Membership, Friendship, and Musicianship is the foundation of this exclusive club.
The Haug Club
My little brother is a pretty cool guy.
I guess I shouldn’t call him my little brother since he is about four inches taller than me. Calling him my younger brother seems to imply that I may have other siblings that are older or younger than I am.
Since Mom and Dad decided to only have two kids and I am the oldest of the two, I will always call him my little brother.
Jason is a smart guy. He has always been smart but not the reclusive, standoffish, don’t speak to me if you use words with less than three syllables type smart.
He is cool smart.
Mom and Dad did a pretty good job raising their two boys. We never fought or hated one another, however, we would annoy each other on purpose. That’s what siblings are supposed to do, right?
Jason may be smart, but, he is not musical. As a matter of a fact, he enjoys Country and Western music and has tainted the musical taste of my nephew with those sounds. However, I am secretly happy Jason never pursued music. With his intelligence, he would be a musical genius and steal all of my gigs.
Jason went to Purdue University and studied Math. He graduated with a degree in Math Education and became a Math teacher. Did I tell you he was smart? He took a class to learn Hebrew just for fun, and he enjoyed taking the class.
Once he became a teacher, he conspired with some of his students to create a mock club. The students had commented that the school seemed to have a club for everything and they were not in any of the clubs because none appealed to them. At that moment, Jason, being the cool level smart that he is, created the Haug Club. The students loved the idea and became charter members.
He had t-shirts made and gave them to the kids to wear around school. Other kids thought it was cool and wanted to be a part of the club. The students in the Haug Club ended up telling them it was a super secret club with secret membership.
My brother, being the smart guy he is, decided to continue the Haug Club the next year, however, in order to be in the Haug Club, the students had to pass a math test. He created a test to stretch their minds and mathematical abilities. Other than the inaugural meeting of the first Haug club, the latter members of the club had to pass a test that, on many levels was beyond their current knowledge of mathematics. Students studied and tutored one another in order to pass the ever-changing test so they could be members.
He would make an announcement throughout the year that members of the Haug Club should wear their shirts to school. He would change the color of the shirts from year to year, so, on Haug Club days, four different colors of shirts would be worn by the students. The wearing of the shirts created a visual representation of a monumental myriad of mathematical members.
I have been writing these blogs as a way to honor those that have inspired me in my musical life. My parents and brother have inspired me and I wanted to take this month to acknowledge them. Thanks, Mom and Dad for being so incredible and so supportive. Thank you Jason for being the best little brother ever and for inspiring me to create my own Haug Club.
I called Jason and praised him for creating and influencing students to learn. I asked him if I could steal his idea about creating a Haug Club of my own. After outlining my thoughts about how I was going to structure it for my trumpet students (details I will describe shortly) he said, “Dude, I don’t care if you use it.”
See, told you he was cool.
While I was a teacher (pre-firefighter teacher) I was teaching general music at two middle schools and helped the high school marching band, and jazz ensemble. At one rehearsal, I heard one of the best, “I can play this high, how high can you play?”, trumpet comeback lines I have ever heard.
During one of the after-school jazz band practices, Cory the lead trumpet player had returned from a weekend at Drum Corps camp. He was telling us how a group of sopranos (trumpets for those of you that are not OG drum corp fans) stood around bragging about how high they could play. When they asked Cory how high he could play he answered, “I’m not sure, but I can play all of the Characteristic Studies in the Arban Book.” He told us they just look at him and walked away.
In my opinion, that was the best comeback I have ever heard when trumpet players brag about their range.
When people ask me how high I can play, I answer, “As high as I need.” I know it isn’t as awesome as Cory’s statement, but, I feel it is a good statement that keeps me from playing the high-range bragging game.
Cory’s statement and Jason’s Haug Club meshed in my mind and I decided to create my own version of the Haug Club.
My trumpet students will be required to play a list of specific exercises, scales, and etudes in order to become a member and receive the shirt to the Haug Club. Once they have their shirts, they can wear them, if they choose, to music events and look for other Haug Club members. Once other Haug Club members are spotted, they will know they have something in common and although they may be competing against the other trumpet player, they should consider that person an ally.
They have a trumpet friend that will support and encourage them. That friend has been through the same exercises and had accomplished the same testing they had overcome so that they may wear the shirt.
It is my hope that when Haug Club members meet for the first time, they feel a sense of camaraderie instead of disdain towards one another. Maybe they will greet one another and start complaining about me and how I push them to become better musicians as well as contributors to society. Maybe they will make fun of me and my quirky analogies or sayings during lessons. Maybe, just maybe, they will become friends and enhance the world of music because my brother created a club for kids that had never belonged to a club and wanted to be a part of something. Maybe, just maybe, me stealing my brother’s idea will help students excel, and realize they are not alone, and competition can be a positive experience.
Just in case you are a new or potential student reading this blog and you have the desire to wear the Haug Club shirt, here is a little bit of advice, I would begin with learning scales and the Characteristic Studies in the Arban book. That would be a good start…just sayin’
Dan