Klarinet Archive - Posting 000949.txt from 2004/10
From: kurtheisig@-----.net
Subj: RE: [kl] confidence in the band program
Date: Sun, 31 Oct 2004 01:12:46 -0400
Ed,
I don't think you got far afield at all!!!! I think your remarks are ABSOLUTELY cogent! That is why I have agreed to take a job as music supervisor for a company that is planning up to 100 private schools! In the private sector we will be able to teach so MUCH more without the politics! We will use the Easy Steps with a great deal of supplemental material from Claude Gordon for brasses, portions from Nilo Hovey, and concepts I learned from the late Alvin Cromwell on flute (Cromwell was a duet partner of Rampal and buddy of Baker). Clarinet concepts will be what I learned from Clement Hutchinson---student of Arey. Oboe from Steve Adelstein. We will have a HUGE emphasis on good equipment!!! (And of course we will teach FAR above those "goals" in all other subjects too! I am a great believer in having the kids do advanced work in many areas. Why not walk out of school at 18 with a college degree too?)
There is absolutely NO reason that 8th grade kids can't be playing well on the standard high school and professional literature that we did as kids in high school in the 60's. Many of my students have on most of the band's instruments over the years, and we are planning to DO IT RIGHT!
I sold some clarinets back in 75 or 76 to a teacher at Evansville. He sent me a very nice letter about the clarinets I had picked out for him--was his name Bill Wright?? I lost track of him and would like to be in touch again. Can you tell me if I have the name right and if he can be reached?
I have thought about the Easy Steps being slow to introduce the B---but agree with Brymer about that. I like to give the kids more time to feel their "tongue level".
btw---You should have a new method book to recommend soon! Andy Love and I just finished the music portion and I will be adding comments to it as we go. He is using it in a pilot program in San Jose this year.
Kurt
Kurt Heisig
Conductor/owner
Heisig-Hastings Symphonic Band
Santa Cruz, California
-----Original Message-----
From: "Lacy, Edwin" <el2@-----.edu>
Sent: Oct 30, 2004 9:40 AM
To: klarinet@-----.org
Subject: RE: [kl] confidence in the band program
<<<The band method we use is the "EASY STEPS TO THE BAND" by Maurice
Taylor. This method produces MUCH better results than anything else we
have seen. (and I have been teaching 41 years !!!!!).>>>
Wow, I didn't really realize that this method book can still be
obtained. That's the one I started in, in 1949! I do a quick survey of
method books in my woodwind techniques class, and I always mention the
Easy Steps method (and Intermediate Steps) to them as one of the best
ones ever written.
In my experience, there is only one problem with this book, and that is
that it is quite slow in introducing clarinet students to the note B
natural on the 3rd line.
There is only one book that I have ever discovered that I like better
than the Easy Steps book, and that is the Master Method series, by
Charles Peters, published by Kjos. Its educational philosophy is very
similar to the Easy Steps book. In both cases, the going can be rather
slow and methodical, but if students are taken carefully through either
book, they will have a really solid background. The reason I like the
Master Series better is that the series is more comprehensive, with more
supplementary materials available.
Both of these books, in my opinion, are so much better than those that
have been written in recent years. And, as schools have tried more and
more to comply with all the requirements being imposed on them by the
so-called No Child Left Behind act, and other politically-motivated
requirements, the method books have become more and more watered-down.
For example, almost every method book, new or old, will have the
students play the French folk melody known as "Are You Sleeping." In
one recent method book, the instructions at this point are, "Speak a
phrase in French," and "Tell three facts about France." Naturally,
there is nothing wrong with any of this, except that performing these
tricks will not help any child know how to finger the notes of the
melody, to be able to breathe or articulate properly, or to make a
beautiful tone. Time taken from the music class to learn to pronounce
(probably inaccurately) some random phrase in French that will soon be
forgotten is time that could better be used to learn more about the
music itself. By the nature of the music world, music students tend to
gain a better sense of the international nature of the art form, as well
as a stronger sense of history than most other students who do not study
music.
Sorry, I guess that I got rather far afield here....
Ed Lacy
University of Evansville
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