Klarinet Archive - Posting 001308.txt from 2004/03

From: Bill Hausmann <bhausmann1@-----.net>
Subj: RE: [kl] not just the music department
Date: Tue, 23 Mar 2004 10:16:03 -0500

At 11:26 PM 3/22/2004 -0600, Christy Erickson wrote:
>"In this case, the use of the "crutch" (electronic tuner) caused people to
>MISS the underlying problem entirely! Frankly, I don't see how one could
>get that far in music with so basic a pitch problem, but clearly he will
>get no better than mediocre unless he CAN eventually pick up the
>skill. Which tends to prove my point. Relying on the electronic help will
>get you only so far. I'm not accusing him of being lazy, but intensive
>training MIGHT still work. Who knows?"
>
>
>
>Bill, I'm afraid I haven't made myself clear here. This student was playing
>saxophone and I suppose since everyone complains about the saxophones being
>out of tune, maybe no one took a closer look. I didn't say this student was
>using a tuner when he was playing or even to tune his saxophone before
>tuning. Many band directors tune their students so it's my guess that no
>one knew or bothered to check more closely whether this kid had any sense of
>pitch. He simply had a bad ear to begin with-tuner or not. He would never
>be able to become a music major but had gotten that far before someone
>discovered he sang in a monotone voice and couldn't distinguish a 5th from a
>second, etc... This became apparent in a music theory class when he was
>required to sight sing. Sadly, no one had bothered to screen for this
>before he got into college and wanted to major in music. There are those
>who have weaknesses like this and in my opinion, it doesn't mean they ought
>not play music. If a tuner helps someone like this with a "bad" ear to tune
>their instrument and they can stay within reasonable pitch while playing,
>why shouldn't they have some fun? This student really WAS dependent on a
>machine but he did not yet know it. Amazingly, he was getting by by
>fingering the correct notes and that's as far as his musical ability truly
>went.

It seems incredible to me that someone with such a severe pitch deficiency
would even be INTERESTED in music, much less able to progress so far. A
brass instrument, especially trombone, might have exposed the pitch problem
earlier, but even the saxophone, with its extremely flexible intonation,
should have given it away. Presumably, his rhythm is unaffected -- maybe
he could make it as a drummer? :-)

> My daughter has always had trouble with math. She has ADHD, cyclothymia,
>and mild Tourette's. Her short term memory is not very good and is very
>inconsistent from day to day. Her IEP says she can use a calculator to
>double check basic math facts if she needs to do that in a hurry when doing
>complex math problems. It doesn't mean she doesn't know the math facts and
>is being lazy. It simply means she cannot always retrieve them from her
>brain as fast as she needs to to keep up with the rest of the class at
>times. As I said, it varies from day to day. One day she'll be able to
>retrieve the answer to 9 x 8 immediately and the following day the
>information is simply not there or it takes her 10 minutes to retrieve it.
>It's not that people haven't worked with her on this or that she has not
>practiced. She really truly CAN'T do this like many of the other kids are
>able to. She is now in 7th grade and if she was required to retrieve those
>math facts up from her brain without help on a bad day, she'd never finish
>her assignment when performing complex, multi-step math problems. The
>neuropsychologist said that math is the least important skill to worry
>about, since we do have the most assistive technology available in this
>area. My guess is that my daughter has practiced these basic math facts far
>more than the kids who memorized them perhaps in the 4th or 5th grade and
>there is a possibility that she may never know them as well as some others.
>It's due to the brain disorder and unless the medical field makes some
>amazing advances in this area that could help her short-term memory skills
>in the near future, it's rather cruel to tell her she's "lazy" or "doesn't
>work hard enough."

On the contrary, I do not think she is lazy at all! In fact, what you and
she are doing here is PERFECT! You are USING the technology WITHOUT making
it a permanent crutch.

Bill Hausmann

If you have to mic a saxophone, the rest of the band is TOO LOUD!

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