Not the actual students who participate, but the program and philosophy behind its existence. The Los Angeles Unified School District Band usually marches in the Rose Parade, and is made up of musicians from (probably) every high school in L.A. So as good as they might be individually, and as good as their home bands might be, they obviously can never have had much time to play together, and the resulting sound is embarrassing. They sound like a group of seventh graders who have just learned to count quarter notes, and who can barely play their instruments. On the other hand, high school bands from tiny backwater towns usually sound great if they can make it to the Rose Parade. Just today I heard Obama’s old school band, who will be in the inaugural, and they sound like the U.S. M. C. Band. They were in time and on key. Every chord was crisp as new-fallen snow and as perfectly intervaled as a Dm9 emanating from a perfectly tuned Steinway piano under the fingers of a virtuoso. But when the L.A.U.S.D. band strikes up, the beat is off, the chords are muddy, and the brasses sometimes bray like elephants. I’m not a marching band alumnus, but I’m curious as to what you think of this if you are, or if you are any kind of musician as I am.
Why can L.A.'s high schools compete honestly, and let the best band march, be it L.A. High, or University High, or Venice, or Lincoln? Or any of the other gazillion schools that exist here? It becomes rather futile when “the best from everywhere in the district” sounds worse than the best of any single high school with a decent music program. School pride and spirit are not always major factors in LAUSD’s high schools, but it’s certainly more vital and important than LAUSD spirit.
To be fair, Obama’s old school (assuming we are talking about Punahoe) is hard-core high-brow. Chances are nearly all of the kids in its band have been taking private lessons from top notch instructors since childhood. And they have no shortage of instruments, quality teachers, etc.
Part of the problem with such “all star teams” is often a case of all cheifs, no indians. When you start collecting the 1st chair trumpet players from a dozen high schools you have a dozen players used to being the example others emulate, not blending in with others. In addition, its not just lack of practice as a group but lack of practice with the material in general.
In Drum Corps, immense amounts of time are dedicated to blend and consistency of attack and release as a group. By the time you get into college, the band members have much more experience and are more likely to be able to sight read a piece better than your average HS will do after a week or two of trying.
Heh. When I was a student in the LAUSD, our “marching band” was made up of about 10 kids, 5 of which were drummers. If any of those folks took part in the all-star band, no wonder they sound like crap.
I took part in a couple of district bands when I was in high school, and we usually had two to three practices of two hours each before the concert. That was enough time to pull everyone together and get the band to sound solid.
Sounds to me like they’ve either got cruddy players or, more likely, a cruddy director.
Same corp as Drachillix - I think I aged out a year or two before he started, if I remember past posts…
It seems to me, too - you get a group of hotshots who are used to competitive band events (unless it’s changed in the mumblemumble years since I graduated) that you’ll get a bunch of kids trying to outplay each other. This accomplished very little except making them all sound like crap.
Drachillix says “example for others to emulate” but I say “hotshot cowboys used to getting all the solos.”
Plus, no idea of the practice time but getting the marching and the music together is no small feat.
Even the bands from those “tiny backwater towns” are not always completely from one high school. I remember reading a newspaper article about the Bozeman, MT, band when they went to the Rose Bowl parade a few years ago. They invited certain students from other, even smaller, nearby districts (that would certainly never ever get to go to the Rose Bowl–I don’t even think most of those schools have marching bands) to travel to the Rose Bowl with them.