Travesty!

I was a sophomore Saxophone player in the Platteville High School band.  Our band director thought it would be a good idea for me to play a 12 bar “improvised” solo in an arrangement of “Woodchopper’s Ball” that we used to play at basketball games.  I had no idea what to do, but our student teacher from UW-Platteville did.  He wrote out a 12 bar solo for me to play. (I still have the manuscript!)   I played that “improvised” solo for a year or so and then ventured bravely out on my own, with admittedly mixed results.  

Later, that student teacher hired a seventeen year old Saxophone player to play jobs with his band.  That allowed me not only to make some extra money throughout the remainder of my years in Platteville, but also to come in contact with a lot of interesting older musicians from all around the tri-state area.

Thus began my acquaintance of almost 50 years with Paul Hemmer; the beginning of many musical adventures.

Paul’s employment as Executive Director of Dubuque’s Grand Opera House was terminated Tuesday night at a meeting of that organization’s board with no explanation except the usual vaguaries about “the future direction” of the GOH and a canned statement from the president of the board with the obligatory “we wish him well”. (Can’t you just feel the sincerity!) 

When I was similarly “blindsided” three years ago, it was Paul who offered not only support and advice, but lots of playing opportunities at the Grand Opera House, allowing me more musical adventures with talented musicians and actors young and not so young.

One long-time, prominent Dubuque resident, who unlike many board members actually attends everything at the Grand Opera House,  commented to me just last night.  “Paul breathed life into that place” At the very least, someone should say “Thank you” to Paul Hemmer for:

1. providing a wide variety of theater experiences at the Grand in an attempt to broaden the attendance base;

2. making the best possible effort to “turn around” the dire financial status of the Grand Opera House which he inherited;

3. making the Grand a venue the entire Dubuque community and the tri-state area can be proud of;

4. providing a lot of work for area musicians;

5. and most of all, for providing through the High School / College All-Star summer musicals, the Grand Pops Orchestra, as well as his work with area high school students, opportunities for young musicians and actors to learn their art.

If the leadership of the Grand Opera House has any collective ‘brains” at all, they won’t allow these experiences to go away, but it won’t be the same without Paul.  I know that he too will “land on his feet”  but the whole unfortunate business is, for lack of a better word, a travesty!

I (ain't) Got Rhythm!

I (ain’t)  Got Rhythm!

I still remember the “Smith – Yoder – Bachman” lesson book I got with my brand new, shiny Martin Alto Saxophone in the 5^th grade!  In it, we learned fingerings for the first few tones we were to produce, and then…… a page of whole notes and whole rests!! We were instructed that “a whole note “gets” four beats and a whole rest also “gets” four beats.  Subsequently, we were instructed that a half note (and half rest) “gets” two beats and that two of them is equal to one whole note…  etc. etc. 

Set aside the mind-numbing boredom of this approach to learning rhythm, I am convinced after three decades of teaching music and even more of playing music, that people learn to perform with rhythmic accuracy (if they do at all), only in spite of this approach rather than because of it!

I was a student at the University of Wisconsin – Platteville, when a “new” approach to rhythmic learning emerged.  It was based on the work of Professor Edwin Gordon and was being developed by James Froseth who was then at the UW-Madison.  It dared to suggest that maybe we have this “backwards” and that the missing factor in this whole “mathematical” approach to rhythm was the actual concept of a “beat” or “pulse”  It dared to suggest that until a student has the actual physical experience of a steady pulse, (the “heartbeat” of music) and then builds further concepts by combining these pulses to create longer tones or dividing these pulses to create shorter tones, that any actual rhythmic learning is impossible (or, as I have suggested, accomplished by “accident”)!  It went on to suggest that until a student is able to experience this “pulse” through large muscle movements, as practiced by something as simple as marching around the room to a selection of music, he/she will be unable to successfully “refine” this experience to the smaller muscle movement of fingers and tongue.  This “organic” approach to rhythmic learning was not really new; but it was the first time that it had been systematically applied to learning instrumental music.

Thus, the initial pilot version of Froseth’s  “The Individualized Instructor – Sing, Drum and Play” was developed.  Thomas Dvorak, another UW-Platteville graduate, was teaching at the time at McFarland, Wisconsin and was involved in testing the early versions of this “method”.  Professor Dvorak went on to a nationally recognized career from which he has since retired, as the Director of Bands at UW-Milwaukee.  Richard Grunow, still another UW-Platteville graduate who went on to establish and lead a program of music education at the famous Eastman School of Music in Rochester NY, was also involved in implementing the Gordon-Froseth approach in its early days.

Neither of these distinguished music educators were “ivory tower theorists” but had witnessed the practicality and success of this approach in actual application through years of teaching in public schools.

This method used terminology that was “new” to publications of this kind.  The concept of pulse was known as “tempo beats” and those divisions of the pulse as “duple and triple meter beats”.  For example, rather than the traditional cerebral approach to learning “eighth notes”, students experienced  the concept through such activities as clapping or tapping steady pulses (tempo beats) while singing  familiar (at least then) songs like “Yankee Doodle” for duple meter beats, or “Row, Row, Row Your Boat” for triple meter beats.  Rhythmic learning then grows organically from these basic concepts. 

We all “learned” at some time that 6/8 meter “meant” that there were six beats in a measure (a “measure”?) and that an eighth note “gets” one beat.  This new approach established a tempo beat, represented in this case by a dotted quarter note, and had the student experience the division of the pulse into three equal parts (“Merrily, Merrily, Merrily, Merrily”) and learned the equally common pattern of quarter-eighth in the same way (“life is but a dream”).  So the eventual (and much more realistic) concept is that 6/8 usually  means that there are 2 beats in a measure and the dotted quarter note represents the “tempo beat”.  Teaching of “cut time” also becomes so much easier: the student “transfers” the concept of duple meter-beats (“Yankee Doodle”) into a version in which the tempo beat is represented by a half-note and the duple meter beats by quarter notes – it sounds the same – it just looks different!   Other terms adopted in later incarnations of this approach substitute the terms “macro beats” and “micro beats”.  Whatever the terms, the approach remains the same:  physical experience of a steady pulse forms the basis of all rhythmic learning.

The original Froseth series also involved included similar “organic” approaches to the melodic aspects of music learning by recognition of tonal patterns in major and minor tonalities, based on another term coined by Gordon; “audiation”.  A series of supplementary books included page after page of actual songs employing the basic concepts introduced in the method.

So, why after over 40 years hasn’t this innovative and practical approach to music pedagogy been more widely used?   That’s a difficult question to answer, but probably begins with music educators’ reluctance to “re-learn” something in a manner different from which it was originally “learned”.   Another factor, in my opinion, has to do with the non-musical factor of marketing.  The “big-box” music publishers have over the years come out with slick publications that included lots of “bells and whistles” and became the “leading” (that is; best selling) pedagogical publications, not so much by virtue of their substance but of their style and familiarity.  A much better and more practical approach is possible. Music educators just have to look a little harder to find it!

The state of the "art"

My friend and fellow band coach, Todd Richmond is retiring after this school year. Todd, besides being a great guy (and a die-hard Cubs fan!) is one hell of a great teacher. He has taught music, both instrumental and vocal in Darlington WI for the past 28 years and has had one of the most consistently fine programs in this part of the state.

The thing is, he didn't really want to retire yet. He probably would have liked to teach for a few more years, but his job was cut to 81% ! So we can can put another "face" on the carnage of the Budget Repair Bill. This program which is thriving and has served the young people and community of Darlington so well for so long is deemed to not be important enough to be "full time". It's just another example of an attitude that relegates teachers, and especially teachers of "non-core" or "extra curricular" to second-class status in the general scheme of things. But after all these years, the ignorance that defines music education as "non-core" or "extra curricular" is still prevalent!

In his email to his colleagues and parents of his students, Todd, in expressing concern about finding a replacement willing to take an 81% job, said "I know there are better teachers out there.." to which I can only reply "I don't think so!!"

Good luck TR!! Darlington is losing a great teacher!

"Ding, dong............................"

We like to put a face on evil. When Hitler ran rampant through Eastern Europe, then into France and bombed England it was easy. In post WW II it was harder to find this “face”. Khruschev seemed more like a slightly cranky Grandpa. It was the idea of communism and the threat of nuclear annihilation by some anonymous Soviet general pushing the wrong button that had us scared out of our wits. I’m old enough to remember “duck and cover” and fallout shelters. Heaven knows Joe McCarthy and Nixon tried to put “faces” on this evil, and became a national embarrassment. By the time Ronald Reagan stared down Mikhail Gorbachev in Iceland the threat seemed downright innocuous

Enter the new “faces” of evil…….. Ayatollah Khomeini, Saddam Hussein, Muammar Khadafi (then and now), and the ultimate villain Osama Bin Laden, our ally in driving the Soviets from Afghanistan. WE GOT HIM !! Cue the Munchkin chorus!

The talking heads, each eager to have been the “first” to report the great news, speculate as to what effect this may have on the terrorist agenda. It may slow them down temporarily, but ultimately Osama will become a martyr, like the hijackers of 9/11. There are those, I imagine, who will refuse to believe he’s dead, just as there were those who believed that Hitler didn’t die in the bunker and that Elvis is still alive.

We are naïve if we fail to see that our foreign policy is complicit in this hatred toward our country that we struggle to understand. Where will we go next in our “war on terror”? We can no longer afford to be the “policemen” of the world nor to engage in “nation building”.

Anyway he’s “gone where the goblins go, below, below, below……………”

"you should start a blog"

Someone once told me, “you should start a blog”. I guess it’s the new “letter to the editor” for people who feel the need to expound on one subject or another. I can’t imagine who would be interested in reading the disparate thoughts of a musician, teacher, or whatever other “box” I want to put myself in, but anyway.... here it goes! I’m going to start off with a little satirical piece I actually submitted to The Instrumentalist magazine: they weren’t interested!

The Solution

I don’t know about the rest of you Band Coaches out there, but I’m having a tougher time each year getting students to commit to the time and effort necessary to insure the high-quality program we’re used to in my school. If I try to schedule a rehearsal of some kind before school in the morning I’m often told something like…”can’t make it – I have to lift.” It took me a while before I realized that what they were talking about was the requirement by the other coaches that they spend time in the weight room; and this is not just for football, but for cross country, volleyball, soccer, swimming and golf! GOLF!?

The idea of scheduling something after school in the afternoon is equally futile. In our school, (particularly in the fall and spring) by the end of the school day a good share of the students are gone; already on the way to the day’s athletic contest. If they’re not, they are tied up in practice sessions, usually until 6:00 at least.

How about evenings? By the time we try to put a few concerts in the calendar on the few days when there are no athletic events, there’s no time for such frills as rehearsals.
We have student-athletes (don’t you love that quaint little euphemism?) that leave school with the team before the end of the day and don’t get back sometimes until after midnight, only to start all over again the next morning at 8:00; nodding off in Algebra II by 10:30. Then it’s off to some not-so-near location where they are involved in private club sports: you know; year ‘round volleyball, basketball, softball or something else. Thank goodness for Red Bull!!

But I think I’ve found a solution and I’d like to run it by the rest of you Band Coaches out there. Last winter several of us Band Coaches were commiserating over the free hors d’oeuvres at a band festival when the idea came up: “Maybe we should start “Third Grade Club Marching Band”?! We had a good laugh and went back to commiserating, but later that night I laid awake thinking: “this is an idea whose time has come!”

Why third grade? Most schools around here start the kids on the traditional band instruments in the fifth or sixth grade, but the few schools left that have string programs tend to start students in the fourth grade. We’re going to get the jump on them! Why should they spend all this time trying to figure out fingerings, embouchures, breathing techniques, positions and all that when they could actually be out on the field or street competing against other band-teams and maybe actually winning something!?

How do we get started? You remember Harold Hill in “The Music Man” don’t you? We start by convincing the parents that this will be an ego-boosting, character-building, exciting experience for them. (The students I mean……..who did you think?) Then come the uniforms, the shiny instruments, the colorful flags for a few selected girls and the promise of travel on REAL CHARTER COACHES (no yellow school buses for us), complete with DVD players, reclining seats and uniformed drivers. We hire a staff: specialists in all areas of performance, including assistant coaches for physical training, counselors (for the whiners) nutritionists, and life coaches.

How are we going to pay for all this? One word……… SPONSORS! What self -respecting community enterprise wouldn’t want to get in on the ground floor of this exciting activity. If we’re lucky we’ll get a local bank or insurance company (they have all the money) to underwrite the whole venture. If it all falls flat, then they’ve got a nice tax write-off.

But don’t we have to actually teach these kids to play and march? Well, yes I suppose we need to do that, but let’s not get the cart ahead of the horse!

I hear you ask: “Aren’t third graders too young to be subjected to such pressure?” Nonsense! Let’s not pamper the little darlings! The sooner they learn that life is hard and that only the strong survive the better off they’ll be. They’ll thank us all someday for this valuable life lesson!

Now, understand that not every kid will be up to the challenge. How do we select those who play/march and those who don’t? Through an intense pre-season tryout program we will be able to see right away who’s got talent and who doesn’t. Those who “don’t have it” will be weeded out soon enough. Better a few disappointments at an early age than having them live with the delusion that they “have it”!

To those soft-hearted types who whine about “letting kids be kids” I say “Get over it!” Think of all the time we wasted as kids going outside on a sunny summer morning, getting some friends together to play baseball. We’d choose up sides, throw down some markers for the bases, figure out where the foul lines were and start playing. We might play for a couple of hours, nine innings, or until the pitcher’s mom sent his little sister to tell him to come home. We didn’t even have uniforms a lot of the time! How much better off would we have been with proper equipment, uniforms, a “regulation” field and adults to teach us the correct techniques for “WINNING”?

Just imagine the impact of “Third Grade Club Marching Band” on your band-team program. By the time they’re in 5th grade when others are struggling through “Hot Cross Buns” or some boring classical ditty, your kids will be seasoned performers ready to kick some other band-team’s butt! By the time they’re in the 7th grade they will have earned a reputation as band-team to be feared! By the time they reach High School……. well who knows?

But, you ask, after all this: “What if they don’t win?” Well it is true that for every winner there’s got to be a loser. But if we do a good enough job, we can teach them the valuable lesson so nobly stated by our patron saint here in Wisconsin that “winning….. is the ONLY THING!” After all, are we Packer fans or what?! If we can’t “buy in” to that simple idea then we had better be prepared to be replaced by another Band Coach who can take our band-team to “the next level”.

Anyway; what have we got to lose?



Rob Shepherd lives in Wisconsin and has been a Band Coach for over thirty years. When not coaching, he plays the Saxophone and the piano, occasionally for money but admittedly sometimes just for fun!