arthur haecker
  • Home
  • Performing Videos
  • Concert Band
  • Online Lessons
  • Duets With Strangers
  • Jazz Band
  • Playing Tips
  • Rehearsal Videos
  • Blog
  • Contact

The ARGUMENT Against (and for) Marching Band 

4/24/2015

6 Comments

 
For the vast majority of my career I have been one of those anti-marching band guy. I felt that marching band didn't place value on many important aspects of music such as intonation, balance, tone quality, and phrasing. Additionally I felt that too much value was being placed on  non musical things such as marching, competition, and a general "sports" mentality where winning a big trophy was more important than the beauty and power of the music. 
This disdain for marching band stemmed from my early musical study in high school. I grew up in South Carolina, a state that is dominated by marching band. We would practice four days a week, football on Friday night, and a competition on Saturday. Concert band was an afterthought. We never worked on intonation, balance, tone quality, articulation, or phrasing, nor was I ever exposed to musicians, or musical ensembles, that did not perform on a football field. When it came time for Concert Band Contest my band director would pass out easy music so we could guarantee a "superior" rating, and yes - get a big trophy.
I knew early on I wanted to go in to music as a career. I felt that this culture of placing more emphasis on making shapes on a football field than the beauty of music was useless. I left my high school and went of to the North Caroling School of the Arts. 
Later in my life my my attitude towards marching band shifted. This first occurred when I was on the  staff at Lassiter High School north of Atlanta. Lassiter had one of the finest marching bands in the country. The year I worked there, 1997, they won Bands of America. What the also had was the finest high school wind ensemble I'd ever heard. Many people from that program have gone on to become professional musicians including Chris Martin, the Principal Trumpet of the Chicago Symphony. 
How is this possible? How can a program which places such an emphasis on marching band still have a great concert band? Then I heard something that changed my perception. I heard the marching band warming up on the first day of band camp...on Bach Chorals, and they sounded fantastic. I then realized that Lassiter didn't have a great marching band, and a great concert band; they had a great band program that emphasized intonation, tone quality, balance, and phrasing. They brought those values to the concert hall, or the football field, or anywhere else 
This was later emphasized for me when I returned to South Carolina as a collegiate band director. Wando High School in Charleston had won the State Marching Band Competition something insane like seven years in a row. It drove the other high school band directors insane. They'd buy new uniforms and Wando would still beat them. They'd schedule more marching band practice time and Wando would still beat them. They'd amp up their intensity and demand the same from the students AND WANDO WOULD STILL WIN! Finally the idea was floated that Wando not be allowed to compete for awhile. They couldn't be defeated. What no one seemed to notice was that Wando had the finest concert band in the state, as well as the finest jazz band. All of their students were encouraged to take private lessons. They emphasized intonation, tone quality, balance, and phrasing. 
The lesson I learned is that music is music. It doesn't matter if it's a symphony orchestra, marching band, punk band, show choir, musical theater, opera, or anything else. Intonation, tone quality, balance, phrasing, and musical sincerity is what will make to great. The problem is we get distracted by marching, or costumes, or volume, or any number of things that keep us from improving as musicians. Can marching band be done musically? Absolutely. Is it being done musically? Sadly not usually. My hope is that as drum corps place more and more emphasis on the musical aspects this will hopefully trickle down to the high schools. Don't think drum corps emphasize these values? Watch Carolina Crown warm up:

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lEL1Sc7K4DY

And guess what? They won last year.
6 Comments

Learning About Failure Through Music...And Video Games

4/17/2015

1 Comment

 
I read an article recently about a survey where they asked people what they feared the most. The overwhelming top choice was not death, or heights, or sharks (my personal nightmare), but was in fact the fear of failure. No one enters in to an endeavor not wanting to be successful, despite this we all fail many times in our life. This is particularly true in a competitive field such as music. We lose auditions. We don't get jobs. We miss notes. Despite the regularity with which we fail we still harbor strong negative feelings about failure. There's one thing that's driving this; We are terrified of looking stupid. This ultimately leads to two inevitable issues:

 1. We avoid opportunities for failure
We don't take the audition because we might lose. We don't apply for jobs we might not get. We avoid working on aspects of our playing where we are weakest. 

2. We develop anxiety about performing
How many books, articles, blogs, and masterclasses address performance anxiety? This is one of the top subjects for discussion about music. 

All of this stems from our fear of failure, and ultimately looking stupid. Despite our feeling on the subject I would argue that failure is maybe the most important aspect of our ultimate success. When we succeed we gain perks; we win the gig, get hired at the university, or receive accolades from our peers. When we fail we gain something much more valuable; knowledge. Knowledge through trial and error about how to play better, or how to practice more efficiently.  By winning you learn nothing. 
Imagine if  you could change the way you view failure so that you sought out difficult or competitive situations not to win, but to get better. There is a world where this occurs constantly, where we enjoy the process of learning through failure as opposed to letting it create anxiety. Where is this magical utopia? Video games.
Think about it. If you play a lot of video games you lose, or "die", a lot. Every game is built around learning through your mistakes, and  honing your skills in order to reach the next level. How is this different from music? You get better at auditions by taking lots of auditions and losing them. You get better at recitals by giving more recitals. You improve your high range by continuing to work in that range despite not having early success. How is this different than getting killed numerous times playing "Call To Duty" until you're a total bad ass? You must lose auditions to eventually win a job just like you have to fail numerous times before you rescue the Princess. To prove my point I suggest a little experiment.

THE VIDEO GAME CHALLENGE
Take two video games that you're pretty good at (level 2 or 3.) Take one game and play it for a week on the expert level, take the other game and play it for a week on the beginner level. Keep track of what you learn that makes you a better player by playing these games these ways. Another way is take a player vs. player game. Find two people, one who is much better than you at the game, and one that is much worse. Keep track on which ways you learn from the games. Here's what will happen:
1. Against the better player, or expert level, you will lose a lot, but you will get better quickly.


2. Against the lesser player, or lower setting, you will win a lot, but your skills will not improve.


What if we could approach music in this same way? Would we still suffer from performance anxiety or avoid competition? You see, video games are good for you. 
1 Comment

Overcoming Fear

4/17/2015

4 Comments

 
This semester I've thought a great deal about fear. Fear of failure, fear of performing, and the biggest of them all, fear of ridicule. As musicians we have to be able to deal with all three of these. In my opinion all fear comes down to one thing, the fear that we are inadequate. We worry that we're not good enough, or that we don't deserve happiness. I think on some level we all feel a degree of this inadequacy. The way we deal with this is by achievement or praise. If we become first chair, or make All State it's proof that we're good. This extends throughout our career. If I win that orchestra job, or get a full-time teaching job than it proves I'm good enough. 
Of course there are two big problems with this. First of all there is never a point when you receive enough praise or achievement that you overcome your feelings of inadequacy. You'll always crave more. It never ends. The second problem is that while you are temporarily made to feel at ease by your achievements, the opposite is also true. Failures just verify those fears that you're not any good, or that you're a fraud. What makes this even worse is that most times you try you won't succeed. You will lose far more auditions than you will win. You will not get most jobs you apply for. You will never play a perfect recital. It is these realizations that lead us to developing fear. 
So what do we do? How do we end this viscous cycle? The key is changing your prospective. Stop focusing your energy on the temporary joy of achievement and instead focus your energy on the unending joy of the process of knowledge. Practice and perform because you love music, not to receive praise. Take auditions not to prove to yourself how good you are, but to gain knowledge and wisdom. It's the process of learning that brings us true happiness, not achievement. Don't define yourself by what you think others might think of you. Define yourself by joy you get from playing music every day. 
4 Comments

    Author

    Arthur Haecker is the Director of the Converse University Wind Ensemble and a professional trombonist. He's also quite cool, and has impeccable hygiene.

    Archives

    April 2015

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed