Klarinet Archive - Posting 000854.txt from 2001/05

From: Will Cicola <clarinetguy@-----.net>
Subj: re: [kl] Requirements for a Grade - more
Date: Tue, 29 May 2001 17:24:11 -0400

I couldn't resist putting in my two cents here. At my high school, if you
take the symphonic band course, you are required to march (unless you play a
fall sport such as football or soccer). There is a two week band camp (as I
imagine is standard). Then, once the school year starts, there are after
school rehearsals virtually every day (though not all students need come
every day, since there are woodwind, brass sectionals, etc). In addition to
this, the class period during the school day is spent learning marching
music. This continued through the end of November. The result is that we did
not even begin our concert music (for the early February concert) until the
beginning of December. Perhaps this is not a completely valid example, since
we had a band trip over Thanksgiving break, but we did not even begin the
music for the trip until football season was over (late October). Thus, we
had spent two full months on the show music, and it was STILL far from
polished. And, of course, our concert music for February was nowhere near
polished, despite the fact that we played drastically easier music than had
been the norm in past years to compensate for our time crunch (Usually we
had begun concert literature by the beginning of October.) Now, it seems to
me that both marching and concert band had a detrimental effect on the
other. I can attest that very few people were gleaning valuable musical
knowledge and experience from hammering the same three pieces of music every
day for three months (especially those of us who were playing instruments
other than their primary instrument, says this tuba marcher. Geez, those
were boring parts!! But I digress). Of course, on the other hand, you can
hardly separate the two; as was mentioned in an earlier post, if marching
band were voluntary, nobody would do it. To some degree, I think a bit mroe
responsibility should lie with the band members. A lot of the reason for the
continued hammering was due to apathy on the part of the students. On the
other hand, what was causing them to be apathetic? To sort this out is
clearly not an easy task, as Mr. Garrett has pointed out. :)
--
Ich brauche kein Leben, denn ich habe Orchester!
I don't need a life. I have orchestra!
Will Cicola

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