Klarinet Archive - Posting 000448.txt from 2001/03

From: LanaClarinet@-----.com
Subj: Re: [kl] band rivals
Date: Sun, 18 Mar 2001 00:39:15 -0500

In a message dated 3/15/01 1:22:53 PM Central Standard Time,
Bilwright@-----.net writes:
> But the other side of
> the coin is that my daughter enjoys drawing, and she was driven to the
> edge by a teacher who put the "standard of excellence" principle above
> the principle that art (of all kinds) is an opportunity to express
> oneself and to enjoy doing so and to share the expression with other
> persons.

I'm an adult beginner with several method books; I purchased all but one off
the 'net. The one I bought locally is in fact "Standard of Excellence",
which the music store salesperson told me is the book used in the local
school system.

Bill has an excellent point. When I bought "Standard of Excellence", I never
thought specifically about the title but more or less took "excellence" to
mean that I should be the best that *I* can be, NOT that I should be better
than everyone else.

But then Bill's post brought back a rush of bad memories of my high school
band classes over 20 years ago. (I was a percussionist then -- sorry!) I
was not a great percussionist, but a passable one who joined band because of
my intense love for music. I wanted badly to be a part of making music.
Unfortunately, our band director made the atmosphere an extremely competitive
one. He once embarrassed me in front of the entire band because I made a
mistake during contest; I wasn't Miss Popularity but quite a few kids came
to both me and to him to say that he'd done a really crappy thing.

> But please take a close look at situations where "excellence"
> begins to replace "minimum standard" and "sincere effort".

I couldn't agree more. My band director was much beloved among the first and
second chairs, but those of us who weren't perfect had a somewhat different
opinion. Fortunately, I loved the music too much to allow myself the luxury
of giving up. I stuck with band all 4 years, but I think it was wrong that
the band director made the process of music-making an ordeal instead of a
pleasure. Now I'm teaching myself clarinet with occasional hands-on
assistance from a clarinetist friend, who (bless his soul!) tells me that I
have a natural embouchure and that he feels I have the ability become good
enough to play in a community band. It didn't occur to me until now, but I
wonder if part of my reluctance to seek out a "real" clarinet teacher is
courtesy of this bad experience from high school. As I said before, a
standard of excellence (at least at the grade school/high school level)
should mean that the student strives to be the absolute best that they can
be, NOT that they should be better than everyone else.

Alannah D.

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