[Trombone-l] Church musicians idea

[Richardson, Timothy Mr. DAC USAG Franconia DPW]

Fridays tend to overload my already fragile brain with wacko ideas.

There is not a serious enough shortage of wacko ideas to make them valuable,
but I'll contribute this one anyway.  I have an interest in church music and
I know some of you do as well.  

In my area, keyboard players are scarce enough I'm actually playing organ in
church.  (Terror is exhilarating in a perverse sort of way.)  Trombone
players are short enough I seem to be, ahem, first call for musicals.  Hee,
hee.  There is rumored to be a type of female singer called an alto, but we
can't confirm that since we've never seen one.

So rather than whining about it, should churches take on the task of growing
their own musicians?  Should churches strive to become centers of excellence
for musical instruction?  And provide, and fund and subsidize, quality
private lessons as well as progressively more advanced performance
opportunities?  

I'm proposing part of a church music director's job description should be
running the instruction program and securing qualified teachers for a
minimum of keyboard, guitar, and voice, and probably brass and strings as
well.  Perhaps not every congregation could do it all, but the larger faith
community could.  (I consider denominational differences to be stylistic not
substantive.  Of course we all worship the same God, you in your way and I
in His. <g>)  

This is a subset of the academic education programs that most churches used
to run, some well and some badly.  If any church acquired a reputation for
excellence in music instructions, students would descend upon them.  Would
you go to your own church, or Doug Yeo's church, if lessons were part of the
deal?  I use him as an example as I know he is active in the church music
scene, but you could fill in the blank here.  

This might somewhat make up for the lamentable decline in music education in
public schools.    

Maybe bigger churches do this now and I'm just not aware.  I've never
attended a megachurch.  

I don't know what the future will bring either for churches or music
instruction;  perhaps both are on the way out or headed for drastic changes.
I don't think I'll be around long enough for that.  In the short term we
still need piano lessons and trumpet players for Easter.

Happy Labor Day. I don't have a trombone gig but I've got three hymns to
learn tonight, gotta go practice!  

Yours,
Tim   



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