Sad story. I was observing a rehearsal on the campus of unnamed university I never attended. The director was taking his group through a piece. I didn’t really care for his style, but he was getting the job done. Musical things were tossed about. Rehearse. Stop. Rehearse. Stop. Section leaders being jerks towards the members of their sections. Typical behavior for a group that thinks it’s better than it is and standard operating procedure for members who know they are being watched. Things were going along OK until…the English horn solo. The guy on the podium had no idea what to do to fix the issues this horn player was having. ABSOLUTELY NO CLUE. I knew. Roll in. Add the right pinky on the ‘c’ key. Check the reed for balance – the reed needed work anyway. If the director had checked the horn, he would have found an issue with the left hand action. NO CLUE. He drilled this poor kid for 5 minutes. No improvement. His solution. Take it to your studio teacher. NICE JOB, JERK. But, alas, he was the jerk with the special paper that said he spent more time talking about making music from behind a desk than me. I was actually more determined to get that college job more than ever after that experience, but alas, the special titles are for the people with the special paper, jumping from position to position, padding their resumes, making contacts. Here’s the sad part. I was accompanying a gentleman on this visit and he was totally pumped after seeing this rehearsal. “That’s the way I want my rehearsals to go. Boom. Boom. Boom. No BS. Just get to it. Have your s— ready and put up or shut up.” Blah, blah, blah. Inside I replied, “Dude, the guy didn’t do anything a trained chimp couldn’t do. He didn’t have clue on how to fix half of the issues in that rehearsal. The only thing keeping him out of trouble was the talent level of the musicians in the band and the quality of the studio teachers at the school.” Unfortunately, my colleague was lost on this reality. Alas, indeed.

C’mon now … does this blogger really think every conductor should know each and every orchestral instrument and it’s foibles, fingerings and other features? As a university instructor (of oboe, duh) I have certainly never expected that. If I coach students and some are playing instruments other than my own I would suggest the students see their teachers as well. (And I don’t have that marvy little piece of paper that gives me a higher position at the university either … no need to make my lack of interest in obtaining that a sore spot. It was, after all, my decision not to get it!)

Ah, some people. It’s so easy to judge others when you aren’t in their position.

Um. Sort of like I just did. Eek!