A opinion on band.
I finally have time yet again to update! So many events have passed since the last time I blogged that I don’t feel like remembering what they were. So, I shall talk about yesterday.
Yesterday’s KI lesson was cancelled on short notice. Being the slacker I am, I did not use the time doing revision of any sort. Instead, I went back to Guangyang.
By now, the seniors have already stepped down and the juniors have joined the main band. Apparently they have some sort of NCO system in effect now, to pick out potential majors. Ahh…. What nostalgia. Seems to me like only yesterday when I was still around running things. Anyway, they’re still playing the same old songs! When I arrived, they were about to start on Sock Hop Tonight.
It was quite heartening to see my trombone section doing quite well. Jiong Jun, although appearing to be quite weary, was handling it all quite nicely. The juniors that joined after I left were surprising eager to learn. It was indeed a clear improvement over their predecessors. Anyway, they were starting to develop the bad habit of writing position numbers on their scores. The alarming thing was that a few of the numbers were wrong! My stand is that it’s fine to write numbers over certain passages that are hard, such as running notes or notes with accidentals. However, I cannot tolerate trombonists writing numbers over ALL the notes, and worse yet, the wrong numbers! The bad thing is that when inexperienced players pick up this habit, it will become a crutch for them and they are at the mercy of wrong numbers. I wish I could come back more often to train my beloved section, but I never do have the time. Anyway, it’s quite clear that in terms of music proficiency, the band is still stagnant.
My opinion: Instilling discipline in a band is alright. It’s very good in fact. But good discipline cannot be at the expense of musicality. It is quite unfortunate when we have plenty of capable leaders, but very few capable musicians. And although I’ve been in a military band for a couple of years, I will always love music more than drills, simply because I was in a BAND. I was not in NCC, or NPCC, I was in Braddell-Westlake Military Band. Discipline is not just about doing good drills or being able to work with each other in a group. The most important discipline is self-discipline. A musician must be responsible for himself before he can help others. When Mr. Glosz impressed onto us that concept during a Philyouth practice, I thought I understood what he meant. It means be responsible for yourself lah! Bring your scores and your pencils for practice, and practise your pieces at home! However, I realized it’s more than that. It means maintaining your passion for what you do. Practising your pieces and remembering to bring your scores and pencils is not enough. Anyone can train a monkey to do that. What matters most it how you, as a musician, are responsible for your own development. For me personally, this meant finding new ways of practicing warm-ups, or even finding new scores to practice with. I believe that variety is a key factor in maintaining passion. If you practice the same old pieces all the time, face it, anyone would get bored of them. However, throw a band a couple of new pieces, let them digest the music slowly, absorb the nutrients, and fully appreciate the music. I can still remember the very first song I played in Braddell-Westlake. Pop in the Spots. It was a Grade 3 song that the seniors were already playing. They really threw us into the deep end of the pool. I mean, the highest note was a high G! Thankfully it was a fairly enjoyable piece and I brought my trombone home and practiced every day. There was even a considerably long period of time where I was the only trombonist in the band. I certainly did not despair then. Without anyone to teach me new things, I turned to the then-OTJ Forum. I registered as a member, and nearly everything I know about trombone were learnt from this goldmine of resources.
Anyway, my point is, it doesn’t matter if someone is an excellent leader and is able to control his peers and juniors, when he has no passion for what he does. I’m not saying that instilling leadership is not important, but rather you need to have a passion for what you do, to set an example for others. For example, if you’re a senior, and you play damn well on tuba, your juniors will not think that tuba is such a sian instrument and might even be inspired to improve, perhaps even surpass you in technical ability. There is nothing more rewarding than when your junior becomes better than you. It shows that you have already taught him all you know, and he went on to learn further on his own. But it doesn’t stop there. You can practice and surpass him again easily, but it’s a viscious cycle when you two try to put and more effort to surpass each other. In the end everyone wins, cos both of you improved, and the band improved.
This is my hypothesis to explain why bands don’t improve musically even though there is ‘discipline’ in the band.
Anyway, when I went back, quite a few people said I look fatter. They are so blind… =P
John
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