The most impactful individual in the musical life of countless young band students is their band director. This individual shapes a student’s perception of musical excellence and emboldens them to reach their own potential with greater skill, and, therefore, greater enjoyment in making music. The band director leads them through musical experiences they will remember for the rest of their lives. Their influence is incalculable. I vividly remember each of my band directors along every step of my time in wind bands. The band director’s interactions with the brass section play such a pivotal role in building the assurance to take the next step in their development. Their words, mood, and body/facial expressions directly help or hinder the student’s success in sound production, range development, accuracy, technique, and musical expression. How? By either instilling confidence or fear. We know self-confidence is connected to beautiful and expressive music making, but this confidence is also the key to successful brass playing at every level.
How does confidence play into the development and mastery of brass playing? Brass instruments are not quite like other instruments. Like the human voice, the brass tone production mechanism is, at least in part, the human body. This is quite different from the other band and orchestra instruments. The lips vibrate with the physics of the horn, creating a delicate balance of embouchure positioning, airspeed, oral cavity, support, and trained intuition. Not only is there a bit of mystery to this mechanism for many students, but throw in challenging range, awkward intervals, tired lips, soft dynamics, and/or an exposed solo or entrance, and you have a recipe for tension and frustration. Now, on top of all the pressure of these factors, the brass student also faces a band room full of individuals who could include peers, romantic crushes, bullies, competitors, and friends that the student wants to impress OR keep from noticing them in such a vulnerable moment. There is also the band director. The adult in the room. Their teacher. Their conductor. Their guide to the pedagogy of their instrument. Some students might not care about what their band director thinks of them, but most students will want to play well for and with their directors. The way the band director treats the student’s successes and failures could be emboldening or devastating. Their interactions with the student could trigger imbalances of the relationships with those peers mentioned above. Apart from any external relationship motivators, the inner musician can be affected by how the band director interacts with them most of all. If a culture of confidence is nurtured, the brass student can experiment with brass playing, which is the only way to truly learn a brass instrument, with freedom to make mistakes and try again. If a culture of fear is cultivated instead, the student will close in on every aspect of their body’s connection to the horn with tension and will focus on impossible perfection instead of musical expression flowing on the beautiful sounds coming out of their bell. Thus, confidence in the process and, stemming from that, confidence in one’s abilities is the key to developing fluent excellence on a brass instrument.
Fear-based music making is in direct opposition to beautiful and expressive music making. I’ve seen and heard of band directors tearing players down when they miss notes. What this does to the player’s confidence on their instrument is truly tragic. Many players have quit playing altogether over these interactions. Others took years to overcome the nerves they developed in these band rooms. Ironically, fear-based approaches are rarely successful in producing the most beautiful results that the director wants. The player might get the notes, but there won’t be a musical thought in their mind. It will be robotic and tense; not musical. But the band room where students are free to make mistakes, so long as they are truly trying their best and are doing their part to practice regularly, is a place where musical expression can be the focus for each person in the room. The audience can also hear the difference!
There are practical ways to incorporate a positive approach. If there is freedom to make mistakes and take chances as the student attempts to make a better sound, play longer phrases, attain higher notes, whisper softer entrances, connect smoother slurs, fire off faster technical passages, and blend with more certain intonation, the student will be able to reach for these skills knowing that if they fail, there is always another chance to try again. This is the entire basis of the process of learning any motor skill. We can’t learn to do things that require proficiency without the ability to fail and try again. It is by this failure that we calibrate our focus with our physical approach to get closer to the goal each time we try. A good example of how to apply this approach would be for a trumpet or horn soft solo in the upper register. Instead of immediately putting up your hand to signal that they are too loud before they even start playing and/or making a disappointed face when they miss a note or flub an entrance, one could avoid the tension disaster that this could cause by, instead, telling the student to play out at a full dynamic at first and reassure them if they mess up. Then, day-by-day, and with positive reinforcement, the student could experiment with taking the dynamic down a bit until they have achieved a beautiful soft resonance with full confidence in their abilities. This nurturing approach would work well with increasing the tempo of technical passages, developing range, and dealing with lip injuries due to overplaying, accuracy troubles, and intonation issues, among numerous other applications. The potential for excellence is astonishing with a coach who leads with positivity!
This approach helps paid professionals perform better, too! So, surely students deserve the room to grow in a positive school environment where they can develop greater and greater confidence in their abilities on a brass instrument. You can instill a confidence crescendo in your band hall! The results will be greater resonance and freedom in all aspects of ensemble playing, especially for your brass students.
Everyone has a bad day here and there, and nobody must be perfectly pleasant at all times, but you can help set your brass students up for success through your positive pedagogical interactions with them in building confidence in their abilities. We former students of band directors owe each of you everything! Thank you for all you do for band students everywhere!