'Tis the Season

The school year has an arc to it that I, like some creature with academic DNA, love and need. There is the first rush of the new school year, with all the meeting and greeting of new students, handing out instruments and finding those first sounds on them. Later in the year, we have our District Festival season, which has all its own excitement. Then there are spring programs, variety shows, graduations, the gathering back up of all the instruments, and the calm quiet of summer to regroup.

Right now, we are coming into the winter holiday season, a very busy time for all school music teachers. For those of us who travel each day to as many as three schools, fitting all the concerts in can be a real challenge. For some schools, the winter holiday program is a central part of the first semester of school. Much planning and rehearsing goes into the show, the date of the show is set in stone from the beginning of the school year and the instrumental music is surrounded by class performances of dancing, singing, reading and  play acting. At other schools, the holiday program is more of an afterthought, the planning of which happens on the fly, if at all, and instrumental music is low on the radar, since the teacher is not on campus everyday, and has almost no contact with the classroom teachers.

Often, my schedule flat out conflicts with the day and time of a show. When this happens, I have a couple choices. One, I can just blow off the holiday program all together. There is something to be said for this. Depending on the school, there may be only a handful of performers ready by December to play anything more than Hot Cross Buns. At such a school, I don't mention the program to the kids, and we slide on through the holiday season without much fuss. At other schools, there will be a critical mass of musicians eager to share their music with the school. More about this in a moment. At these schools, if my schedule does not permit full participation in the regular holiday program, we "stroll" from room to room, bringing a few moments of holiday cheer to the classes.

The musicians have a funny bi-polar attitude toward performing. When I ask them if they want to play the songs they have learned for the classes, they, without hesitation, enthusiastically say "YES!" But as we discuss the plan, and they start picturing themselves playing in front of, especially, their own classmates, they become more timid. They say things like "we're going to play in FRONT of them?! " or "Can we just go to the pre-K?" They are very nervous about playing in front of their peers. So we have more discussion about how hard they have worked, and they have actually accomplished a great deal, and that many of their classmates actually started playing when they did, but have since dropped, so what right do they have to criticize the musicians?

Almost without exception, after having this conversation, the kids are pumped and ready for the more intimate performance"strolling"affords. And then we go. We play the songs, we receive the applause, and then I get to have one of my favorite moments in the school year. As we leave the first classroom, and head to the second, there is an explosion of glee from the musicians. They fully brim over with the excitement of performing, and decide there on the spot that they want to do this every day all day. It's coming. Next week. I can't wait!