bloke wrote:Aren't saxophone and baritone horn the instruments assigned to the band students who place very low on those pre-beginner-band aptitude tests ...??
As a real question, it's kind of interesting. Starting with the validity of the assessment - do kids generally live up to predictions based on their test scores? But anyway, you have a kid who wants to be in band - and likely has an instrument in mind? The least damage instrument might really be the flute, because you can barely hear them whether you want to or not, but (speaking as a former flute player), it might not be a very rewarding choice if your real desire was for example tuba. There's some evidence that such kids are put in the percussion section, but we know the down side of that choice.
When I was inducted into 6th grade band, I don't think we even had baritones? and the story I heard was that saxophone was not an introductory option, you had to learn clarinet first. They would lend you a nice old leaky clarinet for that purpose.
bloke wrote:The post was a troll, but I do believe those two instruments offer the best chances for very early success.
Well, real early, there isn't much hope for any band instrument, but happily you can start a half grown person on a "song flute", some kind of plastic fipple flute that literally does respond to your description - blow in it and get notes out - and yet is a real musical instrument of the woodwind family. I don't know of a brass equivalent.
As most people seem to view "public schools" as a good idea (so they're here to stay) I'd like to see "piano" be taught to as elementary school students as possible...particularly as electronic keyboards w/88 weighted keys and sustain pedal, and wooden stand have dropped below $500. Those who have concepts of "pitches", "note names", "chords", "bass", "melody", etc... have so much less to learn when encountering other instruments.
Accordion goes farther - on one hand you have a piano keyboard, and on the other (literally) you have an education in chords and circle of fifths.
bloke wrote:
As most people seem to view "public schools" as a good idea (so they're here to stay) I'd like to see "piano" be taught to as elementary school students as possible...particularly as electronic keyboards w/88 weighted keys and sustain pedal, and wooden stand have dropped below $500. Those who have concepts of "pitches", "note names", "chords", "bass", "melody", etc... have so much less to learn when encountering other instruments.
In my area the public school starts the kids playing the recorder in 1st grade and the piano in snd grade on electronic keyboards they have in a lab next to the computer room lab.
bloke wrote:All joking aside, more piano-players-I-know-who-started-out-on-accordion are able to play without music (and without ever having looked at "the music") than pianists who only play the piano.
Is that because of the times (most of them are approaching 70 or 80), or because of the nature of the instrument?
I had an uncle that fits that description as professional accordian/pianist. He started on accordion in the '30's and then piano. He was a studio musician in Chicago back in the heydays of the 40's-60's until all of that work pretty much moved to CA. It's too bad the accordian gets such a bad rap these days. At least Cajun and Zydecoe are keeping an interest in accordian alive.
Well, possibly doubling back on the notion of piano instruction in school - how many piano players do you think started with a teacher, vs. accordion players? Maybe something like 90%, vs 50% or fewer? That's where it starts.
But I don't doubt the accordion's left hand Stradella "bass" system has a lot to do with it. Might even help that you can't see it. At any rate it's a simple, logical accompaniment instrument that comes along with the piano keyboard on the other side, so it's very supportive for someone who is trying to work out a satisfactory intro level performance skill on his own, or cope with a jam type situation.
tofu wrote:It's too bad the accordian gets such a bad rap these days. At least Cajun and Zydecoe are keeping an interest in accordian alive.
I think it might be better than that. Not that I really have my finger on the pulse of any kind of music, but my impression of Cajun and Zydeco is more people my age, but many young people are getting a lot of Eastern European influence, and that's about real accordions, not the push/pull diatonics that Cajun music uses. People my age may still remember Lawrence Welk, but maybe younger people think Gogol Bordello.
I'm buying something tuba-related that many of you will think is silly. I'm not going to post about it until I try it for a while and fully form an opinion about it, but at some point I will post about it. That is all!
Played the solo with band "The Mighty Deep" on my 1895 J.W. Pepper Helicon. It went reasonably well. A little hard to hear because of the band shell situation. I had a lot of interest in the horn after the performance. We did use the occasion of National Unusual Horn Day (July 31st) as an excuse to showcase several unusual horns such as my helicon, an alto horn, a Db piccolo, a double bell euphonium, a 1901 shepherd's crook cornet and we even had a bagpipe play.
bort wrote:I'm buying something tuba-related that many of you will think is silly. I'm not going to post about it until I try it for a while and fully form an opinion about it, but at some point I will post about it. That is all!
Why does Microsoft continue to provide us with such a crummy web browser? I bought a new Toshiba with Windows 10 on it last Fall and finally started using it in February. Thought I would give MS-Internet Explorer a chance because they are the experts. Right?
Well... after struggling with slow, crashing programs I went back to Mozilla Firefox. Most of the problems vanished.
GRRRR. I STILL hate Mircrosoft!
You have been updated.
Dan Schultz
"The Village Tinker" http://www.thevillagetinker.com" target="_blank
Current 'stable'... Rudolf Meinl 5/4, Marzan (by Willson) euph, King 2341, Alphorn, and other strange stuff.
Principal tuba, Bel Air Community Band
Old (early 1900s?) Alexander BBb proto-163
1976 Sonora (B&S 101) 4-rotor BBb
~1904 York 3P BBb Helicon
Old Alex Comp.F, in shop
On the way home today, I drove up to an intersection to find that a serious car accident had happened less than a minute before. The injured people were already out of the vehicles and on the grass, and a few other people had already stepped in to help. I pulled over and ran to the scene, I helped calm one of the people and keep her from moving around until the paramedics came (about 5 minutes). Seemed like mostly head injuries, the lady I was helping had a pretty good gash on her chin and seemed a bit out of it. the guy next to me had a bloody gash on his head and was responsive but laying still. The third person was too far away and too emotional for me to tell, but others were attending to her.
Overall, hard to tell how serious the injuries were, but glad that help arrived so quickly, and no one was killed at the scene. The cars were completely wrecked, and although it was bad, it might have been even worse.
This comes less than a week after a rollover accident in my neighborhood, where someone got T boned and their Jeep flipped over. Oh, and I also got rear ended last week stopping (instead of accelerating) at a yellow light.
Scary stuff, you never know what you will run into. Be careful out there, folks.
