The Middle C is a key to success.
I am still amazed I was accepted as a music major at ISU. (GROW TREES!)
This will not be a self-deprecating essay to try and gain people's sympathy, support, or saltiness. I am truly amazed that my professors, at the time of my audition, could see past what I presented and offered me a small scholarship to attend school.
I have shared a little about my ISU audition, but, for those of you that slept through that lecture, I will reiterate.
During my senior year of high school, I was called into my guidance counselor's office. I had never met the lady and had no idea why I was getting called into the office. Once there she asked me my plans after graduation. Yup, I had just started my senior year of high school and had just met my guidance counselor for the first time in my academic career.
By the way, I had a recent discussion with a colleague about a systematic process in the educational system called, “Failing up”. That does not refer to passing students onto the next grade to get them through school even if they do poorly in classes. Failing up is when someone can pass courses, complete assessments, and accept higher career positions to the point they cannot achieve anything higher. They have achieved the position to their highest point of failure. While they are in that position they tread water to the best of their ability, keeping their nose above the water line, to complete their tasks.
However, whenever there is a small ripple in the water, they get a bit of water in their nose and suddenly their arms and legs are flailing about because they feel like they are drowning. When large waves hit them, they begin reaching out and grabbing onto others pulling them under with them.
Enough of the metaphors. You get what I am saying and you know those people. They get promoted to the point they fail and therefore they have failed up.
Anyway, in my opinion, my high school counselor had failed up. After telling her I wanted to play my trumpet professionally she said, “No, you should go to college. Where do you want to go?” After a brief discussion about my wanting to be a studio musician and play my trumpet professionally, she replied with the where do you want to go to college statement again.
After my very disappointing guidance counselor’s meeting, I walked into the band room with college applications in my hand and a feeling of confusion in my head. Fortunately, my new band director, who could never be labeled as a failed up type of person, guided me. By the way, while filling out the college application, my dad had to call his boss’s son, a college graduate, and ask him if we were to check the box “Graduate” under the section of my application because I would be a high school graduate. We had no clue and appreciated all of the help we received.
At the time of my audition, I showed up at the Fine Arts building at ISU playing my beat-up Mercedes II trumpet with my MF3 mouthpiece, no accompanist, and no clue as to what I was supposed to do.
When I entered the room, they said my dad could go in too if I approved. I loved having my parents in the audience and gave my approval.
They asked if I had an accompanist and I said I have this while holding out the piano part to the Hayden Trumpet Concerto. Dr. Watkins said, “I think I can handle that.” He stood up, smiled, took the piano part, and said, “How about we start 4 measures before you come in.”
After playing, Dr. Boone asked about my mouthpiece and there was a discussion about how was I getting such a deep and full sound on that mouthpiece.
During the hour-long drive home from Terre Haute to Indianapolis, I remember thinking about how amazing it was to play in a college music room. That room ended up being the same room I rehearsed with the Wind Ensemble and Jazz Band during my college career.
Dr. Watkins was my guidance counselor and was the first person to truly guide me academically. My other professors helped with my guidance, especially Dr. Boone my trumpet professor. I will forever be grateful to my professors at ISU. They were not people who had failed up, they were true professionals and deserved the highest awards life can offer.
Once I was accepted at ISU I had to return to campus and take a music assessment to determine my music theory class. Dr. Watkins sat me in front of a piano showed me flashcards of notes and asked me to play the note I saw on the piano. Fortunately, I had taken music theory in high school and knew how to read bass clef. However, it was a very basic music theory and it did not include any type of piano study. We learned about intervals, chords, and a little bit of ear training.
The first question Dr. Watkins asked me, before turning the first flashcard over was, “Can you find middle C on the piano”.
My right-hand index finger rested on the middle C and depressed the key.
The success rate of playing the correct notes ended after middle C. Once the flashcards began turning over Dr. Watkins knew I would be in theory 101 when every C was played on middle C. C2, C3, and C4 sang their melodious notes as middle C.
I had no clue about the different octaves when written with a letter and a number. When he presented me with notes on a staff, I played the correct note name but on the wrong octave.
I was placed in theory 101 and was grateful for the placement. If I had been placed in theory 111 I would have been overwhelmed and would have failed miserably.
During my first trumpet lesson, Dr. Boone gave me the Bach trumpet mouthpiece kit and told me to take it to the practice room and try out mouthpieces. The goal was for me to find a mouthpiece I could play comfortably to so wean me off of the MF3. I settled on a 3C and still play on that mouthpiece today. The next time I played the Haydn Trumpet Concerto, I played all three movements on a Bach Strad while using a 3C mouthpiece. I was on cloud 9.
Something I noticed about my music professors at ISU was that the majority of them enjoyed music. They were not my teachers, they were professors of music who enjoyed music. When a person enjoys something, they want to share what they know with others who will listen and possibly share the enjoyment. The desire to share what someone enjoys isn’t monopolized in music, it is throughout everyone’s life. A person wants to share what they enjoy.
While teaching middle school students as a band director, I wanted to share my joy of music with them. There were times I became quite creative in my attempts to spread the joy of music. Love it, It’s Okay, or Throw it Away was my primary creative attempt. At the start of each class period, the students would hear a different piece of music. Many times the music was something that I enjoyed and had either played, wanted to play, or would never be able to perform (anything vocal). But, I still enjoyed the music so much that I wanted to share it with them.
I was very consistent with starting the class with our listening. Consistency is very important to me. Each day, when the students entered the classroom, the students would begin the class with the possibility of hearing music they may enjoy for the rest of their lives. My consistency may seem mundane to a lot of people, but, I believe it may have felt like a warm hug to a lot of students. They didn’t have to guess what was going to happen, what mood I was going to be in, or if what was being taught would be used in class.
Something I have found very interesting is how the process of communication seems to have broken down since the invention of texting. Watching middle school students yell at one another because of the way they interpreted a text message is mind-blowing to me. My wife and I have had multiple conversations about the “intent or tone” of a text. If I don’t understand a text, be it tone, spelling, or context, I send a reply stating, “Translation please”.
While teaching middle school students music as well as in my musical performances, I try to emphasize all three of the aforementioned topics that start with the letter “C”. Creativity, Consistency, and Communication.
All three of the “C’s” are important, but, I want to spend a little time writing about my thoughts on the middle C.
Some people think that a consistent person has the propensity to be predictable and boring. I don’t agree with that train of thought, at all. When a person is consistent, there is the chance that they are reliable too. It kind of goes hand in hand, if you think about it. Think about the person or people you may ask for their opinion, advice, or help. They are the people that you know you can rely on because they are always there for you. They are consistent.
I would like to point out that a consistent person does not always equal a good, nice, or helpful person. A person can also be a consistent narcissist, liar, complainer, or all of the above. Since I try to not discuss a lot of negative topic in my blogs, I will move on and talk about the coolness of consistency.
Someone that is consistent or establishes a consistent environment, they have communicated to those around them that they have created a safe environment. That type of environment in the music realm is the kind that fosters good communication and encourages creativity.
Creativity is encouraged, Communication is constructive, and Consistency is the driving force behind the success.
The music student has a higher advantage of succeeding than a non-music student. Once they begin to learn to play an instrument or sing, they instantly begin learning positive routines. Those routines include warming up, mental preparation, and physical discipline. A consistent routine, introduced by their music teacher, teaches the music students to apply the three C’s to their everyday lives. Thus, creating a way for the music student to cope with everything life throws at them.
A consistent practice routine, consistent marching technique, consistent vocal exercise, and so on give a person skills they can go to in order to refocus when everything around them is chaotic.
There is truly something special about the relationship between a music teacher and their students. Each piece of music the group performs is an achievement and a success that is shared by the teacher and students. Together they have created emotions, sounds, and a story through dots placed on lines from a page that was written from the mind of the composer. It is an amazing feeling to watch the students appreciate and create music. It is mind-blowing when you notice the point they begin to love the feeling of creating music through what they have been taught.
Today, June 1st, is my good friend and colleague Fernando Frank’s birthday. You may also know him as Fernando One or F1. Another friend and colleague, Fernando Vera, Fernando Two or F2, decided to have a small surprise party for him.
The party consisted of people that represented the consistency of Mr. Frank. Students were present who had graduated after his first year of teaching to incoming freshmen. Students were also present who had graduated and had been in the choir, never having Mr. Frank as a teacher but appreciated him and benefited from his consistent help with the choir. Mr. Frank is an example of a music teacher who is consistent with his ability to create and communicate. His consistency has created an environment of excellence and success and the students consistently respond by showing their appreciation and desire to become the best they can be.
Bravo to you Mr. Frank and Mr. Vera. You two are a constant in the creative success of music education. Your joy and love of music is seen through you and the work that you both do. It is my hope that this short blog helps communicate your greatness to all.