These eight topics, each pertaining to the mental game of music making, can mean the difference between success and failure in every director’s teaching experience.
Self-Esteem
I was working with a young clarinet player a few years ago who was extremely talented but didn’t seem to realize it. “You do know that you’re talented, right?” I asked her. “Yes,” she responded. “Then why don’t you work really hard at it and be a great clarinet player?” I asked. “I don’t know,” she replied. “I guess it’s because I have low self-esteem.” The answer surprised me because up until that time I always thought of low self-esteem as a quasi-hidden condition that teachers recognized in their students and tried to improve, not as a condition that a kid could actually self-diagnose and use as an excuse.
Whatever the case, when thinking of self-esteem, the trick is making sure that students do not think their basic self-worth is tied to their success or failure. We can help with this by making sure we compliment them on long-standing qualities rather than solely on their often-fluctuating levels of musical achievement. Additionally, when they do fail (and they will), we should make sure they understand that although they have failed at a task, they themselves are not a failure.
Trust
In Winning Management: Six Fail-Safe Strategies for Building High-Performance Organizations, Wolf J. Rinke writes, “If you mistrust your employees, you will be right three percent of the time. If you trust people until they give you a reason not to, you will be right 97 percent of the time.”
One thing that has irritated me over the years is when administrators make an off-handed comment implying that my students are untrustworthy and will attempt to get away with whatever they can when adults are not hovering over them; the offending comment usually pertains to travel. In such situations, when I express the trust I have in my students I get incredulous looks that imply I am completely out-of-touch and naïve to place any kind of trust whatsoever in my students. I am not sure what the problem is; maybe they spend too much time with the bad students in their office, meting out discipline.
Don’t get me wrong, I think it’s important to have clear guidelines and appropriate safeguards in place, but they should be presented to students as an exception that could ruin it for everyone else, not as something you believe they are all likely to try and get away with, but an exception that could ruin it for everyone else.
Urgency
One of the most difficult tasks directors face is instilling a sense of urgency in their students. I am always amazed how little of this some students demonstrate, whether through not practicing, lack of diligence in rehearsal, or some other musical failing. Directors must be consistent in maintaining this sense of urgency through their own example. Having a sense of urgency doesn’t equate with a sense of panic. It’s vital to stress to students that it is important to work hard even when things seem to be ahead of schedule because of all the unforeseen factors that can throw a schedule off, such as inclement weather; illness to key players; and local, state, or national testing. The urgency should be presented in a business-like way. Too many chewing-out sessions and tantrums and the students will turn you off. The school year certainly has a distinct ebb and flow, but there should never be an it’s-time-to-get-serious mode that is significantly different from any other day.
Visualization
Jim Valvano, late coach of the North Carolina State Wolfpack basketball team, was a great motivator. He was quite the storyteller, and his most famous story is probably about cutting down the nets, a tradition for the team that wins the NCAA tournament. Victorious players and coaches climb a ladder and cut one of the strings on the net to celebrate.
Valvano would actually have his team practice cutting down the nets before they had even won the NCAA tournament. It certainly didn’t help with strategy, the fundamentals of play, or the conditioning required to make it through the tournament, but he believed in painting a picture for his team. He wanted them to see themselves as a team that could win it all, and he wanted them to believe in that dream. In Valvano’s case, it was time well spent. They won a dramatic 1983 finals victory over Houston.
I’m not suggesting that we literally have our students hoist trophies and imagine winning a contest before loading the bus for a marching contest. What I am suggesting is that we help our students, both individually and collectively, visualize success in their lives in any way that we can. It may be as simple as predicting a bright future for them because of fine qualities that they have: “Your work ethic is so strong you’re going to be a success at whatever you chose to do.” It could also mean focusing on a talent they have: “You have the conducting talent to be a fine director some day.”
Willpower
Students would practice more if they just had more willpower. However, it’s hard for me to be too critical at their aversion to practicing when I have a hard time getting around to doing things I know that I should. The book Willpower by Roy Baumeister and John Tierney has helpful suggestions on developing willpower. Baumeister and Tierney have found that willpower is limited; as we make more decisions, it empties like a gas tank.
With this in mind, it is important to build our lives around habits. The more things that can be turned into habits, the less that willpower has to be used. It then becomes a matter of building habits. One way to do this is to manipulate the environment around you in a way that makes what you should do easy and what you shouldn’t do difficult. To encourage some more practice on my guitar, I leave the guitar at home downstairs where I see it every day when I get home from work rather than upstairs in my office. (You have to have an understanding spouse for this one.) To discourage over-eating, I buy lots of vegetables and have few sweets around the house.
X-Factor
The X-factor refers to the unknown, an indescribable quality, something about a person that you cannot quite put your finger on. Despite its illusiveness, I believe we should see every child as having some type of X-factor within them waiting for us to discover and unleash. The cultivation of the X-factor can strengthen the role of each kid in our band, and by extension, have a significant effect on the band itself.
It is understandable that we give a lot of credit to those with a lot of musical talent, but we have students from all types of backgrounds and ability levels with less obvious talents that are also vital to success. The X-factor may be any number of things, such as leadership, a great work ethic, an attractive personality, people skills, or a sense of humor – all of which we should identify and encourage so our band itself has a collective X-factor.
Yes People
I cannot stand suck-ups. I believe in straight talk rather than always telling my superiors only what I think they want to hear. This is easy when dealing with a boss who believes and respects straight talk as well. The difficulty arises when it is obvious the boss gravitates toward those who agree with everything he or she says, and you are painted as someone who is not a team player. At the same time, I have learned to pick my battles; I do not feel like I have to win every argument. Losing some battles can help win others that are more important to me.
To always say yes doesn’t mean you respect your bosses, it means you fear them, and fear is not good when what you ultimately want is what is best for students. Yes people end up as frustrated employees because they have no personal opinion they are willing to fight for. Others, whether it be band parents or administrators, will be driving your program, not you.
You could also ultimately lose your self-respect. I have had some administrators over the years who were so overly concerned with doing what they thought their higher-ups wanted rather than supporting what they knew was really the right thing for the band program. In two cases, they chose to become yes-men, and in both cases they ultimately met dire ends after years of sucking-up. You may not always get what you want when you don’t play the yes man, but you have the satisfaction of knowing that you stayed true to yourself.
Zeal
Classes have different personalities. Some of our wildest young bands can drive us crazy but often turn out to be the best ones that we have because of the zeal they bring to the table. I have had beginners come up who drove their elementary teachers bonkers but were wonderful in band because it is that very enthusiasm and energy that can be channeled into exciting music-making. We need to recognize zeal when we see it, embrace it, and use it to our advantage.
