Posted by Bill Whitney on January 27, 2000 at 18:14:03:
In Reply to: Real tuba v. FAKE tuba posted by Doug on January 26, 2000 at 22:23:44:
I feel your pain, and I completely understand. My highschool band director was absolutly worthless, and totally irrational, with only the most rare exceptions. And, until I learned that it wasn't the way to deal with things, I was the tuba player that rioted. I did it because I knew I was right, and I knew he couldn't really do anything to me for a lot of reasons. I don't know what you're position in your band is, but I do know that, regardless of where you stand in the organization, rioting will only make things worse. The kids that look up to you will assume that rioting is a reasonable means of dealing with this type of issue, and your peers will just get annoyed because you'll be wasting their time, even if you ARE right. You'll only cause dissention in the band, and undermine the authority of your band director. He may not deserve his authority, but someone has to have it. There are plenty of ways of dealing with these things that don't involve making a scene, and there are plenty of ways to make things happen that you know need to happen. But I can absolutly promise you that 95% of the time, quiet solutions are better ones. You won't will all the time, but you'll win with a far greater frequency. Also, the kids in the band will respect you FAR more if, when confronting your band director, YOU are the one who's being reasonable.
Also, you may find that your band director continues to be useful to you after highschool, and totally alienating him is a bad idea. Besides, in the end, it just doesn't matter that much. He's the one who ends up looking like a moron in this situation, not you at all. Such was my experience, anyway. And besides, should you choose to pursue music education, as I have, right now you're learning what NOT to do.
Hope that helps...
-Bill