Re: 1 bad player -- Heidelberg MusEd discussion

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Date Posted: 10:34:57 05/07/06 Sun
Author: Rita
Subject: Re: 1 bad player
In reply to: Ferris 's message, "1 bad player" on 18:47:26 04/22/05 Fri

Never, ever, ever, kick someone out of your ensemble for that reason. All singers/instrumentalists are not created equal. It's as simple as that. Where one might excel the other may not, and vice versa. But you should never discourage someone from taking part in music.

My co-op teacher has dealt with this issue while I was participating in my block this semester. He has a blind girl in the choir who learns everything by ear (obviously) and tends to sing louder then the other students, and sometimes off pitch. How he worked through it is to ask the her to come in 10 minutes before choir (which he works out with her aid) and plays everything for her and also reminds her of the dynamics. It really seemed to help.

But also there was one boy in the choir who was having trouble matching pitches. My co-op teacher brought him down during his study hall for almost a month and worked with him one on one, I even worked with the kid, but nothing really seemed to help. Did we kick him out? No. We still let him participate in the ensemble. The kid is trying, and as long as that effort is there, then let them go. Telling them that they can't do it is detrimental.

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[> Re: 1 bad player -- Dr. O., 08:15:53 05/12/06 Fri [1]

Sorry for this end-of-year message, but this has been a very interesting converstional thread, and you all seem to come down on one side of the argument, so I'll give the other side with a real-life example. I worked with a high school band last year, and while I was there the director took me aside and said that one of her flutists was coming to Heidelberg next year and intended to play in the band. She said, however, that the student was a special learner and couldn't actually play the instrument at all, but the director had let the student participate in high school band anyway. The director told me "All (the student) does is go 'hoo, hoo, hoo' into the flute, and doesn't actually play any notes." Sure enough, the student came to Heidelberg and auditioned for band this fall, and the director was completely accurate. The student couldn't actually play ANY notes or rhythms; of course, I had to tell the student that they didn't play at an appropriate level for a college band, but I appreciated their auditioning, etc. I was as nice as I know how to be (OK, maybe I don't really know how to be all that nice) but the student burst into tears, and has continued to glare at me every time I encounter him/her on campus all year, obviously thinking I didn't know what I was doing.

So, here is a student who participated in high school band, and I hope got something (although I don't know what) out of it. The student also left high school without an inkling that they couldn't actually play an instrument and it came as a rude surprise to discover it. Here is my question: given that all the private lessons in the world weren't going to help this student play the flute, was the student actually well served by their high school band experience? There are many non-musical advantages to music programs (social, discipline, developmental, etc.), but shouldn't the basis of our programs be about music? Shouldn't there be a place for students to fail at music (after diligent effort on the part of the teacher and student, but no success)? This is something to think about.
Dr. O.

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