Music and Family

The following interview is with my former band director, Jonas Nix. He was my director for seven years and we are very close. He directs the concert, marching, and jazz bands at North Central High School. When he began working at the North Central schools around 10 years ago, the band program was basically nonexistent. This year, the marching band, which has been in operation for five years, won 2nd at state. This interview mainly focuses on his relationship with band throughout his life. My questions are in bold and clarifications are provided in brackets.

What is your first memory of music?

So, three things stick out from when I was a really little kid. I don’t know how early they are or what order they came in, but the first one was how much I loved watching Disney movies – especially for the music. Whenever we were in the car with my parents they would play Disney movie music and my mom, who was a singer, would sing. I loved music from The Little Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast and just singing in the car with my mom. The other thing that sticks out is my dad was a trombone player and played in the church orchestra. I remember when I was really little him trying to teach me how to make a sound on the trombone. I was in maybe third grade, and I remember going to school the next day and telling my music teacher that my dad let me play his trombone. I was so excited about it. The other memory is my dad had an old record player and a huge LP collection and we would sit in my mom and dad’s bedroom and him and I would listen to old records. Like Barbara Streisand and disco music from the 70s.

Can you describe your middle and high school experience with band?

I started in band in sixth grade. I loved my band director because she was grumpy and she hated everybody except for band kids. Does that sound familiar? She loved me because I was the fat kid who wanted to play low brass. My buddies and I would always bug her…we were those kids who just tried to be around her and be around the band room all the time. She was grumpy and sassy and I loved middle school band because I loved her. Middle school in general wasn’t the most fun thing in the world for me, but I loved my director and she’s the reason that I kept doing band – her and my dad. I remember the most excited I got was eighth grade when I got a tuba solo and played the Funeral March. She chose me to do that out of all the tubas and I thought that was really cool. That was in sixth grade… then to continue on to seventh grade band I had to audition. I played Amazing Grace on the tuba and I remember the look on the directors’ faces. They seemed really impressed. I will never forget that feeling I got in that audition – how proud of myself I was.

In high school it was marching band. My life revolved around it; I was always in the band room. The best we ever did was third in the state and I remember fighting for that for years. My junior year I remember standing on that field and was just in tears because we got third in the state. One of the proudest moments of my life. That and senior night – I remember my dad talking to me about how proud of me he was. That was cool.

How did being in band make your life better?

Time management, work ethic, and then the social aspect of it. I mean without it I wouldn’t know how to interact with people. Band allowed me to see that there’s all types of different personalities and it’s okay to be different. You celebrate your nerdiness. You can lighten up and loosen up and be nerdy and everybody is going to respect you for that. Because of band I had friends who were football players, soccer players, drama people… just because they enjoyed that I was goofy and did my own thing. And also work ethic; how to work hard and care about something that’s bigger than yourself.

Can you describe your decision to become a band director?

When I was a senior in high school I wanted to either be a chef or a band director. The chef thing came from my dad because he was an awesome cook and I enjoyed cooking with him. Basically I argued with my parents and said I wanted to go to culinary school and after that I wanted to get a four year degree and be a band director. They said no - you need to do that they other way around. We’ll only help you with school if you get a four year degree and after that if you decide to go to culinary school you can. They knew me really well because they knew I would not go to culinary school. I got a really ridiculous scholarship from Newberry to be a music ed major and I declared it. I loved the band director there, and I made the decision to be one myself in part because my dad wanted to be a band director and never did it. I also loved band and my entire life and family’s life revolved around it. It’s all I knew and I just wanted to continue that because I loved it. My freshman year at college my band director was one of my favorite people in the world and he cemented that I wanted to be a band director.

What was it like for you studying music in college?

The hardest part for me was theory. I had a really hard time wrapping my head around it. It was difficult – I hated it. It was only offered at 8 am. Getting up for that class was really difficult – especially since I decided to join a fraternity and be a cool party guy. I still hate theory; I don’t enjoy it at all. I think it’s because it’s because it puts rules and regulations on things that I love and do instinctively. Music history was boring as I’ll get out, but I had a great music history teacher and I loved him. The class itself made me want to bang my head against a wall.

What was starting your career as a music educator like and how was it different from what you expected it to be?

College did not prepare me at all to be a band director. There are some fundamental things that education classes prepare you for, but in terms of teaching a group of kids how to play an instrument… that first day was one of the most overwhelming moments of my life. Everyone told me that the first three years would make or break you as a band director and they were right. My first year was awful. I did not know how to control kids or connect with students. I was so insecure because standing in front of a bunch of judgy 15-year-olds is so scary. It’s so nerve-wracking, especially coming right out of college with no experience. Everything you learn in college flies out the window for that entire first year. You don’t remember any of it! You really learn by doing, and I learned to be a band director by being a band director.

What made you want to start a marching band at the high school? (My middle school is the only school that fed into my high school, so they’re very linked. After being the middle school band director for a few years, Mr. Nix decided to start a marching band at the high school. It had not had one for over a decade.)

Because it was such a big part of my life. Because I loved y’all and I wanted y’all to be able to experience it. I felt like the high school had a lot of potential and I loved you guys at the middle school so much. I didn’t want you to walk into a failing band program. I didn’t want you guys to walk into a disaster. I wanted to make the band program better.

What do you think is the biggest challenge facing band directors as a whole?

Everything outside of actually being a band director. Dealing with administrators who have no idea what our job is and don’t really care. We’re there to fill a spot in the school. This isn’t every school – I don’t necessarily feel like this at North Central [the high school where he teaches]. I think the biggest challenge for band directors is that we are very lonely people in our careers. Unless you’re teaching at a school that has multiple band directors you are very lonely. No one understands what our job is. From the outside looking in our job looks very easy, but they have no idea what that entails. That’s okay because everyone has their own agenda, but the things that we deal with coming down from administrators and school district officials involve just unrealistic expectations of time and other things like that. What they sometimes do is invalidate your job and invalidate the success that you’re having.

You place so much emphasis on the students, but when the marching band started to be successful what was it like for you as an individual?

I was just proud of y’all. It’s not about me; that’s not the way I do things. We’re [he and the assistant director] successful as band directors because the people we work with are good people. I just feel like a dad looking at my kids doing great things, and so I’m proud of you guys and that is what makes me feel most successful.

Jonas (cap, red beard) pictured with band members and staff at a parade