{"id":10759,"date":"2009-07-23T10:44:42","date_gmt":"2009-07-23T17:44:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bassic-sax.info\/blog\/?p=10759"},"modified":"2009-07-23T10:44:42","modified_gmt":"2009-07-23T17:44:42","slug":"what-ever-happened-to-teaching-musicianship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bassic-sax.info\/blog\/2009\/what-ever-happened-to-teaching-musicianship\/","title":{"rendered":"What Ever Happened To Teaching Musicianship?"},"content":{"rendered":"

I came across a really thought-provoking thread on SOTW<\/a> today.\u00a0 Anyone who studied music more than a couple of decades ago can most likely relate to this statement by the OP:<\/p>\n

As a music education major in the late ’60s and early ’70s the emphasis was on learning musicianship. In private lessons, methods classes, and large and small group rehearsals, we were taught not just the mechanics of playing the instrument, but how to use the instrument as a tool of expression by learning musicianship each step of the way.<\/p>\n

This included learning how to listen, how to be a good ensemble player, how to achieve expression in the music, what tonal quality and style of articulation fits a particular style or genre of music, and the list goes on and on.<\/p>\n

My impression from reading post after post on SOTW is that many teachers just have the students “crank out the scales and exercises” running back and forth around their instrument at breakneck speeds and this is what learning to play the saxophone is all about.<\/p>\n

Perhaps I’m just an old curmudgeon, but flying through technique and scale studies one after another in each lesson all at f or ff leaves little time for development in so many other areas of musical ability. I think we do our students a great disservice by not encouraging, even insisting they learn all musical styles and genres on the instrument so that all of their future musical opportunities and experiences are not limited by their lack of training in other types of music. I strongly believe that musicianship is musicianship regardless of the style of music being played, and if that becomes the goal it will open up countless avenues of musical expression and participation.<\/p>\n

John<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

After carefully reading through the thread I realized that John, and a number of the other posters who had years of playing and teaching experience under their belts, had managed to capture my feelings quite well.<\/p>\n

We live in this world where mediocrity is rewarded, and attention to detail is a thing of the past. Discussion boards such as SOTW are full of questions such as: What sax is better X or Y? What setup will let me sound like artist A? What mouthpiece should I use?<\/p>\n

Coming up through the ranks and learning like the players of the past did,\u00a0by gaining lived experience, seems to be lost on today’s young players. Like someone in the thread said: They just want to be told. Bottom line…\u00a0Youth today seek instant gratification. Given the pop culture world they’ve grown up in, it’s really no surprise. As I’ve said before, it’s like we’re hard-wiring ADD and ADHD right into them.<\/p>\n

I fear musicianship might be one of those dinosaurs hovering on the verge on extinction: just waiting for the ice age of pop culture\u00a0to\u00a0bring about\u00a0 its demise.<\/p>\n

\n
…this is just my blog<\/em>. <\/span> My \u201creal\u201d <\/b> website is<\/span> www.bassic-sax.info.<\/a> If you\u2019re looking for <\/span> sax info<\/strong>,<\/span> you should check it out too.<\/span>There\u2019s lots<\/em> there! <\/span>\n<\/div>\n
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I came across a really thought-provoking thread on SOTW today.\u00a0 Anyone who studied music more than a couple of decades ago can most likely relate …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[90],"tags":[633,646,141,647],"class_list":["post-10759","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-teaching-saxophone","tag-musings","tag-on-line-resources","tag-sax-on-the-web","tag-teaching-saxophone"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t