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Home › Articles › Special Features › Thomas Grandprey

Thomas Grandprey

Teacher of the Month

By Crystal Patriarche

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Jones says Grandprey, who puts so much work and time into the band and his classes, has high expectations for his students and that they work hard to try to achieve them because he is a wonderful role model. "Mr. G can play every instrument in our band, so he can always help anyone," Jones says. "He taught me how to play my first instrument three years ago. I never played an instrument and I couldn't read music. Because of him, I can and I am not the only one he has helped. He works so hard to make us the best we can be."

Grandprey says his favorite part of teaching is how much he enjoys the first rehearsal of a challenging piece of music and to see how the students take the skills they have worked on to explore new challenges. He says it is also great to see the progress all the way up to a performance. When asked his least favorite part of teaching, he says getting up early in the morning. "Hey, I'm a musician," he says, joking.

Grandprey, who knew as a high school student that he wanted to be a band director thanks to his own band directors in junior high and high school, says the gentleman he student-taught with, Mr. Don Bates, put things in perspective for him when he was a fresh student with a zeal for music. "Teaching music is not about music," he says. "We teach people; music just happens to be the medium. Today's students need the same thing that we did as students – to be appreciated and to have the opportunity to prove that they can be successful."


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