Sectional Class

Also known as “lessons” or simply, “sectionals”.

All orchestra students attend sectional classes once per week to work on instrument / grade level specific curricula. In these lessons students study many facets of music from instrumental performance, composition, improvisation, interpretation, music theory, music history, conducting, and much more. These lessons are an integral part of the orchestra curriculum as much of what is learned in these lessons is not covered during regular rehearsal time.

Student Explanation
An Orchestra lesson is when you and your group, composed of four or more students playing your instrument, skip a period to go to the orchestra room and have a semi-private lesson with Mr. Broach. These lessons are meant to improve your skills by having more focused corrections. Each lesson is marked on an attendance sheet; skipping lessons will detract from your grade. The orchestra lessons move around periods, but each group has one day that the lesson will always be on.

Rotating Schedule

These classes are on a rotating six-week schedule to prevent a student from missing any one class regularly. We try to remain stringent with the schedule, but in the (hopefully, rare) event a student has to miss a sectional, one solution is for the student to attend a sectional at a different time (after school, another period, etc.). We always try to stick with the schedule so students are partnered up in homogeneous grouping.

Sectional Schedule Chart

Myth: Participation in Orchestra Lessons will Negatively Impact Performance in other Classes

Literature Review: Pullout Lessons in Instrumental Music Education

Abstract
This article reviews literature related to pullout instruction in instrumental music education. Pullout lessons involve withdrawing certain students from their regularly scheduled class for the purpose of instrumental study. The prevalence of pullout scheduling, attitudes towards the practice, and the effect of pullouts on academic achievement are addressed. Implications of these findings and the need for further research are also discussed. Many administrators, teachers, and parents assume that providing instruction through pullouts will cause a decline in scholastic performance due to missed class time. Research, however, has found no significant difference between the academic achievement of students who left class for instrumental study, and those who did not, regardless of school size and student background.

Hash, Phillip M. & Calvin College. (2004) Literature review: Pullout lessons in instrumental music education. Bulletin of the Council for Research in Music Education. Winter, 2004, No. 159.