On the evening of June 4, 2010 the Drum Major Academy began another season of workshops. The first stop on the summer tour: the University of Louisiana/Monroe. Temperatures in the upper 80s pushing into the low 90s seem to be the trend for the week so far. Mr. Parks and the staff began the first session getting everyone settled into an immediate routine of what it is like to be a teacher–for drum majors are just that: teachers! One of their main roles is to support the band director, not only from a philosophical point of view, but also as an assistant. But just how do they do that?
The Drum Major Academy Teaching Procedure–that’s how!! Mr. Parks created a VERY systematic approach that can be applied to ANY band program regardless of what technique is used by the members. It teaches the student to properly observe, analyze and correct whatever it is they are looking at. Telling a student (or anyone for that matter) to “fix the attention position” of the trumpet section is a pretty broad goal. HOW is it done? So often we have seen an assignment like this given and then watched the person stand there not knowing where to begin. That is where the DMA Teaching Procedure comes in. It takes something like “fix the attention position” and breaks it down into very small parts so the student/instructor knows EXACTLY where to begin. And the beauty of it: it does not matter WHAT the attention position looks like–it works!
As the evening progressed the first march-off of 2010 quickly approached. This year’s first winner was:
Congratulations Ellis!
6/6/10 UPDATE: Last night’s winner of the 2nd ULM March off was:
