For the school student musician, learning band music is often all the musical learning that takes place. Many school programs use method books and scale and technique exercises that help the students to grow and understand more musically. Including solos and small ensemble study is very appropriate and effective as well. Improvisation study is also helpful and develops a different part of the musicians thinking when you take away their printed music. I would like to add another item to the school band agenda…writing. The writing I am talking about is with pen and paper. Writing musical compositions is of importance as well and should be included in a successful music program. But the purpose of this article is to consider having your students write about music.

ASSIGNMENTS
My high school students have only four writing assignments per year (so far!) This is in addition to mid-terms and finals in which additional small essays are required. I also offer extra credit for additional written work students provide. The writing assignments I give (one per marking period) vary from semester to semester, year to year. They can be short essays, paragraphs, lists or something longer if the student gets really involved in the task. The latter is often the case as students research and find a wealth of information on the topic at hand. The writing takes place in the students own time, and not during rehearsal. It is treated like homework. Much in the same way that students are required to practice on their own time, these written assignments are on their own time.

The idea is this: students can learn a great deal by playing their instrument. The balance to that is understanding beyond the music by analyzing and studying different elements of the music we are rehearsing and studying. If we are playing a Bach Fugue, I will assign students to write 2 paragraphs on what a fugue is. This way, it is not just me telling them, but they are actively involved in learning it by researching it in music dictionaries, encyclopedias, the Internet, etc. They are more apt to remember what a fugue is since they have just spent some time researching and studying, then putting it into writing. This in turn helps them to better understand the fugue we are playing in band rehearsal. The short written assignment has brought my band students to a deeper level of learning and understanding, and then finally, application in rehearsal and any other time they are playing a fugue or listening to one. This is only one idea of many that you can apply your performance music to other areas of study where students can write about the subject you assign them.

WRITING IDEAS
There are many ideas for writing in rehearsal. I find it best to have students write about something that is very relevant to what we are doing in band that term. It makes the most sense and has the best application for rehearsals. There are many subjects to choose from. I will list some of mine here.

Compositional style - fugue, concerto, theme and variations, etc.
Composers - try a famous and not so famous composer for the same assignment
Counting - why, how, when
Listening - to what, who, how
Musical Philosophy - Is there a difference between listening and hearing?
	Is there a difference between practicing and playing?
	What is effective practice?
Era - Classical, Baroque, Romanticism, 20th Century, etc.
Solo Analysis - especially useful for jazz. Transcribe a jazz solo
Technical/scale exercises (transposed for all band instruments and for possible use in rehearsal)

There are many more ideas as well. The sky is the limit. We often tape our rehearsals throughout the term and listen back. It is amazing how different the ensemble sounds to students when they are not in the middle of playing! By listening back, we often hear differently. The same is true of concerts. With that in mind, we will write down our thoughts before listening to the playback tape and then again after listening. I give students the same questions before listening and after listening. The remarks are quite enlightening, especially when students observe something I do not!

Writing in band leads to a better understanding and application of the topic studied. By writing in band, we don't just learn the music; we get beyond it and inside it, gaining a greater and more thorough understanding of the music.