David Willson and I have known each other since we met in band at Hardy Junior High School in Jackson MS. I was in 7th grade and he was a year ahead of me. David recently retired after 32 years as Director of Bands at The University of Mississippi. This is another of his posts that I believe is applicable to any vocation, but especially to music. This was from the Phi Beta Mu Newsletter in 2007
As a young man in the late 1950’s and early 1960’s raised by a father in a single parent home, my circumstances were pretty bad even on the best of days. I had no recollection of Mom, and being in a somewhat turbulent environment, by the time I reached my teenage years my self-esteem was very low, and ambition was not really a part of my makeup. For one reason or another, I decided to join band. Band taught me that I had a place to fit in. I was accepted for my own worth, and I was a member of the team regardless of looks, finances or abilities. As time went on I got more into the spirit of band, I got a small scholarship to college and made band directing my career. For someone with my family finances and background to go to college, much less graduate, was an absolute miracle.
My mission, as International President of Phi Beta Mu, is to carry forward a three-pronged agenda in a strong, straightforward way. First, our civic duty for people that have been honored for excellence in our fraternity is to have a responsibility to pay back our profession through outreach and mentoring. Second, we need to make sure that we promote and sell “why we need band in the community” and we cannot forget about the directors in small towns and communities working every day to promote music in our society. Finally, we need to communicate carefully with our teacher training institutes about what we think of how we were trained and how that job can be done in a more efficient and practical manner.
Somewhere in the second week of teaching I wanted to drive back to the university I now work for and ask for my tuition money back. I realized quickly that I did not know a thing about what a first-year teacher should do. Most of what I needed to know I had to learn the hard way. In my 4th year of teaching, I was planning to go to my hometown for the weekend, a trip of around 170 miles. After a long Friday at school, I packed up my reel-to-reel tape recorder in the back of my ‘73 Buick and headed off. Saturday morning, I went by the music store to drop off a couple of student instruments for repair and to look at music. The local music merchant greeted me cordially. In the music display area was a man we called “The Godfather” of band directors in our state. The proprietor, Dan Wright of Wright Music asked me “David, do you know Mr. Cook?” “Yes, I know God” I replied. We shook hands and I nervously continued walking around because I didn’t really know him and wasn’t sure what to say to him.
A few minutes later Mr. Cook solemnly walked up to me and asked “David, did you record your band this week?” “Sure” I replied, “I recorded them yesterday.” He asked if I had the tape with me. I told him I had it in the trunk of my car, and he asked if he could listen to it. “No,” I replied, “there’s no way you’re going to listen to one second of that tape.” He insisted that he really wanted to hear it, and I insisted that there was absolutely no way I would play it for him. At that moment, someone else in the store got his attention and I snuck around to the back of the store and watched carefully until I couldn’t see him anymore. When I saw he wasn't around, I scurried to the door and headed out to my car only to see Mr. Cook leaning against the trunk and blocking me from backing out. Yes, my heart was racing. He looked at me with a straight face and said “David, I really want to help you. I love listening to bands and seeing what other people are doing. I will be gentle, there will be no making fun, and I am going to hear this tape.”
We went back into the store office. I gave him the score to the march and he put on the head phones. I cut the machine on and in five seconds he waved to cut it off. I will never forget what he said. “The Db between your bassoon and third bone is out of tune. Have the bone play a short 5th.” I just looked at him and agreed. He then looked at me like I was (and rightfully so) ignorant, and asked me pointedly “aren’t you going to write that down? You will never remember all this.” Well, I got a legal pad and started. When I left we had more than three pages of legal pad notes of one column each of “to do’s” and one “how to fix.” (Note - fix is a southern term that means correct or repair.)
Needless to say I felt overwhelmed with the tasks Mr. Cook had given me. I went home to my “bachelor pad” - basically consisting of a bed, a folding table, two chairs and a stereo stand - and sat at the table and stared at that legal pad with total anxiety. I separated the items into what I could handle in section rehearsals and what I could do with the full band. Oh, what a productive week I had! Not only was my lesson plan written, I had to put a time frame on each segment. Talk about a lesson in pacing! I knew that it had been a productive week and the students REALLY knew it. ON Thursday of that week I called Mr. Cook and asked if he would be at the store again on Saturday and thus began a ten year relationship with him coaching me. Even though I got to where I could go to festival without him, I NEVER went without him.
Later on in my 13th year of teaching someone asked me to listen to a tape of their band. It was set up between a music representative and a director that was struggling and would let no one come into their band room. When I met with him I remember doing exactly the same thing that Mr. Cook had done with me. By the time three years had gone by, I could start at 4pm on Friday and go until after 2am in the morning and come back later that same day. Coming from an environment that did not show compassion, ambition or anything resembling civic duty, it was my first experience with giving is better than receiving. To this day, I cannot imagine any part of my professional career being successful in any way had it not been for the two-time Mississippi Outstanding Band Director and now Phi Beta Mu Hall of Fame, Outstanding Contributor and band director, Professor Gary Cook.
Many of you might be able to say you are self made people, but I cannot. The mentoring from Professor Cook, Dan Wright (Mississippi Outstanding Contributor) and many others allowed me to add to the tool bag of skills that helped me be a more positive and productive teacher. Other positive mentors that helped me tremendously were Tom Fraschillo (Outstanding Band Director and current President of ABA), Wilbur Smith (MS Outstanding Contributor), C.D. Hagan and too many more to name. You can tell these teachers knew that helping others is one of the greatest rewards found in our profession.
My personal mission now is to reach out and help any student and band program I possibly can. We have all been honored for excellence in teaching, and now we need to expand our teaching abilities to include not just students, but those in our profession.
I challenge each and every one of you to find someone that is maybe a little shy and struggling to give them a call. In the gentlest way possible, tell them that you would be glad to help them in any way you can. If they seem hesitant, just show up one day and help them as much as you can. It could be absolutely the best thing that ever happened to you and would also benefit our entire profession.
Have you called anyone yet? Become a Mentor today!