As we’ve been ascending the pyramid of success, each of the skills has been built on the previous skill and, in turn, used as a foundation for the next skill.
Last up was recorder.
Makes sense.
Check the box for all that fine motor skill development required for recorder as a prelude to band and orchestra instruments.
But before we get into it, let's just start with a few questions.
Why do 99% of all band and orchestra players quit by the end of their high school or college years?
It seems like a hell of a lot of effort, time, money, and sacrifice for something that evaporates at the end of senior year.
If playing a band/orchestra instrument is so critical to the musical development of children, why do public schools not provide instruments to all children?
Why do the children of families who can't afford an instrument not participate in the band or orchestra programs?
When we teach anything in a school, are we teaching for the moment, for the week, for the year? Is the idea to teach for an arc of twelve years so that when students leave a school district, they have achieved a proficiency in a number of disciplines?
Are we just filling time?
Or is it that at the end of twelve years, we have prepared students to take the knowledge they've gained and richly apply it for the rest of their lives?
Why do so many performing groups seem focused on being an arm of the school PR (public relations) machine?
And how did music change from child-centered elementary education into competitive organizations, All-state _____________, battling for trophies awarded on clean spats, straight lines on a football field, or adjudicated vowel sounds?
It would be convenient to say that society has changed and morphed our view of the Arts.
As far as participation with band or orchestra instruments post graduation, an argument can be made that the internet has cut into the aspirations, proclivities, and inclinations of young adults specific to their after-work-hour activities, but it's always been this way.
There is a long history of few opportunities in the community for adults to continue playing band instruments or orchestra instruments.
Once school was over, the instrument goes in the closet or attic, waiting for the next generation of fourth graders.
The mature solo musician had few ways to recreate the band/orchestra experience until the technology of the 1950s started to wake up.
There was an interesting development in the 50s called “Music Minus One” after they leave school.
These were LP records that were designed for the aspiring amateur home singer or instrumentalist.
The LPs had ensembles providing the song accompaniments while the purchaser sang/played the melody.
Think of it as archaic karaoke minus the bar, video screen, and inebriated singers.
These records came with lead sheets forall the songs on the record in all the functional keys, namely C, Eb, or Bb. The repertoire was as divers as Show tune to classics, Rodgers and Hart to Mozart.
My dad a few of these.
You could rent some time in local recording studio, cue up your record, and make a recording of you singing along with Nelson Riddle arrangements.
In many ways, this was a precursor to the Jamey Aebersold series.
These days, we have the ability of digital recording at home.
There is the internet, as well as a You Tube karaoke version of almost every song known to man on You Tube, and with today’s technology, the ability to create 44.1hZ MP3 files of a dizzying level of audio clarity that was undreamt of several decades ago.
People are using this technology but sadly, not with band or orchestra instruments.
The prima facia evidence says that band and orchestra instruments are introduced to elementary students primarily for the moment, for the 12-year program, and once that arc is completed, the instrument experience is over, too.
As an elementary general music teacher, I incorporated starting band instruments in as many activities as I could within my classroom.
Trumpets with xylophones.
Flutes with recorders.
I didn't observe that kind of multi-angled approach with most middle or high school music teachers.
With the exception of pit bands, school band or orchestra instruments were specifically designed to be played in band and orchestra, not in any other musical class.
One of the effects of this mindset is that high school band programs tend to generate potential music educators who’s “be al/end all” all is band, be it marching band or concert band.
The individual serves the organization.
The organization serves the school.
Who serves the individual?
This creates a self-perpetuating franchise of band-centric music educators.
It is a food chain that only sustains musical life past high school or college if you go into the profession of music education.
And even then, it doesn't mean that that music educator is a practicing musician anymore outside of school hours.
They often ditch the instrument for the power and glory of the baton.
The goal becomes to create music for the twelve year arc of music education.
I have a problem with that paradigm.
I taught at the elementary level with a focus on an arc spanning the student’s life - not a finite period of a few years within a school district.
Luckily, though, there has always been a group of underground matriculating instrumentalists and vocalists who defy that system and buck the norm.
Interestingly, these musical rebels originally thrived while still in school, often fling under the music teacher’s radar.
I'll be addressing that in the upcoming posts.
For now, though, I think the precipitous drop off in band and orchestra instruments post-graduation is worth of discussion and a solution.
Last up was recorder.
Makes sense.
Check the box for all that fine motor skill development required for recorder as a prelude to band and orchestra instruments.
But before we get into it, let's just start with a few questions.
Why do 99% of all band and orchestra players quit by the end of their high school or college years?
It seems like a hell of a lot of effort, time, money, and sacrifice for something that evaporates at the end of senior year.
If playing a band/orchestra instrument is so critical to the musical development of children, why do public schools not provide instruments to all children?
Why do the children of families who can't afford an instrument not participate in the band or orchestra programs?
When we teach anything in a school, are we teaching for the moment, for the week, for the year? Is the idea to teach for an arc of twelve years so that when students leave a school district, they have achieved a proficiency in a number of disciplines?
Are we just filling time?
Or is it that at the end of twelve years, we have prepared students to take the knowledge they've gained and richly apply it for the rest of their lives?
Why do so many performing groups seem focused on being an arm of the school PR (public relations) machine?
And how did music change from child-centered elementary education into competitive organizations, All-state _____________, battling for trophies awarded on clean spats, straight lines on a football field, or adjudicated vowel sounds?
It would be convenient to say that society has changed and morphed our view of the Arts.
As far as participation with band or orchestra instruments post graduation, an argument can be made that the internet has cut into the aspirations, proclivities, and inclinations of young adults specific to their after-work-hour activities, but it's always been this way.
There is a long history of few opportunities in the community for adults to continue playing band instruments or orchestra instruments.
Once school was over, the instrument goes in the closet or attic, waiting for the next generation of fourth graders.
The mature solo musician had few ways to recreate the band/orchestra experience until the technology of the 1950s started to wake up.
There was an interesting development in the 50s called “Music Minus One” after they leave school.
These were LP records that were designed for the aspiring amateur home singer or instrumentalist.
The LPs had ensembles providing the song accompaniments while the purchaser sang/played the melody.
Think of it as archaic karaoke minus the bar, video screen, and inebriated singers.
These records came with lead sheets forall the songs on the record in all the functional keys, namely C, Eb, or Bb. The repertoire was as divers as Show tune to classics, Rodgers and Hart to Mozart.
My dad a few of these.
You could rent some time in local recording studio, cue up your record, and make a recording of you singing along with Nelson Riddle arrangements.
In many ways, this was a precursor to the Jamey Aebersold series.
These days, we have the ability of digital recording at home.
There is the internet, as well as a You Tube karaoke version of almost every song known to man on You Tube, and with today’s technology, the ability to create 44.1hZ MP3 files of a dizzying level of audio clarity that was undreamt of several decades ago.
People are using this technology but sadly, not with band or orchestra instruments.
The prima facia evidence says that band and orchestra instruments are introduced to elementary students primarily for the moment, for the 12-year program, and once that arc is completed, the instrument experience is over, too.
As an elementary general music teacher, I incorporated starting band instruments in as many activities as I could within my classroom.
Trumpets with xylophones.
Flutes with recorders.
I didn't observe that kind of multi-angled approach with most middle or high school music teachers.
With the exception of pit bands, school band or orchestra instruments were specifically designed to be played in band and orchestra, not in any other musical class.
One of the effects of this mindset is that high school band programs tend to generate potential music educators who’s “be al/end all” all is band, be it marching band or concert band.
The individual serves the organization.
The organization serves the school.
Who serves the individual?
This creates a self-perpetuating franchise of band-centric music educators.
It is a food chain that only sustains musical life past high school or college if you go into the profession of music education.
And even then, it doesn't mean that that music educator is a practicing musician anymore outside of school hours.
They often ditch the instrument for the power and glory of the baton.
The goal becomes to create music for the twelve year arc of music education.
I have a problem with that paradigm.
I taught at the elementary level with a focus on an arc spanning the student’s life - not a finite period of a few years within a school district.
Luckily, though, there has always been a group of underground matriculating instrumentalists and vocalists who defy that system and buck the norm.
Interestingly, these musical rebels originally thrived while still in school, often fling under the music teacher’s radar.
I'll be addressing that in the upcoming posts.
For now, though, I think the precipitous drop off in band and orchestra instruments post-graduation is worth of discussion and a solution.
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