Nick Collar is the band director for the Greenwood High School band, accompanied occasionally by Keegan Finkbine, the band director at Drakes Creek Middle School. Mr. Collar has been teaching for 17 years, with 2026 being his 18th, and he has had fun all of those years. 

Getting the Degree

Mr. Collar went to the University Of Kentucky, where he studied music for 4 years. Then, he studied to get his master’s degree in music education. While getting this degree, he had to get (at the very least) a good understanding of every instrument that should be in a band, all from the piccolo to the tuba, and even all of the percussion instruments. Collar said that the hardest parts were all the practicing that he had to do, along with all of the tutors he had to go to. On the other hand, the definitive hardest part of his degree he said was getting all the experience. Collar said, “If you want a job, but have no experience, you might not be getting that job.” Through all of the instruments he had to learn, Collar stated that the saxophone, his first instrument, had to be his favorite: “I loved playing it in jazz band, concert band, and marching band.” He was inspired to be a band teacher because his family is all musically talented, so he grew up with it, with his aunt being a choir director and multiple other family members being band directors or in some form of a music-based job.

Past Years

In all of his 18 years of teaching, Collar said that his favorite moment being a band director was in 2010. When South Warren was going to be built, they found out that about a third of the band would transfer to South Warren when it was finished. The band then decided to go all out, playing at multiple concerts and pieces, even going to Orlando, Florida for a band trip. It was kind of a send-off year. However, when there are good things, there are also the hard parts. For Collar, a difficult time during his teaching was when his daughter was born, and he had to juggle being a dad for the first time, but he got through it and became a great dad. 

Present Day

Now, Collar is teaching a lot of music in a lot of ways. I spoke to him about how he picks out music for the band, and he said, “Well, I listen to music, a lot of music, and I find music that would not only be fun to play but would also help the students learn. If a piece covers a skill the students already have, I will find a different piece that covers skills they don’t have.” When the band faces a particularly difficult piece, Collar explained his way of approaching it. He starts with taking it slow at first, and then he finds the difficult parts and focuses on those. He also helps different people in different ways because what works for one student might not work for another.