Using Video to Help Students Learn Colorguard Routines

Whether you are a high school or middle school band director, this is a great tool to reinforce colorguard routines to your students.  My colleague, Lisa Hatfield, creates the flag routines for the annual Homecoming parade music and this year she decided to video record the routine.  Brilliant!  She taught the entire routine to the students and followed up the lesson by giving each student the routine, written out step-by-step and directions for accessing the video on YouTube or the band blog.  Students were also given a DVD just in case internet access was an issue. It has been our experience from past years, that it was difficult for the students to gain enough practice at school to display a polished, albeit basic routine for middle school students.  Plus, there were always students that ended up practicing the routine incorrectly at home, even though they learned it correctly at school.  A recorded routine reinforces what was taught at school and provides each student with a model to practice along with at home.  Simply put, video recorded flag routine is a great practice tool, especially for middle school students.  Check-it out: