I served as a clinician for the Yamaha System Band Instructor Clinic held in Guangzhou, Guangdong.
This was my seventh time presenting at a director’s seminar hosted by Yamaha. The attendees were mainly from Guangdong, but others travelled from across the vast country, including Hohhot in Inner Mongolia, Lanzhou in Gansu, Chongqing, Shaoxing in Zhejiang, and Xiamen in Fujian.
This is the second time the intermediate class has been offered, following the first one in Chengdu in March 2025.
While the beginner programme focused on “the first step from an instrumental teacher to a band director,” this course raised the level of ensemble techniques and repertoire used for practical conducting and instruction. Furthermore, we explored what it means to be a leader, introducing coaching approaches and ways to foster independent thinking. Reading the feedback received afterwards, I am relieved to see that this core message was successfully conveyed!
The biggest highlight, however, was a special session by Lin Siqi, a Chinese national residing in Japan, who spent 12 years there from primary school and participated in the high school wind band with me. She delivered a presentation titled “Experiences in a Japanese School Band” and demonstrated ensemble instruction using the Japanese student conductor style. Seeing an 18-year-old university student efficiently run a rehearsal using a Harmony Director and rapidly transform the band’s sound left a massive impact on the attendees. In the final survey, nearly half of the respondents mentioned her when asked about the most memorable part of the course.
It was a great opportunity for me as well to reconsider exactly what the Japanese school club system nurtures.
A huge thank you to the organisers at Guangzhou Jianli Musical Instruments and Yamaha China, the local support staff, and all the participants!
