Klarinet Archive - Posting 000342.txt from 2000/12

From: "Kevin Fay (LCA)" <kevinfay@-----.com>
Subj: [kl] Band Directors
Date: Wed, 6 Dec 2000 18:16:07 -0500

Tony posted:

<<<A band director is perfectly justified in requesting that his players
produce a particular musical result -- flatter if it's too sharp, quieter if
it's too loud, and so on. And he might make a suggestion of some technical
means toward those ends, if he's an expert.

But he cannot, in my view, go further and *insist* on the means.>>>

I agree that it is neither proper nor productive for a band director to
insist that students use a particular type or brand of equipment.
Nevertheless, some do -- among them, the one I had in eighth grade. He
thought the harder the reed, the better, why I know not.

This isn't a generic band director rant -- I am in perfect agreement with Ed
Lacy's post that admonishes us to "take every opportunity to assist primary
and secondary music educators, and . . . never place ourselves in the
position of being a hinderance to them, or setting ourselves up as somehow
superior to them because of what we perceive to be their lack of
specialized, in-depth knowledge of our particular field of endeavor."

I *like* band directors. Many of my closest friends are band directors, and
I'm married to one. As Ed posted, though, occasionally there is "plenty of
ignorance and even questionable decision-making to be observed among music
educators, just as there is in every field." My eighth grade band director
was a dud, which is why the administration found a way to get him to retire.

Fortunately for me, the directors at both of the high schools I attended
were wonderful, on a number of different levels. For a number of reasons, I
credit the music classes in secondary school as my most valuable educational
experience. Put me down as a booster.

Rigidity relating to equipment choice is not unique to secondary schools; it
happens at all levels, for a variety of reasons. Trumpet players in New
York City coined the term "Lincoln Center Compliant" -- if you didn't use a
certain brand of trumpet (Bach) you just didn't get hired. Many orchestral
horn sections required the use of a Conn 8D to the exclusion of all others.
There are some college clarinet professors (perhaps ones on this list) that
strongly urge or even require their students to buy Buffet clarinets, or use
a mouthpiece by a specific manufacturer. Heck, at one time the trumpet
players in Ellington's band were required to play Conn Constellations -- for
the same reason that a college basketball team tends to all wear the same
brand of shoes (Duke got paid).

Tony also stated:

<<<I suppose it might be the season for some of us who don't live in the US
to marvel at some aspects of your way of life. (Don't get me wrong -- I've
learnt, and continue to learn, a lot from Americans.) The post I'm thinking
about at the moment touches on some of those aspects that aren't exclusively
American.

But I have to say, it's very unlikely that a junior band director here in
the UK would behave like either of those we're discussing.>>>

If the standard of secondary school music education is uniformly higher in
the UK, then the students there are fortunate indeed.

kjf

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