Over the years I’ve seen a lot of school performances, and so many of them have been painfully bad. My wife and kids think I’m too harsh when I criticize them. “They’re just kids!” they say. “They’re trying hard.”
But frankly, trying hard isn’t good enough. Being good is the point. And I believe that any level of production or presentation can be good, even excellent. That doesn’t mean that every performance is a masterpiece of the highest kind. I’m talking about selecting work that’s right for the level of performer and seeing those performers giving it their all under wise direction. I’ve enjoyed many performances where I’ve seen this happen, even at the pre-school level. And I think that it’s not only possible, but that it should be the goal of every performance and every performer.
I grew up on a farm and went to a small town high school. We were far from any big city and this was long before the hyper-connected Internet age. We could watch exactly five TV channels and few of us traveled far from home. But it was there that I learned one of the most important lessons, one that has served me all of my life. And I learned it in the band room.
Doyle Combs, the band director when I was there, is one cool cat. But don’t let that fool you. He was also tough and unwilling to accept anything but the best out of any situation. I remember that first moment when that full band fired up. It was a revelation, a wall of amazing sound. I was literally stunned and a little frightened. I’d come from a little rural grade school band of twenty or thirty kids that could barely blow their horns. I felt like I’d stepped off the grain truck and right into Carnegie Hall.
I learned to march in parades and football halftime shows, all with flawless execution. I joined the jazz band and learned to play real jazz charts, not simplified or student renditions. And the annual variety show was a decades long tradition. It was a regional event, selling out shows for the best part of the week, including matinees for elementary school kids. To us it felt like a night on Broadway. People didn’t come because the kids were trying hard. They came because it was a terrific show. I am moved to tears on that rare occasion when I hear the variety show’s them song: “Vincent Youmans’ Fantasy.”
What I learned there, and as part of a Christian music group that Doyle led called the One Way Singers, was this: he showed me that every performance must be delivered with the highest degree of professionalism. There were no excuses for Doyle. It didn’t matter that we were just farm kids. It didn’t matter that we couldn’t afford professional sound and lighting equipment. We found a way to make what we needed, to show up on time and to be ready for the downbeat. And most importantly, I learned that preparation was vital. We didn’t just rehearse, we planned. If we didn’t have lights, we built them out of coffee cans and spray paint. We rigged up our own sound systems. We learned how to structure a performance to drive an audience to its feet. And they applauded because they were excited by the performance, not because a bunch of kids tried hard.
You can and should be professional in what you do, too. Where do you start? Find someone who’s already doing it and study them, even imitate them at first. Try and find out what works and what doesn’t. And do all of this before you attempt it in public. Get someone to watch and offer you honest, hard criticism. And don’t discount all of the trappings. Find out if or why they’re important. Set the bar high. Don’t just try to do what you think you can get away with. Always, always shoot for a fully professional presentation.
Doyle wouldn’t have let you off the hook. Neither will I.
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What a great band director you had. It is a disservice to the musicians if the band director does not expect the very best from them and strives to achieve it. It not only marginalizes music performance as a whole, it fosters lack of confidence and enthusiasm on the part of the students. This subject is close to my heart as I watched my son move through the ranks of elementary school music, high school music and now, college music. Last night I went to his firs collegiate big band performance and all I could say was “what a difference a year makes” (from HS to college). However, in all aspects of life we should always strive to be the VERY BEST… period. Mediocrity is unacceptable.
I completely agree. I only went so far in music before theater and writing took my interests, but my oldest daughter is a professional jazz bassist. I have no doubt that Doyle Combs and what he demanded of me made that possible for my daughter.
There’s another post in that idea.
Thanks,
Randy
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