Introduction
My Story
Part 1: Preparation
Parable 1: I Can Only Teach You What You Want to Learn
Parable 2: Things Are Not Always What They Seem
Parable 3: Time Is All You Have
Parable 4: It Doesn't Matter What You Know Right Now
Parable 5: Choosing an Instrument
Parable 6: Is My Saxophone Fixed Yet?
Parable 7: If It's Not Yours, Don't Touch It
Parable 8: Where Does This Road Lead?
Parable 9: Blow Your Own Horn
Parable 10: Make Your Own Kind of Music
Parable 11: See the Best in Yourself and in Others
Parable 12: Creativity and Divinity
Parable 13: What We Believe Changes Us
Part 2: Practice
Parable 14: I Can't Play That
Parable 15: Always Do Your Best
Parable 16: Nobody Else Can Do Your Practicing for You
Parable 17: We Perform the Way We Practice
Parable 18: Playing in Tune
Parable 19: Have Fun!
Parable 20: Little Missed Key Signature
Parable 21: If It Were Easy, Everyone Would Do It
Parable 22: Keep Your Nose to the Grindstone, Eyes on the Goal
Parable 23: Welcome Problems
Parable 24: Taking Care of Your Instrument
Parable 25: Shut Off That Music
Parable 26: Progress and Plateaus
Part 3: Performance
Parable 27: We Have to Perform
Parable 28: Do We Have to Wear Our Uniforms?
Parable 29: Strive for Perfection--But You Won't Achieve It
Parable 30: The Cure for Nervousness
Parable 31: Would You Do That to Me?
Parable 32: It's Showtime--Every Day
Parable 33: You Can't Just Not Show Up
Parable 34: Focus on What You Can Change
Parable 35: Sometimes Everything Goes Wrong
Parable 36: Playing Our Part in the Whole
Parable 37: Be the Music
Parable 38: What Did You Say?
Part 4: Reflection and Redirection
Parable 39: The Concert Debrief
Parable 40: A Personal and Private Space
Parable 41: As You Sow, You Create Spiritual Potential Energy
Parable 42: Put Away Your Cell Phones
Parable 43: Students Should Get Paid for Going to School
Parable 44: Fix What's Broken
Parable 45: Nothing's Happening--That You Can See
Parable 46: It's Not Just About You
Parable 47: It's Not Fair
Parable 48: So the Concert Was a Disaster
Parable 49: Forgive--To Be Free
Parable 50: Where Do You Go from Here?
A cross between "Chicken Soup for the Soul", "All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten", and "Conversations with God". If you liked any of those, you'll love this one.
Do you want a happier, more joy-filled life? Are you in a spiritual rut but don't have time to read? Are you wondering where to go next on your spiritual journey? Not sure how to look at your life with spiritual eyes? This book's for you!
In "The Band Director's Lessons About Life", author Donald Lee draws on his decades as both a band director and a religion teacher to create modern-day parables from the classroom.
People of any religious persuasion--or none--will be delighted and inspired by how these band-room vignettes shine a spiritual light on everyday experiences. The parables are short enough to read in the bathroom yet deep enough to ponder for days. Put it beside your bed and fill your mind with a 5-minute spiritual lesson before you fall asleep.
The Master Teacher is famous for his parables. But nowadays it's hard for us to relate to searching for lost sheep in the hills or sowing wheat seeds by hand. This book has parables about kids in school. Every event has a spiritual dimension--tuning the flute section, a terrible performance, a broken clarinet, hallway bullying, cell phones, test anxiety, and even the ugly band uniforms. If you've ever been to school, you'll recognize the characters, chuckle at their misadventures, and maybe even learn something about yourself. If you've been a kid, if you love music, this book's for you.
The book is organized to reflect the typical performance cycle of a band program. It's a metaphor for our cycle of spiritual growth in life. At the start of the school year, there's lots of preparation: class lists, checking instruments, picking music, and setting goals for the various levels of bands. Then we get to practicing: learning the skills, new notes, and all the things we will need to master before our first concert. All too soon the performance comes. It's a mixture of success and failure. Some things go well, some poorly. Afterward, we reflect on the performance and redirect our efforts to prepare better for the next. This is the cycle in band--preparation, practice, performance, followed by reflection and redirection.
It's a metaphor for spiritual growth. Whether you've just accepted that we have a spirit, or have a PhD in Religion, or talk to angels every day-wherever you fit in--this book is for you.
