tend to not have a gig. Sure we may have a test, that's not a gig. Students need to show off their skill no matter what their skill level is. A class needs a gig. From my band experience, I've tried to incorporate the same ideas that worked. Invite friends and families to share what students learned. Tempt them with food, drinks and prizes and the opportunity to see your students do something. Find other like minded individuals to join you, have them invite their friends. Soon you'll have a community to support your learners. You will have a gig. That is important, because soon your students will have a real gig, one that pays.

You can’t rock all the time sometimes you need a ballad.

Don't get me wrong, I love to rock out, but sometimes you need a ballad. In the band, I hate slow songs. They are much harder to play than fast ones. Timing is difficult to keep. Your mistakes linger out there longer for all to notice. Slow songs often clear the dance floor..... Or fill it.

When a band plans a set list it's easy to rock out. Throw in all the fast songs you know. But it wears a crowd out. It's monotonous. Everything begins to sound the same. When you are at that point it's time to play a ballad.

In a class, students and teachers need variety. It's easy to go with a simple lesson. Have kids read and answer questions. Or, you could have the kids listen to a lecture and take notes. But you need to throw something in there to add variety to the listen. You need to build a lesson like a set list. You need to rock often and then throw something different at them.

You need to fill in your lesson by thinking that lessons need to be at times silent and alone, whispering and working in pairs and, conversational and working in larger groups. Students need to get information from a variety of inputs like reading, listening, watching, talking, and writing.

Most of all as the builders of lessons we need to look for ways to provide variety in a lesson. As much as we like to teach one way or rock one way the audience needs change to keep interested and continue learning.

Invite Your Mom To The Gig

I'm always amazed when I see a local band play, that their parents are in the audience. I don't care if the band is tattooed, pierced and spouting lyrics that would make a sailor blush, there will be a conservatively dressed middle aged couple there supporting their musician son or daughter. They will usually clap, yell and whistle louder than any other fan in the place. They usually know all the words, even to their original songs that now one else has heard of before.

Parental support is important to a band and to a classroom. For most parents, this is exactly the kind of support they want to give. After a student or band has put in hours of hard work learning, practicing and polishing their skills, they want to share it with their parents first and foremost. It's even better if their are others around cheering them on. It really becomes a public celebration of the learning that has taken place.

If students in your classroom do something worthwhile, something they have learned, practiced and polished, invite their parents to the gig. Make it something like a gig. Put them onstage. Have some people applauding them. Let them tell how much work they put into it. Make it a public celebration of learning. This will benefit all parties involved. Their parents will be proud to see their kid show off. The kids will see that learning is appreciated by other and is worthy of celebrating. The school will benefit by seeing that the fruits of their labor (the entire staff's labor) led to something tangible, more than a grade. The school has created an actual product that an audience can look at be entertained by, appreciate and celebrate.

Warm up with an old favorite.

In my previous post, I discussed what I discovered about arranging the order of task in practice and in class. This is just a little addition to that.

I find practice starts best when we warm up with a favorite tune everyone knows and can play well. I tend to call it knocking the rust off. But the band gets in a groove, everyone is happy and smiling. We need familiar, get loose. Comfortable. It's kind of like an athlete warming up before the contest.

In class, kids need a warm up that is comfortable, familiar. They need an opportunity to get loose, stretch. It does not need to go so long that they tire, but just enough to knock the rust off.

Do the hard stuff first, then do the easy stuff when your tired.

Actually, this is a lesson I learned from my brother-in law, the carpenter. While working with him, he taught me how he puts the tasks of his job in order. He does the hard stuff first, then does the easy jobs when he is tired. I used this stroke of genius in band practice, then in my classroom.

I used to start practice off by just running through the set in order. We'd play 10 or 20 songs then start to learn new ones. By this time most of us were toast. We were ready to go home. Learning was impossible. The band would get frustrated and leave feeling terrible about the practice.

After learning this lesson, we changed our practice so we were better able to learn. First we'd play an old favorite to knock the rust off and get our confidence up. Then we would tackle the new songs while we were fresh and confident. Two or three songs could be learned quickly, easily and with little frustration. The band would then run through our old set in order. We could play it in our sleep, and after a long day of work or dealing with our family we did.

In school we often build lessons so the kids have to do the most challenging work at the end of the lesson. Once they have read, listened, worked in a group, learned a ton of new facts, we ask them to do higher level thinking skills. Just like in practice, they are toast, meet with frustration and end up feeling terrible.

Lessons need to be reorganized to be most beneficial to the learner. Try having the kids do the hard stuff first. Save the practice and reinforcement of old knowledge to the end.

Don't Break The Instruments

Many a rock band has staked their claim in fame by smashing the instruments. The Who, Jimi Hendrix and Nirvana came to the conclusion of a show by smashing the very instruments that got them there. It was beautiful, for them. It was part of their art.

It symbolized what they did in music. Break through. It worked for them. Anyone else that tried were marked as imitators. It just looked stupid. If your name was not Pete, Jimi or Kurt.... It was.

Lots of teachers get into education because of a frustration with school. I was one of them. I sat in a desk for 12 years thinking I could do it better. Then I got the job and found out I couldn't. I found I could just be me in the job. I couldn't imitate or smash my predecessors. If I did, I would look stupid.

When we started the band, we had three rules. Be in tune. Be loud. Don't smash the instruments. The last rule was initiated because we were poor. We worked hard for our instruments. We could not afford to replace them. They meant a lot to us. Many of us owned them since we were kids. Some were treasured gifts. But after some thought, another reason rule #3 worked is that we would look stupid. We can't imitate those that smashed. We would be imitators.

In the classroom we are often handed curriculum guides, materials that are other teacher's lessons. You can't teach another teacher's lesson. Just like you can't imitate someone else's act (Pete always swore Jimi stole his bands act, only Jimi could pull it off). Somewhere in the teacher guides you have to find yourself and interpret the lesson. It's like a cover song. Someone else made it popular, you have an opportunity to put your twist on it. Take what you like, leave what you don't, add something of your own and create your art. Your lesson. Teach your lesson. Don't smash the instruments.

Everyone learns the songs differently.

I am a firm believer in public education. But, it does have it's share of flaws. I think public school does a great job teaching 30 kids at a time. It's lousy at teaching 1. I love that public school takes on all comers. As long as you've got a pulse and are in the school's boundaries, we'll take you. This open door policy creates a great diverse population of kids, and all of them learn differently. That great lesson you've planned is only going to be great to a part of the kids. Everyone learns the material differently.

This struck me while playing in a band. We were preparing for a gig. We needed to learn about 30 songs to fill 3 sets. Even though we were about the same age, listened to the same music, we all had our own methods to learn the songs.

Our bass player had to hear the song. He needed to have a copy of each song to hear it over and over again so he could learn it.

The lead guitarist needed the tabs. Tabs are a note for note transcription of the song.

I (rhythm guitar) needed the songs in chordpro. This showed how the chords changed when compared to the lyrics.

The singer lyrics. She needed the lyrics in large font. She just said 1 2 3 4 and started belting it out, and never missed a note.

The drummer was a seasoned pro. He'd ask me questions I did not know (like Does this swing?), and then just go for it.

Half of us did great learning in a group. They'd learn the song while we practiced it.

The rest had to go home and spend some time alone with the piece. We'd return to the next practice ready to roll.

Time spent with band members taught me a lot about learning styles, mainly that there are a lot out there. I also learned that it took all of us some time to figure out which learning style suited us best. Once we figured out our learning style we were off and running.

In school we assume too much about learning styles. We think all kids learn the way we did, or the method described in the curriculum guide, or the prepackaged program purchased by the school system. The classroom teacher needs to begin looking at the students as individuals in a group. Band members if you will. Each has their own method of learning the material. We learn the same material, just in a different style.

In a band I could learn using other methods. It was helpful if I had a better ear, or learned to read tab. But I was not an efficient learner. So I fell behind the others.

From this experience, I learned that it is good efficient teaching if students are taught to identify their learning style. It is good if teacher learn to differentiate instruction according to the learners in the class. It is good if teachers introduce new learning styles to the students. They may not be efficient at first, but could open another avenue to learning.

Bad Practice=Good Gig Good Practice=Bad Gig

I am a firm believer that you learn more from your mistakes than you do from your correct actions playing in a band I found Rule #3 to ring true. We would have practices that were awesome. After a few of these we would feel good and overly confident. We would then hit the gig, have a train wreck mid song and then we would stand there and look at each other and wonder what happened.

No one would have an answer.

When you play out, play live or do anything, you are going to make mistakes. Perfection is not meant for this world. The best we can do for ourselves and our kids is to prepare them for less than perfection. Prep for mistakes.

It is better to prepare for mistakes in practice, not at the gig. You make the mistakes, adjust, move on. If done properly no one but the band notices. In practice we could stop, laugh hysterically, analyze, learn and do over in privacy.

Later as we improved we would build in mistakes to keep us on our toes. We'd do a metal song as a ballad, a country song as a reggae song or punk. We'd switch instruments. Anything to cause a mistake would make us stronger.

Being a family band (everyone had or is having kids) our practices were constantly interrupted with phones ringing, juice box requests, diaper changes and video failures. We could finish any song with babes on hips. At the gig, nothing threw us. Rowdy or inattentive crowd were nothing like what we faced at practice.

At school many expect perfection from the get go. We believe our lesson was so great, students will perform perfectly from the start. How many of us picked up an instrument, golf club, tennis racquet and played like Clapton, Woods, or McEnroe?? None. The learning curve in Math, Science, Social Studies and English is just as steep.

The class needs to mimic the practice session. Students need to play, make errors, get instruction and assess and do it again and again to get close to perfection. Classrooms need to be a place to try and fail. We must get kids prepared for the test, and life like a band practice.

Be In Tune

A guitar is a very delicate instrument. Inspite of the fact that players like Townsend, Hendrix and Cobain smash the crap out of them, they are delicate instruments. Made of wood, metal with many knobs to adjust, tuners to manipulate, guitars are tough to keep in tune. The weather effects the wood, expanding and conracting it with temperature and humidity to change the tone of the 6 strings. Strings wear out. Hell, just playing the thing gets it out of tune. I remember trying to learn to play with an out of tune guitar. Everything sounded the same.

The same is true in the classroom. So many variables can get your class "out of tune". The weather, the mere thought of a snowflake turns a great class into animals. A class has more strings and variables than the guitar. Students, teachers, visitors the lesson all have an effect. You have to think of each lesson to start in tune. Make the start good and you should be good for a while. It is important to set the tone from the beginning and refuse to start until you are in tune. Even as the lesson progresses you find that you need to tune up as the lesson continues. It is important to stop, tune up and then proceed. You see musicians do this constantly. Good ones can tune in mid song. Other can banter with the audience and tune up. I've seen BB King break a string, install a new one, tune it and never miss a note of a song. It takes years to perfect but that is the goal we are trying to achieve. To be in tune the entire class and make adjustments along the way.

Chapter 1 Make the Singer Look Good

Much to the chagrin of drummers, bass players and especially guitarists, the job of the rock band is to make the singer look good. That is who the audience looks at the most, and connects with. The band's role is to find songs that make the singer look good, play it in a key, tempo, and provide the best instrumentation to make the singer look good. Even if he is not that good the job of the band is to make them look good. If the singer doesn't look good, neither does the drummer, bass player or the guitarist.

The converse is also true, the singer makes the band look good. If he is happy then the audience is happy and so is the band.

In the classroom we must figure out who has the role of the singer. It could be the teacher or the student. From the teacher's viewpoint it is the student. The teacher has to be the band that makes the student look good. Especially is this era of NCLB, where learning is mandated. Kids legally have to learn or punishments will be handed out to the teacher. Teachers need to make the student look good. Teachers need to provide the platform where the student can shine, be successful, feel confident to perform their best.

Introduction

If asked what I wanted to be when I grew up at 18, I would have proclaimed "Rock Star". But as time moved on I felt needed to have a backup. Teaching was my backup. I have taught for 15 years now and for the last 5 spent my free time knocking around in a part time have fun cover band. What I discovered was, what I learned from the music, directly helped with my teaching. I found playing practicing and learning music made my teaching very insightful. I found working with a group made my teaching better.

I sat down and made a list of lessons I learned from the band and found them analagous to my teaching. So, here is my list of understandings that I have discovered with my duel life Rocker and Teacher.

ALL I REALLY NEED TO KNOW ABOUT TEACHING I LEARNED BY PLAYING IN A ROCK AND ROLL COVER BAND.

Here are some lessons I learned while playing in a Rock and Roll Cover Band.

1. Make the singer look good.
2. Be in tune.
3. Don’t break the instruments.
4. Bad Practice=Good Gig.
5. Good Practice=Bad Gig.
6. Everyone learns the songs differently.
7. Invite your mom to the gig.
8. Do the hard stuff first, then do the easy stuff when your tired.
9. Warm up with an old favorite
10. You can’t rock all the time sometimes you need a ballad.
11. You need a gig you can’t just practice.
12. Everyone has a different role.
13. Most bands break up and move on.
14. Remember you play for the audience.
15. You play music it’s supposed to be fun.
16. Imitate, Assimilate, Innovate David Baker.
17. Practice parts, Put parts together, practice putting parts together.
18. Your band is only as good as the weakest member.
19. The whole is better than the sum of its parts.
20. Always play with people better than you or you’ll never get better.
21. Woodshed
22. Build a repertoire, practice it and build on it.
23. Gig with other bands.
24. Super groups always break up.
25. Do a Sound Check
26. Never stop taking lessons.
27. This is what I've got so far. I'll explain my connection to teaching with these in the coming months.