If you only teach one band, you get used to the sound, and it becomes difficult to make objective judgments about the performance and sound. This is probably why you don't notice when the drum head is old and the tone is dull.
When you find out what each student can and cannot do, you tend to give up even if there is something that bothers you. That being said, I don't think you have many opportunities to listen to other bands each year, and even fewer opportunities to conduct other bands.
In such a situation, it is difficult to have a broad perspective, but you can create opportunities to listen to various types of music.
If you only listen wind bands because you are teaching wind bands you will end up being musically biased.
Some teachers who teach junior high and high school wind bands say that they only listen to performances from junior high and high schools that won gold prizes in competitions several years ago as reference for the pieces they are currently practicing, but I feel that there are more things they should listen to.
Listen to piano, orchestra, and singing. By comparing with various performances, you can see the problems in your band more clearly.
In bands, we often listen to performances that are loud overall and have no quiet parts, but when we listen to string ensembles or piano, we can once again notice the beauty of soft sounds.
Also, be interested in new teaching methods and practice ideas to use the same practice time as effectively as possible.
This is also the case in junior high school bands, where students tend to conservatively try to pass on the same practice methods they learned from older students in their first year to younger students.
It was a while ago, but when I went to teach the band at a newly established junior high school in its second year, when I introduced the practice method, the second-year students muttered, "Last year, we weren't allowed to hold an instrument right away."
They seemed to be dissatisfied with me making the new students play an instrument right away, even though they had not been allowed to hold an instrument for weeks the previous year and had to practice with only a mouthpiece for a long time.
If the instructor is not always looking for better ways and is not willing to try new practices, they will end up thinking that what they have learned from just one year of experience is everything and will become closed off. This is a disadvantage for the students, and if they are not always trying to improve their practice methods and practice content, the level of the band will not change.
Discuss anything with teachers from other schools. By exchanging various opinions, you may find practice tips that you have not noticed before.
By having someone else conduct your band and listening to the performance objectively, you may have unexpected discoveries.
If you think that the current method is the only way to do it, there will be no progress. There are not many bands that feel that they do not need to improve any more.
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