This research is to write an article about how middle school band directors have been influenced by their mentors and how these influences have affected their own teaching. The goal here was to fine common themes in teaching and what makes every teacher’s philosophy unique.

I was personally not prepared for high school band due to not having a strong middle school band director. I believed that middle school did not matter in terms of preparing for high school. However, through this project and seeing how middle school band directors teach, I have learned now that middle school is a critical building block for a strong high school band program. When the right goals are set, the program can be successful.

Through these interviews I met many directors who had influential high school band directors. This was similar to my own high school band director being an influence for my career path. However, these directors learned that teaching middle school could be fun and that good directors are needed to start beginners.

I learned that unlike high school, middle school goals are much more broad and fit into a bigger unit. 6th grade is the intensive year to input all the building blocks into playing music. After that it is more about refining certain skills over time to fit into bigger units. This is much different from high school, where pieces are often picked for the purpose of teaching concepts and that is how lessons are planned with a much clearer structure.

Through interacting with directors, I understood that to teach middle school band it just needs to be a combination of letting the students have fun and working harder. Teachers need to be able to keep the students on track and emphasize that it is because of their hard work that the ensemble is getting better. This will motivate the students even more.

The directors showed me some of their year long lesson plans that they would then tweak to meet the needs of students. This is similar to the idea of middle school learning in band being a floating target. Every ensemble has different needs that need to be fulfilled. It is a lot harder to standardize the curriculum compared to high school.

This project brought me many insights into the profession. I learned that teaching middle school can be rewarding and can set kids up for success in high school when they are taught fundamentals properly. I also learned how important middle school band is for properly mentoring students. As someone who wants to teach students in the future, I would be happy teaching middle school students.