Anyone have Band/Music Kids?

Just curious, because I have two going into music ed. Kind of odd, because neither their mother nor I have a hints worth of being musicians.

Just wondering: Do you have kids that are new to it, went through it, done with it??? Have you refinanced your house for instruments as they got better? (just kidding, but not by much, and I could see where it could happen...)

Has where they have gone, or what they have accomplished changed your appreciation for what they do, or your musical tastes?

Are you like me, and worried that their "calling" isn't practical?

 

My son is only 16 months old, so he doesn't qualify for your questions. BUT, I am a middle school and high school band director. These types of questions are right up my alley.

I can speak from a perspective of school bands. I don't know if your kids are going the instrumental route or perhaps the choral route. Either way there are tremendous benefits.

The study of music is a glorious undertaking. Learning to play an instrument is a life-long hobby. I tell my students that they can't play football when they're 80 years old.....but they can still play their instrument at that age. It is truly something that can bring many, many years of happiness and joy.

Music classes take place in large ensemble settings. There is plenty of structure, order, and discipline to make these classrooms effective. Learning to play an instrument engenders self-discipline and helps develop poise. The students work together to create music, enhancing collaboration and listening skills.

Your kids don't have to join band with the goal or expectation of becoming professional musicians. Very, very, very few band members continue with formal music study past high school. But the skills learned and honed in band translate to other careers. The study of music, even in the middle and high school years, reaps amazing benefits in the long run.

The actual reading of musical nomenclature is akin to reading a foreign language. Notes on the staff that change, with ever-changing rhythms, all translated to moving our fingers and adjusting your lip formation to make it happen correctly, all simultaneously. It's quite the workout for your brain. I also teach Advanced Placement Music Theory at the high school level. The curriculum for that class is really ambitious. They are asked to learn and be proficient in theory practices that I never learned while earning a music degree in college. It's really impressive.

Meanwhile, the cost of instruments can be quite affordable. A new students doesn't need a brand new, top-of-the-line horn to be successful. I started on a used Yamaha trumpet that a family friend sold to us. It was fine. As I became more serious and then decided I wanted to pursue music in college I was fortunate enough to step up to a more professional-line instrument. It's a lot like shaving. Do you need the latest and greatest razor to get a close shave? No. Can you get a close shave with a used, beginner-type razor? Absolutely. Technique trumps tools all day long, in both music and shaving!

I'd be happy to elaborate further or help you in any way. Send me a PM if you'd like. I know that @Primotenore is a musician and a teacher. I hope his views echo mine.

I can think of no better, more helpful, more meaningful, and more fun activity to start in middle school than band or choir. Again, my opinions are colored due to my career choice. My son has not chosen music as an elective since he's just 16 months old. But he loves to bang around on the piano already! That has to be worth something.

 

Excellent response, thank you so much.

 

I was a band kid. I started on a 13 year old cornet that my dad bought me. It had been cleaned and refinished. The case was terrible though. After the first year, I got a new case. That was cool. My oldest son expressed an interest in the band and I had my old cornet cleaned and refinished again, and I bequeathed my horn to him. I told him if he worked his way up to first chair, I would get him a silver trumpet. He did and I did. He was a soloist in high school, but he left it behind when he went to college. Everything Perry said is correct. I also did a singing group in high school called Southern Gents, all boys. It was also a great experience.

 

Thanks for your stories. These are exactly what I was looking for.

 

I have lots of cool band stories for me and my son. In 1967 I played in a concert with Doc Severinson. He played a trumpet concerto that was written especially for him and our band debuted it. It was an awesome experience.

 

That's great, Jim! Really neat story. That's the kind of thing that you'll never forget.

 

My junior high director was a paratrooper in the Army in the 50s. He also played in an Army band. He got his degree at Sam Houston State Teachers College. We idolized him. Our band was always getting first divisions in marching and concert competitions. My high school director was totally awesome, too. When I went to high school it was just 10-12 grades. We had a sophomore band and a jr/sr band that marched during football season, but then broke down to sophomore, concert, and symphonic bands for concert season. There was also a girls drum and bugle corps that marched during football season and then did choral arrangements the rest of the year. For football season, we did a combined band of about 300 playing pieces that did precision marching during halftime. We took a trip to the Astrodome in 1964 and were the first band to march on astroturf. We went to a Houston Oilers game once and spelled HOUSTON from 20 yard line to 20 yard line. Then we regrouped and spelled OILERS in a similar fashion. When we traveled with the girls drum and bugle corps it took 13 buses in convoy. It was pretty neat.

 

Very cool! I have no musical talent whatsoever, even if I do like to get lit up a bit and hammer on my mandolin. I think I am quite good; my son calls me a musical illiterate and begs me to stop.

 

He is right BTW, I pretty much suck.

 

I played flute, Oboe, bassoon and sideline percussion during marching season. It was great fun. I was pretty good but I fell away from it after highschool. I'm thinking about joining a community band after I move back to my home town. I started on cheap rentals and hand-me-downs but as I got better I ended up paying for my own upgrades. My Oboe was a really nice Greenline that I still have and still sometimes play.

 

I can tell you that developmentally, music education has been demonstrated to improve a students abilities in math, language, creativity, and self esteem--to name just a few. It gives students a sense of accomplishment, improves social functioning, planning skills, abstract thinking, etc. As you've read, people here have great memories and a sense of accomplishment having participated in music programs. I think it is to be encouraged especially at a younger age.

 

I myself was in band. I kind of dreaded it at the time but it helped me do alot of things. As far as the price of instruments it is expensive, the bands usually have deals with vendors for cheaper costs/payments. Our particular band was very very good. There were 336 members in a h.s. smaller than 1800 students. I was able to participate in the two most famous parades in the country. The rosebowl parade and the macys parade. Won prestigious compitions and its exposure to music most young people would not encounter otherwise. And its an easy A

 

What did you play?

 

Where did you go to high school, if you don't mind me asking?

 

You are doing pretty well as a program if you get 10 percent of the student body in the band program. Your school had close to 20 percent. Wow!

 

Our band program is kind of amazing, but our marching band really struggles, mainly because of participation. We are a fairly large (for MN with about 1500 students) school, but we are very rural and spread out. A lot of kids just can't get rides to the school every day at seven in the morning in the summer. (My son used to look like a shriner clown car hauling kids back and forth. He used to have to take a car load home while his sister and a neighbor kid waited in the parking lot for him to come back for them.)

We only do summer street marching, and run around 75 kids. There is no way we could do fall field marching because with all of the other sports and activities going on we would be lucky to form up a brass quintet. Heck as it is, we have to dip down into the middle school for good kids to get what we have. My daughter is a sophomore this year, and it will be her fourth year marching already.

 

We might get pretty darn close to 10 percent in the band program. We have an orchestra program that is growing by leaps and bounds thanks to a great new director shaking things up, so that has dipped into the pot some. Our choir program easily sets the recruiting goal; we have a pretty charged up show choir program which draws a lot of moths to the flame. Our marching band though? Two to three percent maybe?

 

I played the trumpet

 

I dont mind you asking...i went monache h.s. in porterville ca. The bands much smaller now because the truley amazing band director i was lucky to have retired. (Dale Anderson) The crazy thing is that the crosstown rivals band was nearly as big. Ill put in a link to a youtube macys day video...its not great the buildings and video quality dont do the sound justice. Also the little space you perform on is much smaller than we normally performed (we could line up 2 single file rows end zone to endzone at halftime shows) and the tamale story was told 1000s of times that year @PLAla

this HTML class. Value is Watch "Monache Band