"I've always had small bands," says Duane Warfield, director of bands at the University of the Cumberlands. "It's just kind of been my thing."

Some students feel the band's small size of 50 members has helped them find friendship and camaraderie.

“I’ve always loved smaller schools and the smaller band program because you’re kind of forced to be friends with everyone,” says Hope Arnold, a senior trumpet player and music education major.

“You get to know everyone, and that’s nice,” says Delaney Troutman, a junior studying psychology. “Drama spreads fast.”

Lauren VanBebber, a sophomore clarinet player, transferred from a larger school, where she says she was intimidated by the band program. “It was so big, there was so much going on,” she says.

Working in a smaller university helps to form a closer bond with students than he could at a larger university such as the University of Iowa, where he attended grad school, Duane says.

In the past, Duane taught at a small private school in Mississippi and then at Shorter University in Rome, Georgia for several years. Now, he’s in his second year as the director of bands at the University of the Cumberlands, leading the university’s marching, pep and concert bands and giving private lessons.

“I wanted to get a little closer to family, and I wanted something a little bigger, so I got this job,” Duane says. “About a month or so later my wife got a job here too, so it all worked out.”

His wife, Tara, teaches vocal classes and lessons in the same building, and it isn’t the first time they’ve taught at the same university.

“It’s tricky, but we’ve done it twice,” Tara says.

Both Duane and Tara got into music when they were young. She started piano lessons with her grandmother when she was 5, and he began playing trombone in fourth grade. They continued playing and performing and studied different forms of music education through college. They met while attending Eastern Illinois University.

Duane and Tara agree that having the same overall view of education helps them to form a bond with their students.

“We have the same view about how important the student is, and that’s our focus,” Tara says. “We’re concerned about them as people, as human beings, about preparing them for the future.”

They also feel that having extracurricular programs helps students to build a stronger bond with them.

“You get to know them one-on-one really well," Tara says. "And because they know that we care about them as people, they come with their problems and their struggles and asking for advice and things in a different way."