Typical

Fun song by Mutemath.
Through the years, I've noticed a common trend throughout America. As I was discussing last night's concert and events with a coworker, I was reminded again of this observation and that is:

Band Directors are usually clarinet or trumpet players


Why that is, I have no idea, but one can speculate... me being that one (for Kelly.)

There are two kinds of teachers. Ones who teach because they know it the information, and ones who teach because they are good at getting people to listen/learn; one is the intellect, the other a leader. Some teachers are talented at dabbling in both, and I commend them as they are typically my favorite ones.

Now for the instrument part. As in my first official blog post, I opened up the idea that either the instruments choose the musician or vise versa. Now, if you read my observations on both clarinet and trumpet players, you would find that they seem to be completely different people. Interesting no? Clarinetists are generally intelligent for sure, which probably gives them an advantage to learning and being able to teach others to play. Trumpet players are generally confident so people are more likely to follow what they teach because of the seemingly proneness to taking the lead.

Trumpets lead because they think/act like they know it all, and Clarinets lead because they actually do.

This is definitely another generalization, but I think for the most part, it's true. The best teachers are those that can not only lead, but actually know what they're teaching and passing onto those musicians. Being truly talented in both is a rare gift and I've met a few teachers that have possessed this- two of them, I am happy to say, were my band teachers:

Mr. Depalatis (a euphonium player), Dr. Fullmer (a trumpet player.)
Thank you