By Dave Babbitt – Special to the Sydenham Current
This week I’d like to write for non-musician readers.
Have you ever been to a concert of any kind, watched a concert DVD, or listened to a CD and thought, “I wish I could do that”?
It would be difficult for me to accept that anyone wouldn’t want to participate in making the music that the world loves to listen to—and genre doesn’t matter.
I’ve been involved in making music in one form or another for 57 years now, and I don’t plan to quit anytime soon. I’m addicted.
If one has never been a part of the music-making process, it’s not possible to understand the intrinsic rewards it provides—and an audience isn’t required to experience those rewards.
While making music for income purposes has never been my motivation, I can’t say that I’ve never been remunerated for my musical activities. But if earning money is not my motivation, the question would logically be, “Then why DO you love making music so much?”
My answer is easy and simple: it feels good. And I can’t help but think that every musician started out that way.
I’ve always maintained to new students in my classes that if I could bring them to the point where making music feels good, I wouldn’t need to hound them to practice again. Making music that feels good is addictive, and once on that path, one cannot be stopped.
The great thing is, when it happens there is no need for an audience or someone to tell you that your music sounds good. You will feel it—and you won’t quit.
Some will go on to develop very proficient music skills and find a way to parlay those skills into a “paying gig,” but honestly, I’m not that skilled.
Today I’m asking those who have never pursued music in some form, yet wish they had: why haven’t you? You don’t have the first clue what you are missing.
When the Wallaceburg Concert Band was started in 2016, a call went out for anyone who had any past experience playing a wind instrument and would be interested in picking it up again.
As readers know, the call was answered resoundingly, and the WCB has been a success story without peer.
That is—at least the most visible and popular element—the senior level of our program. Honestly, we have a top-notch band.
When starting the band, we were also aware of the fact that if we didn’t develop a development or “feeder” system, the band would have a limited shelf life.
It was imperative for us to create a “learn-to-play” level as well as a “get back to playing” initiative to help get former musicians back up to speed. And as with many new and novel things, we had great success in the early going.
When something is successful, there is usually no need for any deep thought or analysis. One simply continues on that same path that has led to success. But when something fails, it requires analysis and rethinking.
That is where our Learn-to-Play program sits today.
In being honest, we have not met with much success in retaining young people in our attempts to train them. We’ve encountered far more success in working with adults than young people.
In introducing new people to the world of wind instruments, I am always honest: success only comes with effort and requires an investment in time. But if one sticks with the process long enough to experience music that feels good, they won’t quit.
So why has our Learn-to-Play program not met with the success we had hoped for?
This has taken some contemplative thought and analysis, but we’ve been able to come up with some potential answers.
Firstly, our program has come at zero cost to the participants—and when no financial investment is required, it is easy to walk away if interest wanes or the time investment becomes too great. No investment, no loss.
Secondly, I believe that we’ve concentrated on people who simply aren’t old enough to understand the commitment required, expect instant gratification, and are busy simply being kids.
While no financial investment by any of our students has been required, our band’s financial investment has been significant, and when someone quits, we are then the owners of an expensive instrument that is no longer being used.
We’ve actually been criticized for providing instruments and instruction for free—where everyone else pays for their piano, guitar, or voice lessons.
Unfortunately, the world has come to the point where when something is free, it is seemingly accompanied by the thought that it must be “unworthy.”
While our WCB attracts very large crowds, we fight that same attitude because we do not charge an admission fee to our concerts. Many have still not attended one of our concerts simply because it is free.
While attempting to train young people and then retain them has not been the success story we had hoped for, working with adults wanting to learn has been more successful—and we’d like to try that again.
Mature individuals generally have more patience, are more focused, and we don’t lose them when basketball, baseball, soccer, or hockey season starts.
The reality is that success often doesn’t come quickly on wind instruments, and we want adults who are motivated to learn and willing to give the process some time.
So what does it take to learn to play a wind instrument? Patience and perseverance are the most important requirements.
While there are some academic and physical requirements, one need not be an athlete, nor a Rhodes Scholar. A bit of hand-eye coordination and basic understanding of fractions will help.
One needs to learn some basic music theory, and despite my well-documented dislike and fear of music theory when I was in school, we only present theory on a need-to-know basis. It need not be feared, and we start from scratch—assuming one has never studied music.
We will provide you with an instrument, teach you how to assemble and handle it, start you on the journey to make a quality sound on a wind instrument, and read music notation.
Last season, we did not offer our Learn-to-Play program as we re-thought our approach to it.
If you are mature enough to understand that learning to play a musical instrument is a process and not an event, have some patience and are motivated to learn, and respect our time and monetary investment, we’d love to welcome you to our program this fall.
Our ultimate goal is to get you to the point that making music feels good—and as I suggested, I’ll never need to ask you to practice again.
If interested, please e-mail me at Trumpetguy1@yahoo.ca as we will only offer the program if numbers warrant offering it.
