Posted by Bill on August 05, 2001 at 09:55:01:
In Reply to: Re: Marching band-oh, what fun! posted by Joe S. on August 05, 2001 at 00:27:14:
I have to agree with the sense of Joe's post. I was a High School Band Director for 12 years and I was fortunate in that I never had to do marching band, which I did when I was going through school. I do sincerely believe in the sense of community developed by good music programs' ensenbles and I worked for the that thing, solely that thing, until it happened, then we worked on music and performance excellence. I think I produced quite well rounded people and pretty good musicians; usualy more than 30% of my students went on to be profesionals, college and High School instructors and professors. That seems to me to be above the average percentage but I attribute it to the love of the situation producing responsible people who wanted to play.
I have never sworn at a student. I would have resigned if that had happened. It wasn't that off color things didn't happen and we didn't all share the humor; it was that I never verbally abused any student because it doesn't produce good music. This does not mean I wouldn't criticize a student's playing; it meant that criticism was always accompanied by correction and resolution.
I was fortunate to have a some great directors, Don McKinley, Daniel G.Lewis and Cole Biasini, to use as patterns and I was able to separate their styles from the others I had who were setting up employment security through personality cults or were just plain incompetent.
If you love to march, march on! If you love abuse, see a therapist. If you have to take abuse to do what you love, sort out your priorities and put good mental health at the top of your list.