Reply To: Integrating "other subjects" into your ensembles

[nafmeadmin]

I wonder how loosely you can interpret research here – what if you asked students to delve into recordings and research by listening? Assign each student a piece of music or composer or conductor (maybe things that align with what you are performing through the year), and have them do some reading and listening to different examples of each, then present what they consider to be the “definitive” or “best” example of the piece or the composer’s work to the class? It wouldn’t be written research per se, but students would have to find multiple recordings, listen, compare, read some reviews, which is research to an extent, isn’t it? Instead of a formal paper, students could present to the class, play an excerpt of the recording they chose, and explain their rationale.

I agree that class time and homework time should not be used to write formal papers if the class is a performance class – they work they should be doing for you is practicing or rehearsing. If it was a music history elective that’s a different story, but not for band. I would get as creative as you can with the interpretation of “research” here!