[TPIN] Adults playing in student productions

[Andy Del]

There are times to let the kids cut loose and do their best, but also some
times where it isn't in their interest to beat themselves up.

Where I currently teach, music staff are contracted to all play in the
school orchestra. This means that we are in attendance at all rehearsals,
will cover parts, and if necessary, perform. I'm lucky in having a good
trumpet section and not needing to play in concerts, unless there are extra
parts, or someone is ill/away/playing rugby/etc. At times in performance
I've played Alto trombone in Beethoven 5, bass trombone in Finlandia, horn
in various things, covered trumpet parts, and even covered oboe / clarinet.
Lucky for me I've done this with a trumpet, flugel and euphonium. You REALLY
don't want to hear me play trombone! (or oboe)

Right now the school is putting on a drama production based on the movie
'The Commitments'. Luckily for me, our first trumpet has risen to the
challenge and is playing the entire trumpet book on his own. Having heard
the band playing in the show, he can be damned proud of his work.

During my high school days I was peeved by teachers playing in student
ensembles and leaving us on the bench. To that end, I didn't play in Zadok
the Priest, Symphony of Psalms, Belshazzar's Feast, Firebird Suite and
probably more stuff I have forgotten. To these teacher's minds, we kids
couldn't cut it, and therefore had to go.

Catch is, when I was engaged to tutor a trumpet section of elementary school
kids and the repertoire was Zadok the Priest (D trumpets with a couple of
high B's and many high A's) I wasn't in a position to say this is more than
they are physically capable of (and it was!). Seriously, 11 years old and
whacking out sustained high B's on a Bb trumpet was not pretty to watch.
Eventually, we were able to compromise and let the kids play, often down an
octave, and I covered the higher stuff on picc.

Cheers

Andy


-----Original Message-----
From: tpin-bounces at tpin.okcu.edu [mailto:tpin-bounces at tpin.okcu.edu] On
Behalf Of Dave Lee
Sent: Saturday, 31 March 2007 9:08 AM
To: Rich Szabo; tpin at tpin.okcu.edu
Subject: Re: [TPIN] Adults playing in student productions


i see both sides of this one....it's certainly ideal to keep this a
"students only" format, BUT the argument can be made that some schools have
a decent enough drama group to put on a musical, but may never have the
necessary talent to do the "pit work" with students only (of course, the
students should never be replaced, only supplemented)....it would be a shame
for drama students to not be able to put on a presentation just because the
instrumental program at that school could not handle the music without
assistance...and isn't that in some way similar to hiring adult accompanists
for solo/ensemble, etc?....just trying to stay balanced....dave lee, austin,
tx

> From: Rich Szabo <rich at richszabo.com>
> Date: Fri, 30 Mar 2007 08:48:35 -0400
> To: tpin at tpin.okcu.edu
> Subject: Re: [TPIN] Adults playing in student productions
> 
> At 06:33 AM 3/30/2007, mike magers wrote:
> 
>> If students are excluded, I think it defeats the purpose, but if 
>> every student who desires to is allowed to participate along side a 
>> few adult parents, I don't see a problem.  I have since rotated out 
>> of the group, but in my childrens' case, the playing parents were the 
>> same ones who were the band and orchestra sponsors.  It was just one 
>> more mentor situation, as you say.<<<<<<
> 
> -------------------------------------------
> 
> This is a major pet peeve of mine.
> 
> When I was in high school back in the dark ages we did not have ANY 
> adults in the pit orchestra. The orchestra was comprised of ALL 
> students. And we had to cut the parts.  Mark Wallendjack can verify 
> this as we went to high school together.  We had some killer pit bands 
> while we were there. Some of the players weren't up to snuff, but we 
> put in the time and sweat to make it happen.
> 
> I think that hiring "ringers" to come in defeats the entire purpose of 
> learning an instrument.  You don't see the football team hire 
> professionals to fill out the front line do you?  But then again, the 
> world has changed.  It's that mind set of instant gratification.  Look 
> at the olympics. It used to be ALL amature athletes. Now we have the 
> entire NBA and NHL as our olympic teams. It disgusts me.
> 
> Stepping off my soapbox and putting on my flame retardant suit.
> 
> Rich Szabo
> rich at richszabo.com
> http://www.richszabo.com
> ==============================
> Zaja Oil & Accessories
> http://www.zajamusic.com
> 
> 
> 
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