On Mon, Apr 25, 2011 at 3:13 PM, Hans Pizka <[email protected]> wrote: > Steve, and how about ear training for those members ? > What you stated is exactly causing this incredible low > level of so many groups. > > As I remember, you have perfect pitch. How can you bear > this plenty of dis-tonation ? > > Why this refusal to learn, the refusal to bring their "hobby" > to a higher level, special this refusal by people, who are superb > in their day job ? Many of them think, good or superb in their > day profession will make them great in their hobby also.
Hans, I think you miss my point. Yes, I have perfect pitch - I took dictation in ink in music school, I sight-read without mistakes from Modus Novus (an atonal sight-singing text), and so on. When I was a college ear-training teacher, we'd sometimes have discussions about a particular student along the lines of, "Well they only have a second year ear," meaning that we faculty had realized this student was unable to complete the required material. Of course, we tried to weed out these people during the admissions process, but you can't always get that right, particularly at the undergraduate level. Our solution was usually to arrange a private tutor instead of a class for such a student for their final year, sometimes two, of ear-training, and let them do the best they could. We realized we had to graduate someone below our usual standards in ear-training. It didn't happen often, but it did happen, and some of those people went on to very successful professional careers, albeit usually as singers and not French Horn players. You will find people in community bands and orchestra who, no matter what amount of work they do, simply don't have even a "first year ear" - they'd never make it into music school, but they enjoy playing, and I don't think it's fair to ask them not to play with us. If someone wishes to form a group with a higher level, that's great, but at least in my part of the world, the "community" in "community band" or "community orchestra" means that everyone is welcomed to attend. Indeed, in one such ensemble in which I played the French Horn for a few years, the conductor used to make it a point to remind the players that not everyone needed to play every passage - if something was beyond your technical ability and you knew it, you were welcomed to sit silently. But we're back to the original point - people who cannot play in tune usually don't _know_ they cannot play in tune. They are doing the best they're able, and their community band or orchestra participation is a joyous thing in their lives that we should not take away from them. > Wrong, perfectly wrong. There they have to start over again & again. > Having played in the high school band a year or so is not enough > for a community orchestra, might be enough to scare cattle away, > if they play in the bushes, but also giving reason for the police or > the fire guards to intervene. "enough to scare cattle away" - I like that, and I've participated in some community band performances that were, indeed, enough to scare cattle away - but so what? The audience probably has the same lack of musical ear that some of the band members also suffer, and in this case, ignorance is bliss - the audience attends the concert and enjoys it, unaware of the difference between a community group and a professional ensemble. > And there are the absolutely insane programs for those orchestras > arranged by megalomaniac self installed conductor tyrants, as they > program pieces they would never be allowed to conduct with any > professional orchestra. I heard of community orchestras playing > Zarathustra, Heldenleben, Mahler 5, Mahler 6 (not to be ruined), > Till, Bruckner 4 - 7 - 8, etc. Good for music libraries making > some extra income, but not serving that music nor the composer. Here I agree with you completely. > "Schuster bleib bei Deinem Leisten", an old proverb. > or > "Dont take in your mouth, what you cannot digest" (without pills !). This one, in English, is closest to our saying, "Don't bite off more than you can chew." Hans, I wish you well. I've had a student cancel their lesson, and I am going to move away from the computer and take the next half-hour and practice the French Horn instead. -S- _______________________________________________ post: [email protected] unsubscribe or set options at https://pegasus.memphis.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/options/horn/archive%40jab.org
