[Dixielandjazz] Re: School Band Directors

[Patrick Cooke]

      The school band director teacher teaches the way he was taught, and
has the same pressures that his teachers had.  He has to take a bunch of
kids and put together a "band that can play something" in time for the local
parade for the potato festival in a few months. So instead of working on
scales, he is teaching a few simple easy things by rote.  The kid is working
on his lip, but not much else.
     Plus he has to have marching practice which does nothing for the
student's musical advancement.
    I know a few dance band leaders who were high school and college band
directors.  They can read anything, but not much as jazz players.    I see
high school "jazz" bands who get into local festivals.  They are always big
bands (to get as many kids involved as possible) reading arrangements.  And
they sound fairly good....till somebody gets up to take a "jazz" chorus.
They have been rehearsing the written arrangements for the gig, but they
don't know what to practice to learn to improvise. They cannot play more
than 2 or 3 major scales, have had no ear training, and their teacher
probably had none as well, nor the teacher's teacher before him.
        Part of the blame can be placed on school management, and parents to
some degree who are expecting rapid results....which to them is the student
playing a melody they recognize.
        The miracle is that enough of the students actually go on to be good
players.
         I should point out that there are indeed exceptions.....Johnny
Wiggs was a fine New Orleans jazz cornetist....played great OKOM.  He was
also a school band director.  His real name was John Wigginton Hyman, and
used the name Johnny Wiggs because playing in French Quarter honky tonks was
not considered a proper environment for a teacher of the town's school kids.
         BTW.....Johnny Wiggs gave me my very first music lesson in 1937.  I
got 10 free lessons from the music store when my mother bought me a
second-hand $10 trumpet.
         Pat Cooke

----- Original Message ----- 
From: <BillSargentDrums at aol.com>
To: <TCASHWIGG at aol.com>
Cc: <dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com>
Sent: Saturday, January 10, 2004 9:25 AM
Subject: Re: [Dixielandjazz]Professional jazz musicians


> Tom,
>
> Thanks man. One of the best posts I've ever read on this list.
>
> It always irks me when I see someone call a music teacher who's
credentials
> are nothing more than being able to remember stuff to pass tests and get a
> piece of paper so they can go out and teach others to do the same . . .
being
> called professional musicians.
>
> Now, to be certain, some of them CAN blow with the best of them . . . but
> they are few and far between . . . a definite minority.
>
> I appreciate your wisdom and contributions on the list and can relate to
> everything you write.
>
> Do you have a website?
>
> Keep Swingin'!
> Bill Sargent, MD
> 414-777-0100
> BillSargentBands.com
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