The Structure of a School Band

The basic structure of a school band was set during the school band movement in 1920’s. You can refer to my posting “History of the School Band” posted on Nov. 15

I visited Mr. Everette  McConn, the director of Fort Clarke Middle School Band, Gainesville, FL, who taught two of my kids. He kindly explained to me the ideal instrumentation with the pyramidal sound diagram in his white board. According to Mr. McConn, there are no set rules for the instrumentation. If you want a balanced sound band, you want the certain numbers of the instruments in each sound tier. The pyramidal sound diagram and the instruments of each sound tier are as follow. The ideal numbers of the instruments are parenthesized.

Directors want considerably more clarinets than any other instrument in their bands. Clarinet music is divides into three parts for the first, the second and the third clarinet. Clarinets can cross over between the soprano sound and the alto sound depending on the music. Bassoons cross over between the tenor sound and the baritone sound. A total of fourteen different instruments forms a school band. With one teacher, seventy students and their instruments will make beautiful harmony this year, too. Check your local middle and high school bands’ schedules for the Christmas concerts!

                                                 Special thanks to Mr. McConn!



Don’t Forget to Take Your Vitamins!

We all need nutrients to live. We need protein, carbohydrates and fats to make energy. But without vitamins and minerals, our body cannot use that energy properly. To grow healthy, the role of vitamins and minerals is especially important for teenagers. In the education system, I think music is the vitamins and minerals for children.

When you meet a physically and mentally healthy people, do you wonder what they eat for daily nutrients to keep their health?  You may not. However, when you meet successful people in their professional fields, you may wonder what made them as they are now. Did their parents have visions for their child’s future? Did the children have wonderful mentors in their lives? Sometimes I have seen talk shows where famous people talked about their youth. If they are famous, loved and admired by public, I used to wonder about the secrets of their success.  I found that many of those successful people share a musical background.

Many renowned scientists, doctors, Nobel Prize laureates play at least one instrument well. I admire Dr. Schweitzer, a German medical doctor, who opened a hospital with his own money in Gabon, west central Africa, in 1913. He also was a philosopher and an organist. Hence, when he was out of medicines, went back to Europe, gave organ recitals to raise funds, bought medicines and then returned to Africa to make his dream come true. I was twelve years old when I read his biography and thought his life style was so fantastic. Now I am a mother of three children, and I wonder if it was possible to take music away from Dr. Schweitzer’s life, would he have been the same person?

You can find many famous people, in different professions, who were in the school bands or can play instruments in the following websites:

http://mukwonagobands.blogspot.com/2009/06/break-your-band-geek-stereotypes.html

http://musiced.about.com/od/famousmusicians1/a/famouspeople3.htm

If you remind your kids to take vitamins every day for their bodies, care for their intellectual vitamins, too. Add music to enrich their lives!

Do you want to share your thoughts?  Please leave your comments.