Instruments for elementary schoolEr

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  • Norton

    NRA Endowment Member, Rifleman
    Staff member
    Admin
    Moderator
    May 22, 2005
    122,856
    I went through this with 3 kids. There is a store/rental called Menchy's. You can rent to own and any repairs will be covered. You can end at any time and trade in.
    My son started with the trombone and now excels at the guitar. He plays for hours every day.
    Give them a shout.

    Menchey's are good people.

    Honestly, Music and Arts though a huge company, does a great job.
     

    Biggfoot44

    Ultimate Member
    Aug 2, 2009
    32,884
    Not true that it holds you back ? May well not . True that experienced non- orchestral players will commonly so advise ? Indeed they do .
     

    Norton

    NRA Endowment Member, Rifleman
    Staff member
    Admin
    Moderator
    May 22, 2005
    122,856
    Not true that it holds you back ? May well not . True that experienced non- orchestral players will commonly so advise ? Indeed they do .

    Not the ones that make the big money. If you can't read a chart or at least a lead sheet, you're not getting called for as many jobs as you could.

    It's like saying you're only going to play classical guitar. Good luck with that.
     

    Lloyd

    Ultimate Member
    Mar 20, 2012
    1,106
    FEMA Camp
    My son wanted to play the f*cking harp. In order to learn the harp, you need a f*cking harp. He has been taking lessons for 8 years and is pretty good. It might be good for a scholarship, so his harp teacher says. We spent $10,000 on a f*cking harp.

    But I'm sure it sounds majestic in your house.


    .
     

    miles71

    Ultimate Member
    Industry Partner
    Jul 19, 2009
    2,522
    Belcamp, Md.
    Ask any pro, or pro level, or nearly so, rock,country, blues , or bluegrass player , and 90% can't read music .

    Most common advice from above , is to the general effect of " get rid of that written music stuff , it's just holding you back " .

    Nope, not at all. Reading is one of the most important skills in the music world today.
     

    marko

    Banned
    BANNED!!!
    Jan 28, 2009
    7,048
    It might be good for a scholarship, so his harp teacher says.
    I agree 100%. Sure, start on clarinet, but move to oboe or bassoon, you might land a partial scholarship
    Buy ear plugs for that kid violinist - I mean for yourself.
     

    trickg

    Guns 'n Drums
    MDS Supporter
    Jul 22, 2008
    14,598
    Glen Burnie
    When it comes to reading music, I think it depends on the kind of gig you want to get. If your overarching goals as a musician are to hack your way around the bar-band scene, then not reading music may not hinder you.

    However, if you want to excel past that, you NEED to know how to read something - tabs at the very least, but also lead sheets.

    As a drummer I can read drum charts - it takes me a while to get used to dealing with reading multiple things on the line because as a trumpet player I'm used to just reading a single line of notes - but for the songs I'm having issues learning due to complexity, I have a shorthand I use to chart parts out so that it's easy to read, and it allows me to hit the transitions and the parts as needed until I get the tune a bit more in my head. This includes adding things that talk about quarter, eighth, and sixteenth notes, rests, measures/bars, rests, dynamic markings (crescendo, decrescendo, etc) - all of those are terms that come from charted music, even if my shorthand isn't actually "music."

    I know that my career as a musician is not the most illustrious of the folks who frequent this board - there are some stellar musicians who post here. However, I can tell you that if I wasn't able to read music, I wouldn't have spent the years I did in active duty Army bands. You have to be able to read because you never know what's coming your way - it was not unusual to be mostly sight-reading something totally new on the gig.

    I mentioned last night that I have a brass quintet gig on Saturday for a military ceremony. We won't get a chance to rehearse as an ensemble and we haven't seen each other for 6 weeks. We will roll in, pull up the charts, and go - our ability to read music is what allows us to do that.

    I can also tell you that in my work over the last 20 years with the wedding band, reading is essential - everything is charted and we use backing tracks to fill out voices and lend consistency. It also allows us to have a book of roughly 1000 charts. There are over 700 charts in the trumpet book - not every song has a horn part. When we play a gig, literally nothing is off the table. If there's a special request and it's in the book, we'll play it. I can't tell you the number of times we got some oddball song call (we call songs on the fly - we don't use set lists) and it has literally been years since I've seen the chart. That extensive song list also allows the client to hand-pick every song they both want to hear, and it allowing them to pick a "do not play" list. For those gigs the bandleader might send out a list of tunes, anywhere from 60-100 usually, that the client wants us to choose from. There may be some exceptional musicians out there who don't need it, but for the rest of us mortals, without the ability to read, there's no way we could do that.

    I've never felt that reading music held me back at all as a musician. I feel that it opened doors and opportunities for me that otherwise would not have been available.
     

    Antarctica

    YEEEEEHAWWW!!!!
    MDS Supporter
    Sep 29, 2012
    1,728
    Southern Anne Arundel
    Sorry you had such a bad experience Antarctica, but any quality program will teach the students more than just the music you are playing.
    TD

    ?? I had a fantastic experience with music and playing, not sure what made you think it was bad. I came up through a fantastic band program and learned a ton. Played through six years of college afterwards, Blues Alley youth orchestra, etc.. It was all fun and certainly kept me out of trouble, and with a cohort of kids that were much more focused and studious than the general populace of my high school. I will definitely encourage my kids to participate. But I have also tried to make sure they are exposed to instruments that they can enjoy on their own after the 'band years' end, and life takes over, and its harder to find outlets to play. They'll also learn a ton more about music theory and 'how it all works' with something like guitar (or piano).. We certainly didn't get that out of playing complex symphonic works or jazz standards (or even modern jazz pieces).

    Things like modes, chord progressions, etc. are far more applicable and useful on
    guitar (even if you aren't composing) than you're gonna encounter on a writen page...
     

    Norton

    NRA Endowment Member, Rifleman
    Staff member
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    May 22, 2005
    122,856
    My son wanted to play the f*cking harp. In order to learn the harp, you need a f*cking harp. He has been taking lessons for 8 years and is pretty good. It might be good for a scholarship, so his harp teacher says. We spent $10,000 on a f*cking harp.

    i have to hire harp players a few times a year. They make bank.
     

    marko

    Banned
    BANNED!!!
    Jan 28, 2009
    7,048
    Yeah, in college orchestra they HIRED harp players for the few songs we needed them on.
     

    Bob A

    όυ φροντισ
    MDS Supporter
    Patriot Picket
    Nov 11, 2009
    30,691
    There's such a thing as aspiring musicians being "paper trained". They can only play what's written in fromt of them. Some are pretty good, but it suppresses the joy in many ways.

    Think about expressing yourself vocally, for example. You first learn to make sounds, then turn them into words, then learn more words. Only then do you learn to read words on paper.

    The same paradigm holds true for music.

    "Practicing" music is not "playing" - playing implies exploring, enjoying sharing the experience with friends, and often, joy. "Practicing" can bring improvement of skills and some satisfactions, but it misses a lot as well.
     

    trickg

    Guns 'n Drums
    MDS Supporter
    Jul 22, 2008
    14,598
    Glen Burnie
    "Practicing" music is not "playing" - playing implies exploring, enjoying sharing the experience with friends, and often, joy. "Practicing" can bring improvement of skills and some satisfactions, but it misses a lot as well.
    I’ve told many young musicians that if they watched me practice that they’d be bored out of their wits - much of my practice is working technique and technical drills.

    As a musician you have to figure that just about everything you play is comprised of combining a handful of basic techniques - it’s the ability to execute them that’s the key to making music. Ideally you get to the point where you no longer have to think about the physical act of playing the instrument, and that’s what allows you to be expressive musically.
     

    Jim12

    Let Freedom Ring
    MDS Supporter
    Jan 30, 2013
    33,876
    Subscribed.
    Formerly, potentially famous future trombonist.
     

    Antarctica

    YEEEEEHAWWW!!!!
    MDS Supporter
    Sep 29, 2012
    1,728
    Southern Anne Arundel
    There's such a thing as aspiring musicians being "paper trained". They can only play what's written in fromt of them. Some are pretty good, but it suppresses the joy in many ways.

    Think about expressing yourself vocally, for example. You first learn to make sounds, then turn them into words, then learn more words. Only then do you learn to read words on paper.

    The same paradigm holds true for music.

    "Practicing" music is not "playing" - playing implies exploring, enjoying sharing the experience with friends, and often, joy. "Practicing" can bring improvement of skills and some satisfactions, but it misses a lot as well.

    There's a lot of truth in this^^^^^^
     

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