Professional Development Opportunities
Greg Edwards offers high-impact professional development opportunities for music educators and students through clinics, workshops, and adjudication. With over 30 years of experience as a nationally recognized band director, he brings a rare combination of teaching excellence, performance experience, and deep developmental insight into young musicians that demonstrates his rich understanding of both student development and program excellence.
Now retired from the classroom, Mr. Edwards is fully focused on supporting music education across Canada through dynamic, student-centered clinics and adjudications along with impactful professional development workshops that empower both learners and educators. Mr. Edwards continues to do his best to be an influence in Canadian music education with a wealth of experience and a lasting passion for inspiring excellence in others.
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Having led ensembles to success at festivals all over Canada and Europe, and as a recipient of Canada's top jazz education awards, he understands what it takes to build successful programs from the ground up. His sessions go beyond technique, focusing on connection, mentorship, and musical growth and retention.
In addition to all that, his sessions are just plain fun. Here's what one attendee recently had to say about working with Mr. Edwards. "Thank you so so much for coming to work with us... the way you interact with the band is so fun, and you help us learn so much!"
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Whether you're organizing a festival, planning a professional development day, or looking to inspire your students, Greg Edwards brings unmatched energy, expertise, and heart to every opportunity.
Sample Session Ideas * **
* If you are not seeing anything below that fits your needs, please do not hesitate to reach out and I will be happy to meet with you so we can design a session that will fit the needs of your students or your team.​
** Clinic and Professional Development Workshop rates available on request.
Winning Ideas for Success in Any Band Room: Handling the Year Like a Pro!
Selecting Music that Makes your Students Run to the Band Room (and stay there).
To Festival or not to Festival? That is the Question.
The Magic 8 - Philosophies of a successful Program.
Kickstart Your Year: Building Student Engagement from Day One in Your Program that Lasts the Whole Year!
Inclusivity and Community: A Team mindset to help drive your program on a daily basis
Roles and Respect: A look at how these two ideas can change the way you teach music.
Life in the band room is all about how you handle the unexpected. In this session, we’ll explore practical strategies to thrive no matter what goes wrong, ensuring that your band program is a success from day one.
Repertoire selection is key for setting up your band for success. We will dive into a discussion about repetoire selection centred around the idea of: Who is it for? Why are you playing it? We will step back and re-evaluate grade level. Is the repertoire attainable for your students? Are your expectations realistic? We’ll talk about making thoughtful decisions based on your students’ strengths and challenges.
We will explore how to get the most out of your festival experiences in both Jazz and Concert Band: should you aim for a competitive grade, or focus on comments and feedback for growth?
Delve into eight philosophical underpinnings that shape any successful band program, helping you create a lasting, impactful experience for both you and your students. Join us for a session filled with practical tips, inspiration, and ideas you can implement right away!
Explore the philosophy behind creating a dynamic and successful band program by embracing what I like to call the “Skatepark approach” a really obvious way to help flip your perspective.
Create an inclusive, community-driven mindset where every individual plays a vital role in shaping the experience. The core principles of Sectional Leaders, Sectionals, and community-building will guide this discussion.
Discussion will centre around the implementation of some simple Restitution ideas and look at how the concept of “My Job/Your Job” fosters mutual respect. If Google can provide all the knowledge, then our role must evolve beyond simply delivering information to that of a coach—guiding, mentoring, and empowering students to reach their full potential using the “Bike Riding” Philosophy.
The Ravishing R's: Recruitment and Retention.
Assessment Ideas for the Modern Band Program - We All Know that Students Have Changed…Why Haven’t We?
We're Off to See the Wizard! - Travelling with your ensemble.
There's no "I" in Team..... or is there?
Jazz Band... Everything You Wanted to Know but Were Afraid to Ask.
It is all about relationships. Here we discuss the political realities of a music teacher and go over tips and tricks to make Recruitment and retention an integral part of your program.
Assessment in the music classroom needs to evolve to keep up with how students learn today. Traditional assessment methods often don’t reflect modern educational values such as transparency, mastery learning, and student agency. This session will explore practical strategies for shifting the assessment paradigm in the band classroom to better align with these values.
A rich discussion about the realities of travel with your students. From local festivals to the Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland, we will look at how to navigate the world as we know it with our students and their instruments in tow.
A discussion about working in some very challenging environments while trying to keep your "team" intact and on the same page. We all know that music is more than just an elective, but sometimes it is about working with your colleagues and admin to foster an understanding so that we can appreciate the multiple perspectives that come with each role within our building, our family of schools and our division (district).
With many schools graduating teachers with only the requirement of a jazz pedagogy course, it is no wonder that Jazz Band can be a very scary place for some educators, especially when your school might have multiple jazz ensembles. Depending on participants abilities, we will look at all aspects of running a successful jazz program and many of the tips and tricks to keep it that way... and yes... we will be talking about improvisation.