Christian Gordon is the band director at Westglades Middle School in Parkland, Florida.  Both Christian and Josh teach band through a mastery system by which students work to develop their individual musical skills first, and in doing so, the band reading ability continues to grow.

Christian talks about the concept of a mastery system, gives examples of tasks that his students work on individually, and then further discusses the benefits of encouraging and measuring student achievement.  Josh talks about how his mastery system at the high school connects to Christian's system.  This includes studio recitals and mastery recitals and working through targeted exercises in select method books.  

Key concepts that are discussed:

• Ensemble skills are a byproduct of individual musical ability.
• Know what you want your students to do.  Start with the end in mind.
• Organize tasks into measurable items that students can do.
• Meet students where they are at while always leading them to the next area of success.

Links to items discussed in this episode:
Interview with Alfred Watkins by John Thomson (mentioned on the show)
Power in the Progress System (a Mastery System that Christian and Josh have used and loved)
Christian Gordon Instagram (send him a message if you would like him to share some of his resources).
Youtube presentation on Josh's system

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