Re: are Band Directors Musicians?


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Posted by Cale Self on May 21, 2003 at 10:39:45:

In Reply to: are Band Directors Musicians? posted by Tuba Ply/BandDir on May 20, 2003 at 16:30:37:

Being a Texas Band director (Region 6) and having grown up as a high school student in the same region, I feel I have pertinent input on this topic. It sounds to me like Band Director #1 is caught up in the numbers game. Do I (A) teach scales, arpeggios, lips slurs, fundamentals, etc. like I know I should and put the bulk of the burden of learning the etude on the student and hope they do well, or (B) bypass the fundamentals in order to spoon-feed simple etudes to my students so that my program will look good on paper (have more students make the cut)???

I think all of us (educators especially, and by the way, aren't we all educators to a certain extent?) need to remember that young musicians are works in progress. If we sacrifice their daily doses of fundamentals for learning etudes that are probably above them, then we are shortchanging them their future progress. Yes, maybe they don't make the cut, but if they do, did they really earn it? Or are you going to spoon-feed every single etude, solo, ensemble, band part, etc. for their entire secondary career because you never taught them to play the horn???

Teach students to teach themselves. Invest in the life of a future musician. Have the faith to give them the tools and let them learn to use them. The rewards are exponentially greater when you teach a student to be a musician instead of a robot. It just takes a little more time, patience, and effort. Some educators just aren't willing to make that effort.




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