Wear Your Deodorant

Middle schoolers never cease to amaze me. Don't be fooled, it's not always good amazement. You'd be amazed at how often I have to tell them to keep their hands to themselves. Add in emergency bathroom trips, and you've basically got a kindergartener.

But sometimes the stars align, and they eat their Wheaties in the morning, and everything is wonderful. Today was one of those days. Rewind a little...
I have been kicking myself for possibly over-programming our spring concert. I chose pieces that I knew we could play well (given that they actually practice, god forbid), but it has proved to be more of a reach than I thought. Luckily I love make students responsible for themselves, so I gave them important sections to practice and told them that I'd have them play solo in front of the whole band to see how they sounded. Nothing will make a middle schooler cringe like being put on the spot in front of a room full of their peers. But it will also light a fire under their ass and get them to take their instrument home like they should have been doing all year. I don't know why I didn't start this in September. Second year band director probz.

ANYWAY, they've sounded pretty crappy the past few weeks. I only say that because I know what they are capable of sounding like, and recently they've played like underwater zombies talking to Jar Jar Binks. Not good.
Until today.
I don't know if it was the incessant beeping of the metronome, my side ponytail, or the fact that our air conditioning finally works (try directing a band in a windowless 75 degree room...death), BUT HOLY SHIT DID THEY SOUND GOOD. And they didn't even waste 837487457383 years talking during transitions. I think I literally fell into unicorn sparkles. After nitpicking our first piece (an arrangement of Ravel's Pavane), we YOLO'd and played the whole thing. And I just stood there with tears welling up in my eyes because they sounded incredible.
And the best part was, when we finished, they knew they sounded good too. You could see it in their faces. It doesn't matter if the teacher is pleased, the students need to be happy with their playing too. And that makes everything worth it. Especially when 35 middle schoolers with noisemakers recognize that they have created something beautiful.
In that moment, I didn't even care that they didn't exaggerate their pianos and hairpin dynamics. There's always time to work on that tomorrow. I've found it's really important to take some time and step back from woodshedding and jumping around from piece to piece, and just let them play. Because that's why they signed up for band in the first place.