 The Clarinet BBoard
|
Author: Ed Palanker
Date: 2010-09-05 19:37
It's too bad, they don't know what they're missing or how valuable it can be to the over all growth of a child . ESP http://eddiesclarinet.com
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: clarinetcase
Date: 2010-09-05 20:02
I don't know how other areas are. Where I live I noticed that when schools sold off the old military instruments used for beginners and went totally rental or buy for beginners, the bands sizes began dropping. For example H S with 10-12 clarinets now have 3 and H S with 25-30 not have 10-12. Of course, there are certainly other factors in play.
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: JJAlbrecht
Date: 2010-09-06 23:08
Arond here,several things have torpedoed the school music system: the district went from semesters to trimesters, and they added certain requirements, supposedly to improve academic performance. The requirements have borne no fruit, except to reduce the time in the day for electives. With less time for electives, music tends to suffer. Additionally,they force some Spanish instruction onto kids, starting in third grade. I have nothing against learning a language (I actually think kids SHOULD learn at least one language), but the way they do it here, most kids go from grade 3-8 and never really even learn what a first year high-school Spanish student would have learned when I was in high school, when dinosaurs roamed the earth.
Jeff
“Everyone discovers their own way of destroying themselves, and some people choose the clarinet.” Kalman Opperman, 1919-2010
"A drummer is a musician's best friend."
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: cigleris
Date: 2010-09-06 23:44
I've not seen too much evidence of this but then the school term has started this week. I know that my teaching hours have stayed the same but then I teach clarinet in a school with a great music department.
If the coalition get their way then the numbers will more than likely fall due to the economic cuts that are coming. That could signal the death knell for music services and authorities throughout the UK.
The arts are moving into tricky times here in England.
Peter Cigleris
Post Edited (2010-09-06 23:47)
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: superson
Date: 2010-09-08 16:56
I'm quite surprised by this, i thought there was a scheme going that primary kids have to learn/ have access to an instrument. My old primary school are teaching their year 5/6 kids the french horn and the baritone i think.
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: job_man
Date: 2010-09-20 20:42
This has been going on for years. The efforts made by local authorities to introduce instruments to all and sundry in primary schools is taking away resources from those who really want to learn and play and are willing to put in the necessary effort. The beginnings which these primary school children are given are rarely followed up adequately, and there is very little help, usually, once the 'borrowing' period for the original instrument has elapsed.
The overall effect which I have noticed to be developing is that we are going full circle back to the point where only those with the money to support it are learning instruments, and it is not cheap! I have two daughters learning musical instruments, and they attend courses and summer camps, as well as weekly rehearsals. They also need the sheet music, instrument maintenance and insurance, and occasional up-grading of instruments. Then there are the music festival fees and the accompanists' fees, and uniforms or concert dresses, not to mention endless transportation by their chauffeurs. Last year I reckon we paid just under £5000 on all that!
One trend I notice for which I am grateful: ten years go it would be difficult to find a male clarinet player in our county band; this year I noticed there was a slight advantage to the boys. There were even a good number of male flautists! It is good to find things evening up.
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Lelia Loban ★2017
Date: 2010-09-21 11:54
>>It is good to find things evening up.>>
Indeed. The same is happening in the USA. The sections that used to be all-male or all-female are still predominantly one or the other. There are more girls than boys in the local flute sections and more boys than girls in the percussion and brass sections. The clarinets look close to equal. But the big change arrived years ago: kids of either sex are free to choose their instruments without being banned or mocked by the band directors.
I wore a pendant in the shape of a bass clarinet while yard-saling this past weekend and it led to an interesting conversation with a woman I'd never met before, the clarinet-playing director of a local school band, and with her mother, who plays alto clarinet. I think the band director is probably in her late twenties or early thirties. When her mom and I talked about the stigma against women playing the lower-pitched winds when we were kids, it was clear that, to the band director, we were talking about ancient history -- the Bad Old Days when teachers and school administrators would have discouraged a young woman from learning to conduct, too.
Lelia
http://www.scoreexchange.com/profiles/Lelia_Loban
To hear the audio, click on the "Scorch Plug-In" box above the score.
Post Edited (2010-09-21 11:57)
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
The Clarinet Pages
|
 |
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
