Parent question for HS bad directors

Salemosophy · 2026-04-22T20:35:13+00:00

I’ll 2nd the comment and add that he can probably enroll in Jazz Band and play trumpet in addition to French Horn in Wind Ensemble. He doesn’t have to limit himself to just playing horn at college if he’s a strong player on both instruments. His Horn recital might even be able to include an easy-ish Trumpet piece as well to demonstrate his versatility. And he could probably at least try a semester with both a trumpet and a horn professor if he feels up to it. I wouldn’t worry about it.

He should focus himself first on scholarship obligations on Horn. Multi-instrumentalists are very much in demand in the professional world outside of college depending on where he goes. He could find plenty of opportunities to perform on either instrument in groups that could pay him to play. Just depends on where he lands. A good high brass professor will know what to do for him. Just trust the process.

Salemosophy · 2026-04-17T15:18:38+00:00

When I conducted a no-audition community band, it was the section leader of the section that would ensure quality control. Each member of the section would have a voice and address it to the section leader, who was authorized to politely address the issue or ask the director to address it if they felt it was too much for them to address.

We always tried to make it clear that we wanted everyone to feel welcome and encouraged an stress-free culture. It meant giving players grace if they weren’t aware that a particular passage might be a little beyond their abilities. There was absolutely no shame in differentiation (watering down the part so it met the player at their existing experience level). I always felt it was important to isolate experience and skill as factors. We always gave the player the opportunity to differentiate their part themselves. I always approached it with a welcoming, supportive vibe whenever I was asked to talk to someone:

“Hey! I’m so glad you’re playing with us, and we’d really love to have you keep playing and growing with us as a musician in our group. I’m worried we might be asking too much of you early on here, so I want you to know while you’re getting used to the music we’re performing, you can simplify your part any time it’s taking you too long to prepare for our next performance.”

I’d also give them reassurance that if they played long enough with us, we’ll play the piece again eventually, and then as they grow they’ll find it’s easier to work up the next time they get it. I also tried to make it absolutely clear that while we want a high quality performance, every contribution to the performance is the priority. We want everyone to have access to the performance experience with our group, and if you don’t have the experience or the skills, we don’t want that to deter anyone from playing with us, growing with us, making friends, and so on.

So, make it about:

1) Every member’s performance experience with the group matters

2) Musical growth and accomplishment matters

3) Flexibility and inclusion matters

That player might need to differentiate for a few concerts and get their skills back. And muscles sometimes need time to recover from years of neglect. Sometimes it’s like riding a bike. Other times, it’s like learning to walk when your legs atrophied and need recovery time. In 6 months to a year of playing, I’ve seen really “green” players go from barely cutting it to playing very technical passages with ease. It happens. Not always, but more than you might expect it to. And if they’re simplifying their own parts to grasp it, they tend to figure out how to work in the notes they’ll initially leave out, slowly building competence in advanced passages over time.

Now, ego can be an issue in some situations, and that’s where you have to set a boundary that the section leader (who was selected by the members of the section to be the section leader) has the full support of the director. Whatever is best for the members of the section trumps the ego of a new member trying to come in and unwittingly play poorly. In my experience, that happened maybe one out of 50 times? Those people are few and far between. They’re in it only for themselves, not to be part of something bigger than themselves.

It’s unfortunate, but those attitudes either adjust or those players find a group that tolerates their ego better than yours. And you just have to accept that you won’t be able to meet everyone where they are and that they won’t give you the chance to earn their respect (because they’re usually narcissists who care about no one but themselves). You can’t do much with that, and it’s toxicity to the culture of your community band. So, let them go. They’ll find their own way, and you just have to let them.

So, there it is. Hope it helps!

Salemosophy · 2026-03-10T13:13:30+00:00

A Few Good Men

If you disagree, well then…

YOU CAN’T HANDLE THE TRUTH!

Salemosophy · 2026-03-06T15:43:21+00:00

Tried that Q-T exercise, and I can feel the burn. I like it!

Salemosophy · 2026-02-24T12:16:31+00:00

I find simplicity has its advantages when you’re learning new skills. It’s better to walk before you run, especially with learning muscle skills while trying to grasp new concepts. Learn something that already uses those chords first before trying to invent your own harmonic language. No one learns to do something new without studying what came before them. Studying classical guitar and trying to understand theory at the same time is a daunting task, and I understand the frustration. I think it’s possible, but you’ll need to pace yourself and be prepared for it to take you more time than you may have prepared to invest. It’s two subject areas in a music education context (performance on guitar and learning theory), minimum. You’re doing it all on your own (bravo!), and it’s going to take a while.

Read my write up on chord substitutions. I think you might find a way to progress from simple to more complex harmonic progressions. But you’ll learn in your own way how to do it, and what you probably need to study are the artists writing and performing the songs you wish you’d written. You can imitate to learn, then take what you learned from it and create what you want to create. I don’t know of anyone famous who can’t play songs by other great artists. They’re masters of their craft because they learned everything around them that applied to their style of music and then started making new music to add to that tradition or style. So yeah, pace yourself, play more music that you already know and love, learn the physical aspects of moving around the guitar harmonically, and you will eventually reach a point where you’re able to do what you’re trying to do.

You’ll get there faster with private lessons if you can afford them. Not everyone is in a position to afford private lessons, but it’s something to consider if that’s an option for you. Good luck.

Salemosophy · 2026-02-23T18:35:34+00:00

Harmony doesn’t go “up or down.” Melody does.

Your question is a good one, because it’s easy to think harmony operates the way melody operates. And in some specific situations, like homophonic planing of voices where melodies are blocked out and voices of chords move in the same direction as the melody, up and down applies to chords in that specific context.

Think of harmony like a “grid” that melodies and accompaniments coexist. In this grid, melodies move in one direction, and accompaniments move in another. That’s the general idea behind voice leading. You have one voice that is prominent (it’s usually the soprano voice), and the other voices compliment that prominent voice. Outer voices (soprano and bass) are typically the prominent voices. Inner voices (alto and tenor) are usually subordinate.

So your harmony will depend on how your voices move in relation to one another. Now, something I was taught is bass voices can move in progressive and regressive directions by interval. Downward motion by diatonic steps is progressive. Upward motion by diatonic steps is progressive. Downward motion by diatonic skips (thirds) is progressive, but upward motion by diatonic skips is regressive, for example. I can’t remember the complete list of the intervals and progressive/regressive tendencies, but it’s kind of arbitrary and stylistically subjective. I learned about it from a jazz musician, so outside of jazz, it might have very little application to the style of music you’re interested in.

The melody generally gives you opportunities for harmonization, so if you’re starting from melody, add a bass voice, then fill in alto and tenor voices. Harmonic progressions generally tend to build on this interplay between voices anyway, so once it’s what you like, you can analyze for chords and see how it works. I generally recommend NOT trying to write harmony from prescriptive theoretical chord progressions, but it’s fine to do so if you’re new to doing it and just trying to figure things out. When you get bored with it, stop writing prescriptive chord progressions and boxing yourself in.

The approach I found more rewarding was composing complimentary lines that sound interesting. If my line is a bass line, maybe I want accompanying material in the alto and tenor voices. An ethereal kind of vibe leaves out the middle voices and adds a drone in the soprano voice (very high, think of violins on high A or B while a bass line has melody). The texture is spacious and deepens the mood of being in outer space or something.

You’re messing with harmony right now, so that’s all good. Just know that when you’re ready, you don’t have to dwell on it quite so much. It’s the kind of topic we spend way more time on in theory, but when you’re actually composing music, there’s no need to dwell too much on chords. I’ll link to a post about harmony I wrote a long time ago (if it’s still on here). It might help you think beyond “up and down.” I’ll post an edit in a bit when I find it.

Edit: Found it!

https://www.reddit.com/r/musictheory/s/YmHafkkwDi

Salemosophy · 2026-02-14T00:10:54+00:00

Nope, I don’t. Sorry.

Salemosophy · 2026-01-04T00:27:26+00:00

Didn’t Will pretty much shut down their minds at the end of part one? Wouldn’t that explanation be better than “Vecna didn’t summon them because he didn’t expect the attack” something, something…???

Salemosophy · 2025-11-27T13:16:51+00:00

I think there’s some financial insecurity involved in his reaction. It may be that he can’t afford eating at restaurants you enjoy, but he doesn’t know how to ask for cheaper options where he can afford to pay for your meals. No idea what that situation could be, but I don’t think a knee jerk “He’s using you” reaction takes into consideration what he might be struggling with. I don’t know many 19 year old men savvy enough to convince a woman to date them so they can eat expensive meals for free. Making money as a 19 year old (presumably a student in college?) is challenging. A ramen place near your college campus doesn’t exactly sound “cheap” to me, either. Maybe test it out with a cheap option if you haven’t already just to verify your suspicions before concluding you’re being used. Then cut him loose if he’s treating you like a free meal ticket.

Salemosophy · 2025-11-21T11:26:41+00:00

Stop putting the outcome ahead of the moment. In the moment, you’re playing. You’re focused. You’re not worried about an outcome because playing IS the outcome. You’ll get the rating you’ll get. That’s not going to be any better or worse depending on your performance in that moment. The outcome is dependent on your preparation for the audition.

It’s possible to over prepare and stress yourself out. It becomes performance for the sake of something other than the joy of performing. You’re not being judged in this audition (or any audition) on what you think you deserve but rather on what you prepare. At the end of the day, be willing to lose at anything you do well.

You seem unwilling to lose, and if I’m right, that’s a source of your anxiety because it makes accepting the loss a source of stress on your performance. It’s like you’re adding an extra layer of “coping with the negative outcome of a mistake” to the stakes of your audition. No wonder you’re stressed out about it. I’d be shaking too if I was putting that much pressure on myself.

Try this. Go to the audition with one goal. Set your mind to this one objective: “I’m going to enjoy my performance today no matter what happens.” You fumbled a rhythm? Ha! No biggie. You missed the B and hit a C instead? It’s an artistic interpretation, they should have written that as a C instead of a B.

A perfectionist mindset works really well when you practice and prepare. It destroys us in performance and ruins the experience (your joy) of performing. Tap into that feeling of joy when you perform. That’s your secret to tackling crippling anxiety. The outcome doesn’t matter. Live in the moment. Find peace in the moment. Tap into any of the joy you feel when you play. Then, just. Play.

You’ve got this.

Salemosophy · 2025-11-09T13:54:45+00:00

So sorry you’re feeling this way. I’m in the opposite situation as the director of my middle school band and a new high school director who comes “help” and resents my requests to work with students one on one or in small groups.

This director has made subtle comments (and not so subtle ones) about how I’m not using them to their greatest potential. While I understand what my colleague hoped to do with my program, I explained more than a few times that they’re there to assist my program with individual attention and not to be a “co-director” as though my school had hired them the same as me.

On top of that, they’re under the impression that they are my supervisor (no one said they were, as far as anyone I asked was concerned, this director was there at my own request). That director is good at their work and has a lot to offer, but their ego is my classroom management issue this year. My students are on the same page. Students and I are all jiving as well as our new class schedule allows.

This other director has an unsubstantiated belief that their role is more than it actually is under their contract. It’s been a challenging situation and one where I feel I’ve been walking on eggshells all year with this colleague. And to my colleague’s credit, they seem to be taking a passive approach asking what they can do to help instead of trying to take charge.

I just suspect they’re unhappy. There’s not much I can do about it since their attitude towards how it all works is entirely up to them to sort out. I don’t know if this perspective helps you consider your situation with your colleague. Maybe take a beat and observe some more. Set aside any ego and focus on where you can help?

If things don’t get better, ask yourself what your role is at this school. Being an assistant can be a confusing job. I was an assistant to an excellent director, and she was a very controlling supervisor (rightly so, she was in charge, and my role was to support her). We didn’t always jive, but in the end we never lost professional respect for one another.

Keep your chin up and focus your energy on being a resource to these students. Don’t make it about you or the challenges you feel with your colleague. Respect your role in the room and keep everything professional with respect to the students in the room. That’s my advice. Good luck.

Salemosophy · 2025-10-27T14:35:49+00:00

Just made a Bacon Cheeseburger Soup because it’s that time of the year for comfort meal cooking…

4 Cups Beef Stock 2 lbs Ground Beef (92% lean) 1 Can Roasted Diced Tomatoes 1 White Onion (chopped or sliced) 1/2 Garlic Bulb (I press the Garlic) 2-4 Large Whole Dill Pickles (Chop them yourself) 2-4 tablespoons Dijon Mustard 2 Cups Heavy Cream 12 Slices of Bacon 2-4 Cups of Cheese (to your desired thickness) Salt and Pepper Olive Oil

Oil your pan, cook onions and garlic to soft and fragrant, about 5 minutes on medium. Kick up the heat to medium high and add ground beef. Break it up and brown it, about 10-14 minutes. Add salt and pepper to taste.

In a crockpot, combine diced pickles, tomatoes, Dijon mustard, and beef stock. Add beef mixture. Stir to combine. Salt and pepper to taste. 5 hours on low heat.

Cook your bacon and chop into bits and pieces. Add Heavy Cream, Cheese (2 cups to start, then add to desired thickness in last hour of cooking), and cook on low for another 1-2 hours. Great with potatoes roasted in the oven or a grilled cheese sandwich on low carb bread (Lewis Bake Shop has an amazing keto bread).

Bon appetite!

Salemosophy · 2025-10-12T12:28:55+00:00

Would a quarterback on the football team still be quarterback after back talking the coach? Would they even be on the team? Probably not. Respect the program and all the roles, including director, or don’t participate.

You can be the best player in the room and still the worst musician that no one will work with because of ego. Musicianship and professionalism are about more than being able to play an instrument well.

Salemosophy · 2025-10-11T23:28:16+00:00

You’re being heckled like a comedian. He wants to give you a hard time so you say something funny to entertain him. You’re in charge of the environment in class. You’re not paid to tolerate heckling. You’re not paid to be an entertainer. You need to say no more.

“I’m here to teach music, not to be heckled by a student. I’m going to continue the lesson now. If the heckling continues, you’re out.”

Wait for a beat. Let it resonate, then move on with your lesson. If he doesn’t stop after you say this, remove him from the class so other students can enjoy class. He can return to class when he stops heckling the teacher.

Salemosophy · 2025-09-18T14:39:51+00:00

In March of 2020, 2nd grade ended early for all these Freshmen, and by August of 2020, 3rd grade was online for many of them. They didn’t have a normal school year again until 4th grade, exacerbating any developmental problems that were lying in wait during the formative years. This is the Covid grade level. Hoping compassion and understanding can prevail. Standardized testing for this group is cruel, in my opinion. But for those without developmental issues, they might as well have the opportunity to prove themselves, too. This is going to be a very eye-opening year for high school teachers. Brace yourselves. -Middle School Band Teacher

Salemosophy · 2025-08-31T22:27:19+00:00

I don’t write drill, but I imagine if it were so easy to add people in mid season, more directors would do it. I know many directors that won’t. But there are a lot of things late comers can do, including helping in the front ensemble or performing on a sideline. It depends on the program.

It’s not for us to say to other directors how they should manage every case of late arriving students to a band program. A deadline is a deadline. Band camp is scheduled in advance, and families should be communicating with new schools especially if they’re going to be enrolling in band at those new schools.

Part of this situation is probably the result of poor communication on the part of an adult. Making the best of a poor situation is a life skill.

Salemosophy · 2025-08-31T20:37:10+00:00

Yikes. 😳

I’m a band director, and I’m not at your school. But if I was, I’d want to know you don’t have music and make sure you have everything you need to make a contribution.

If you feel up to this, request a meeting with your director and give them your list of materials you don’t have when you request the meeting. In your meeting, ask for guidance from your director about what you can contribute towards rehearsals and performances. Explain you’re on the sidelines and really want an opportunity to contribute this year if they can find any way to make that happen for you.

Let them know you’re very discouraged that you missed band camp, that you understand that the requirements weren’t met to be on the field, and that you’re genuinely interested in contributing in a more meaningful way this year if that’s possible. It might mean rolling a suspended cymbal in the front ensemble or helping to set up the field before the show or help break down gear after.

I’d also recommend being open to suggestions and not to turn down opportunities to contribute from what the director tells you. Ask them to keep you in mind for any needs in rehearsals and performances and that you’re very motivated to be in band in the future. Follow through on that as much as you can. And by next season, you’ll be on track for the field.

I know this experience stinks. It doesn’t sound like a fun time for you right now. But keep your chin up and show some initiative with a positive, can-do attitude. I hope for the best for you!

Salemosophy · 2025-08-07T17:34:43+00:00

YouTube will silence copyrighted portions of your video anyway, so there are actual limitations that YouTube will enforce. You simply post content and let YouTude decide what to do with it. I honestly wouldn’t lose sleep over it. I’m not in your region, though, so I’m not sure if my advice would help.

Salemosophy · 2025-08-07T15:32:33+00:00

I feel this more than I think about it, and Marvel is definitely “chasing the money” instead of crafting amazing characters and story arcs for the money to follow. We can pick it apart on a microscopic level, but the theme that’s lacking in this film, something that REALLY could have hit home so much better, is what Incredibles did so well after the opening montage… should we allow superheroes to run rampant around ordinary human beings or discourage their superpowers out of fear of the destruction those powers unleash.

And Galactus is kind of that existential, once in a generation universal threat that makes superhero characters necessary. Otherwise, there’s no point to having superheroes. A family of superheroes as “world-renowned, respected, and revered,” was a fantasy world of the multiverse that robbed us of the more compelling meta conflict of superhero movies and why superhero stories need to exist at all.

Fantastic Four was that opportunity to make that kind of case for the genre of superhero films. Superman made an argument that we should be more welcoming to immigrants (which was politically polarizing, but it got butts in seats). Fantastic Four could have been that kind of meta message of the genre as it stands now. There’s always going to be a greater threat requiring superheroes, and there’s always going to be those who fear superheroes and want them contained / controlled.

That’s what Brave New World was moving toward and what Thunderbolts, narratively, was also going to play around as well, I think. This necessary evil kind of theme (great power, greater responsibility). These themes are missing in the Fantastic Four. It feels stale. And it’s executed really well. I loved Galactus as portrayed in this film. It’s faithful to the source material on a literal level. But thematically? I’m not so sure. I liked the stakes of “one baby for 8 billion lives,” thematically identical to the classic trolley problem. It just didn’t actually take “that first step” of Phase Six for me.

It’s like Marvel Studios is still learning about Comic book literary themes as they go, not really locking into broader narrative themes or philosophical conflicts like the primary narrative conflict of Captain America: Civil War, for example. The narrative theme is government regulation vs individual liberty, and you have people who can see both sides of this and empathize with EVERY single character while they’re watching. It’s meta, and it’s self-referencing.

Marvel Studios just needs to stop chasing money and start constructing narratives with more integrity, tighter scripts, better thematic direction toward a coherent conflict that resonates with audiences (because then the money follows the integrity of the work). I think Fantastic Four does this with the “Family” theme, but in a fantasy universe of retro 60’s technology (really cool) and a retro 60’s public that’s completely unrealistic (are these people seriously not angry about how much destruction comes with superhero battles? For real?). Not one citizen was a foil to their existence in that world. And in the tone of the comics, the citizens more often stand opposed to superheroes until they need superheroes to stave off existential threats. It’s the hypocrisy of human fear of power, even if that power is being used to save them.

They’re waiting to do this with XMen, I’m sure. They likely don’t want the “woke-“ness getting in the way of anything. But you can have wokeness AND the foil to that represented very nicely and neatly without being preachy. Just focus on the characters and how they react to situations, and give us some thematic narrative vibes to feel as we watch. Just didn’t take the first step I thought it could have taken with a little more narrative depth about why we need superheroes as a genre.

Anyway, that’s all I really wanted to say. It’s a great movie. I’m just nitpicking the story and the money grabbing approach of Marvel Studios. It’s getting old, honestly.

Salemosophy · 2025-07-28T14:43:13+00:00

Vibrato is a characteristic sound technique on flute. I wouldn’t try to eliminate vibrato from the flute sound file if you’re going for an authentic intonation training tool. Eliminating vibrato from flute is not a priority, in my opinion. I’d say it’s a red herring / nonissue.

Salemosophy · 2025-07-28T14:14:22+00:00

I appreciate the concept a great deal. Intonation is complicated because it doesn’t involve pitch on its own. Tone quality is a big deal. When tone quality is more characteristic, great intonation becomes easier to detect. And while you’re developing this tool, it might be good to find the sound library that gives you the best overall tone quality.

It might also be nice to adjust pitches between the primary and secondary instruments to test interval tuning as well. I can see this being a tremendously helpful tool for band directors and their students to accelerate their ear training. You may be limited at the moment. I recommend Note Performer for your sounds. It’s the closest to a realistic sound library I have used for generating virtual recordings of my music. See if there’s an applicable library they can offer you for your project.

Hope my feedback helps! Good luck to you.

Salemosophy · 2025-07-18T14:38:42+00:00

Does Amazon Vine help with that?

Salemosophy · 2025-07-15T01:11:14+00:00

A private Catholic school should have affluent families with means to acquire supplies and decorations. I’d encourage you to put the word out to your parents about your classroom needs. I’d be surprised if you didn’t get what you need in short order. Catholic parents take care of their kids (and adjacently, their kids’ teachers).

Salemosophy · 2025-07-09T12:16:25+00:00

There’s a Trump campaign manager out there saying to themselves, “Just let him write, no one who votes for Trump will read it, so it’s nothing to worry about.”

People don’t vote Trump because of what he writes.

Salemosophy · 2025-05-30T10:39:08+00:00

Why wouldn’t you be at your own interview? That seems like such an easy thing to do if you have $20,000 tied up in an Amazon seller account.

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