Must read for classical musicians

Posted: Mon Mar 10, 2008 6:25 am

You're gonna love this one from the NY times yesterday...

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/09/opinion/09mccallsmith.html?scp=1&sq=and+the+band+played+badly&st=nyt

This should start your week off right.

Phil

Posted: Mon Mar 10, 2008 7:24 am

Prime material for a reality TV show.

We should graciously allow all those who are utterly hopeless at everything, but who have enormous belief in themselves, an opportunity to be STARS! Smile

Posted: Mon Mar 10, 2008 9:20 am

One of the more enjoyable concerts here in Blacksburg is the Fall middle school concert. We have an excellent middle school band teacher here. I dreaded going to this event for the first time when my daughter was in 6th grade, but was shocked with the results. After two months he had 70 sixth graders making a sound that was easily identifiable as music. The seventh graders were not at all painful to listen to, and the eighth graders would have made perfectly respectable free concert in the park material.

So I'm all for properly taught beginners playing band instruments in public if the venue is sufficiently modest. (Critics who go to a free concert like this get what they deserve.)

Strings are another matter altogether. As someone who got his first double bass at age 48 I can tell you that playing an instrument with a bow should be done in the privacy of your own home for the first few years. (Maybe decades in my case.)

Posted: Mon Mar 10, 2008 6:20 pm

Ignoring my guitar at school and of course, the invariable shower drone, my first instrument had buttons, knobs and a plug.
The good thing about this instrument is that it comes in many sizes, and with a little fine adjustment, is greater than the sum of the parts of the whole band.

Did you guess? I play CDs!

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