Fostering Independence in Middle School Ensembles

Large ensembles are the backbone of school music-making. Growing up as a clarinetist in a large, music-focused school district, I participated in large ensembles — concert band, symphonic orchestra, marching band and the like. Being a member of a group of 50+ students gave me a sense of community and purpose as a musician, but it also allowed me to fly under the radar.

Sometimes, in between homework, sports and extracurricular music activities, I didn’t always learn every piece perfectly (sorry, to my high school band directors!). At other times, I practiced my heart out and was fully prepared, but I didn’t have the space within the ensemble to share my true talent. In both scenarios, I was able to disappear into the size of the ensemble and follow the pack. I didn’t know how to be an independent music-maker nor was I asked to in this setting.

In my years of teaching middle school modern band to classes of 30 or more students, I have developed a model of instruction that combines whole-group music-making (the large ensemble model) and small-group work time. By leveraging small group and sectional work time, my students make progress faster than they would if I planned full group rehearsals every day.

These sectionals help prepare every single member for highly effective full group rehearsals and allows me to give more targeted and sometimes even one-on-one instruction. This model also encourages students to take on leadership roles and become self-sufficient, independent music-makers.

Try this model in your classroom:

1. Understand why sectionals are important.
2. Teach your students how to work in sectionals.
3. Curate the right environment.
4. Assess their learning.

1. The Benefits of Sectionals

When working in a large ensemble every day, it’s easy to miss the nuances of a student’s learning needs. We’ve all had the third clarinet player, the youngest alto singer or last chair violinist fly under the radar for the entire school year, only to find out they were either completely lost or worlds improved since the beginning of the year.

This is typically because the large group encourages students to follow the leader instead of taking charge of their own learning and becoming independent music-makers. By holding sectional rehearsals at regular intervals throughout the process of learning a new tune or as part of your routine rehearsal structure can help identify these breakout stars and struggling artists. It increases student autonomy, encourages leadership and creates a more student-centered energy in your classroom.

Sectional rehearsals tend to hit a lot of the “hot topics” that principals are looking for during observations as well. When students work in small groups, they can discuss their learning with each other, create new ways of thinking about their music and even engage in literacy activities. Practicing these behaviors during rehearsal time increases student independence and helps them take more ownership and pride in their music-making.

2. Teaching Students to Work in Sectionals

When you start implementing sectionals, it’s important that students know exactly HOW to rehearse with each other. This might be the first time they have been instructed to work on a piece without a conductor, and the right guardrails or bumpers must be put in place ahead of the first sectional rehearsal.

An easy entry to this transition is to assign your section leaders, if you have them, to run the sectional rehearsals. You can meet with them ahead of the rehearsal to discuss the goals you and they have for the section. During this meeting, review expectations for their work including time spent on task, engaging everyone, and how to support the players who still have some “woodshedding” to do. Make it clear to student leaders that sectional rehearsal time is for elevating the entire section, and that might mean teaching students to work independently.

In my classroom, I do not have section leaders. My students opted for a more decentralized leadership structure and instead, they all work together to support the section. Because of this, I use a slightly different strategy to set up the sectional work time. At the start of the week, we run through our tunes as a whole class and take notes as a group about what needs to be corrected or improved about the piece (don’t forget to celebrate the wins as well!).

When we start working in sectionals, I use these notes to guide sectional work. We review what each section needs to practice before moving into groups. This way, students know exactly what they should be focusing on during practice time. As we move deeper into sectional work later in the year, I begin asking students to create their own practice goals for the sectional time. This encourages them to listen critically during large ensemble rehearsals and take ownership over their own practice in small groups. It is a powerful way to encourage students to be independent both in their music-making and their music practice.

3. Creating the Right Environment

Structuring classroom space to be conducive to sectionals is critical. Prior to introducing sectional work, scope out your space and determine exactly where and how the small groups can rehearse. Do you have practice rooms? An equipment room with some open space? A large rehearsal room where kids can spread out? Or perhaps you have access to your auditorium, cafeteria or hallway spaces. Decide how many small groups you will need and which spaces will work.

Communicate with your administrators about this new style of rehearsals prior to implementation, especially if you plan to use common spaces in the building where students might not always be supervised. Personally, my school has cameras in all the hallways, so my “hallway” sectional group is still being monitored even when I am not physically watching them. Two of my practice rooms have large windows, which we use; the third one does not have a window, so we do not use that one. These are all considerations when choosing your practice spaces. Your administrators should be able to help you brainstorm different rehearsal areas as well!

Consider labeling practice spaces according to section or group number. I rotate practice locations simply because some spaces allow me to better support the group that is working, while others have more or less desirable practice conditions. Rotating groups allows me to work closely with each group throughout a sectional cycle, and it also prevents students from dealing with a less-than-ideal space on a repeated basis. If rotating doesn’t work for you, consider labeling the practice spaces around your room (or in other spaces) with the section that will always rehearse there. This helps cut down on management issues and gives students a crystal-clear structure.

4. Assessing Sectional Work

A major component of making sectionals “work,” is having clear assessment protocols in place so that you, your students and your administrators understand what is expected of each performer during that time. I use practice journals and goal-setting as a way to manage this. My students are given binders (or folders — whatever works for you), with practice journals. These journals are simple: Students write the rehearsal date, set a goal for their sectional work time and reflect on their progress at the end of class.

I require the goals and reflections to be one to three sentences depending on the students’ comfort level with sectionals. For example, the longer they have been working in sectionals, the more detail they should include.

The final component of the practice journal is for students to assign a “grade” for their progress. I assess three standards at once: 1) work habits (time on task), 2) technique (developing musical skills) and 3) connecting musical thinking (how thorough and thoughtful their practice goals and reflections are).

The practice journal becomes a routine that students know to follow each time they do sectional work. At regular intervals, I assess the practice logs as a whole assignment, making sure that students have not missed a day of writing their practice goals, and that their reflections and self-assessment accurately reflect their progress. This gives me immediate feedback about the success of the sectional group, the skill development of the individual player and their development of musical reflection skills.

An added bonus of these tangible logs is that you always have assessment data and written work to share with administrators. This is something that is usually lacking from large ensemble work as we prioritize what we hear in the moment, and stress less about how students are thinking about their music-making. Additionally, as students become more comfortable with reflecting on their music-making in small groups, these practice goals and logs can be transferred to full group rehearsals. Students can set goals for the entire ensemble and help guide rehearsals throughout the year.

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Fostering independence in a large ensemble classroom is possible when we expand our ideas of what a successful rehearsal can look like. We do not always need to be the ones on the podium directing the entire group. Breaking students into smaller groups, or sectionals, allows them to make musical decisions on their own, encourages leadership within the ensemble and promotes rapid musical growth.

Through sectional work, young musicians learn how to practice music more efficiently, how to learn from and teach their peers, and how to be independent music-makers. Best of all, incorporating sectional rehearsals allows you to be creative as a director and fundamentally changes the way you structure large ensemble rehearsals for the better.