Klarinet Archive - Posting 000426.txt from 2000/12

From: rgarrett@-----.edu
Subj: Re: [kl] Band Directors
Date: Thu, 7 Dec 2000 20:16:23 -0500

At 03:16 PM 12/06/2000 -0800, Kevin Fay posted:
>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).

Bill Revelli required his Trumpet/Cornet players to use Bach Cornets -
which the school furnished if the students didn't own a high quality
cornet. His band sounded quite wonderful.

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

The standards aren't higher, they're just different. Many of our School of
Music requirements are dictated by the state of Illinois - as all
university music education curriculums are. For those schools with limited
faculty resources (we are not one of them, but we could always use more
full time/tenure track positions), it is very difficult to present a
complete curriculum well. Corners are often cut. For example, my alma
mater, The University of Michigan, required us to take 8 separate classes
on each instrument. The classes I took were: Percussion (2 semesters),
flute, oboe, bassoon, trumpet, trombone, violin (2 semesters), cello, and a
separate private study in percussion again. I was required to play each
instrument with a proficiency on each - not the easiest thing to
do. However, many schools in the US combine curriculum - one brass class,
one string pedagogy class, and two semesters of woodwind tech. Obviously,
the person who has the former training will be better prepared than the
person with the latter curriculum. I'm not sure how they do that in the UK.

Our conducting curriculum is excellent - as is our teacher education
division - we teach learning theory, secondary methods, elementary methods,
band methods, choir methods, string methods, etc. etc. etc. with great
success. However, what a teacher does in the public schools is not
necessarily the fault of the institution he graduated from. He might just
be a poor teacher in terms of his talent - but managed to pass all of his
classes. There are bad teachers in the U.S., in England, in Australia,
etc. There is no place that is immune.

Of course, then there is the marching band problem........(sorry Mark,
couldn't resist!). LOL

Sincerely,
Roger Garrett

Roger Garrett
Professor of Clarinet
Director, Symphonic Winds
Advisor, IWU Recording Services
Illinois Wesleyan University
School of Music
Bloomington, IL 61702-2900
Phone: (309) 556-3268
Fax: (309) 556-3121

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