Klarinet Archive - Posting 000538.txt from 1997/10

From: Mark Charette <charette@-----.com>
Subj: Re: Music education in MI.
Date: Mon, 13 Oct 1997 12:51:36 -0400

Charles wrote:
> It wouldn't be too hard for a good clarinetist to master the sax to
> play in the jazz band. There are not many arrangements for jazz
> bands that have "just" clarinet parts.

I _higly disagree. It's hard to *master* the sax - blowing
a tune on it isn't so hard, but the sax players in the high
school jazz band here are the tops in the regular band.

> In order for there to be an orchestra in high school {of any quality)
> strings would have to be started in the elementary school and
> continued through the middle school. A five year plan would be
> more realistic. {than 10). You just need good teachers!

And instruments. And assorted support equipment. And music.
And a bond issue. It t'aint cheap. I think 10 is realistic -
2 or 3 to get the financing, 7 or 8 more to get a reasonably
good ensemble together (the taxpayers expect the orchestra to
sound pretty good in a year or two, and it probably won't).
--
Mark Charette, MIKA Systems, Inc., charette@-----.com
">>As far as I can tell, no."
">Fortunately, this is not correct."
"Proving once again that ... the best way to extract useful infor-
mation is to post wrong information." - Roger Glover, F90 mail list