Posted by Mary Ann on July 09, 2003 at 10:11:10:
In Reply to: Re: Keeping a good beat posted by Fault lays sqarely.. on July 08, 2003 at 13:02:26:
Have you ever conducted a community band? I saw an interesting course of events a few years ago. There are two community bands in Tucson; one is "anybody is welcome" and the other requires permission to join. The "anybody is welcome" band's conductor was retiring, and they were ecstatic about having found a recently retired college band professor to take the helm. The retiring conductor was an extremely easy-going, likeable fellow who never said an unkind word to or about anyone, was the original conductor of the band, and although a fine musician himself, not demanding of others.
The new guy came in, and at the very first rehearsal tried to raise the standards and get people to play better, on the beat, difficult music, actually learn something. About 1/4 of the band did not come back to the next rehearsal; the new guy was so far from the old guy that they just quit on the spot. Over the next six months, many of the ones who remained were in open rebellion, playing wrong on purpose, saying nasty things to his face in rehearsal, etc. At the end of that six months they succeeded in driving him out.
The next guy to come in had a better idea of how to deal with a community group, and he is still in the conducting position; he is nowhere near (night and day) as good a conductor as the one who was driven out, but that was what the group wanted. Not learning, not striving to play better, but to have a good time.