[Dixielandjazz] Wrong impressions

[Vaxtrpts at aol.com]

In a message dated 6/14/2005 5:05:41 P.M. Pacific Daylight Time,  
dixielandjazz-request at ml.islandnet.com writes:

I think  the music is not being taught so much anymore as to just being 
thrown 
at  the kids and maybe some of it will stick on one or two of them and they 
go  
on to play music someday.  In the meantime the teacher gets his/her  paycheck 
as a teacher and continues to dream about going on the road and  being a 
touring professional musician one day all the while trying to  inspire some 
kids to 
do what most of them have never done or ever will do,  and life goes on and 
on 
and on in a viscous circle of mundane  lackadaisical efforts at turning out 
any 
real future  legends.



>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Tom:
I hate to disagree with you, but as one who is in schools all over this  
country almost every week of the school year, I must set the record  straight.
NONE of the teachers I deal with are "dreaming of going on the road......"  
Many of them hardly play an instrument any more.  The problem is not that  
anything is being thrown at the kids.  The problem is that many band  programs 
today have become extensions of the athletic department.  They  exist to enter 
competitions and win trophies.  What does that mean?   They learn three or four 
tunes for each band (jazz, concert, and marching) for  the whole year, and 
that is it!!!!!!!  They keep working on these tunes  over and over.  They learn 
them by rote to begin with, and then just  memorize them.  These kids have no 
idea about theory, don't know their  scales and can't sight read.  Many jazz 
band directors even have their  students play the written solos on the charts, 
so that there is no REAL jazz  being played, because there is no improvisation, 
which is the essence of jazz  music -- from ANY era.
This is the main problem with music education today.  Many of these  teachers 
mean well, but they get caught up in what the parents and the  principals 
want, which is to win trophies.
It is a real problem.
Mike Vax