I’ve been thinking some about how a little music education can ruin one’s experience as an audience member. I remember commenting to one son how much I enjoyed the school band’s performance and he came back with, “Mom, you’ve got a tin ear,” then proceeded to tell what mistakes were made.
In 1978 when my oldest son went to college, I started Southwestern College as a junior after taking classes at Cowley County (junior college) for about seven years while working at the state hospital. I was in my late thirties as my son was born when I was eighteen. (I was a divorced mom in 1970.)
A few years into my college education I remember how different it was to hear a performance. I was becoming a cynical critic, but I had enough maturity to know with whom I should share my opinion. In spite of my musical education, I’ve always enjoyed my son’s performances and hopefully gave appropriate comments to them. They can spot phony praise a mile away.
I’m curious about the blog member’s off-spring. We’ve heard about the births of Wayne’s kids. How about the rest of you? What are your children doing now? If any are bums and/or in jail just omit that one. A friend of mine says if they’re not in jail they’re doing great!
My children are Jeff Gordon, age 47 runs his own business at home doing computer graphic drawings for patent attorneys. Also, since moving to Wichita a year ago has been doing a lot of trumpet work through the union and word of mouth. He teaches a combo class at Friends University and plays in the faculty jazz quintet, while working on his degree in jazz trumpet performance at WSU where his wife works as fund raiser for the fine arts department. They have two sons, Archer, who is ten plays the French horn, and Justin, eight, who plays basket ball and loves to sing and dance.
My second son, Thad Gordon, has had a sad life as he has dealt with a mental illness since age 19. He is now 43 and lives in a facility in Peabody. Perhaps Thad at one time was the most talented of my boys. He received a one-plus on his trombone solo his junior year of high school and wrote an interesting arrangement of “Scarborough Fair” in a high school arranging class that was performed by the high school band, among many other accomplishments.
Well, I did it again. I am the worst when talking about my boys. Sorry. When they were growing up I don’t remember trying to influence them in music. Believe me, they were in many other activities. However, they really had a lot of musical influence from both me and their talented dad, Tom Gordon.
Hope to hear from the rest of you about your family.
10 comments:
Diana, it is nice to hear some of your life story and about your children/grandchildren. We had talked before about our children who have mental problems, and I think it interesting that these two children are the ones of ours who had the most inherent basic musical talent, and yet cannot utilize all that talent. It is sad.
What do your boys do, Wayne, and where do they live, etc.?
"I remember how different it was to hear a performance"
Yes, Diane, we are trained to dig into the music and locate the problems so they can be corrected. It is a part of the job of the music teacher, and there is a price we pay for that training. Even in background music I can hear the miscue, the intonation problem, the missed note, etc. etc.
Thankfully, modern recording techniques have made it much easier, since they can go in and correct or replace a note or a passage. I was recently in a studio in Boulder recording the musical examples for my fundamentals book "Music First." We had a jazz quartet for some of the recordings and the flugelhorn player really was stinking. Nothing to do about that, but when we did the editing, we ran his track through a device that put all his notes right in tune. He sounded terrific!
It's amazing what new technology can do. Son Jeff has some software that transposes his arrangements for various instruments and I understand this is not necessarily new stuff. A cousin of mine in the LA area does music arranging professionally and uses sophisticated software but I can remember when this was only a topic of conversation. What's next?
Is your "Music First" book a college level text? Is it designed as a work book? When will it be available?
BTW, do you know Michael Wilder who is from Ames? He may have taken his undergratuate degree from Iowa State. He taught at Southwestern College for 20 years or more, is now at WSU. He and his wife play in the Wichita Symphony (clarinet and flute) and are parents of eleven children.
Correctioin: Michael Wilder is actually at Friends University, not WSU.
Music First is now in its 5th edition. It is a fundamentals book for college level, but could also be used at the high school level. It is available from McGraw-Hill. I'll get you a URL so you can take a look.
Yes, Michael Wilder was one of my students at ISU. A fine musician. I don't remember if he married one of our students or not.
Diane, Sorry about misspelling your name, but my wife was Diana for 42 years, so hard to get out of the habit. Oldest son Bob,40, is a surgeon in Cortland, OH, and has son, 12, and a daughter, 9. David is 38 and is a plaintiff's attorney in Denver. Four children.
Thanks for asking.
Diane, Sorry about misspelling your name, but my wife was Diana for 42 years, so hard to get out of the habit. Oldest son Bob,40, is a surgeon in Cortland, OH, and has son, 12, and a daughter, 9. David is 38 and is a plaintiff's attorney in Denver. Four children.
Thanks for asking.
Wayne - My daughter-in-law is also "Diana", which can get confusing but it's not an issue I get upset about.
Well, Diane ... it doesn't take much to confuse Dr. Woodruff.
BTW ... the information on your children was very interesting. (The only negative was the early cessation.)
The life stories of all of you (including those that are not at this time actively participating) are most anticipated.
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