Andrew Gordon is a new teacher here at Dee-Mack. He is the new band teacher and it is his first year ever teaching right out of college. He is very ecstatic and can’t wait to start directing in front of the whole community for sporting events. Mr. Gordon is a man of many talents, since he majored in music education where he can play any instrument you give to him. If you name any instrument, he can play it. Mr. Gordon’s favorite instrument to play is the Bassoon as it was his primary instrument he played in college. His favorite song to play is Traveler by David Maslanka. Mr. Gordon is really excited to bring what he learned from college to here in Dee-Mack. This year he is most looking forward to continuing to grow the program in numbers and musicality level. I am also looking forward to learning all that I can from the students as I teach them. Many do not realize that as teachers are teaching you, we are learning as well. We all have room to grow and I cannot wait to see it happen.
Mr. Gordon went to college at Bradley where he led the band as an assistant director. An assistant director assists the band director in providing musical and auxiliary instructions for students and prepares them for performances as part of instruction. Mr. Gordon’s favorite memory from being an assistant director at Bradley was leading the Bradley Basketball Band at the men’s games at Carver Arena/Peoria Civic Center. For basketball games the pep band size is around 30-40 people that bring high energy and play popular tunes. Bradley’s band is a tight and spirited group. They are strongly tied with school pride and heavily integrated with school events. The band is known for bringing the energy and creating a fun atmosphere and that is what Mr.Gordon wants to bring to Dee-Mack as a band teacher.
Mr. Gordon’s main goal for the Dee-Mack band this year is to bring a good atmosphere to the games and have a good chemistry with everyone involved. Preparing for games can be different every rehearsal. One thing that doesn’t change during the rehearsal is how they learn the order of how things work. They always start with playing their show music inside, then when they go outside they go through the set/move one step at a time so they know what to do during their performance. After a few repetitions they start to do the steps in larger chunks. Once they know where to move they add the instruments while they march to put it all together. The band players are expected to memorize the music on the field for the shows. With how much they do the repetitions they don’t even realize they are memorizing the music.