Posted by Frank Gazda on May 21, 2003 at 08:32:18:
In Reply to: are Band Directors Musicians? posted by Tuba Ply/BandDir on May 20, 2003 at 16:30:37:
#1 is missing the point of scales. If you can perform all of your M/m/chrom scales from memory, playing the etudes becomes that much easier. The knowledge of scales allows you to learn the technical aspects of almost any etude more quickly, and spend more time on the music (and concentrate on the music from the first note, plus who says that you can't practice scales musically). Additionally if the students expect to do well at competitions, they should expect to put in a lot of work. The student who practices the scales as well as everything else is in much better OVERALL shape as a player and sets themselves up for long term success.
#2 is also missing the point. Nowhere in #2's rant do I see anything about caring about the students, making an emotional connection/commitment to the music. Maybe #2 has a valid point, but they didn't really get it across very well. Just because you played for 23 years doesn't by definition make you a better band director.
Finally, Some band directors are musicians, some aren't. You can't lump them all together. I teach at a college. I run into quite a few music education majors (both in my studio and in ensembles that I work with) who don't practice much or take thier instruments seriously. They say that they don't plan to play after school, so why should they have to jury, etc. I tell them that even if they don't intend to play after college, they have to develop the musical skills to be a good conductor. The best way to develop these skills is on your instrument. This doesn't mean that the best players make good conductors (every work with a conductor who learned a piece through the trumpet part that they used to play?). It also doesn't mean that if you are not a great player you can't be a great conductor. A great band director has to have 1) the ability to conceptualize the score and 2) the ability to get the band, through knowledge and motivation, to reflect that concept. If you work very hard in your ear-training, piano, theory, etc classes and study your conducting and your scores, I don't care if you can play the Hindemith Sonata.
Also you have to have your band's respect. You can get that by being a great player, or you can get that by having great knowledge and enthusiasm for music and getting results that are obvious to the students. When you don't have the band's respect is when you get comments like "I just said okay, yeah...it's not like he could have ever played the part."
Frank Gazda