Dear parents,

It certainly did not take five years for you to recognize that, in [education], you have invested a considerable amount of time and money in the long-term well-being of your child. As with all investments, there is an element of risk in the investment you have made. Yet, together with many other parents of children in [your school], you have assessed the cost, have weighed the possible outcomes, and have realized that…sacrifices necessitated by your investment are worth the high price.

Like many other parents of fifth graders, you have additionally invested in a musical instrument so that Jeffrey can be a member of the band. Why does he want to play trombone in the band? His answer probably includes one or more of the following reasons:

• 1. I want to belong to the group.
• 2. I want to play the same instrument as Jimmy, my 8th grade hero.
• 3. I like the way the trombone looks and sounds. (especially the way it can sound like a sick cow just by moving the slide!)
• 4. I want to get to junior high or high school band so that I can wear the uniform and go on trips.
• 5. My parents want me to.
• 6. My parents don't want me to. (In a recent survey of band student attitudes in Columbus, Ohio, one student said he chose to play drums "so that I can beat on them and bug my parents.")

If your reasons for allowing Jeff to join band parallel other common parental attitudes, they may include:

• 1. Until we try we may never know whether Jeff has musical talent.
• 2. We want him to have every opportunity that the other students have.
• 3. We don't want Jeff's friends or parents to think we can't afford a new trombone.
• 4. We want him to wear a uniform and go on trips when in high school.
• 5. We really like the band director.
• 6. We really dislike the band director. (Thankfully this attitude does not appear to be widespread.)

Of course many parents also have stronger reasons for promoting the band experience. These deal with the stuff of music, the musical experience, learning about music by doing, and the education of feelings. I can assure you, however, that any band director would lay down his baton and rush to his therapy session leader if a fifth grader walked into his room and announced his desire to join band so that he could have an aesthetic experience.

Whether your reasons for having Jeffrey join band are mainly musical or mainly "extra-musical" you can be assured that your attitude toward the value of band is one shared by a majority of Americans. In a recent American Music Conference survey, 91 percent of those surveyed agreed that to play an instrument is something "you'll always be glad you learned to do." More than 60 percent believed that instrumental music instruction should be a required elementary school subject.

Surveys have shown that students, parents, teachers, and administrators recognize and laud the "extra musical" benefits of the band investment. At the hands of a skillful teacher, band students are given healthy discipline, a sense of responsibility to the group, confidence in expressing themselves, and many other benefits not unlike those given by and expected from athletic team membership. The greatest of these extra-musical benefits must surely be in the area of delayed gratification. There never will be a beginning instrumentalist who proceeds without some nerve-shattering squawks and without some discouragement. Jeffrey's developing ability to continue practicing through the rough times on his instrument and to realize the beautiful rewards for his persistence will give him a head start in coping with many of life's necessary chores.

You have now enrolled Jeff in band. You are participating in a rental-purchase plan on a good student-line trombone and you bought his first book. Investment accomplished; you can sit back and wait for life-changing returns on your investment, right? Unfortunately, many parents take this attitude and become disenchanted when their investment does not bear the early returns they envisioned. They have failed to realize a very essential fact, the fact that their investment was only the purchase of a seedling, a starter kit. To obtain the maximum return on your investment you, the parents, must apply principles not unlike those in plant husbandry.

CARE AND FEEDING INSTRUCTIONS

• 1. Cultivate regularly.
• Regular practice is the most essential aspect of any skill development. Work out a reasonable practice schedule with your child and give him the opportunity to stick with it. There is no simple formula for home practice that works with each child. However, the parents' abiding commitment to this cultivation is vitally important for success. To simply expect a set amount of practice and be consistent during the earliest stages, when the child is very enthusiastic, may be the best positive approach to establishing an on-going system.
• Parental tutoring is most beneficial. "But I know nothing about music and even less about the trombone," you may say. The benefits of parental tutoring have been shown through the phenomenal success of Suzuki violin programs, and I can assure you that those children and parents started out right where you are. Besides the benefit to Jeffrey, learning to help him with his practice can be fun and much easier than you think. If your band director does not have a beginning band parents night where parents are trained, ask him if you can attend a class session and talk with him afterward. You will be able to learn very rapidly the importance of several concepts such as posture, holding the instrument, breathing, firm embouchure, smooth tonguing, and counting out loud or clapping rhythms or tapping the foot. A conservative estimate would put half of the first year's class time spent teaching and reinforcing these concepts. Your watchful eye at home will have a tremendous influence on your child's success with these foundational concepts.
• If, after a few years, your band director feels that Jeff is ready for private lessons with an outstanding player-teacher, by all means consider this to be a tremendous opportunity for Jeff's further growth. A classroom teacher simply cannot give an outstanding music student all the individual time that he needs.
• Water daily.
• In all learning, the smile of approval and word of encouragement will cause your seedling to sit up proudly and play beautiful tones. You don't have to use trained ears to comment on the correctness; simply use your loving heart to comment on the beauty. One of my favorite band parents (yes, band directors have favorites) told me that he couldn't wait to return home from a New York trip on which he heard the New York Philharmonic so that he could hear the beauty of the elementary band that his children played in. (Perhaps love is deaf as well as blind.)
• Add nutrients to the soil. Like the rest of us, children like what they know. In our culture, by default, they will know popular music, rock videos, and more popular music. Yet, more varieties of recorded music are readily available than ever before.
• Consult your band director and buy a compact disc or record of music that he recommends, perhaps the orchestra original to one of the simplified tunes in Jeffrey's beginning band method book. Many people still vividly remember their first encounter with art music by way of a record that was cherished and scratched, their entry into a new world.
• Take Jeff with you to a symphony orchestra concert. Ask your band director to help you choose one that would be stimulating and interesting for your children. Besides hearing the beauty of the sounds, he will be viewing a large number of people who perform and listen to music that is not associated with orange hair, heavy metal, and questionable lyrics, perceptions he will not get by watching television.
• Don't cut down the plant after the first harvest.
• In a well-planned band curriculum, the student learns by building upon past learnings in an ever-ascending spiral. While it would be fool-hardy to say that everyone who begins fifth grade band should continue playing his instrument all the way through college, it would be safe to say that many students drop out along the way and miss valuable life-changing learning experiences in music. I have never had a graduate from high school or college tell me that the extra time and effort expended in band was not worth it. On the other hand, like every director, I have had several students lament the fact that they dropped out. Some will even say, "I wish that my parents would have made me continue."
• Understand the environment in which your seedling grows.
• Learn about the goals of your school's band program and work together with your band director and the school for those goals. The philosophy of your [middle/high] school's band program will probably be seen in the broadest possible terms; that is, instrumental education will be valued as a component of music education that will be valued as a a component of aesthetic education, which will be valued as the "feeling component" of the child's [total education]. Your commitment to this philosophy is extremely important because it means that, whatever your dreams of uniforms, competitions, and trips, these will all be secondary to the goal of educating all children musically. Individual parents and parent organizations that are committed to these goals can be of tremendous aid to the program.
• Talk with your music director and principal about budget, student and teacher scheduling, facilities, and teacher training. These are the fundamental areas that should be measured against the standards given in the publication from Music Educators National Conference titled, The School Music Program: Descriptions and Standards.
• Public school band directors are over-worked. Studies have shown that their high rate of burnout is usually attributed to stress. While no formal studies have been done, I am sure that the [average] band director has [a] difficult job due to the number of teaching hats he must wear. Possibly he/she could be teaching bands, orchestras, choirs, general music classes, and even a few other subjects in the elementary grades, junior high, and high school. There is not a college music education program in the United States that can adequately train the teacher for such a job description. Therefore, the most important thing you can do for your overworked band director is to give him the opportunity for professional development. Make it possible for him to attend conferences, summer school, and workshops which will train and stimulate his growth in areas in which he has inadequate training. In many situations, this would be the best investment of $1,000 that a school or parents group could come up with for the music program.

You may be asking yourselves the question, "Could Jeffrey experience musical growth even if we do no watering, cultivation, or environmental management?" The answer is, "perhaps." There are always a few hearty stalks of corn that grow in a weak patch. Thinking positively, however, you have a tremendous opportunity to not only help your son but also to help your entire school by following the care and feeding instructions above. Your enthusiastic involvement in Jeff's music education could promote your [school] through the quality performance of its band.