From the Band Room to the Global Stage: My Journey
I grew up running around band rooms. My dad was a band teacher, so my musical journey started exactly where many of you are sitting right now—staring at sheet music, wood-shedding traditional band charts on the clarinet. Then things got loud. I picked up the bass guitar for stage band (what we call jazz band now), which immediately opened the door to playing in school rock bands. That spark took me to university to study jazz on the upright bass, launching a 30-year professional career as a multi-instrumentalist touring the world across almost every genre imaginable. Now, I’m back in my own backyard to show students and directors how the music we listen to every day connects directly to the band room. But true musicianship doesn't always start with an instrument in your hands. By focusing first on deep, active listening, students learn to internalize the architecture and expression of a song before they ever play a note. Once that foundational connection is made, picking the instrument back up makes complete sense. It brings an exciting, current perspective to the table that works hand-in-hand with traditional band instruction. This bridges the gap between the rehearsal space, the stage, and the individual. Ultimately, it is about building a personal connection to music that extends far beyond the ensemble, becoming a permanent part of a student's character and spirit.
The Workshops:
Music From the Inside Out
(Grades 1–12)
We are blowing the walls off the traditional rehearsal. These immersive workshops and residencies aren't just about sitting back and reading lines on a page—they are about experiencing music from the inside out.
Whether we are tightening up a traditional concert piece or decoding a modern radio hit entirely by ear, we take the foundational knowledge students already have and supercharge it. We blend rigorous clinic instruction with active ear training, customized orchestration, and real-world arranging. From elementary Orff ensembles to high school stage bands, these sessions are tailored to your specific room, your specific instruments, and your students' goals. Let's build something unforgettable.
01
Song Lab:
Deconstruct, Reconstruct, Perform
Ever wonder what your favorite song looks like under a microscope? In this residency for Grades 7–12, we’re turning the band room into a musical test kitchen. Students choose the track, and we use digital tools to pull it apart layer by layer, exploring the Alberta curriculum's eight elements of music in action. Instead of opening textbooks, we use active ear training to decode the music, trace its historical roots, and write out custom chord charts. Then comes the puzzle: reconstruction. Students collaborate to orchestrate the song for whatever unique mix of instruments is sitting in the room—whether it’s a standard concert line-up or a completely wild, unconventional collection. It’s a student-led dive into practical music theory and arranging that wraps up with a loose, high-energy informal showcase. The Elementary Groove: We adapt this exact framework for younger classrooms, swapping traditional band instruments for Orff instruments, classroom percussion, and whatever else happens to be laying around the music room. It’s a completely hands-on way for elementary students to analyze, internalize, and rebuild music from the ground up.
02
Instrument & Rhythm Section Clinics: Beyond the Page
Whether your section needs to lock in their festival repertoire or wants to completely master their gear, these intensive clinics blow past standard sectional rehearsals. Available for clarinet, upright/electric bass, guitar, piano, or the entire rhythm section, we dive straight into the mechanics of great playing. We cover the essential foundations—technical rudiments, scales, theory, and instrument care—while precision-drilling tricky passages to get your ensemble completely festival-ready. Optional Add-On: The Mini "Song Lab" Want to mix things up? You can opt to add a mini "Song Lab" session to the clinic. We’ll step away from the large ensemble charts so students can decode, chart out, and perform a track in smaller breakout groups. It’s a high-energy detour that builds immediate confidence, refines ear-training technique, and reminds students exactly why they picked up their instruments in the first place.
03
The Live Session:
Interactive Showcase Concert
Want to show your students exactly where their musical journey can take them? This high-energy, interactive concert brings professional musicians straight into your school or band camp for a performance that is anything but a passive assembly. We perform a wide-open cross-section of genres and styles, pull back the curtain on our instruments, and share quick stories of how we went from school music rooms to professional stages. We also turn the spotlight on the audience, surveying the students to find out what they play and what they’re listening to. Then, we throw away the script. To demonstrate the ultimate power of active listening, we take live, on-the-spot requests from the room and arrange them right there on stage—completely without sheet music. It’s a fast-paced, inspiring look at real-world musicianship that shows students how to turn deep listening into live performance.
04
The Stoney Session:
Oral Tradition to Ensemble Score
Ready to open your music room to a powerful perspective on rhythm, melody, and tradition? This unique residency brings 3–4 Stoney Nakoda musicians directly into your school to collaborate with your ensemble. Together, we’ll dive into a protocol-approved traditional song, pulling it apart through the lens of the Alberta curriculum's eight elements of music. Jason Valleau acts as the musical bridge, helping students translate traditional Stoney phrasing and rhythmic pulses into concepts they can instantly connect with Western musical vocabulary. Instead of relying on sheet music, students use deep, active ear training to decode the piece straight from the source. Under the guidance of the Stoney artists, the class then tackles the challenge of orchestration—layering your school's unique mix of instruments over the traditional pulse and adding appropriate harmony. The residency wraps up with an informal showcase performance that completely respects Indigenous protocols while debuting a custom, cross-cultural arrangement built by your students.
Outdoor Music Lesson Plans
Take the music room outside. These land-based workshops focus on "rewilding" music pedagogy—using natural acoustics, birdsong motifs, and organic percussion to build deep, intuitive musicianship directly from the environment.
Below are a few lesson plans. Please contact me for a copy.
Soundscape
Turn the wilderness into a professional audio studio. Students forage for and capture subtle environmental acoustics—from wind currents to running water—layering and manipulating their field recordings to design an immersive audio narrative that explores texture, form, and sound design.
Logophones & Bark Resonators
A hands-on exploration of acoustic physics and found percussion. Students gather fallen logs and bark to analyze material density, pitch, and resonance, ultimately building, tuning, and performing original rhythmic compositions on their own organic instruments.
Musical Mapping
A site-inspired soundwalk where geography meets music notation. Students chart an outdoor path, matching physical locations with environmental sounds to build a striking, visual graphic score that can be interpreted and performed live by the ensemble.
Bird Songs
Decoding nature's original melodies under a microscope. Students track and record local bird calls, translating complex avian phrases into custom graphic or staff notation systems to compose a layered, wildlife-inspired acoustic symphony.
Ice Percussion Ensemble
Take the music room straight out into the winter elements. Students explore rhythm, timbre, and acoustic physics using found ice chunks, packed snow surfaces, and frozen chimes to arrange, structure, and perform familiar tracks in cold-weather conditions.
Sound Scavenger Hunt
A rhythmic celebration of the spring thaw. Pairs track down the unique timbres of a changing season—drips, branch snaps, and mud squishes—categorizing dynamics to arrange and layer their findings into an interactive "Spring Thaw Symphony."