Muscle Memory-2

The progress is slow, but there is itsy bitsy improvement every day. After about two weeks of struggling, I realized that everything depends on the muscle memory! Just like athletes practice to be perfect on their performances, playing instruments needs muscle memory, too. When I make really nice sounds, I tried to remember what I did with my lips. When I succeeded on holding a long sound nicely, I tried to remember what I did with my tummy. Of course, the coordination of eyes and fingers are, hopefully, engraved and stored right into my brain.
Muscle memories cannot be accomplished in a day or two. Why do athletes practice every day and what makes them continue the hard training? Think about high school football players. They have common goals as a team and there is a coach to lead them and help them to keep going until they accomplish their goals. If you are in a school band, there is a director to coach you to accomplish the goal. The goal is to play the instruments and make beautiful harmony together.
I should join the community band to play in the near future and enjoy playing as a team member.
I found a resourceful article, A Parent's Guide to Music Lessons by Catherine Schmidt-Jones from CONNEXIONS website. The parents can get information about “when and how to introduce their children to music” at:
http://cnx.org/content/m11640/latest/

Any comment?

Muscle Memory-1

Have you ever seen a very young child played piano or violin? Children can start learning to play these instruments at a very young age. There are small sized violins or cellos for young children. Sound wise, the piano or the key board will not disappoint anyone. That is why we can see very young prodigies of piano, violin or cello.
How about wind instruments and brass instruments? Is there any small flute or trumpet for a four-year-old can play? There aren’t any. The young child isn’t strong enough to handle these instruments. Also, their muscles haven’t matured enough to blow the instruments and to hold breaths to make sounds.
Recently I started learning to play a French horn. I have to learn how to play from scratch. I love to learn new things in the beginning of the second act of my life. I heard that if you do something ten minutes every day, you will be an expert in ten years. So, why shouldn’t I learn to play the French horn? It is really hard to blow and make enjoyable sounds, for the muscles around my mouth do not like to be trained. It has been a long time since the area around my tummy has replaced muscle with fat. It is hard to remember which fingers are related to which notes…

Check tomorrow’s posting to find out my progress.

Band Music Selections 1

I minimize my writing today to let you spend time appreciating a few nice band music selections from the links below. As most of you know, John Philip Sousa (1854~1932), The March King, was a conductor, a composer and a patriot of America. He composed “The Stars and Stripes Forever”, the National March of the United States of America. I have listed this selection with two different performances. The first one is a band while the second one is the same music performed by a girl’s trombone quartet. I applaud the girls of the trombone quartet for their time and effort to make the performance that great. Then at the third video link, you can hear the military medley performed by The United States Air Force Band. And the last is an outstanding performance by a fourteen-year-old trumpet player. She plays Il Silenzio composed by Andre Rieu. This is a very familiar tune for most of us. When you watch a national level funeral, you can almost always hear this tap. The performance of the young trumpet player gave me goose bumps. I believe that you will enjoy this one, too.

Music selections and the links:
John Philip Sousa "The Stars and Stripes Forever"
www.youtube.com/watch?v=znEePD1nJxo
Girls’ Trombone Quartet: “The Stars and Stripes Forever”
www.youtube.com/watch?v=mHw8P8NnUvI
Military medley
www.youtube.com/watch?v=ftqxbUvTWxM
A Girl Playing Taps the Bugler’s cry: Il Silenzio
www.youtube.com/watch?v=H4l3Rgq-L1M&feature=related

To watch the video:
Highlight one whole web address on the list with your mouse. When a blue arrow in white box appears, click it. Then click "Search with Bing" in the drop box menue.

History of the school Band

I was curious. My curiosity for the history of the school band got deeper and deeper when I was planning this blog. Who should get the credit for this great program? There must be someone who planted seeds of an apple tree or an accidental event would have turned into the amazing results. I searched for the history of the school band at Google where only a few sites appeared as search results. Disappointedly, I couldn’t find anything on Wikipedia. I will add the list of the websites I used for this posting at the end.
Is necessity the Mother of invention? Of course the birth of the school band program was not an invention, but I couldn’t help myself remember this quote when I read the articles. The school band movement started in the early 1920’s in the form of the national school band contest. At that time, the venders of instruments desperately needed a new market to sell the instruments. So they created fund of $10,000 donated by Carl Greenleaf of Conn Company to hold the contest. Even though participation was pretty limited, the organizers, the Chicago Piano Club, a dealer’s association, had enough enthusiasm to continue. At the same time, after the WWI, many quality musicians came back home from the war, sought jobs as music teachers and as band directors in high schools. From 1923 to 1931, under the supervision and sponsored by the music instrument manufacturers, the national school band contests continued. At that time the standards for instruments and music for the school band were set.
Even though the contests continued for only a decade, “the momentum it sparked had carried on to this day through the spirit of competition and high standard of performance found in contemporary school bands.”(www.lipscomb.edu)

Resources
The American School Band Movement
http://www.lipscomb.edu/windbandhistory/RhodesWindBand_09_AmericanSchoolBand.htm
A Brief History of the Conn Company
http://people.usd.edu/~mbanks/CONN13.html
A Short History of Wind Bands/Bands in the U.S.
http://cnx.org/content/m14566/latest/

Amazing Band Directors

Band directors are, I believe, one of the most admirable people in the world. Through the year, they teach children how to play an instrument from the start and what must be done at school and at home to play music. The directors also educate their students about individual roles as a member of a big band.
I vividly remember, with an endearing smile, my daughter’s first concert. She was in 6th grade and in Beginning Band. When I arrived at the concert hall ten minutes before the concert began, kids were already in position on the stage busy tuning their instruments just like professional musicians in a big orchestra. Wearing concert uniforms, black pants with white dress shirts, little red bow ties and matching cummerbunds, they looked cute, adorable and at the same time, serious. Frankly saying, I didn’t expect any better quality music than from a talent show at school. Finally, the director appeared on the stage, received applause and turned his back toward the audience. There was absolute silence. They played the “Star Spangled Banner” for the opening. The sound was impressive. The musicians’ attitudes were A plus. Their attention focused on the director with passion to make their music perfect. How could it be possible? I guessed 95% of the Beginning Band students never blew the instruments before the beginning of the school year. More than fifty twelve-year-olds played together beautifully in only nine months.
I don’t know how, but band directors teach how to play woodwind instruments, brass instruments, and percussion as well as how to read music and count beats. There are twelve to fifteen instruments in one middle school band. They require different ways to create sounds and different fingerings. I was amazed with questions that night. But above all those questions, I thanked. I thanked the director, and I thanked to the person who initiated this program in America long time ago.

Share your thoughts!
Please, feel free to leave your comments, experiences, and ideas.

Quality of Life

Let’s look back at our past. Some people had chances to learn how to play instruments when they were young. If parents chose one string instrument for their child, violin or cello, the lesson might be started as young as 3 years old. If a child was an ordinary student, he/she must have a long and lonesome journey of learning how to play well. Sometimes parents switched the instrument from piano to violin or vice versa, because there was not much progress. Parents had to manage all the schedules for lessons and practice sessions for their child, often with frustration. Why did they do that? Maybe parents thought that their child would thank them if he/she could enjoy playing an instrument as an adult. Maybe parents wanted to watch with pride as their child played beautiful music. But, it requires time and patience from parents and children. Money matters, too. However, one thing is certain. Parents loved music. They wanted to do something to help their child learn and enjoy music more than they did. Didn’t they?
The school band program amazed me when I moved to America a decade ago. Middle school students are not babies anymore. Once they choose the band program as their elective, they feel that they are responsible. In their classroom, they learn how to play their instruments, how to read music, and what to practice at home. You don’t have to take them to private lessons unless they want to learn more than they do in the class. They learn, practice and then play many selections in front of an audience at the end of the school year.
Take advantage of it, parents! Why not let your child try for a semester? If your state or county has the school band education in middle school curriculum, meet the director of the band before your child starts middle school. Help your children find joy in music, let them have better quality of life.

What are your thoughts?
Please, feel free to leave comments, experiences, and ideas about American school band.

I Love Music

I enjoy listening to other people play and I wish I could play just one instrument well.

My husband and I raised three children. Each child had music education for several years during his/her school years.  They are all grownups and now I can see the influence of music education in their lives.

The impact was huge. Even though all of my children majored in studies other than music, music has played a big role in composing their personalities. It has affected them making decisions in many areas in their lives.

Music is special.   No matter what kind of environment a child has, growing with or without music would lead the child to different paths.   If I was asked what made education in America distinct from other countries I am familiar with, I would say music education, especially the school band program.

Yes, I am a fan of school band. With three years of experience in middle school band, children can achieve an important life lesson, delayed gratification.  They will learn that practice makes perfection and tenacity leads them to satisfaction, physically and mentally.  They will also learn how important their responsibilities are to the band in order to make music happen. They will experience how their noisy- at -the -start efforts transform into beautiful music in less than a year.

At the end of the school year, you will be invited to their concert. There, you will see, hear and feel what they have accomplished in their band during the year.  You will be amazed at how wonderful the opportunity is that you gave to your children.

I want this Schoolbandmom blog to be the spark to many parents to decide to give their children an opportunity to participate in school band education. I will post my journals from experience as well as information about band education, band instruments, and schedules of different programs that relate to band education through the school year. I wish this to be the place that parents can share the experience, students can get information, and directors can offer advice about participating in this amazing program, school band.

Share your thoughts!

Please, feel free to leave comments, experiences, and ideas about American school band.