After viewing a number of video clips of H.S. bands from across the country, I've deduced the following as it pertains to the deterioration or non existence of fundamental and basic instrumental musicianship in MOST H.S. music programs. In MY opinion the root cause of this dilemma is twofold: 1) The lack of disciplined instruction. 2) The lack of pride, reverence and respect of the art.
I've addressed my first point here recently and received a ton of backlash citing numerous excuses of why certain programs perform substandard music. The problem as been accredited to economics, natural disasters, crime and even student character which I'll address in my next point. In my opinion,the aforementioned excuses don't equivocate a total lack of musical instruction where a paid/non paid music instructor ignores the less than pleasing sound while arm folding and head bobbing to the "Music" of his band. Again , how could he/she not hear anything wrong with the bands performance. These types of displays only offer false encouragement to the students that they're producing an acceptable sound.
To expound on the latter, is like walking on eggshells because so many people don't want to discourage the students or hurt their feelings but I could not be fair by not placing an equal part of responsibility to the students themselves. I'm not going to take you on a trip back down memory lane and start telling stories of my musical instruction and youth . Those days are long gone but somewhere between then and now " most " students don't have the respect for instrumental music as previous generations. Frequent examples of this are perpetuated in the sub par tone, coarse octaves and the inability to hold a steady tempo. I'm aware that there are far more " distractions " that present themselves to today's student such as , 24hr TV, Internet , advanced video games , cell phones and many other modern technologies that prevent the student from dedicating sufficient time to develop/perfect their craft to the utmost of individual ability. Each individual must hold themselves accountable to a higher level of musicianship and take pride in their art.
In closing, I would like to reiterate that this just my observation and opinion. If you are looking for solutions then each program should start with honest self evaluation initiated by the leader then followed by the students." When you know better,do better."
Replies
If I read this right, u r asking y arent students as musically inclined as past time, eh? Well to speak directly frm my experiences n Detroit....it started with pure macroeconomics. Since it's inception, music education programs have always been faced with the challenge of proving their worth with provable and measurable outcomes with tax payer money. This is still a challenge today...assessing a successful music program.
I for one hav always found myself in the more favorable music ensembles in any program I have been apart of. I personally extend this outcome to my upbringing in music both in my church and in my elementary school all the way through high skool. Since then, I have seen music programs cut from their roots, first cuttimg elementary, then middle, now even my high skool doesnt hav a program. I have found that during my time in each group that our audiences (the community) loved to see us develop in music. So to keep the long short, Detroit's economy is staggerring...as is many other urbanized areas around the country. Wen we dont see music as a neccesity and make it so easy expendable, then it gets cut. Comprehensive musicianship is a language an artform one must learn n understand. Wen u get people n high skool bands who r begginner musicians and neva really had a chance to develop their understanding of musicianship....there is no amount of critiques at a single performance that will change that.
Furthermore, this electronic and technological age has taken away from overall musicianship also. It is very rare to c a person highly successful for perfecting his musical craft and even harder to make a living for those who have wen u can jus press a few buttons on a mpc sequentially n make thousands of dollars. Our society is filled with this new "right now" mindset, n no one wants to work bcuz of proper motivation for their efforts. Its this type of reward system that is cripling the culture of our time.
If u ask me, people/communities need to take more responsibilty for wats going on musically around them. I for one am not frm Atl n hav no affiliations here but am one of the first to go around n offer my assistance to the programs n students n the area. Just seems to me that without the public skool programs, kids hav a hard time finding the motivations to b better muscians.
Again, not sayn im rite about anything...just sharing my two nickles...
Let that sink in for a while...
In Houston it was mostly race. When I was comming up the Corps programs were HORRIBLE but they had good Individual musicians. The leadership wasnt right, most of HISD wanted to be showstyle and in the 90's they started doing the same thing Underage Thinker was talking about, but it seemed they only did it to black schools. Most latino and white schools kept there programs (the east end being the only real exception.) Also between Willowridge's Smiley's and Forest Brooks success OUTSIDE the city I think that made alot of 'other' people mad.The late 90's saw the beginning of decimation of most of the major bands in Houston. Willowridges kids were getting rezoned, HISD became an 'open' district. All music on the east end shut down, as well as a few northside schools programs...one was Corpstyle!
For a minute HISD had thought they could sneak in these UT/SHSU/TxTech 'everything that is not corpstyle is bad' directors into the hood and THAT didn't work (Furr, Austin, Davis, Sam Houston) Promising bands got a dose of reality by their districts (Aldine ISD's Eisenhower) Meanwhile HISD's corpstyle bands started comming up.
It was said and I was RAISED to know your notes and learned on a basic recorder in elementary, to be given an instrument to learn in middle school, and to be somewhat proficient on said instrument by high school. The white kids out where I work are still being taught like that. They got rid of those programs for us along time ago and then if your school did do it, it was part of 'some special program' that the kids on the other side of town in the same district get on gp.
About 8 years ago HISD got their heads out of their asses and let the programs be. They are now flourishing. think I am lying there should be enough video on here to let you see the progression. There are still a few school admins out here that are totally against 'dancing bands' and there is at least 1 5A school with no real band program, but as of the end of 2011 in the 22 schools with bands in HISD only 6 do corpstyle full time.