Teaching and reality


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Posted by no name on December 17, 2003 at 21:30:12:

OK, I seriously hesitate to post this - Both topics are ones that tuba players dont seem to want to talk about. I was a professional tubist for 7 years symphony and band and I studied and played for roughly 15 years of my life. I havent played in years but I am going to start again and some thoughts from years gone by resurface.

Why are schools offering scholarships galore to mediocre students, enticing hundreds of tuba players around the country to study performance or to teach music, or tuba itself? Why are teachers suggesting orchestra study to tuba players who have no job future?

The reality is, there will never be enough (any) jobs to support performance majors for any but the absolute highest quality players, and more music teachers will tend to just feed the academic system into growing and recruiting more students for even further decreased job potential. IMHO this system is setting people up for failure and making lots of money for schools and teachers in the form of tuition while playing on peoples dreams.

Second topic Id like to know some opinions on -

What is the deal with tuba players and "dystonia"? It just so happens (cuz Im so lucky) that two of the majors (remaining nameless) I studied with - who were my inspirations as a student from listening to records etc - both had been consumed with the dystonia issue by the time I got to college or had a chance to study with them.

This was one of the biggest reasons I gave up playing. That was years ago, the number of tuba champions with "dystonia" (whatever it is) has grown since.

If I had known about these players problems beforehand, it would have affected my school choices and maybe even my career choices much earlier. But nobody wants to talk about attack problems especially when even Jacobs couldnt solve them.

But these folks clung on to their performance jobs and teaching jobs by the nub unable to play at a professional level, their teaching methods haunted and skewed by their own struggle. I found this to be demoralizing as a student. Almost as demoralizing as waiting for my lesson outside jakes studio listening to major orchestra players choking on easy licks due to the same problem some years later. I know I crossed into the taboo here. But I said I was going to. Did I feel cheated as a student? - you bet.






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