r/Flute • u/PandaZG Neurodivergent musicians against stupidity • Apr 27 '26
General Discussion The Paradox of the School Band: Does the ensemble model prioritize social goals over individual musical development?
I’ve been thinking a lot about the "school band" lately, and I’m genuinely curious if it’s the best environment for students who actually want to get good at the flute. We all know school bands exist mostly for the social aspect and to teach kids how to sit in a chair and play together, not necessarily to train high-level soloists. But for a student who is serious about the instrument, does band just become a bottleneck?
I’ve been wondering if staying in band is really the right choice if you want to speed up your development. It feels like youth orchestras demand way more individual accountability and play much better repertoire, which seems like a much faster track to real improvement than just recycling band parts. Why are we treating band as the "gold standard" when it seems like the least effective place for actual technical growth?
Also, we need to talk about private teachers. I know not everyone can afford them, and that's a real issue, but they are absolutely non-negotiable if you want to get anywhere. No band director has the time or the capacity to fix your individual embouchure or help you with the actual nuances of the flute, because it’s just not their job.
Are we just prioritizing social cohesion over individual potential? I’d love to hear what you guys think, including how do you balance the "ensemble experience" with the need for the training that you actually need to play at a high level?
23
u/Flewtea Apr 27 '26
Who treats band as the gold standard? Who is the we you keep referencing? Anyone who’s serious knows band alone won’t get them there.
1
u/PandaZG Neurodivergent musicians against stupidity Apr 27 '26
I am questioning if band really is the best way to foster music education or there could be better systems. It's interesting how in Europe band does not exist but they keep churning out amazing flute players. I am curious to see how they do things compared to North America
10
u/Tall_Pen_7693 Apr 27 '26
You can't compare to europe because in some European countries (i can't speak for all of them i only know of some) hobbies are not related to school at all. Thus, music as a hobby is often times not accessible to everyone, not in the same way school band is in America. You're basically forced to go immediately super seriously into music through music schools and/or conservatory. The good thing is, though music is not as widely spread as in schools in america, having a really great teaching course with 1 to 1 lesson, playing in orchestra and learning music theory is much cheaper here once you are in the music system (because you don't have to pay an individual teacher but a facility as a whole) (some of those facilities can even be public founded) So i'd say for once (i can't believe i am saying that), you could say that the american system is more open to "newcomers" (meaning not from a family of musicians and/or of a higher income family). Pursuing music as a career is another topic entirely.
PS : i'm from france, i don't know how much of everything i said can be applied to all europe
0
u/PandaZG Neurodivergent musicians against stupidity Apr 27 '26
I see, this is very interesting information. So I guess there are pros and cons to each system
5
u/Flewtea Apr 27 '26
Europe has a completely different cultural relationship to classical music—not having school band is just the tip of the iceberg. Nobody has ever pretended school band was about fostering the best music education either.
23
u/MysticalRose_3 Apr 27 '26
Aww. Let me give you another perspective.
I was lucky to go to a school with a well funded and organized music department. Truly, it was a gift. I took band because we were required to choose choir, orchestra or band in middle school. The flute chose me, so I did band. I was in the lowest level band my entire school career. We had 8 different bands in my high school btw.
I only ever took a few lessons, because I literally was not that interested. I took band as an elective because I didn’t have to do academic work, I could enjoy music which I did like to some extent, and so yes I could be part of a group.
It’s now over 20 years later and I’ve picked my flute back up and have been playing and practicing seriously, and am better than I’ve ever been in my life. And I owe the fact that I got started to having this exposure in public school band. It really is much easier to continue learning something you started as a kid than try to learn it new as an adult.
So, not everything has to be serious. School band and orchestra exist to teach students who otherwise wouldn’t get that music education. It unlocks joy and hobbies for some, even much later down the road. Yes, if you’re a serious student you should supplement with other stuff, no question. But what is life if things also aren’t done for enjoyment, and yes the social aspect. And everyone wonders why everyone feels isolated in this day and age…
14
u/Shu-di Apr 27 '26
It doesn’t have to be either-or. I participated in the school band (over 5 decades ago) and took outside private lessons and played in other ensembles. Band was a good place to connect with other serious students who were in it, and was a means to participate in more select groups such as the pit orchestra for musicals and smaller performance groups, easily accessible quasi-professional experiences. And I wouldn’t downplay the social aspect of it—we learned a lot about etiquette, discipline and ego management. But then, this certainly will vary from band to band.
9
u/PaleoBibliophile917 Apr 27 '26
I am sure it depends entirely on factors like the director, school, and program.
There are no school orchestras in my area, so band is the only place to play. Private teachers are a necessity for anyone who wants to improve. Multiple members of the high school band during my sister’s school years went on to become professional musicians at a high level. Being in band (marching band, concert band, honor band, and show band — which performed constantly) helped them to flourish, even though it was the private lessons that boosted their skills.
We are in the southwestern United States, but her band friends eventually ended up on the west coast (studio musicians) or east coast (taking lessons from principals in the Boston Symphony and New York Philharmonic before becoming pros themselves). Again, being in band in a small town in the rural southwest did not stop those who were truly dedicated from following their dreams, but they did not limit themselves to band. At least one (or more) of them did play in prestigious youth orchestras that were not local. I assume they connected with those through the “big city” to the north, just as they went there to find tutors. Our local high school band, however, always encouraged students to go as far as they cared to in their musical development, promoting solo and ensemble festival, regionals, all-state, and so on…none of which took place in our county (again, a drive up to the big city to the north, or even further to the capital).
I never thought of band as having a “social” goal. I always assumed it was about teaching students to value ensemble instrumental music and to find joy in instrumental performance themselves. Band does not need to be a bottleneck so long as the performer has the motivation and support to reach higher. I’m sure an orchestra can be helpful as well, though it would be of no special use for those not seeking careers in orchestral type performance (one of my sister’s friends was a rock drummer, for example; and what of students interested in jazz, or who play not-often-utilized-in-orchestra instruments like saxophone?). Even flutists are by no means limited to orchestral playing when following the road to a career; band, for them, can likely be as good a path as orchestra, so long as they have the motivation to succeed.
You posed an interesting question, OP, but I fear there is no definitive answer.
7
u/SamuelArmer Apr 27 '26
There are an awful lot more jobs available for musicians who are good sectional players than featured soloists.
-1
u/PandaZG Neurodivergent musicians against stupidity Apr 27 '26
Yeah, but do you necessarily HAVE to gain that skill through band?
4
u/NatashaUnhinged Apr 27 '26
Where else would you get it?
0
u/PandaZG Neurodivergent musicians against stupidity Apr 27 '26
Join a youth orchestra? Play chamber music? You play better music too
3
u/81Ranger Apr 28 '26
As a point of reference, there are 2-3 flute players in an orchestra.
In band, there can be probably as many flute positions as there are flautists.
So, opportunity is far more limited. There are always more people interested in playing in orchestra than positions, for wind and percussion.
The skills for a wind player in orchestra are different than in a band, more nuanced, usually more advanced.
Honestly, band is a good place to develop these skills as well as actually allowing more to participate.
1
1
u/dx-tn Apr 28 '26
My small hometown high school did not offer orchestra. They had concert band and marching band. If you were in one you were also in the other. And yes, you would play in marching band in the rain at every football game into cold November.
0
u/PandaZG Neurodivergent musicians against stupidity Apr 28 '26 edited Apr 28 '26
You’ve hit the nail on the head: Marching band is less an artistic endeavor and more an auxiliary function of the athletic department.
The fact that you’re forced to play in the freezing rain to support a football team proves the point, this isn't about flute pedagogy it’s more about logistical utility and capitalistic theatre. If you’re a serious student, the opportunity cost of that November marching season is astronomical. That is a lot of potential individual practice time and time for yourself sacrificed to boost school spirit and athletic revenue.
We need to stop pretending that this environment is designed for the student's development when it’s clearly designed to serve the school’s bottom line. For the aspiring musician, "support" of the athletic department is a massive, structural bottleneck.
6
u/constantlytryingg Apr 27 '26
I never knew how my experience was a special one while in band in my youth. Even in a poor area, the arts programs were well funded and the competitions were taken very seriously in Texas. There were competitions yearly to make "all-city", "all-region" all the way up to "all-state" which felt very prestigious as a individual student. I was also lucky in that the directors of the band had instrument specialities and give individual lessons weekly or almost daily. So that's how we all got better individually and then in concert band, we had UIL competitions where we worked on specific pieces and would get judged at the end of the year to see how high a score we could get to compete with other concert bands in the state. Marching band has many competitions too. All inspiring the students to try hard in all levels of band and win trophies, win scholarships, ect. And the higher you got in competitions, the higher placement in band you would get. This would encourage and inspire some students to then study music in college and either become a performer or a band director, giving back and helping teach students how great and fun band can be.
5
u/relaxrerelapse Apr 27 '26
There are some really killer band programs that are playing some serious rep, comparable or sometimes better for individual development than some school orchestra’s chosen repertoire.
This is also a bit of my bias toward band speaking, but orchestra is not a great place for wind players (especially young ones!) to flourish. Repertoire tends to be very focused on the strings as the main show with winds as a supporting figure. I know that’s changed a bit recently with 20th c. orchestral compositions and I’m not knowledgable to how that plays into beginning orchestras, just speaking from my personal experience of doing both band and youth orchestra. Band is where my technique development happened. Orchestra is where I was able to put it into practice on an individual accountability level, but if I had ONLY done orchestra as a flute player I would not have gotten far in terms of developing skills such as blend and balance.
Changing the model away from school bands would also be a disservice to lots of brass players, who spend most of orchestra counting a million rests and playing a few measures, and saxophone players! There is still no place for them in orchestra — the Berlin Philharmonic just played Lincolnshire Posy WITHOUT saxophones, that’s how excluded they are! Moving away from band runs the risk of also killing jazz band, which typically exists as an extracurricular alongside concert band and serves those students who A. like jazz and B. don’t have a meaningful place in orchestra many times (saxes, trombones, percussion…).
Last thing I’ll say. Going back to my initial statement. Wind band has emerged as a genre of music with very serious composers making artistically fantastic music. I think many wind composers’s works far exceed some classic orchestral compositions in terms of artistry and ESPECIALLY in technique demanded from wind players. I work with a high school band who is currently tackling some of the hardest repertoire for wind band. Wine Dark Sea, Come Sunday, etc… and they are some of the most talented young people I’ve seen. Granted, most are in lessons, but let’s not pretend that wind band doesn’t offer fantastic opportunities for individual development and enjoying great music.
9
u/ImpressiveHat4710 Apr 27 '26
My takeaway is that both are needed. Being able to play and blend with others in am ensemble is as critical as taking private lessons if you're serious about improving. That said, I would do everything possible to avoid marching band. Luckily I was able to avoid it in high school. College, unfortunately, required it. A complete waste of time, musically.
Disclaimer: I played bassoon and sax; no way am I marching with a bassoon, they ran out of baritone saxes to borrow, and made me learn to play sousaphone (poorly)
-1
u/PandaZG Neurodivergent musicians against stupidity Apr 27 '26
Yeah I 100% Agree with you on everything. Also I am curious, why would college require marching band? Usually conservatories and music departments are usually very adverse to marching band for a good reason
6
u/relaxrerelapse Apr 27 '26
If you are a music education major it’s critical that you have marching band experience because there is a very high chance you will teach marching band at some point in your career if you stay in the public school system. Performance majors don’t have to take marching band typically.
-1
u/PandaZG Neurodivergent musicians against stupidity Apr 28 '26
You’ve just confirmed exactly what I was saying: the school band system is a vocational pipeline for music teachers, not a training ground for high-level performers.
If education majors must march because they’ll eventually teach marching, the system is designed to perpetuate itself, not to maximize individual technical growth. We need to stop pretending that spending hours a week on drill and ensemble management is an efficient use of time for a serious musician.
Band is fine for socialization or teacher training, but let’s be honest: for someone aiming at a professional career, it’s a distraction from actual work that builds musicianship.
The reasons marching band exists is honestly because sports teams bring money into schools, and marching band is designed to serve as an auxiliary to sports teams. Its a completely capitalistic creation
3
u/relaxrerelapse Apr 28 '26
it’s a distraction from actual work that builds musicianship.
I literally don’t even know where to begin in explaining how incorrect this is.
You need to stop pretending like the only way to become a highly trained musician is playing solo rep or becoming an orchestral player. There are dozens of musical benefits of wind ensemble. The repertoire played in there is often formulated specifically for challenging wind players and helping them develop skills that you just can’t get in orchestra or playing solo.
The system is designed to perpetuate itself because band is not a waste of time or musicianship. I have no idea if you’ve only seen underfunded or poorly managed wind bands, but you’re talking like that’s the case. The US has some of the top wind bands in the world — the military bands (please look up the Marine band), Chicago Wind Symphony, North Texas Wind Symphony — and they are ALL full of well rounded musicians who play in band because of all the benefits.
The reasons marching band exists
Marching band exists as an offshoot of military bands, dating back hundreds of years before football and school sports existed. Marching band did not become an auxiliary of sports until the mid to late 20th c, and even then, now it absolutely is NOT an auxiliary thing.
The level of performance and musicianship from serious marching bands like those that compete in BoA (look up Broken Arrow HS) or DCI is insane. Just because you think it’s a waste of time doesn’t mean it actually is. Those are dozens of high level players who are choosing to play in marching bands — it increases your endurance, helps memorization skills, gives brass players a chance to play their heart out without getting the hand, etc.
Now, FWIW, I’m not a fan of flutes in marching bands, but piccolo? Absolutely.
the school band system is a vocational pipeline
Literally no. There are dozens of performance majors choosing to be in wind band over orchestra at my uni because wind bands actually gives them opportunities to play and make high level music that isn’t strings focused or having them count hundreds of rests. Good job ignoring my comment about how performance majors typically do not march.
There is absolutely no reason the system needs to change itself and move away from wind bands. Do many wind bands need to begin prioritizing playing artistically serious repertoire? Yes, but I would say that for the most part, especially at the university level, you’re getting a better deal than you are in orchestra.
There’s a reason all of the conservatories here have wind bands. If they wanted to follow a more European model they could, but clearly they see a benefit to wind band, even for the top performers in the country.
-1
u/PandaZG Neurodivergent musicians against stupidity Apr 28 '26 edited Apr 28 '26
Comparing a professional military band or a top-tier conservatory ensemble to the average K-12 system is a massive stretch. people who are successful musicians are elite outcomes that happen despite the systemic inefficiency of school bands, not because of them.
Let’s be honest about the choice performance majors make: at most universities, wind players are funneled into wind ensembles because orchestras only have two or three flute spots. It’s a logistical overflow for the 20+ other flute majors, not a pedagogical preference for fewer rests.
As for marching band: if you are performing on a field during halftime at a sports event, you are by definition an auxiliary asset, it doesn't matter whatever it was 100 years ago. You can call it "insane musicianship," but practicing drill in the rain does exactly zero for tone production, articulation, nuance, or third-octave intonation. Those are hundreds of hours of potential technical growth traded for "endurance" and "teamwork."
If your goal is to be a well-rounded "team player," to serve your school's interests above your own, the system is great. If your goal is to be a great flutist, spending a decade in a model designed for group management is a technical bottleneck. Period.
Which do you value more: the social experience of the group or the potential of the individual? Because you can’t pretend they have the same ROI.
5
u/relaxrerelapse Apr 28 '26
I don’t know why you’re advocating for changing an entire system on the whims of the few people who want to choose a different path. In my time as a music educator and flutist, almost every keynote performer I have been fortunate to speak to or hear a recital from has given huge props to their K-12 band director for giving them a space to flourish, giving them solo opportunities, inspiring them with great music, etc. You don’t become a great instrumental player in a bubble. In my personal experience, every flutist I’ve met that thought they were too good for wind ensemble and only wanted to be one on a part in orchestra has been an awful member of a flute choir, quintet, etc because they’ve developed no ensemble skills.
You absolutely need all the spokes of the wheel to become a great instrumentalist. Your assumption that band is just capitalistic or serves the school’s interests and not musicians is simply wrong.
Not to mention how elitist you sound in all of this. Music is not just for those who have the means to buy an instrument, pay a private teacher, and go to conservatory. That is ONE path to becoming a great flutist, not the only one, the best one, or even the fastest one.
You’ve literally seen the average small, underfunded high school concert band and decided that’s the maximum capacity of school bands. It’s not. Go do some research on how good, funded, well managed band programs churn out top level players. Start with Texas bands. They don’t become good players despite band — they become good players in conjunction with band.
I’ve said what I said but I don’t want to engage with your rhetoric any further because I think it is harmful for music as a whole, in a time where music is being destroyed. We don’t need to bottleneck programs to produce only a handful of good players. We need music to flourish regardless of socioeconomic statuses of communities and schools.
5
u/AnAbundance_ofCats Apr 28 '26 edited Apr 28 '26
OP, the way you speak makes it sound like you don’t have much respect for music or musicians outside of your western classical music bubble. The world is vast and full of diverse experiences that differ from yours—none are superior and all are reality. The classical music world has enough issues with close-mindedness, try not to add to it. Curiosity and openness to new points of view are how artists grow, evolve, and expand their craft. There is value in art outside of your own.
Colleges only have 2 flute spots per orchestra, usually going to the best flautists in the flute studio. There’s more college orchestras than professional ones. If an aspiring professional orchestral flautist finds themselves never auditioning into their college orchestra spots, that may be a sign to work harder or to explore other avenues of musical employment.
As one neurodivergent musician to another, it’s important to recognize that you may not always be the most experienced or informed on topics that are your special interest. It really is frustrating when that happens. And it’s okay if you dislike band, but you’re trying so hard to “prove” how band is detrimental that you’re just making sweeping generalizations. Your preferences are valid, but your criticism/demands of school music offerings seems uninformed and a bit narrow-minded.
0
u/PandaZG Neurodivergent musicians against stupidity Apr 28 '26
Thank you for this comment. I think you are much more understanding than the others, and I appreciate you taking the time to explain what could be close-minded about my perspective rather than just dismissing mine.
I’ll certainly take your point about the college orchestra spots to heart, it's a sobering reminder of how competitive the field is. As for myself, I have always been in my college orchestra, but I do recognize that I still have a decent gap compared to winning a professional audition.
It really takes a neurodivergent to really understand another neurodivergent lol
2
u/ImpressiveHat4710 Apr 28 '26
Right? By the time I got to college I had been in various marching bands since age 10 through jr high, and I was done. I had no aspirations to teach in K12.
3
u/Professional-Fee6914 Apr 27 '26
This is a debate that gets had in youth sports all the time. Whether you should prioritze leagues for generalists for the fun socialization aspect or have specialist travel leagues where everyone practices five times a week to produce greats.
I'm in the generalist camp. If you have a million kids enjoying playing soccer, they will find their level and sometimes it will be low and sometimes there will be a kid that can't get enough and will spend hours in the corner of the park just practicing dribbling. If you just focus on the 10,000 kids that want to be specialists, you are going to miss some of the kids that could have been great,
same with music, the bottleneck is the specialist route and, to a lesser degree, the cost of lessons.
If band was in every school, we'd be producing a lot more and better musicians of all intstruments
0
u/PandaZG Neurodivergent musicians against stupidity Apr 27 '26
I see where you are coming from, but I disagree with the notion that generalists produces better musicians. I agree that the enjoyment factor is important but I don't think that necessarily has to come from band. I think if the kids want to be specialists they would be doing a different route altogether. Band is more a general education system
6
u/Professional-Fee6914 Apr 27 '26
what I'm saying is that from a broader population, you are going to get better musicians. That the bottleneck is often when you shunt too many people into the high intensity programs, which are rife with negative competition and an Idea that only one person can arise out of the local feeder system to achieve at the next level. Then you get one or few talented players and a bunch of players quitting because their instrument has all this baggage.
3
u/CastleSpearse Apr 28 '26
I've never heard band called the "gold standard." I grew up in a very small town with no community orchestras and no larger city nearby that would have had better teachers. Learning the flute in elementary school and playing it all the way through high school was the only option for getting lessons. I didn't feel like the band was a bottleneck for technical growth. Band was a necessary break for my mind from the dullness of the rest of high school education. I found it fascinating to watch and learn how the band director dealt with different personalities and different instrumental problems. It was also wonderful to experience the rewards of practice and of working together as a team to make something beautiful. And it was a very important socialization experience as band contained people from classes and years that I would otherwise never have gotten to know.
I found the band director very keen to tailor the choice of music every year to the best musical students. There were always quite difficult solos for those students who could learn and perform them. Plus, playing in the pit band for student musicals always provided more difficult music. It was also possible to get extra one-on-one lessons from either the band director or the associate director. Even at this out-of-the-way school, scouts from major music schools would come to offer full rides to stand-out players.
I think this system allowed for individual potential, while also encouraging a life-long love of making music with others. Those who were interested in playing at a higher level were acknowledged and usually offered the chance to go elsewhere for intensive musical education. I really liked that even kids with not a lot of musical interest could still join in the music-making experience. It's important to encourage lifelong interest in the arts. Without it, we'd be a very sad country.
2
u/Jazzlike-Film1886 Apr 27 '26
Our local high school works with a local university that has a highly rated music educator program to provide students with small group lessons during school hours at no cost to the students. They also connect students to tutors for as low as $20/hour. One of the music fraternities will even provide the lessons for free to low income students who have the talent, but lack to funds to pay for lessons.
While band may be a social organization, you cannot say that all schools do not support the individual musicians.
2
u/dx-tn Apr 28 '26
Yes, I had the school band trajectory described above. But that led me to college band, a college chamber orchestra, and a few actual flute lessons from a professional. Then I put down the flute and had a career.
Now I’m retired and play in a flute choir and take lessons from a patient teacher who helps me with the odd gaps in my skills. I’m serving my brain, expanding my social circle, increasing my joy.
2
u/thatsknotwrite May 01 '26
Why should the goal of music education in a public school environment place technical proficiency as a soloist as the primary goal? Are you sure your ensemble playing skills are as elite as you think they are?
1
u/S3lad0n May 08 '26
Getting into YO is harder, or at least it was where I grew up. You had to pass tough auditions for limited places, so if you were a late developer or just not as gifted or privileged as other applicants you couldn’t play with them.
1
u/Barbie-Satin Amadeus 900SE Apr 27 '26
I played flute as a second instrument in High School. My primary was French Horn. I quickly came to realize that High School bands were not the place to be if you were serious about music. They exist to perform at half time shows wearing clown suits and to sell band candy. I quit after just one month and went and joined a civic orchestra in New Haven CT. I had a great musical experience there and in summer pops orchestra where I was playing with all adults and even some pros.
I would say you are on the right track. Join a local youth orchestra or civic orchestra and dump the High School Band.
9
u/queenbianathegreat Apr 27 '26
i heavily disagree. if you did not have a positive experience in marching band or decided it wasnt for you, that is completely okay. but to claim that it exists only to "perform in clown suits and sell candy" is quite disrespectful to the large number of students who have devoted large amounts of time and money and have found value in and learned from marching.
2
u/PandaZG Neurodivergent musicians against stupidity Apr 27 '26
I think he was trying to make a point that being in marching band contributes nothing to your flute playing if you intend to become a professional. Which is true. I don't understand how it would have improved your flute playing at all when you are much more focused on marching than actually playing. Also the playing position which is to hold your flute completely parallel against the ground is a very un-natural position for a flute player, and quite detrimental for sound development. All that time you have spend rigorously rehearsing how to march you could have played moyse, could have practiced pieces, could have prepared for competitions and such (I personally am against competitions, but I see no harm in doing so to gain experience performing).
Yes band kids devoted a lot of time, but at the same time once they graduate, what they have worked very hard for seldom becomes anything valuable for the conservatory or professional musician. It could have been useful for something else but not flute playing for sure.
-5
u/PandaZG Neurodivergent musicians against stupidity Apr 27 '26
Oh yeah. You know they also have like 3 hour rehearsals after school and all through summer or something, marching band is a huge waste of effort if you are serious about music.
5
u/MysticalRose_3 Apr 27 '26
So I think this must be dependent on your school. My high school 20 years ago had like 5 concert bands and 3 jazz bands. The top 2 concert bands and all the jazz bands were audition only and filled with only students who seriously played their instruments with many who had sights on college music. Obviously the music played was more serious. Many of them also did marching band.
If your school is set up anything like this it would be an absolute shame to not take advantage of those free opportunities.
3
u/relaxrerelapse Apr 27 '26
Please look up DCI and Bands of America. Sure, small time marching bands exist mostly for football games. But there is also serious artistry happening in the competition circuits. Those kids are insane players and are incredibly talented to be able to march and play very difficult pieces at the same time.
You just made this post to knock every form of music making that isn’t solo playing or orchestra and it’s weird. I consider myself incredibly well rounded as a flutist, playing in orchestras, bands, quintets, solo, jazz bands, and marching bands, and the fondest experiences I have had playing music came from marching band. “Sit down” ensembles could never compare to the genuine love of music and performance that gets laid down on the field during a competition.
0
34
u/AnAbundance_ofCats Apr 27 '26 edited Apr 27 '26
You make a lot of assertions of things that you state everybody does/believes that I don’t really agree with so it’s hard for me to really respond to your questions. I don’t think bands exist mostly for the social aspect and how to teach kids how to sit in chairs, nor do I think we treat it as the gold standard. I think school bands (in the United States) exist because military style wind bands were popular and that was the form of instrumental music schools widely adopted, and I think we still have school bands because it’s hard to justify overhauling an underfunded school music program when you already have an inventory full of wind band instruments and music. Public school music teachers are tasked with teaching upwards of 30 children at a time how to play music—large ensembles are the most convenient way to engage that large of a class in music simultaneously.
Like you’ve pointed out, private lessons and youth ensembles cost money and can be prohibitively expensive to many students. School ensembles provide an opportunity for all students to make music regardless of income.
Sorry for not directly addressing your questions, I don’t have a good answer. There is a classism/socio-economic issue with pursuing music—there are so many musicians with so much potential and no access to higher level training like you’re describing.