You know you’re good at what you do when your peers give you some recognition. Especially in the ultra-competitive world of high school band directors.
For Kirby Swinney, director of the Shawnee High School Band and Shawnee Middle School Band for the past 12 years, that recognition came at the end of 2008 when he was named part of the “50 Directors That Make a Difference,” a list released every year by School Band and Orchestra Magazine.
“Somebody nominated me, which kind of surprised me,” Swinney said. “It makes you feel like people have taken notice of some of the things we’re doing here. It kind of reaffirms what we’re doing here.”
Swinney knew he wanted to be a band director, or at least involved with school bands, from a tender age. As kid growing up poor in Guthrie, Swinney said he made the money to buy his first instrument by throwing papers for the now defunct Oklahoma Times.
And it was also as a youngster when Swinney was first influenced by a musician.
“My junior high band director, Larry Johnson, he was somebody that influenced me,” Swinney said. “He was just cool. Everybody liked him. He was young and enthusiastic and he just took a personal interest in me.”
Swinney said that under Johnson’s early tutelage, his talents as a player began to blossom. A trumpet and French horn player, Swinney made first chair in the seventh grade after only a short time playing.
“I started late but I caught up,” he said. “And I’ve never really moved away from it.”
Indeed he hasn’t. His first gig as a band director was in Weeleka. After a year he moved on to Dewey for 10 years and then on to Choctaw for another two years before landing in Shawnee.
Now 49, Swinney said that Shawnee is probably his last stop. His children, both of whom are in his band class at the high school, wouldn’t take too kindly to another move, he said.
As for teaching his own kids in class, where at times he has to “yell a little bit” to get his point across, Swinney compared it a “lose-lose situation.”
“They think you’re tougher on them, but then their peers think you’re giving them a break,” he said. “I just try and treat them the same, but it doesn’t always seem like it works out that way.”
But whether it’s working with his own children or teaching someone else’s, Swinney said it’s working with kids that keeps him going at job that appears, at least to the casual observer, to be kind of stressful.
“It’s the day-to-day grind that keeps me going, honestly,” Swinney said. “And I’ve learned to never judge a book by its cover. Every kid is different, every kid has something to offer.”
Swinney also said he enjoys the competitive nature of band, although it no doubt adds to the stress of job dealing with amateurs who only practice eight to 10 hours a week.
“I wouldn’t be doing it if it weren’t competitive,” he said. “If you don’t have that, then it’s hard to keep going day in, day out.”
But such is the life of a high school band director. Both friend and foe, in a sense.
“You’re a parent, a friend, a teacher and just about everything else,” Swinney said. “You spend more time with these kids then their own parents some times, but that’s the way it is.”
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You know you’re good at what you do when your peers give you some recognition. Especially in the ultra-competitive world of high school band directors.
For Kirby Swinney, director of the Shawnee High School Band and Shawnee Middle School Band for the past 12 years, that recognition came at the end of 2008 when he was named part of the “50 Directors That Make a Difference,” a list released every year by School Band and Orchestra Magazine.
“Somebody nominated me, which kind of surprised me,” Swinney said. “It makes you feel like people have taken notice of some of the things we’re doing here. It kind of reaffirms what we’re doing here.”
Swinney knew he wanted to be a band director, or at least involved with school bands, from a tender age. As kid growing up poor in Guthrie, Swinney said he made the money to buy his first instrument by throwing papers for the now defunct Oklahoma Times.
And it was also as a youngster when Swinney was first influenced by a musician.
“My junior high band director, Larry Johnson, he was somebody that influenced me,” Swinney said. “He was just cool. Everybody liked him. He was young and enthusiastic and he just took a personal interest in me.”
Swinney said that under Johnson’s early tutelage, his talents as a player began to blossom. A trumpet and French horn player, Swinney made first chair in the seventh grade after only a short time playing.
“I started late but I caught up,” he said. “And I’ve never really moved away from it.”
Indeed he hasn’t. His first gig as a band director was in Weeleka. After a year he moved on to Dewey for 10 years and then on to Choctaw for another two years before landing in Shawnee.
Now 49, Swinney said that Shawnee is probably his last stop. His children, both of whom are in his band class at the high school, wouldn’t take too kindly to another move, he said.
As for teaching his own kids in class, where at times he has to “yell a little bit” to get his point across, Swinney compared it a “lose-lose situation.”
“They think you’re tougher on them, but then their peers think you’re giving them a break,” he said. “I just try and treat them the same, but it doesn’t always seem like it works out that way.”
But whether it’s working with his own children or teaching someone else’s, Swinney said it’s working with kids that keeps him going at job that appears, at least to the casual observer, to be kind of stressful.
“It’s the day-to-day grind that keeps me going, honestly,” Swinney said. “And I’ve learned to never judge a book by its cover. Every kid is different, every kid has something to offer.”
Swinney also said he enjoys the competitive nature of band, although it no doubt adds to the stress of job dealing with amateurs who only practice eight to 10 hours a week.
“I wouldn’t be doing it if it weren’t competitive,” he said. “If you don’t have that, then it’s hard to keep going day in, day out.”
But such is the life of a high school band director. Both friend and foe, in a sense.
“You’re a parent, a friend, a teacher and just about everything else,” Swinney said. “You spend more time with these kids then their own parents some times, but that’s the way it is.”
