On "Creating Musical Flexibility Through the Ensemble" by Brandt Schneider

Brandt Schneider's article   on creating musical flexibility promotes the idea that band students should be learning how to be well-rounded musicians.  He makes the point that because of the way band and orchestra are usually taught; students end up being limited in their musical skills.  The typical high school band conductor is only interested in giving a piece of music to the students and having them read it and learn how to play it.  Mr. Schneider points out that there’s a lot more to music than just playing the notes on a page.  He argues that students should be learning not only how to read, but how to transpose, play by ear, and compose.  He focuses on four specific skills, which are musical discipline, technique, theory, and composition.  The way he defines these skills in the article however, makes me believe that they could almost have been simplified even further into one skill:  theory.  If a student is to develop into a musician that can learn something by ear, know many different tunes by heart, transpose a piece of music on the spot, improvise, and compose, then they have to have a strong foundation in theory.  The student actually has to know why the notes she is playing work and the piece sounds like it does, as well as how all of the different parts fit together. 

            This is something that I certainly never learned when I was in school playing in the orchestra or in my private cello lessons.  It’s kind of amazing how little theory “needs” to be taught when teaching someone an orchestral instrument.  I thing what Mr. Schneider is really saying in his article is that classical musicians should learn the same skills that jazz musicians usually learn.  A jazz musician is expected to know a bunch of standards by memory, have the ability to transpose, improvise, and have the ability to learn music by ear.  A classical musician, especially one at the high school level is really only expected to be able read music and play his instrument.  It’s quite a discrepancy, and I agree with Mr. Schneider that it really shouldn’t be this way.  Learning these skills would help a high school band student have a greater understanding of music and be a better musician.

            This isn’t to say that just reading and playing your instrument isn’t incredibly important.  I actually think that the technical aspect of playing an instrument is the most important thing in determining whether someone is a “good” musician.  Someone could have a lot of theoretical knowledge about how music works, but if she doesn’t have the ability to get a good sound on her instrument, then she can’t be considered a good musician.  Learning the skills that Mr. Schneider discuses in the article certainly can make one a much better musician.  In fact you can argue that to be a great musician, one needs to be able to do all of those things.  However, I think the baseline for just being “good” is the ability to be technically proficient enough to play the notes on the page musically.