< 5.Do your students like musical instruments? >
Do students in bands like musical instruments?
Do students in bands like music?
I've been wondering about this for a while.
I asked students at various schools (including junior high school), it seemed that very few band students had heard (seen) an orchestra play on TV (or of course live).
Is it because they think that bands and orchestras are different?
Are students in bands interested in musical instruments?
I heard recently that the beginning of a German flute textbook for young children has a blank page for students to draw a picture of a flute themselves. The purpose of the page is to increase students' interest in the flute by carefully looking at it in order to draw it.
Do students notice that the mouthpiece they play has numbers and letters on it? Drum sticks also have model numbers. What numbers are they? What is different about the numbers? Why are they different?
This may lead to interest in mouthpieces and sticks, and they may take good care of them and practice them often.
Have you ever talked about this with your students?
There are probably some keys on woodwind instruments that students have never touched before. Why does it have this key? Wouldn't this also spark their interest?
Have you ever shown your students an instrument catalog?
For example, a trumpet catalog has pictures of various trumpets.
The trumpet we usually use at school is a Bb trumpet (top left), but the catalog will also show trumpets of different lengths (keys). Some of them have pictures of rotary trumpets (bottom left).
In the flute catalog, there are not only silver but also gold ring keys.
In the percussion catalog, there are many different types of snare drums, and sticks with different tip shapes and lengths.
Shapes of stick tips
There are various ways to wind the tubes of French horns and tubas.
In the clarinet catalog, there are pictures of alto and bass clarinets. This will be inspiring for students who have only ever seen a Bb clarinet.
By showing students things like this, I think they will become more interested in musical instruments.
It seems that even junior high and high school students often do not know famous players of the instrument they are practicing, have never heard them play it, or do not know famous pieces for that instrument.
I asked students at many schools, for example, students who practiced the clarinet in a band for three years in junior high school and six years in junior high and high school, but had never heard Mozart's concerto or even heard Benny Goodman's name. For years, they must have only played wind band parts. Doesn't this mean that even if they spend a lot of time practicing, they are only enjoying a small part or one aspect of the clarinet?
I think it's the same for other instruments.
With just a little encouragement from the teacher, your students may develop an interest in instruments, music, and performance. If students has listened to and practiced a lot of musics and feels that nothing else is interesting except for band music, then there's nothing that can be done about it, but I think it's important to be mindful of how you teach your students and not confine them only to band music.
< 5. Do your students like instruments? >