US School bands going British?
Posted: Thu Sep 01, 2016 10:19 pm
Sorry if this is long winded. Skip the first 2 paragraphs to get to the meat of the discussion.
Tonight I was at high school football game between two medium-small East Tennessee schools. Even though I have not really played tuba since high school, band is still near and dear to my heart. At halftime, 2 bands took the field, and I was somewhat disappointed. While there were many talented students on the field and much hard work had gone into preparing the shows, the size and instrumentation of the bands was somewhat lacking. The bands probably had 50-75 players each. One of the bands was only able to field 1 saxophone and 1 euphonium/baritone.
This seems to follow the trends for most social activities aside from Pokemon Go and Facebook. I am a math teacher, and the coaches and fine arts teachers that I work with often complain about how they can’t get talented students to come out. Good athletes will often quit sports to “focus on their grades” only to find out a year later that these students are still academic under-achievers, and they spend their free time playing video games. The same is true for music programs. My once proud Alma Mater boasted a near 300 piece marching at its peak 20 years ago. From what I have heard, we now put far less than 100 and probably closer to 50 musicians on the field each fall Friday night.
Start reading here if you don’t want to read my long winded opining of the “good ol’ days.”
After seeing these two bands I thought of a possible way to boost the quality and community support for small and mediums size schools in communities that do not have a great tradition of supporting the arts. Here is the question I propose:
Would it be viable for high schools in the U.S. to have British style brass bands during concert season and to field drum corps style marching bands? (Of course the British style instrumentation could carry over to marching band with a few modifications that mostly involve getting the bells of the instruments to point towards the stands.)
Pros (in my far less than expert opinion):
-Volume!-Brass instruments are louder and more likely to get the attention of a half interested former jock reliving his glory days on Friday night.
-Instrumentation-There would be fewer potential instruments so the lone sax player wouldn’t get lost in a sea of mellophones. Also, bands could own and maintain a fleet of matching instruments with similar pitch and tonal tendencies. Furthermore, if this was done in the true British style players would know the fingerings and basic mechanics for nearly all instruments, except for the trombone and percussion. This would allow for much smoother transitions should students need to switch instruments.
-Quality of instruction-Band directors would focus on teaching sound brass technique and mechanics to the group. Music educators would not have to worry about woodwinds of various reed configurations.
-Cost?-It might be cheaper to maintain a fleet of brass instruments that are all put to good use. A band could partner with a local instrument retailer to rent decent playing instruments of tank like durability. Most high school band rooms I have seen contain at least a few seldom used and obscure woodwind instruments such as a contrabassoon or English horn alongside an abused flugelhorn and tuba or 2 that nobody wants to play.
Improved performance quality and sonic effect would hopefully increase the interest of the common football spectator. This would hopefully increase community support for bands.
Cons:
Violation of tradition-Some might scoff at the lack of piccolos and saxophones on the field.
Cost?-Perhaps the cost of maintaining a fleet of brass instruments would be more expensive.
Loss of instruments-If schools were to follow this model woodwind instruments could become more obscure. (However, I am proposing this only for certain schools. Larger schools or schools in communities that draw more students into the arts could very well stick with the status quo.)
Decreased sonic variety-Bands would be operating with a decreased pallet of timbres.
So, what do you think? Is this a viable way to save or improve some high school bands? Is there enough literature so support such an endeavor? Is anybody doing this and what have the results been? What else is there to consider?
Tonight I was at high school football game between two medium-small East Tennessee schools. Even though I have not really played tuba since high school, band is still near and dear to my heart. At halftime, 2 bands took the field, and I was somewhat disappointed. While there were many talented students on the field and much hard work had gone into preparing the shows, the size and instrumentation of the bands was somewhat lacking. The bands probably had 50-75 players each. One of the bands was only able to field 1 saxophone and 1 euphonium/baritone.
This seems to follow the trends for most social activities aside from Pokemon Go and Facebook. I am a math teacher, and the coaches and fine arts teachers that I work with often complain about how they can’t get talented students to come out. Good athletes will often quit sports to “focus on their grades” only to find out a year later that these students are still academic under-achievers, and they spend their free time playing video games. The same is true for music programs. My once proud Alma Mater boasted a near 300 piece marching at its peak 20 years ago. From what I have heard, we now put far less than 100 and probably closer to 50 musicians on the field each fall Friday night.
Start reading here if you don’t want to read my long winded opining of the “good ol’ days.”
After seeing these two bands I thought of a possible way to boost the quality and community support for small and mediums size schools in communities that do not have a great tradition of supporting the arts. Here is the question I propose:
Would it be viable for high schools in the U.S. to have British style brass bands during concert season and to field drum corps style marching bands? (Of course the British style instrumentation could carry over to marching band with a few modifications that mostly involve getting the bells of the instruments to point towards the stands.)
Pros (in my far less than expert opinion):
-Volume!-Brass instruments are louder and more likely to get the attention of a half interested former jock reliving his glory days on Friday night.
-Instrumentation-There would be fewer potential instruments so the lone sax player wouldn’t get lost in a sea of mellophones. Also, bands could own and maintain a fleet of matching instruments with similar pitch and tonal tendencies. Furthermore, if this was done in the true British style players would know the fingerings and basic mechanics for nearly all instruments, except for the trombone and percussion. This would allow for much smoother transitions should students need to switch instruments.
-Quality of instruction-Band directors would focus on teaching sound brass technique and mechanics to the group. Music educators would not have to worry about woodwinds of various reed configurations.
-Cost?-It might be cheaper to maintain a fleet of brass instruments that are all put to good use. A band could partner with a local instrument retailer to rent decent playing instruments of tank like durability. Most high school band rooms I have seen contain at least a few seldom used and obscure woodwind instruments such as a contrabassoon or English horn alongside an abused flugelhorn and tuba or 2 that nobody wants to play.
Improved performance quality and sonic effect would hopefully increase the interest of the common football spectator. This would hopefully increase community support for bands.
Cons:
Violation of tradition-Some might scoff at the lack of piccolos and saxophones on the field.
Cost?-Perhaps the cost of maintaining a fleet of brass instruments would be more expensive.
Loss of instruments-If schools were to follow this model woodwind instruments could become more obscure. (However, I am proposing this only for certain schools. Larger schools or schools in communities that draw more students into the arts could very well stick with the status quo.)
Decreased sonic variety-Bands would be operating with a decreased pallet of timbres.
So, what do you think? Is this a viable way to save or improve some high school bands? Is there enough literature so support such an endeavor? Is anybody doing this and what have the results been? What else is there to consider?
)
