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Originally Posted by trumpet blower88 One of the things he and the staff want to start next year is a fee at the begining of the year in order to be in band and to help pay for new equipment and trips to places like I've mentioned above. But a price tag of $500 dollars is just rediculous! Once we start these trips (maybe to Chicago next year) the students will have to pay anywhere from another one to two thousand dollars, and thats not even counting smaller trips to California or New Mexico we take a few times each year at another $300 dollars a piece. I can understand the reasoning behind this band fee, and personaly I think it's a great idea if it could work. The thing is, we don't live in a rich area, if it cost $500 to be in band next year, we will loose 70% of our ensemble. |
When I was in H.S. Marching Band was a extra curricular activity and if we couldn't afford a trip we would find an alternative.
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This next subject is on the marching band. For the last 25 years, our school has been know as what is a "corps show school". I'm not to much into marching band, so I'm not to comfortable talking about this subject and I'm not really sure what is ment by a "corps show", but the thing is, he and the staff has compleatly changed it, they are starting a new kind of show (they got the idea after attending a competion in southern california where we saw a compleatly new styl of show). Now, I'm fine with change, it might be a good thing. But the problem is that none of the students liked this new style of marching band, it just dosn't seem like a marching band to us. But that is what the show is going to be next year, even though all the kids hate it. So I suspect that the marching band will loose another 20% to 30% of its students next year.
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This happens all the time. I remember when I was in H.S. we did plenty of shows we thought we wouldn't like. Once we did them we liked them...
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My third and final complaint deals with written assignments. I understand that the district has new requirements, and all classes have to have some of these typs of assignments, for example maybe writing a short biography on a famous composer or something like that. But he's taking it to far. Basicaly, he wants us to analize every aspect of each piece of music we're playing and write an essay about it. Now, this is a fine asignment for maybe one of our pieces, but keep in mind each group is playing 5 or 6 peices, and many students (including myself) are in all 3 ensembles. This is about 15 pieces that I have to analize. He expects us to put in 4 to 6 hours of work on this assignment for the week. And yes, thats just this week, G-d only knows what he will expect us to do next week.
Maybe I'm not thinking clearly, but in my opinion, I just think the time would be better spent practicing our horns...
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IMO that's not too much to ask for. 1 hour to 45 minutes a day? I knew kids that would spend 4 - 6 hours a day doing homework and still extra curricular activities.
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After the last couple years I had at my highschool I never thought I would say this, because we have such an amazing music program, but I am so relieved to know that I'll be going off to college next year and won't have to deal with this anymore.
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I hope you're not looking to be a music major... If you can't keep up with a H.S. band director, some changes and some assignments then college is going to be tough... Also in the gigging world I've had to do gigs that I didn't like. Both for musical reasons and personal reasons.
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I'm just awfuly worried that in a few years the music program will be down the drain, its starting to happen now and none of the staff are noticing it, they believe everything will work out fine, but the truth is the students are just not likeing it, and when it all comes down to it, it's not the staff that make a program great, it's the students....
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What I had to learn in H.S. was that my band director knew more then me... She had been doing her job for 12 years and no matter how bad the situation looked I learned to trust her because she had been through it before....
No matter how much you think you know, your band director is going to do what's best for the music program. After all, it is his job and unless he really hates it I don't think he would jeopardise it.
And finally, if the situation with the band, and the director and the band booster really bothers you so much then you should talk with them or write a letter expressing the band's feelings and have everyone sign it...
I was never much a complainer in H.S. I always took action. I was fortunate to have a great band director that saw a passion in me to be a teacher someday and she exposed me to a lot of the "behind the scene" stuff.
Trust me, kids only see what's on the outside they don't see all the politics that affect many of the decisions a director might make... So just have some consideration for your band director... Remember, you're watching from the outside in your not that actually "in"...