Posted by Bingo on February 21, 2004 at 14:49:45:
In Reply to: Re: Importance of learning scales posted by Dean on February 21, 2004 at 07:52:57:
HS band competitions do not prepare the average player (in any instrument) to be a life long musician. Rather they benefit those BDs who drum the parts into their students, and rely on the higher achieving students to motivate themselves to find private teachers to make them better.
When I was in HS, we never played scales. We played concert music for months preparing ourselves for contest. We usually got a "2", because we were too small a band to have all the parts covered well. However, when we marched for football, we changed our show every week to spice things up. We knew we would never get a "1" anyway, so we made it interesting for ourselves. That put me at an advantage in college marching band because I knew what it took to get a show right in 1 week.
The sad part is that we rarely played concerts for the school. Other than the football games and graduation, the band was not involved in the life of my HS. What's more important, being part of the fabric of the school, or impressing some out of town band directors? I look back an wonder what were we thinking (and doing). I believe HS bands should have to play a concert every month. Let the judges come and judge them there and count up the scores at the end of the year.
As I try to pick up the horn again after 14 years I now realize what I missed by hating scales. Trying to play in quintets and small ensembles takes a lot more flexibility than I needed as a HS tubist. That requires the fundamentals, and that means scales.
Statman "who wonders how many of his HS bandmates still play"