For conductors of wind ensembles grades 4 (high school), 5 (advanced high school), and 6 (college/professional), this book brings together pragmatic advice and knowledge from practicing conductors from all over the United States. Each chapter is by the practicing conductor each addressing the same subjects as they pertain to rehearsing a wind ensemble. In addition, each contributor recommends a list of the 30 best works for each of the levels of band from each conductor compiled in the appendix.

(Meredith Music Resource). Directors included in this publication represent the very "best of the best" with years of experience conducting and teaching. They freely share their ideas, techniques, and philosophies that are sure to enrich anyone who reads this book. Includes chapters by Harvey Benstein, Richard Clary, Steve Davis, Rodney Dorsey, Amanda Drinkwater, Patrick Dunnigan, Richard Floyd, Robert Halseth, Robert Ponto, Robert Taylor and Frank Wickes, with a foreword by Craig Kirchhoff.

(Meredith Music Resource). In this highly informative compendium, nationally renowned orchestra directors share their unique expertise concerning rehearsal philosophy, intonation, tone and bow control, setup and fundamentals, articulation, planning, warm-ups, recruiting, community building, and more. These educators have honed their skills through years of experience and have inspired countless young musicians. Each chapter presents their insights and individual approaches to developing musical excellence in their students. As an added benefit, the book includes lists of the authors' favorite composers, arrangers, and works for grades 1-4.

(Meredith Music Resource). Meredith Music's "Rehearsing the Band" series features books that provide a huge "room" where everyone can gather to ask questions on all aspects of rehearsing and isten to the answers from the experts. This High School Band volume includes chapters by Greg Bimm, Bill Eicher, David Gorham, Roy Holder, Gary Markham, Richard Saucedo, Tom Shine, Paula Thornton, Frank Troyka, David W. Vandewalker, and Bill Watson.

(Meredith Music Resource). 12 of the most prominent elementary, middle school, and junior high school band directors in the United States share innovative ideas on program structure, recruitment, and rehearsal strategies for beginning musicians. Through perseverance and creativity, these consummate leaders have continually refined their craft, providing an exceptional experience for their students and redefining the potential of young musicians.

Starting Out Right: Beginning Band Pedagogy is the only complete resource for organizing, planning, and teaching beginning woodwind, brass, and percussion students. The book covers every aspect of teaching beginning band students from the first sounds on the instruments through the first full-band performances. It is the only comprehensive reference that offers step-by-step guidelines for teaching each beginning band instrument, as well as organizing and running a successful beginning band program. Based on the public school teaching experience of the author, the book is designed for use in undergraduate methods and pedagogy classes as well as for clinics and workshops at the undergraduate and graduate levels. This book is also designed to be a reference for the many novice teachers who lead beginning bands or those teachers whose expertise is not in the band realm. While the focus of the book is on teaching beginning band, much of the book can be of use to band instructors at any grade level. The book is divided into several parts, which cover the sound-to-sign-to-theory approach to teaching musical literacy; child development as it relates to teaching music; recruiting and retaining students; developing fundamental sounds and skills on each woodwind, brass, and percussion instrument; teaching students to read tonal and rhythmic music notation; and selecting and rehearsing beginning band solo, ensemble, and full-band music. The book also addresses curriculum design, scheduling, and staffing of band programs. Ideas about managing student records, inventory, and equipment are also given special attention. Written in a casual narrative style, the book features real-world examples of how the principles in the book might be applied to actual teaching situations. Another special feature of the book is a set of early field-experience application exercises. Starting Out Right guides readers as they explore a comprehensive individual and ensemble approach to teaching each woodwind, brass, and percussion instrument.

"The most comprehensive guide on the rehearsal process for conducting instrumental music ensembles. This work breaks the multidimensional activity of working with an ensemble, orchestra, or band into its constituent components"--from publisher description.

(Meredith Music Resource). This book provides one huge "room" where everyone can gather to ask questions on the art of rehearsing and listen to answers from people who know. It includes chapters by Caleb Chapman, John Clayton, Jose Antonio Diaz, Curtis Gaesser, Antonio Garcia, Gordon Goodwin, Roosevelt Griffin III, Sherrie Maricle, Ellen Rowe, Roxanne Stevenson, Steve Wiest, and Greg Yasinitsky.

• A New York Times Summer Reading List selection • A Publishers Weekly Best Summer Book of 2015 • A Business Insider Best Summer Read • An Esquire Father’s Day Book selection • A New York Observer Best Music Book of 2015 • A memoir charting thirty years of the American independent rock underground by a musician who knows it intimately Jon Fine spent nearly thirty years performing and recording with bands that played various forms of aggressive and challenging underground rock music, and, as he writes in this memoir, at no point were any of those bands “ever threatened, even distantly, by actual fame.” Yet when members of his first band, Bitch Magnet, reunited after twenty-one years to tour Europe, Asia, and America, diehard longtime fans traveled from far and wide to attend those shows, despite creeping middle-age obligations of parenthood and 9-to-5 jobs, testament to the remarkable staying power of the indie culture that the bands predating the likes of Bitch Magnet--among them Black Flag, Mission of Burma, and Sonic Youth --willed into existence through sheer determination and a shared disdain for the mediocrity of contemporary popular music. In indie rock’s pre-Internet glory days of the 1980s, such defiant bands attracted fans only through samizdat networks that encompassed word of mouth, college radio, tiny record stores and ‘zines. Eschewing the superficiality of performers who gained fame through MTV, indie bands instead found glory in all-night recording sessions, shoestring van tours and endless appearances in grimy clubs. Some bands with a foot in this scene, like REM and Nirvana, eventually attained mainstream success. Many others, like Bitch Magnet, were beloved only by the most obsessed fans of this time. Like Anthony Bourdain’s Kitchen Confidential, Your Band Sucks is an insider’s look at a fascinating and ferociously loved subculture. In it, Fine tracks how the indie-rock underground emerged and evolved, how it grappled with the mainstream and vice versa, and how it led many bands to an odd rebirth in the 21 st Century in which they reunited, briefly and bittersweetly, after being broken up for decades. Like Patti Smith’s Just Kids, Your Band Sucks is a unique evocation of a particular aesthetic moment. With backstage access to many key characters in the scene—and plenty of wit and sharply-worded opinion—Fine delivers a memoir that affectionately yet critically portrays an important, heady moment in music history.

Teaching Music With Passion is a one-of-a-kind, collective masterpiece of thoughts, ideas and suggestions that will surely change the way you teach. Filled with personal experiences, anecdotes and wonderful quotations, this book is an easy-to-read, must-read treasure! -- Back cover.