Klarinet Archive - Posting 000848.txt from 1999/07

From: Bill Hausmann <bhausman@-----.com>
Subj: Re: [kl] school music programs(kinda defending corps too)
Date: Sat, 24 Jul 1999 00:41:54 -0400

At 08:46 AM 7/23/1999 -0600, Richard Bush wrote:
>I always thought that the processes I went through to become skilled on my
>instruments taught me discipline, problem solving skills, fine motor skills,
>eye-hand coordination, long and short term goal attainment, a heightened
>awareness, a finer understanding of music specifically, and the fine arts in
>general, team play and team work, and the list could go on and on.
>
>Now, besides being dinner music for a crowd stuffing down hot-dogs and
gulping
>Coke, what exactly are the intrinsic and unique values of the marching
band that
>make it esthetically, culturally, or intellectually so important to the
public
>school curricula?
>
In this discussion, virtually everyone makes the mistake of assuming that
marching band is nothing but an obstacle in the way of people becoming fine
professional musicians. Baloney! While few people ever became musicians
BECAUSE of marching band, and I dare say even fewer people who were
destined to become first-rate musicians were turned way from that destiny
by performing half-time shows, either. Marching band is simply another
PERFORMING venue, no more harmful to a budding musical career than
performing and onstage role in the school musical or playing on the
basketball team. All of these teach teamwork, self-discipline, goal
attainment, etc., and each REINFORCES the other! For those whose true
talents lie somewhere OTHER than music, but who plug away in band anyway
(SOMEBODY has to fill the last chairs!), marching may be just the thing to
teach the life skills that music alone does not inspire them to learn. Is
it fine music? Generally not. Is it a fine THING? Definitely so!

I still get misty-eyed watching a good marching band performance. I hate
that the networks have all but eliminated the half-time shows from college
football games, preferring to recite endless scores from far-away games
nobody cares about as a service to sports gamblers. No, it is not the
symphony, but if I wanted to hear the symphony I would have turned on PBS,
not ESPN. Amazingly, there is room for BOTH on the TV cable, just as there
is room in the world for classical music, jazz, concert band
transcriptions, and even marching band music, not to mention pop music in
all its forms. "To every thing there is a season..."

Bill Hausmann bhausman@-----.com
451 Old Orchard Drive http://www.concentric.net/~bhausman
Essexville, MI 48732 http://members.wbs.net/homepages/z/o/o/zoot14.html
ICQ UIN 4862265

If you have to mic a saxophone, the rest of the band is too loud.

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