Month: September 2011

The high school band situation in Memphis is not a pretty picture this year. I drove out to Southwind to see the Southwind vs. Wooddale game, only to find that neither team brought a band to the game. So I drove back out to Raleigh to catch Raleigh-Egypt and Trezevant, and at least Trezevant brought a small band, but not Raleigh-Egypt, who just a few years ago looked like a program that might be on the right track. What I find even more disturbing this year is that most of the schools have tiny bands, with only a handful of horn players added to a large drum section. I would assume that the problem is a breakdown at the middle school level of music education. Perhaps the pending merger of Memphis with the county schools will improve the band and music education, but I’m not holding my breath. 

The high school band situation in Memphis is not a pretty picture this year. I drove out to Southwind to see the Southwind vs. Wooddale game, only to find that neither team brought a band to the game. So I drove back out to Raleigh to catch Raleigh-Egypt and Trezevant, and at least Trezevant brought a small band, but not Raleigh-Egypt, who just a few years ago looked like a program that might be on the right track. What I find even more disturbing this year is that most of the schools have tiny bands, with only a handful of horn players added to a large drum section. I would assume that the problem is a breakdown at the middle school level of music education. Perhaps the pending merger of Memphis with the county schools will improve the band and music education, but I’m not holding my breath.