Klarinet Archive - Posting 000680.txt from 2003/10

From: "Kevin Callahan" <kionon@-----.com>
Subj: Re: [kl] Accomodating students who have special circumstances; was, Starting a youngster
Date: Sun, 26 Oct 2003 17:16:55 -0500

----- Original Message -----
From: "James Hobby" <jhobby@-----.net>
Subject: [kl] Accomodating students who have special circumstances; was,
Starting a youngster

> (Note: This is going to have the words "marching band" and "football" in
> it. Feel free to hit the delete key, now.)

I've done both. Let's see...

> >We all have some capability to make music, and to utilize it for personal
> expression and
> >creativity of some sort to help make our own lives better
>
> Patricia,
>
> If you're talking about performance music, then I disagree with you.
Music
> is not for everybody. In essence, that's why everyone isn't playing an
> instrument and why everybody has never played an instrument. Those for
whom
> music isn't a good subject range from the disinterested to those who are
> thick as a 2x4.

I agree with Patricia. Let's face it, any music teacher who knows me will
honestly say "Ok, he doesn't have a lot of natural talent, but he's sure got
perseverance." I am not a music major because I do agree that there has to
be something about you that can really make music the critical part of your
life. For me, that is just not so. Writing is. However, I still have the
love of music that makes me keep with it as a minor, and a minor isn't
exactly easy either. My natural talent may be low, but I'm willing to work
twice or three times as hard as that guy over there who can just walk in,
play off something perfectly, and walk out without exerting any kind of
effort.

> Most people do not have some capability to make music, beyond blowing rude
> noises through a toilet paper tube or banging on the kitchen table.
Unless,
> of course, you subscribe to the theory that rap is music -- which I do
not.
> Most people can't utilize anything for personal expression and creativity
> more complicated than a three-day-old pancake. Nothing is going to make
> their lives better, unless they start building eight cans into a six-pack.
> I'm not saying this as an elitist musician, but as someone who has been
> watching people for most of 60 years -- and teaching school for more than
> half of that.

I'm not saying this as an arrogant young man who knows not when to stay away
from arguing with his betters, but having been one of those students with
"low musical aptitude" for nearly a decade.

> Children play football who, for the same reasons, shouldn't play football.
> Of course, it's easier to be a bench warmer in football than in music.
> However, sports, generically, are often played because (1) my brother,
> Cecil, does it, (2) my daddy/mommy did it, (3) my frield, Bubba, is doing
> it, (4) my big brother did it, (5) it's cool, because we win a lot, or (6)
I
> really want to do it. And I listed them in that order intentionally.
This
> presumes a band (music) program that is poor, marginal, or barely
adequate.

I played for reason number 6. However, at 20, I still only weigh 115 lbs.
You can see how this eventually became a problem. I got hurt rather badly
and had to stop playing. Not because I didn't want to, but because I no
longer could.

> However, when the band starts winning, gravity changes. As the trophies
> mount up, the desire to be in the band increases. Beginning programs
> incease The size and quality of the marching band increase. (And with
that
> increase -- and hopefully, also comes a balanced instrumentation -- comes
> the chance to actually teach music. It does work, for those who say
> marching band is worthless.)

Quite frankly, this is not true. Quantity does not mean quality and never
has. You're talking about sunny day musicians. People who will want to play
for the marching band as long as it is doing well and making them look good;
not for the love of music itself. I think marching band is a great thing,
and I agree with you that it definitely has its place in modern muscianship.
However, if you start off with a members that don't care... You'll end up
with members who don't care. Not a billion trophies are going to change
musicians' love or hate of music if they didn't enter into music with that
love in the first place.

> Sorry, Patricia, but our job is to teach music to our students, and thus
> improve _their_ quality of life. I'll leave the rest of the school to the
> teachers who have the energy or the responsibility to deal with them.
The
> more people who submit themselves to your control, when you raise your
> baton, the greater the "quality of life" of our students become. They
move
> from band nerds to the winners, which improves their position in the
pecking
> order of the school, which can be very important.

HA! HA! HA! I was in High School a lot more recently than you, Mr. Hobby. We
always made Division Ones, we always had a big band, we were always the
cream of the crop that walked away with all the medals, and the honors, and
the awards. I can tell you right now that in the eyes of the other students
were were never converted from band nerds to winners. That was something we
had to internalize. When I walked into band my first day nearly ten years
ago, I did so because I liked the way the trombone sounded (I didn't pick up
clarinet until my sophomore year of high school) and I felt I could do it.
What other people thought didn't matter outside of the band (oh sure, lots
of peer pressure within the band, but that's a whole other topic) and I felt
good about myself. If I hadn't, and if I hadn't continued to feel good about
myself anf my love of music, why I would have packed it in right there and
quit. Sorry, but when you deal with bullies, they'll always position you at
the bottom. No matter what you do, whether you make an A in some or other
class, are in the Computer Science club, or play an instrument. If students
internalize there love for music, make it something they want and something
no one can ever take away from them, then they will continue. Lots of talent
or not, the student will improve, because they want to for their personal
betterment.

Kevin Callahan

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