Maggie Zeidel, Band Music Educator, Northstar Middle School, Eau Claire
This is the fourth in a series of Wisconsin Arts Educator interviews in honor of Arts Month 2024. The featured educators not only demonstrate excellent teaching but also innovative ideas.
Maggie Zeidel grew up in Stillwater, Minnesota and is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire. She is in her third year of teaching in the Eastern Carver County School District where she teaches middle and elementary school concert bands and lesson groups. She is actively involved in the after school music activities in the district including jazz, rock, pop, and marching bands in addition to the rock band program. She has worked to help create a modern music curriculum that includes a diverse composer of the month program, composition, music theory, music history and elements of music technology. Maggie has presented at the Wisconsin and Minnesota State Music Conferences.
Chris: A lot of emphasis has been placed on ‘engagement’ in education, what innovative practices are you leveraging in your band classes to engage your students?
Maggie: It is shocking, and sad, to me the number of students who love music, but do not love band choir or orchestra. It has also been surprising to have the kids come out of the woodwork who maybe are not the best at their band instrument, but are incredible at a modern band instrument (such as guitar), or whose musical abilities shine when you put a DAW (digital audio workstation) in front of them. It is a goal of mine to catch these wonderful musicians who value and love music, but not in the way we offer it.
In my program, 7th and 8th grade band always starts with a pop warmup. During these, musicians are playing scales, lip slurs, rhythmic exercises, and melodic fragments over a track. We have created ones utilizing pop hits from the summer and school year, as well as from every decade. The idea behind these warmups is that this is something we do every day with our kids, we may as well make them relevant. With my 6th grade band members, we start every class with buzzing along to a student selected song. The students first listen to the song, then buzz it, and then play it on their instrument. This three minute process is a fast and easy way to incorporate modern band into your space, especially if you feel like your time is limited.
I also try to show my musicians other routes of music making. This is especially effective leading into breaks when instruments need to go home anyways for musicians to practice. I try to send the instruments home a day earlier than I have to, and do other types of music making on those days. Sound Trap and Band Lab are excellent online DAWs that students enjoy working with.
An additional practice that I implement is allowing musicians who are average or below average at their band instrument and not super into it, but passionate and eager to learn another non standard instrument, to be in my class on that instrument. I typically wait until 8th grade to leverage this, and use it as a way to keep kids who love music in a music class. I live in the gray area. Why not allow the musician passionate about guitar to meet the same standards as your other musicians, just using a different instrument. With those kids, if they were in band and are interested in this route, I try to have them still be in band on their band instrument, but every other day they get to participate in the music making they are passionate about. If they were not in band, I have them do the same assignments and performances, but no songs that they are going to perform through their other music making route.
Maggie: Modern band pedagogy is using the music and music practices of today to catch more students and get them excited about music. It is utilizing and playing the music students listen to in a setting where that is not always valued. It is about seeing other routes and tools that are valid ways of being a musician, and allowing those to be a part of the music making in your classroom.
Maggie: I implement modern band a little bit every day in my space. In 7th and 8th grade band, our first ten minutes are all modern band, as that is when we do our pop warmups. In 6th grade band, this is also at the beginning of class, but only for about five minutes. I also try to implement modern band compositional practices and ideas in the days leading up to longer breaks. It gives me an extra day to get instruments home, and shows kids how else they can make and be involved in music.
Outside of band class, I also run a middle school rock band program. We meet once a week during resource time to practice. 7th and 8th grade rock band members meet all school year, and 6th grade musicians get to try rock band for about a quarter. This is a great way to see which of your musicians are very musical, just not in the way your classroom allows for.
Maggie: My students really like our pop warmups. They get a lot of voice and choice, and enjoy the routine of the practice. They also really enjoy having the music they actually listen to be a part of their day in band.
Most caregivers that are aware of our modern band practices appreciate them. Parents tend to really enjoy their kids talking about our 80s warmup. My colleagues typically enjoy the pop warmups. They tend to hear them throughout our building as I have to play the track very loud for the kids to be able to hear. Admin appreciates having the rock band perform at pep rallies and community events. We also have talked about having kids DJ different school events.
It has been the most exciting watching these modern band practices be tried by young or soon to be educators. I often have University students in my space, and they are thrown head first into the modern band things we do at Northstar. They bring the ideas back to their peers, and the movement grows.
Maggie: I would like to develop a better hip hop/rap curriculum in my program. New this year I got a grant for a DJ board, and have been slowly getting kids trained in how to use it. That has been a good way for me to start this journey. Kids love rap music, and that is something I need to learn more about to leverage it better in my space.
REGISTRATION NOW OPEN for Summer Institute: Transforming Systems for Innovation
When: July 15–18, 2024
Where: Land O'Lakes (tentative)
Who: School teams of between 4–6 people, including (but not limited to) administrators, educators, and instructional leaders.
What: Through hands-on experiences, concurrent sessions, small-group discussion, networking, and reflection, school teams can joyfully explore ways to create their own pathways to hope. Participants will also receive implementation support throughout the 2024-25 school year through online sessions.
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Registration includes food and lodging. Limited to 60 participants. Registration priority will be given to school teams of between 4–6 people.
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Chris Gleason
Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction
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