It’s Spring Concert time.
You music teachers know what that means. All the lovely relaxed process starts
to tighten the snares, “just get a feel for it” changes to “play the right
notes! At the right time!” and you go to bed dreaming about switching Junior to
second triangle without him noticing why.
And so I was rehearsing
with 8th grade trying to be crystal clear about who plays first and
who plays second and for how long and what everyone is doing during the solos
and all those details that can make or break your public reputation. After the
first piece, one student— we’ll call him Isaac— said, “I don’t think we should
end that way. The piece is starting to lose energy. I think we should do that
short riff after the solo and call it a day.”
“Isaac, I love that
you’re showing some independent musical thought and judgment here. That really
makes me happy.”
“Yeah, but we’re not
gonna do it, right?”
“Well, let me tell you a story. Many years ago, I helped start an adult Orff performing group named
Xephyr. We got together once a week and improvised with our voices, movement,
percussion, xylophones, what have you and then started to create some pieces
from our collective ideas. And you know how they say that ‘music brings people
together?’ and that creating music together is even a higher form of bonding?’”
Heads are nodding out
there in the 8th grade class.
“Well, whoever said that
is out of their mind! We were always fighting with each other! Person A would
suggest an idea and person B would say, “Naw! That will never work” and then
person A would start to sulk and get revenge later on when person B offered an
idea. People, it was not a pretty sight, all these creative personalities
trying to agree on which idea would make the piece flow and really communicate.
“So we decided to create
the ‘Xephyr Rule.’ Whenever someone would suggest something, the group would
respond, ‘Okay, let’s try it.’ Now inside— and sometimes out loud— there would
be a big sarcastic accent, ‘That’s a good
idea! (wink wink). Let’s try it!’
“ But what was
interesting is that the moment we actually tried it, everyone could tell what
was workable and what wasn’t. Many a time I thought I had an inspired idea and
when we put it into action, I immediately understood it wasn’t so great. Or it
was okay, but needed this or that. Likewise, people who inside would think ‘Terrible idea!’ would try it and revise
their opinion. So Isaac, you know what I say to your suggestion?”
“Let’s try it!!!”
“No… NO!!! Ha ha. Just
kidding. Of course, we’re going to try it. But before we do, I just want to say
that in 99% of jazz tunes, you repeat the head again at the end to give
closure. This is highly unorthodox. But—Xephyr rule— let’s try it!”
And so we did. The kids
voted at the end for how much they liked it. Who won?
Well, you’ll just have to
come to the Spring Concert to find out. Next Wednesday. 7 pm. I don’t want to give
anything away, but just a small hint: if you think something was weird about
that Sack of Woe piece, it’s Isaac’s fault.