[Dixielandjazz] What music do young people hear?

[LARRY'S Signs and Large Format Printing]

Some of the so called "Modern" jazz just isn't fun.  You can't dance to it
and it's often work to listen to it.  I guess I'm lazy but I don't like to
work at listening to music nor do I enjoy being musically assaulted either.
There are a few musical geniuses around and I enjoy hearing them just as
much as I enjoy Mozart.  What tires me out is the wannabes who aren't
geniuses but try to emulate the improv styles of those geniuses and
generally muck it up.

As I have said before it's not possible to teach jazz out of a text book nor
can you learn it by copying others although I don't completely disapprove of
learning licks.  The problem comes when you try to be scientific about it
and teachers think that they can teach something.  I am a teacher and I know
that very few band directors are jazz musicians or even play very well at
all.  How do they think that they can even come close to teaching it? My
opinion is if you can't do it and demo it you shouldn't try to teach it. Who
in their right mind would take swimming lessons from a coach that couldn't
swim?  Enter the publishers and the college teachers who teach them how to
teach jazz who give them methods to do it.  What usually turns out is kids
jerking around on chords with little to no melodic content or ideas and some
of them are really fast at it too.  Then they get an "A" in band and they go
off saying what a good boy am I.  It's not the kids fault and I'm not sure
that it's really the teachers fault either.  They are pressured into
teaching what they can't do.  It's a rock and a hard place.

An art teacher can teach mechanics and color mixing and technique and give
kids ideas but they can't teach art.  It's the same with music teachers.

My advice is to learn styles then experiment with them and listen to good
players in those styles.  Then learn tunes .... lots of them in different
keys.  Above all learn your instrument so well that it disappears from your
hands and everything you think comes out the other end.  Also don't neglect
the basics, tone intonation etc.  I don't care how well you play or what
great ideas you have if it ain't in tune or it has a poor tone it isn't any
good.

Good Luck
Larry
----- Original Message ----- 
From: <Tramette89 at aol.com>
To: <dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com>
Sent: Saturday, April 30, 2005 6:39 PM
Subject: Re: [Dixielandjazz] What music do young people hear?


> I couldn't help but notice this subject when it got brought up...
>
> sign.guy at charter.net wrote"There is no law that says everyone should like
the
> same kind of music. With the multiciplicty of styles today it's the
teacher's
> and schools job to
> introduce styles that may not be in the main stream."
>
> Speaking as a high school student, I can say that that isn't the case
around
> my neck of the woods. Teachers seem intent on making the students listen
to
> jazz, but only modern jazz. All of my band directors throughout middle and
high
> school admit that they have never listened to anything recorded before
1940.
> The stuff school jazz bands play is almost always rock or latin flavored,
and
> if it isn't that, then it's bebop. We've had some terrific young jazz
musicians
> come out the the high school I attend, but they're all interested solely
in
> modern styles. It's because that's all their instructors tell them to
listen
> to; they are basically being taught that any older style of jazz is
basically
> "wrong". They take us to hear modern jazz ensembles. They make us listen
to
> Miles Davis and John Coltrane. And they don't allow any saxophonists to
double on
> clarinet!
>
> I can't help but wonder if maybe more kids would be into OKOM if they were
> ever actually exposed to it at school. The situation is pretty bad in
Ohio,
> where I live, but its nice to see that other places aren't as biased. I've
> basically had to take things into my own hands, because boy, do I get a
lot of guff
> for liking the music I like! (That's not even going in to how many people
make
> fun of me because I own a c-melody sax!)
>
> Hmm, most of the kids don't agree with my taste in music either, but
that's
> no big surprise. Still, I try to convert a few of 'em every now and
then...I've
> introduced a young trombonist to Jack Teagarden, and I've got a bari
saxist
> hooked on Adrian Rollini!
>
> And where did I get my first taste of old-fashioned jazz? From a Chips
Ahoy
> commercial. (True story. They used to run "Sing, Sing, Sing" as the
background
> music in those commericals, and the first time I heard that, I was
hooked!)
>
> -Lily Korte
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