This episode is part 2 of the Building a Band Program series on the Rock School Proprietor podcast, hosted by John Kozicki (Michigan Rock School and RockSchoolProprietor.com).
In this episode John offers insight on selecting the ideal instructor to lead band programs, emphasizing qualities like multi-instrumentalism, a producer-like perspective, and decision-making skills.
Included:
- Qualities of effective band instructors
- Importance of multi-instrumental skills
- Producer-like perspective in band leadership
- Decision-making and leadership in band rehearsals
- Setting realistic goals and expectations for bands
If you’re interested in starting a band program in your music teaching studio or looking for ideas to enhance or grow an existing program, this series is for you! In it we will cover how a band program can create a strong community in your studio, increase profit margins, and lead to greater student retention.
Interested in the Building a Band Program webinar?
We’re planning a free live webinar to accompany this series on Friday, July 24, 2026. John will go deeper on these topics and answer your questions directly. If you’re interested, send an email to info@rockschoolproprietor.com with the subject line Webinar and we will be in touch with details.
Rock School Proprietor is a podcast for independent music school owners and lesson studio operators. New episodes drop Wednesdays at RockSchoolProprietor.com and on all podcast streaming platforms.
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Episode Transcript:
(Please note: This transcript was generated by robots. There may be errors. For the best experience, please listen to the podcast episode.)
John Kozicki (00:01.766)
Welcome back to the building a band program series of episodes on Rock School Proprietor podcast. I’m John Kozicki. And again, I am here to share my years of experience working with bands in my studio, building a band program as a central point in what we do at my school, Michigan Rock School. I’m here to share all those little tips and tricks with you.
If you’re thinking about starting a band program or you’ve started one and you want to know how to improve it, or maybe you want to compete with those larger franchises like School of Rock, Bach to Rock that have those band programs, that’s what this series is for. Topic today, choosing instructors to lead your band classes. This is a this is an interesting question that I’ve heard from studio owners.
who have maybe primarily private lesson only instructors. How do I choose someone who’s going to be a good instructor or good band coach? What are the qualities that I look for in choosing an instructor to lead groups in rehearsals? I think one of the things to think about is look at their personality. Another thing to look at is are they excited about this idea?
of leading bands? they invested in that? Do they want to do it? Because that desire and that want is going to go a long way versus you’ve got an instructor who maybe is hesitant or less interested. Another thing is, does this musician play in a band themselves? Do they regularly have rehearsals with the group? So they’re just familiar with how this works, setting goals and
planning set lists and prepping for a performance. These are all good qualities to have. But I’m going to talk about three qualities. I guess more like three segments or things to think about in qualities of potential instructors that I think would be good for leading band programs and leading groups in band rehearsals. So number one, I would say
John Kozicki (02:28.042)
Look for those instructors that you have on staff who are multi instrumentalists. These are all usually going to be some of your best instructors for a band program because they’re able to communicate in the dialects of all the different instruments. So maybe they have a primary instrument like guitar, but they also dabble a little bit in drums and maybe they sing a little bit.
that’s gonna give them the ability to speak with those student band members in a language that they understand. As opposed to someone who just doesn’t know how to communicate with these students. I’m not saying it can’t be done, and you can definitely address that. In fact, one of the, I would say one of the…
best band coaches I have in my studio is primarily a guitar player, not a drummer, not a vocalist, but he’s not afraid to help students in those situations who maybe are struggling in that dialect that he doesn’t understand. And one of the things that we’ve done to address when instructors can’t teach or play all of the instruments is we’ve simply created some guides.
for these instructors, just to give them a general understanding of even just how, say, take that same example, a guitar instructor who doesn’t play drums, just an understanding of how drum instructors communicate in their private lessons with their drum students, understanding that lingo or even just the terms is gonna go a long way in communicating with that drum student. So we’ve created little guides.
for our instructors, like teaching drums for non-drummers, for example. Or you could create a guide for maybe primarily a drum instructor. How do I communicate with a guitar player? An understanding of guitar tablature would be a good thing. So there’s all these ways that you can create these little guides, just as a means to create a level playing field for
John Kozicki (04:52.876)
these instructors who don’t necessarily speak the dialect of the student and band member in that group. Number two, another way to address these issues when an instructor doesn’t play all the instruments is clear lines of communication with private instructors. This is a key. I mean, this is a key for a successful band program across the board.
But very important when you’ve got a band coach or band instructor who is primarily focused on one instrument in their teaching or what they play and needs to communicate with a different student who plays a different instrument. Communicate with the private instructors because those private instructors are going to be able to support the students and what they need to focus on.
to prepare them for band rehearsals. The private instructors are gonna know best. They’re gonna know how to translate what’s happening in band rehearsals as maybe a problem that needs to be addressed, how to present it to the student so that they can improve and they come back prepared for the next rehearsal.
Okay, so I’m going to talk about some other more general qualities that I think are very important when you’re looking for band coaches or instructors to lead these band rehearsals. Number one, I think if they have a producer-like perspective on music, that’s going to be very beneficial. And what I mean by a producer-like perspective,
not necessarily just focused on one instrument, but looking at that big picture like a producer, how am I going to get this band sounding their best based on the individual pieces as opposed to let me fixate on one part and focus on that? The end of the day, what we’re trying to do is we’re trying to get these bands
John Kozicki (07:14.541)
to the finish line and put on a good show. Being able to look at all the pieces and the strengths and maybe the weaknesses of the individual players in that group, that’s what a producer does. How do we highlight the positives? How do we mix those to leverage those against maybe some negatives? How do, and I mean, even more literally, how do we mix this group?
so that they’re going to sound great at the end of the day and in the performance. If you’ve got two guitar players and one of them is really strong and one of them maybe struggles in certain instances, it’s not a bad idea to mix those guitars differently. Mix the stronger player a little bit higher, mix that player who’s maybe struggling a little bit more a little bit lower.
Not everything has to be equal in this situation. We’re talking about show business. We’re talking about putting on a good show. We can make these changes and make these choices and having that producer-like perspective is going to allow us to put the best foot forward at the end of the day. Now maybe some worries are like, well, what about the student? How are they going to feel in a live situation if they feel like their guitar is mixed lower than the other guitar? They’re really not going to hear it, right?
They have so much else that they’re thinking about when they’re in a performance. They just want to be able to hear the drums clearly so they can play with the drums. They want to hear their guitar. They’re not worried so much about the other things. Put on a good show. Have a producer-like perspective. Another very important quality in these band coaches is simply the ability to lead. The ability to make decisions that are best for the group as a whole.
I think this goes hand in hand with that producer-like perspective, but making those decisions, again, based on what’s best for the group as the whole, not the individual members. We have to make hard choices in these situations sometimes, right? Like, again, going back to two guitar example, which guitar can handle the guitar solo? Which guitar maybe isn’t quite ready for it? Yes, you find ways to challenge these kids, but
John Kozicki (09:40.578)
making the decisions in leading these kids through the end result is what’s important. Then the last quality is being able to provide clear expectations, staying on task and staying on that schedule. We talked about this in the how to structure your band program segment or episode related to a timeline.
and sticking with that. Along with that is the song choices and clear expectations. A lot of times these kids in the groups get really excited about the idea of, we want to play five songs. We want to play six songs. That’s great. A band coach though, that can look at the group and say, is that realistic? Can we present that as a clear realistic?
goal or not. If not, we have to set expectations and these band coaches have to set expectations that are realistic for the group. So reeling them in and saying like, okay, well, let’s plan on three songs. And if we get to that point where we can add another song or another two songs, then we’ll totally do that. It’s related to time management, task and clear expectations.
So look for those qualities in your instructors. Usually you’re able to see that in how they operate with their private lessons, but those are all good qualities to look for in those band coaches or band class instructors. choosing instructors to lead the band classes. I hope this has been helpful when you’re thinking about this program and thinking about who’s going to be
the best choice to lead these bands. We’ve got a lot of other cool topics planned for this series. So I hope you enjoyed this episode of Building a Band Program, and we’ll see you next time.
