Klarinet Archive - Posting 000180.txt from 2004/10

From: "Erik Tkal" <bbtkal@-----.net>
Subj: RE: [kl] Differing skill levels
Date: Wed, 6 Oct 2004 13:52:17 -0400

Allen Levin wrote:
>
> [ ... ] And (I must admit) a couple of players=20
> stopped attending rehearsals because they didn't want to be =
challenged. I=20
> still fret about that. I didn't want to take away the fun.

-------------------------------------

That's a tough aspect of a non-audition group, and there's no good =
answer. If you don't challenge the players then they don't improve. And =
having players that can't handle the material makes it much less fun for =
everyone else, no matter how much fun it might be for themselves to sit =
and noodle. So how does one compromise?

I play in a community orchestra that is really not very good. It would =
be great to eliminate about a third of the strings because they drag the =
rest of the orchestra down. The problem is that if we pick less =
challenging material to cater to the poorer players, then the more =
talented players tend to think of leaving. And when we play the harder =
stuff sometimes we just don't sound very good, and of course that =
frustrates the better players as well.

I also play in a community band that is very good. We play hard stuff =
and because the band overall is pretty good I think that the members =
want to work harder. In that group the poorer players tend to leave =
because it's more frustrating to them to not be able to keep up.

Erik Tkal

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