Band is 'Always an Adventure'

Cane Creek Middle School Band Director Clif Dodson leads the eighth-grade band through a warm-up.

By Tim Reaves
BCS Communications Department

BCS Arts educators help our students collaborate, create, and grow in their areas of expression.

At Cane Creek Middle School, Band Director Clif Dodson led the eighth-grade concert band through a few tricky time signatures and note-rest combinations on Wednesday. Cane Creek’s award-winning band program has notched numerous Superior-level performances at competitions through the years, owing to strong student participation, Mr. Dodson’s tireless commitment to excellence, a growth-minded school culture, and engaged parents.

“Making music with middle school students is always an adventure,” Mr. Dodson said. “There is never a dull moment. I think all students want to be a part of a group that can make a difference and feel good about what they have done.”

By playing a musical piece together, band students express universal human emotions while directly demonstrating the value of synchronicity, balance, and collaboration. Not only do they build musical literacy, Mr. Dodson said. They also improve their reading skills, hand and motor control, active listening, and emotional intelligence.

“No one should ever underestimate the power of music to enrich the human spirit and life,” he said. “All students benefit academically from the multiple activities all going on at the same time to produce music well.”

Band programs give students opportunities to travel and perform in amazing places and have great experiences that last a lifetime. In addition to their school concerts that occur two to four times per year, Cane Creek bands have performed in Carnegie Hall in New York; the Lincoln and Washington monuments in Washington D.C.; Disney World in Orlando, Florida; and this year’s band will perform in Chicago, Illinois, in the spring. Students also can audition for county, district, and state ensembles.

“I think all the students want to make music,” Mr. Dodson said. “It is basic human nature to want to be in harmony and rhythm with someone else. It is fun.”

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