New Mexico March

[TubaRay]

We seem to be getting off topic, but I'd still like to add a comment to the sidebar. I have been known to complain bitterly over some choices for music.

The problem for me lies in two areas. One: Entertaining music doesn't have to be poorly written. Two: The same pieces don't have to be played every season. A little variety can really help. Secondly, music selection needs to take in to account, both the audience and the band. Music of the appropriate difficulty and that is well-written, but not too often played, can be both entertaining to the audience and enjoyable to perform. This can be true, even for guys like myself, who are accustomed to being paid to play, but join an amateur group for the purpose of getting to perform good, regular concert band literature. In my opinion, everyone who performs needs to be paid with at least some regularity. When I am being well-paid, I will play just about anything you want to hear. I even play the Chicken Dance. When I do not receive money, I feel a need to be paid with satisfaction in performing the music. Pure crap is pure crap. What is my motivation to perform it? The only one I can think of, is because the audience likes it. That can be enough for me, if I feel that proper attention has been given to the needs of the band members.

[TubaRay]

In my opinion, everyone who performs needs to be paid with at least some regularity. When I am being well-paid, I will play just about anything you want to hear. I even play the Chicken Dance. When I do not receive money, I feel a need to be paid with satisfaction in performing the music. Pure crap is pure crap. What is my motivation to perform it? The only one I can think of, is because the audience likes it. That can be enough for me, if I feel that proper attention has been given to the needs of the band members.

It's all a balancing act. Letting the pendulum swing too far either way will be a dissatisfying experience all around.

I can agree with that.

[scottw]

We seem to be getting off topic, but I'd still like to add a comment to the sidebar. I have been known to complain bitterly over some choices for music.

The problem for me lies in two areas. One: Entertaining music doesn't have to be poorly written. Two: The same pieces don't have to be played every season. A little variety can really help. Secondly, music selection needs to take in to account, both the audience and the band. Music of the appropriate difficulty and that is well-written, but not too often played, can be both entertaining to the audience and enjoyable to perform.
Excellent case in point: when performing with one such band at a community band festival [where we are each other's audience], the big number was TV Comedy Classics, another junior HS winner from Paul Murtha. For other community bands! That same piece might do for some concert-in-the-park stuff, but come on!
When I do not receive money, I feel a need to be paid with satisfaction in performing the music. Pure crap is pure crap. What is my motivation to perform it? The only one I can think of, is because the audience likes it. That can be enough for me, if I feel that proper attention has been given to the needs of the band members.
That is the point---when you play crap after crap after crap, you really have to fight --successfully--what ppalan thought I was implying, that you would not play it as well as you could because you didn't like the piece. Yes, you need to please your audience, but we need to be fed something of substance, too.

[Rick Denney]

We seem to be getting off topic, but I'd still like to add a comment to the sidebar. I have been known to complain bitterly over some choices for music.

The problem for me lies in two areas. One: Entertaining music doesn't have to be poorly written. Two: The same pieces don't have to be played every season. A little variety can really help. Secondly, music selection needs to take in to account, both the audience and the band. Music of the appropriate difficulty and that is well-written, but not too often played, can be both entertaining to the audience and enjoyable to perform. This can be true, even for guys like myself, who are accustomed to being paid to play, but join an amateur group for the purpose of getting to perform good, regular concert band literature. In my opinion, everyone who performs needs to be paid with at least some regularity. When I am being well-paid, I will play just about anything you want to hear. I even play the Chicken Dance. When I do not receive money, I feel a need to be paid with satisfaction in performing the music. Pure crap is pure crap. What is my motivation to perform it? The only one I can think of, is because the audience likes it. That can be enough for me, if I feel that proper attention has been given to the needs of the band members.

Yes, yes, yes, yes. The purpose of a community band is to provide satisfying musical experiences for the community. Here's the important point: The members of the group are part of the community. They provide a service to their audiences and to themselves.

The notion that those who are not paid in dollars are paid in satisfaction is critically important. Some musicians are satisfied to play hack middle-school band arrangements. I will play them from time to time. But I have quit community groups that tried to play down to audiences. I've quit even more assertively when the group tries to play down to the weakest members of the group. Important Point No. 2: This was true even when I was one of the weakiest members of the group.

Community groups that play schlock usually focus on their social interaction. I'm the president of my band and I don't even know everyone's name without having to think about it. Our social interactions are friendly, but we are there to play music. Even when I struggle to remember a person's name, I can state with clarity what sort of musician they are, as they can with me. Those are the groups that provide satisfaction to me. And I think a commitment to musical growth and satisfaction is what keeps a band envigorating year after year. We pay our music director, and the only guidance we give him about literature is a budget and the instruction to put music on the stand that provides something interesting for the best musicians in the group. The weakest members will get strong, or at least learn how to contribute as they can without doing harm. For the most part, they get better at both and the band improves. Everyone feels good.

It is also my observation that any group performs to a certain level based on its talent. A premier military band might be a 99 o4 100% band--they achieve that much of the music's potential, perhaps. Our community band might be a 75% group. Some might be 50% groups. My observation is that groups hit their level no matter what is programmed. If the music is challenging but satisfying, everyone practices like the dickens and feels the glow of accomplishment hitting their level with tough music. If it is schlocky crap, nobody is motivated to pull the instrument out of the case between rehearsals, and the level is attained but without providing any satisfaction.

I've seen groups succeed and survive, and I've seen them fold. Some that fold had grand objectives but pushed too hard, and some that survive play the same schlock to the same elderly audiences and family members. There is a balance there, but it should always lean in the direction of what satisfies the musicians.

Rick "who has played the Chicken Dance for money, too" Denney

[Rick Denney]

But you have to give the audience what they want as the band helps fund it self through paying public gigs.

Says who? Did you ask them what they prefer?

A volunteer group must please itself first. If the volunteers are unmotivated, the product will be flat and the audience will remain unmoved. If the volunteers are motivated by mediocrity, the good players in the group will wander away, and mediocrity is all that will remain.

There is plenty of fun music that is not a crappy arrangement of the theme music to I Love Lucy.

Rick "thinking a group demonstrates success when the top local musicians play there along with the novices and dedicated-but-untalented amateurs, not just when the coterie of blue hairs write a few checks" Denney

[JCradler]

I imagine that if your were stuck in the regular canon of Sousa material year in and out, this might be a welcome diversion.

Uh, no. Played it on tour in N.M. last year, gimme some "Gallant Seventh" any day. There's usually a reason stuff doesn't get out much...