New Scores for a New Band

Good morning folks,


It's been a busy two days full of score writing for Transcona. I've spent the past few days going over all my old music deciding where my style has come from and trying to get back there.

I remembered back when Bob Cooper was instructing Transcona we used to have these set scores for parade music, so into the binders I went looking.

This caused me to pause.

These scores are tough!!!!

Groovy little numbers that would be at home in a grade 4 competition circle. Have we watered down pipe band beginner standards that much? It occurred to me that young guns like myself (when I was 14) and others like Dave Bowman, Colin Pollock, etc. who showed quick progress were still on pads for awhile before we could play this stuff. Nowadays kids are pushed onto the drum quickly to appease anxious parents and kids with attention spans equivalent to say.. the common fruit fly (this is an inside the Two Rivers corp joke you're now all in on).

Don't get me wrong, kids these days have a great ability to retain information. I love my students they're all pretty cool kids. But teaching has changed quite a bit. Getting the information to them is different, not harder, just different.

I should describe my parenting experience with Jake. We signed him up for soccer when he was 5. He was given a uniform the first day, told he wasn't allowed to touch the ball with his hands, and pointed in the direction of the opposing teams goal. That was his education and he was playing.

Angie took pictures, grandparents came, it was a big deal! All in one day....

Now let's look at new drum pad students. First day, you are sat down, hopefully you have sticks and a pad that you didn't get from the local music store but a highland supply place. You are shown the basics of grip and if you can handle that you are sent home with single strokes on a page to practice.

This lasts for about two weeks then you are given a beginner roll sheet, maybe paradiddles. It goes and goes. If you're excellent you might see a score in two months. Kilt and drum are a year away minimum.

This puts all the pressure on the instructor. It is up to us to make sitting at a table hitting a piece of rubber, and being nitpicked, fun enough to stick it out.

This is why my beginner scores are significantly easier, I can put more players on drums sooner. Flams, drags, long runs, these don't exist in my beginner scores. But it causes another problem, getting kids past the easy scores once they've achieved the goal of being "good enough to play drum".

With the new scores for Transcona I've cranked it up a notch. Ryan and I are looking to have two tiers of band again like Mr. Lawrence used to. Parade will be high level grade 5 from drumming perspective, and competition will be aimed at a decent grade 4 level.

Then I'll tap dance, video game reference, joke, make funny faces, voices or whatever it takes to keep the kids at the table long enough to learn the stuff.

Get out and teach somebody but remember, you're 60% entertainer these days, 20% mentor/role model, and 20% instructor.


Cheers

Sean