Making Concerts More Efficient

Submitted by Bruce A. Richardson, Kankakee, Illinois

Idea posted May 3, 2002

This was a post to the MusicK8.com Mailing List in response to another post regarding scheduling of concerts to minimize the enormous work and time involved with doing one show for each grade level. It was mentioned that they were considering having only half of the grades (k-2-4-6, etc.) do the shows one year and the other grades do the show the following year. This would result in one group of students never having to do a show, if you examine it carefully. It would be better to pick the grades that will do the show (k-2-4-6) and stick to that schedule every year. My following advice was to encourage the combining of grade levels, if feasible.

At my school, we combine grade levels for shows according to this schedule...

We have 7-8 classes per combined grade level depending on the year. (Up until this year, we have had two teachers dividing up the general music classes due to other district responsibilities. Next year there will be one teacher for all general music at my school - she may want to reconsider the spacing of the springtime shows.)

When I was at a smaller school in the district - one class per grade level - we just did one show in December with everybody (K-6). (That was before I knew about Music K-8, so it was a hodgepodge of seasonal tunes.)

Look at combining grade levels if the class sizes are workable. You'll improve the choral sound of the shows, put less stress on your parent volunteers, your budget (?), and yourself, because you can teach similar music more often.

I generally take two months of class periods total to prepare for each show - more important if you have older kids who get pulled out of music for band or orchestra lessons. Any less time and they don't get the music memorized. I have also made up listening tapes to facilitate learning the music at home, especially with the younger kids. I only did that once or twice since I had to make all of the tapes. Having a parent do it might have helped... who knows.

Don't forget to allow for holidays and breaks when planning for the shows - work backwards with the school calendar to see when you should start.

Also, get as much parent help as possible with every aspect of the program. I try to have one parent assigned as a production coordinator, meet only with her, and send her off to recruit and create the scenery and costumes. I have a computer savvy mom do my programs - this has saved me an unbelievable amount of time. (I actually approached the PTA this year about establishing a standing committee related to concert production and asked about a possible line item in their budget to support needs for these shows. This has yet to be implemented!)

I have had students from the library do the videotaping, but their experience level with the equipment results in poorer recordings - I want the camera to pan the stage more and frame scenes appropriately, so I've enlisted friends, colleagues, or parents who have no kids at that concert to do this for me.

Get away from using the CDs... ASAP. Make a running tape of all of the songs to make your classes more efficient and productive, also easier for the concert. You also could burn a CD of the songs if you have that capability, or have a parent do that, too!

Another idea I thought of but have yet to implement is to videotape myself, or whoever is teaching the choreography on the first day (or beforehand), and play that during class instead of me doing the dancing each time. It would keep my mind and hands free to observe and make adjustments to the kids. Crank up the music when videotaping so it will come through on the video.