Making Musicians Part 1

Send us Fan MailAllison Wilkinson’s book “Making Musicians” had a major impact on Mike Lunney’s approach to educating young people. In this multi-episode series, let Mike stretch your thinking for the better!

Send us Fan MailAllison Wilkinson’s book “Making Musicians” had a major impact on Mike Lunney’s approach to educating young people. In this multi-episode series, let Mike stretch your thinking for the better!

Send us Fan MailAllison Wilkinson’s book “Making Musicians” had a major impact on Mike Lunney’s approach to educating young people. In this multi-episode series, let Mike stretch your thinking for the better!

Send us Fan MailIn Texas, UIL has created a system of evaluations and competitions for our school music programs. Part of that system includes adjudication and a rating system. The hard part? We're all human. It's natural to react and have opinions, even strong feelings, about what someone else says about our group.So, how do we hand these critiques and ratings. What is the positive takeaway. How do we help our student cope with it? Win or lose.Mike Lunney has some great thought in this weeks episode about how he handled 30+ years of adjudication!

Send us Fan MailIt happens to the best of us, and the best groups out there. At some point as leaders we have to help our ensembles remember the end goal: Taking a concept and creating a Box 5 performance! Sometimes the routine and redundancy can create a lethargy. Shake things up in your rehearsals with these tips and tricks from Mike Lunney!

Send us Fan MailMike and Derrick are strong advocates for getting other eyes on your ensemble to help you catch things you might not otherwise. But in this episode, Mike Lunney explains his method to breaking down a marching performance, visually and the sound production. And you can do it! Don’t wait for someone else to make time, you can spend a little time this weekend and come back Monday with a valuable punch list for your group to improve. And that’s what we are striving for, taking the show from concept to Box 5!

Send us Fan MailMike and Derrick discuss brass embouchures. Sounds exciting, right? It is when you consider that so many of our young players are struggling to understand the terminology we are using and apply it to their specific physiology and the mouthpiece they have to work with. It's a fun conversation with some great tips from our own Mike Lunney! 

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Send us Fan MailWhether you call it field timing, phasing, or a tear in the tempo… we all know the sound on the marching field. So, how do we keep the sound together when everyone e is a different distance from the sideline? Is it a complex physics equation? It’s easy to overthink. Have we got an episode for you! Mike Lunney has some great reminders to keep your ensemble on time.

Send us Fan MailIn Mike Lunney's 30+ years of experience, he was able to help many aspiring teachers gain positive Student Teacher experiences in his classroom. This episode is great for both the ISD sponsoring teacher, as well as the collegiate student teacher. Give a listen as Mike helps define expectations and set some positive guidelines to help create a win-win for both sides of the experience!