| All this talk about 12 scales...there are 15 scales, 12 fingering patterns. Splitting hairs, really, but that's how it is. I feel very strongly about giving the kids all the goods, the right way.
If we don't test our students, in one way or another 88, then we don't really know what they know. Your assistant director was testing...you just didn't know it.
We need to tailor our instruction on a per-student basis. If I have a student who is interested in a career in music, his/her level of instruction is quite a bit different than the kid who just wants to be in band "because it's fun". We can make scale learning fun...it is possible. But what to do with them when we finally have our kids who know 15 scales. The application of that is what makes learning them worthwhile. Why move the woodpile for any other reason than to move it? Why know 15 scales? Because your music demands it. Because your vocabulary requires the knowledge and use of specific words (keys). Because the world is not in the key of Bb concert, thank goodness. Why should a percussionist know a lesson 25 or swiss army triplet? Because it's their vocabulary. Those are the tools that enable successful music reading ability and minimize frustration.
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-Glenn
"Roses have thorns; shining waters mud. Clouds and eclipses stain the moon and the sun; and history reeks of the wrongs we have done. After today, after today, consider me gone."- Sting |