Some Foothills area band directors are working to make teaching music easier for their colleagues.
Tom Taylor, a retired band teacher of 32 years, penned an electronic book called Beginning Band 101 just over one year ago, and it was picked up by the Jim Pattison Broadcast Group.
Soon Taylor was running a web platform – Beginning Band 101 – for teachers of first-year band students, with a copy of his book available and a host of other instructional videos, online resources, and articles to help those teachers. But it didn’t stop there.
“That was so successful, I got Kathie Van Lare and Jeff Graham onside and the three of us produced a second website, which is Teach Jazz 101,” said Taylor. “They’re so successful. In a little over a year between the two websites we’ve had almost 6,000 users.”
Seasoned-teachers Van Lare, who has taught for 31 years and was just recognized with an induction into the Bandworld Legion of Honour by the John Philip Sousa Foundation in December and Jeff Graham, who has been teaching for 23 years, have helped develop the jazz side of the platform.
Together the three teachers plan to launch an umbrella website, Band 101, that will include beginner, jazz, and junior/senior high school bands.
Taylor said the inspiration for the website came when researching his book.
“I just discovered there is so much quality stuff out there,” said Taylor.
In addition to sharing videos and resources they find online, the trio are producing its own content, including video work and articles written by Graham about teaching jazz and improvization, he said.
The objective is to make the site as easy to use as possible, so any teacher or student interested in learning more about a particular style of music can access the information quickly, Taylor said.
Taylor said the 101 sites are his way of giving back after a long teaching career, which included time at École Okotoks Junior High School, Cayley, Holy Trinity Academy and Highwood High School in High River.
“I was just so blessed to have taught for 32 years, and I think I had a fair amount of success as a band teacher, and I learned a lot from people who came before me,” he said. “This is my way of giving back.”
He said as a music teacher he came out of university feeling as though he knew exactly what he was doing, but ended up doing a lot more learning on the job.
“That’s how I learned my craft, talking and asking questions and going to seminars and conferences and music festivals,” said Taylor. “You learn from older, more experienced people.”
Now that he is one of the mentors, Taylor said running the website and providing resources for people is a decent replacement for being in the band room now that his Parkinson's – which he said is still well under control – makes it more difficult to manage classrooms for hours at a time.
“I don’t do that anymore, and I don’t really miss it,” said Taylor. “This has sort of taken its place.”
For Graham, who has been working with Teach Jazz 101 for about one year, it’s about keeping teachers connected and giving them a way to learn.
“I think a lot of band teachers teach on an island,” said Graham. “They’re the only band teacher in the school, so it’s not like you have people you can talk with or collaborate with, so we often have to find information elsewhere.”
He referred to the website as a “Trivago for teachers,” where band directors can access any information they need at their fingertips, including lesson plans and video and tutorials for certain song types.
Working via social media, the group has connected with and helped band teachers worldwide, mainly in the United States, he said.
“We’re just trying to create a hub for people to find information on how they can teach band and do it better,” said Graham.
