Students are motivated when they have a constant system of rewards. They have a desire to please others and be recognized. It was with this idea in mind that the Smokey Road Middle School Band in Newman, Georgia, started using the "Power in the Progress System" in 2011. This system, created by H. Dwight Satterwhite, a professor of music at the University of Georgia, is based on the idea that students will exceed expectations when they have an incentive program that provides constant positive reinforcement as well as a clearly charted path to success. When students join the beginning band in sixth grade at Smokey Road, they are each given a workbook that contains a clear path for them to progress through from their first days in class until completion of eighth grade and through high school. There are five key levels represented in the "Power in the Progress System" workbook: Jump-start, Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced, and Master Musician. Each level is achieved by completing a respective checklist of fifteen to thirty pass-offs that range from writing an essay on a music topic, to performing all major and minor scales, to composing and arranging music. Students can skip around throughout the progress book but must complete the level before they are given their progress pin. (This is also a form of differentiated instruction, and it provides an opportunity for the teacher to recognize academic weaknesses in reading, writing, or math skills.) In this article, Joshua Boyd describes five ways in which this new system revolutionized their band program and describes how what what started as a new curriculum to encourage students to practice at home turned into a new way of thinking about how they teach band and how they are striving to reach and motivate students through music at Smokey Road Middle School.