This is kind of a rampant problem in this area as well...not the clarinet thing, but on the horn. Here are a few scenarios from the Fredericksburg, Virginia area (just outside of Washington DC).
Of all of the students I've ever had in this area, only 2 (out of over 50) have actually known how to use a double horn while over 80% of them have actually owned it. Most of the band directors simply tell them "Here's a double horn. It will help you play better." When asked about the trigger, they simply tell the students (actual quote that I overheard from a band director) "It's just another valve. Sometimes you use it but most the times you don't." I've had students come to me as seniors in High School who own and have owned double horns for 6 years but don't even use the trigger ever. On another note, in marching band, many of the schools use Bb marching horns. Well, they hand the kids Bb trumpet or cornet music instead of F horn music. I've tried to explain to all of the band directors (with *zero* success) that the Bb marching horn only refers to the fundamental, they still play the F parts. Instead, they ask the kids to learn a new pitch center and use it for marching season. Here's another great one - another direct quote that I overheard spoken to a student: "I don't want you taking private lessons - the teacher will fill your head with stuff that I don't want you to know and will hurt your progress in my band." Here's another great example...a band director in this area who happens to be a tuba player (if you can call what he does "playing tuba"). He went around his horn section (of which I had 3 students in) and took all of their mouthpieces out and THREW THEM IN THE TRASH!!!! He then issued them all gold-plated Dennis Wick mouthpieces and stated that since (some horn player he knows) plays on this mouthpiece that they should all play it. (He did the same thing with their mutes the following year and replaced them all with Farkas Omni Mutes - or as we used to lovingly refer to them - Mucus Omni Farts...) This stuff is clearly worse in some places than it is in others. It's truly a shame. J. -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Saturday, July 19, 2008 1:43 PM To: horn@music.memphis.edu Subject: [Hornlist] Re: wasted year On Jul 16, 2008, at 12:51 PM, "Leonard & Peggy Brown" <[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > > Lets hear it for music education! I found this sentence about horn > playing on Yahoo answers. This girl just wasted a year of band. I > guess maybe the band director had too many kids in the class to > notice one of them was playing "oddly". > > "I played it for a year! but at the end of the year i found out that > it was strung backwards, and i was like OH THATS WHY IT SOUNDED > WIERD!!!!!!!!I" > > LLB (back to polishing) One of my best friends, Lenore (Lennie) Gallagher, left public school teaching after a long, distinguished career because the dimwit junior high band director who fed her students taught kids to play clarinet with the right hand on top. The students were understandably upset to find that they'd have to re-learn the instrument totally, and many quit. I can't say I'd do differently in their place. Mrs. Gallagher then went to work in a local music store, which improved the competency of the staff tremendously. Bill Hollin--maybe some others of you, too--knew her. Howard Sanner [EMAIL PROTECTED] _______________________________________________ post: horn@music.memphis.edu unsubscribe or set options at http://music2.memphis.edu/mailman/options/horn/jeremy%40sublymerecords.com _______________________________________________ post: horn@music.memphis.edu unsubscribe or set options at http://music2.memphis.edu/mailman/options/horn/archive%40jab.org
