What Do You Do With Alternates at YOUR Band Clinic?

Some County, Region, and State Honor Bands allow alternates to attend, some do not. Schools may receive rating points toward some kind of award for the number of alternates in attendance. The students themselves might receive medals, letters, or points toward grades from their own band programs back home. An additional motivation might be a Friday off of school to participate in the clinic. Many of these clinics are sponsored by, or located, on college or university campuses. In most of these situations, "master classes" on various instruments are presented by the local faculty or student music majors.

Honor Band Clinics may also set aside time for a "reading" band of some kind. This additional group is normally directed by several of the local directors. Problems here occur with unpredictable instrumentation, a wide range of playing abilities, and sometimes jealousy of not being able to share performance time at the final concert. Marathon canasta and euchre tournaments, along with extended time for socializing, tend to be the norm. Outside of the few scheduled educational activities planned, what do YOUR alternates do all weekend long?

May I suggest "The Quest For The Rhythm Masters" game? This is a rhythm reading game using a team competition structure in a cooperative learning environment. The specific rules and materials needed are in the back of both "Rhythm Masters" Books I & II. You can also get the same materials off of my web site. In setting up the game for your alternates, teams should represent as many different schools, instruments, and grade levels as possible. In the process of preparing for team competition, students will share various approaches to solving counting challenges, as taught to them by their band directors. The various ability and experience levels work to the game's advantage, allowing the better counters to take on the responsibility of helping the weaker ones, enhancing their leadership, communication, and organizational skills.

Most high school and middle school students are very competition by nature. For this reason, most team members will aggressively pursue a successful performance, which will require team strategy and cooperation. Local music stores can assist by donating a variety of small "musical items" that can be assembled into prize bags for the winning team. In addition, larger prizes can be awarded to the final four students still remaining for "Final Combat". One of the essential elements necessary to win the competition is the team's ability to accurately subdivide. Each team's concentration on this skill can only enhance each participant's rhythmic performance when they return to their own band programs.

"The Game" is divided into two parts: the team and the individual competition called "Final Combat". Each team (or as I call them dojos) selects its two strongest counters to represent the team in the "Arena of Doom". The team and individual points scored throughout the competition are added together at the end to determine the winning team. With the handicap used, most teams will remain in race for the championship until the end. This helps maintain interest for a longer period of time than if you were doing another "master class" on counting or rhythm reading clinic. The other advantage to the team approach is that the students will learn from each other (cooperative learning). The weaker counters, from the one on one attention and help they receive, and the stronger counters, from having to figure out different ways of teaching counting concepts, overcoming learning obstacles presented to them by the weaker member of their team.

The length of the "Quest For The Rhythm Masters" clinic is quite flexible. How much time you wish to supplement the competition with teacher interventions, such as discussing various forms of counting problems and their possible solutions, could be a fair amount to non-existent. Also, how much time are given the teams to prepare for each round of the competition can vary (four to ten minutes is a good range). A shorter time forces each team to incorporate strategy and careful budgeting of the preparation time allotted When the teams are competing, the other groups tend to monitor the opposing team's performance. Either trying to catch the errors made, or practicing along silently one last time before his/her team competes.

When the overall performance of the teams begins to decline rapidly, this is when the transition should be set up from the team, to the individual competition. This is point where your stronger counters take over, and the game resumes from the difficulty level where the team competition ended. The individual competition continues until you have eliminated all but one. That student is then declared "The Rhythm Master" of the tournament. In a sense, it is the counting version of a "drill down". Perhaps a simple acknowledgement at the final concert of the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd runners-up, as well as the "Rhythm Master" (and the schools they represent) might be appropriate. This will recognize the efforts and hard work of all the alternates, with minimal additional length.

Different honor band clinics that utilize an alternate system have experimented with numerous ideas in how to make their experience educational as well. If what is done at your clinic works, keep it. If you are still "shopping around" consider giving "The Quest For The Rhythm Master" a try. You can download all the rules and rhythm sheets for the counting competition from my web site.

Also attached at the end of this article is the "leadership strategy" outline I have used at the Citadel Summer Band Camp here in Charleston, SC as well as other honor band clinics. My personal thanks to "Dr. Tim", a dear friend of mine who help me put the outline together. Feel free to contact me if you have any questions or comments concerning the game, or any other aspect of the "Rhythm Masters" books.