I recently found out from my brother what my old high school was playing for District Music Contest, and for their spring concert. They are playing a couple of classics, like Trombone King, and a couple of newer ones like Synergies and the movie music from Pirates of the Caribbean. Now, one piece that they are playing, Fall River Overture, pushes the limits a little bit as it is a slower ballad type song that really needs focus on intonation. But here's where I get to my point...none of this music is very hard as far as technique goes. Sure each has its own challenges, and you have to know what to program for your band. I can't help but think back to when I was in band with the same band director though. We were pushing the limits and playing grade level 4 music then, which for a local high school band in my area was doing pretty good. Now, with the same director, the band has regressed back to its old self and has stopped trying to perform to their best abilities. My brother is about fed up with it. He says that they have high school drummers that can't read 6/8 time. These same drummers have been taught by the same band director from 5th grade up, so to me it seems that somewhere along the line they are not getting all of the education they need. To me, this seems to be a serious problem, and one that we hear about all the time. What we need to think about as future educators, is that eventually we will be put into these same shoes and have to take over a band. Don't get me wrong, there are many great directors out there that have outstanding bands. But there are also many that have mediocre directors and students that just don't care. So I think it is up to us future music educators to take the initiative. We need to turn around this problem that is starting to spiral out of control. We need to do our best to practice, and become the best musicians that we can be. We need to set high standards, not only for our students, but for ourselves, so that we don't fall into what Dave called the "homogenous cesspool of mediocrity". I think I can speak for all of us when I say that to us music means everything...so why should be allow ourselves to expect less than perfect? Music is the one subject in the public school system that expects perfection. You can get a 94% on a math test and still pass the class with flying colors, but if you only play 94% of the notes in a piece of music correctly, it will sound horrible. We need to impress this idea on our students, as well as ourselves, that good enough is never good enough. Otherwise the critics will be right, and there won't be a place for music in the public school system, because its meaning will have diminished to a point that will become unrecognisable. And it all comes down to how much work you are willing to put in yourself. Cus lets face it guys, we aren't all signing up to be music teachers because of the great pay check, so we need to look for something more for fulfillment. And it all starts now, by putting in as much work as possible on ourselves, so that we have the skills necessary to later in life teach those who haven't developed them yet.

Well, I played my solo for studio on Friday. It was immediately apparent that it wasn't quite where I wanted it to be, but also thinking back to when I got the solo, it went a lot better than it had been going in practice. I learned that I can't just forget about the fundamentals when I get a little nervous, and that I need to make sure and breathe. But my range is getting better, at the beginning of the year the D above the bass clef staff was hard to hit, now I'm working on the F above and the D is coming out a lot better than it was. So I guess even though it didn't go as well as I wanted it to, it still went a lot better than it could have, and I just need to keep working on it and learning more about playing in the process.

This week I found out that I was accepted to play at the Intercollegiate Honor Band on percussion. I was incredibly excited when I found out. Percussion is where I got my start in music, and while it wasn't what I wanted to play at first, I grew to like it a lot. This led me to practicing, and it looks like now all that practicing has payed off. Now, this being a blog for a low brass studio, most of you are probably wondering why on earth I am taking low brass lessons when I'm a percussion player in band. This concept gets even more perplexing when you find out that my primary instrument as a music major is voice, not percussion. I am a big believer in diversity in everything you do. My grandpa was a jack of all trades kind of guy, he worked as a grocery store owner, theater owner, electric lineman, plumber, and nuclear silo builder. Quite a vast covering of jobs. He also ran for senate I believe. And its that way of living that I have kind of taken as my own. That's why I'm working on getting a K-12 Field Endorsement for music, so that I can teach anything music related at any level. But its more than just music. I also have a great desire for farming, ranching, and gardening practices. My family has always had some kind of something growing, whether it was a large orchard, a garden, or bucket calves for 4H. We were always doing something in that line of work. Granted my dad is a parts manager for the local John Deere in Neligh and grew up on a farm, but its also very interesting to me. I've done a couple experiments with hydroponics (and no not the plants you guys are thinking, we used tomatoes). I am also a big fan of permaculture, and for those of you that don't know what that is, I will attach a video at the end that I found. Needless to say, I love music, but there are also lots of other things that interest me. So if there is some other field of study that you think you might enjoy, even if you don't want to get a degree in it, maybe take a class or get some books on the subject. You'll be surprised at what you can learn and apply to every other area of your life.

Well, I felt pretty good after my lesson today. Not to say that I don't feel good after every euphonium lesson, but I think that some of my practicing has been paying off. I worked real hard on articulation and on high range this last week, and I am finally starting to feel comfortable with higher notes. I'm still just beginning so my high range isn't anywhere near what a good euphonium players should be, but for me it was quite a leap above where I have been.

Catch ya later,
Eric

p.s. Here's as awesome video on why everyone should listen to Classical Music.

Here is a video I found of Evelyn Glennie on how to listen to music not just with your ears and mind, but to experience it with your entire body. An interesting concept to be sure, and one that might be worth trying out and researching.