The Musician

For most people, this time of year is marked by a holiday in nearly every religion but for the few, the proud, the band teacher, this time of year is the end of semester concert season.  I’ve gone to a couple of my private student’s concerts and, of course, had my own high school concerts to prep for and played in a couple concerts myself.  One thing that cannot be overstated, at any level of education or performance, is that all these programs need more money.

I went to the concert for my old high school.  I went there for four years, taught there for four years and continue to teach many of the students in the program privately.  The band director made an announcement that a very large company had given them a $500 grant and the crowd cheered and he mentioned how much they need the money.  Really?  500 bucks is going to help that much?  As it turns out, with the slashing these programs have taken in this economy, that 500 dollars makes a huge difference.  This particular district has cut music at the fifth grade level effective this year meaning, soon, a high school freshman will only have three years of playing experience under their belt, effectively destroying the high school program which demands a certain level of proficiency to be able to compete in the fall season.

I’m not going to bore you with all the grim details of how teachers are getting laid off and the remaining teachers are having their slashed salaries supplemented by band booster programs or how none of these programs can afford instrument repairs, new music or, in some cases, copies and paper.  But what I will bore you with is how you can help.

Unless you’ve been living in a cave for the past two decades, you know that a number of studies have, repeatedly, shown the importance of music education in a young persons life.  Test scores go up, math is easier learned, and the social benefits to belonging to the largest club on campus can never be truly measured.  The majority of “band kids” look back on those years as the most fun, important times of high school and count their bandmates as life long friends.  It was band that led me to my wife!

In my high school years, if I remember correctly, the band and color guard consisted of about 145 people or, roughly 12% of the school population.  What other club can claim 12% membership?  None.  What other teacher on campus can claim that they have a class with 145 students every morning, every Saturday, every Wednesday night and that this class goes unchanged, except for freshmen replacing graduates, for four years?  None.  I’m not saying that band is the most important extra-curricular activity but when it comes time to slashing funding, why do they always pick the one program that services the most students at the least cost? 

Sports are important too and I’m not going to engage that debate but try telling the school administration that your band isn’t going to football games anymore and they will blow a gasket.  At the school I teach at, the band is expected to be in uniform at every football game, perform at every rally, and we have to send a pep band to every basketball game and, as a private school, we are often asked to perform for mass services and other ceremonial events.  Clearly, it is viewed with great import to have a music program in the school so why, then, are so many districts insisting on slashing these programs? 

If you’ve ever been in band, take a few minutes to write a check or ask your company to give a donation or donate your own time or services to help these guys out.  The teachers are stretched thin, often having to teach at their primary school and several elementary schools, with hardly fair compensation for their time.  It is so important to keep these programs alive, to continue to inspire kids to learn about music, to refine their education to include arts, to support the sports and theater groups on school and, in cases like mine, to teach a skill set that is marketable and specialized for a life long career.

I’ve gone on long enough but let’s not also forget that community colleges and state universities also fall victim to these budget cuts and their programs are suffering as well.  I play in a night band at a local college where a brand new, beautiful theater was just completed (built with money received when the economy was booming) and they don’t have any money to actually mount shows.  Does this seem right?  These aren’t performance groups out of some guys garage, these are schools, institutions for education and the foundation for our society.  If you’ve elected a representative that signed off on any budget cuts to any educational program, change your vote next time around and, like I said above, support the local music programs in your area.  It’s as simple as going to the concert and dropping five bucks at the ticket window.

Please, help.

In a previous post I wrote about my distaste for people who think that “you don’t like it because you don’t understand it”.  There is another dimension to this dementia that is, “I don’t like it, so it sucks.”  I get so tired of hearing people say, “you like so-and-so, but they suck!”  Hey there, fella, next time you have an opinion, keep it to yourself.

Movies, music, television, fashion, even politics are all littered with critics who feel it their duty to tell you what sucks.  A more constructive review would be, “I don’t like it because the lyrics don’t make sense to me,” or, “I didn’t enjoy the performance because the band played below their ability” or, “I don’t like rap because the subject matter and execution of expletive emancipation is both foreign and offensive to my ears.”  But, no.  The answer is always, “I don’t like them because they suck and you suck for liking a sucky band.”

It takes all sorts of bands to fill an iPod.  I’m not a fan of Emo music but I understand that there is an audience of people who don’t think it all sounds the same and that the recordings are compressed to the point of causing ear fatigue.  Much to the same, I do enjoy jazz and fully understand why some people don’t want to listen to Monk play the most dissonant intervals possible on the piano for 8 minutes at a time.  I get it, so why can’t you?

In the same vain, I also can’t stand the word sellout.  Nobody got into this business to be homeless.  Nirvana didn’t sell out when they got big, they did the same thing they always did and got a lot of attention and grew their fan base but if Cobain was really against being a part of the corporate machine, why did he ever commit a song to tape?  A sellout, to me, is when someone like Johnny Cash puts out an album that sounds like Britney Spears, may they both rest in peace.  That would be selling out because it is an obvious attempt to simply sell albums but going on tour, signing a record deal, selling a million records, winning some awards, and snorting imported cocaine does not make you a sellout, just a savvy business person.

As a musician, I do have a fear of being one of those acts that a few people like but everyone else hates.  Maybe that is why my own recordings are never finished and I’m constantly tweaking them and redoing them instead of finishing them, putting them on iTunes and letting Joe the Plumber decide whether I’m good or not.  I worry that my guitar playing doesn’t show off that I can play guitar, I worry that my vocals don’t show off that I can sing (in my case, studio vocals have never sounded as good as live) and I worry that my songs are too steeped in old influences to be relevant in today’s marketplace.  Then I hear bands like The Rosewood Thieves that have taken every trick in the book of 60’s rock and made it the contemporary sound.  Do they suck to the majority of people? 

Next time someone says, hey, do you like Soundgarden, avoid the knee jerk reaction of saying, no, they suck and give a more thoughtful response and never question somebody for liking a “sucky” band.  There’s a market for every style and while I may not respect the music, I can respect the people that made it and marketed it and made a dime or two off of it.