Project Success
Musically minded …Is the project a success?
Competition and overall assessment.
Our school band and quartets have entered competitions in these last 6 years and received winning scores or very good scores many times in all parts of Italy. From these results and our own observations in competition of standards at various middle schools specialized in music ( “indirizzo musicale” ) we believe our project delivers an education in learning to play an instrument at least up to the level of these specialized schools. Our project also comes at a much lower cost.
Competitions are often organized by middle schools specialized in music (indirizzo musicale). These school offer education in 4 or 5 instruments being pianoforte, and then typically guitar and a choice from, clarinet, violin, flute and trumpet. Combining these 4 or 5 instruments in more than small groups is very difficult. Therefore at competitions there is rarely a musical offering which is compatible with our own band and in these cases the organizers form a separate competition category. This is not very motivating. Also the programming of competitions will sometimes not give members of our band the opportunity to listen to other school groups and this is counter productive.
Indeed, it is hard to find competition which is completely compatible. Other bands often include older students in keys positions or adults playing piano or drums or are composed of many less students. This is another consequence of the ad hoc nature in which the project has developed in different locations.
The success of the project as it relates to each class can be demonstrated not only in the quality of the class members who join the school band but also in the attitude and ability of those who are not chosen for the band to make effective music together.
Of 22 in an average 3rd year class, we might expect 10 to be in the school band. 2 or 3 in most classes might be expected to have problems of one sort or another which result in minimal participation. The remaining 10 not in the band generally speaking (admittedly - one class can be very different to another) appear to be content and motivated to make music together playing pieces
chosen for their collective ability. This would appear to be a success as playing music together requires discipline and social cohesion.
The 50 who play in the school band require an elevated sense of discipline and social cohesion to be successful. There are no other communal activities at school which require 50 youngsters to contemporaneously work together - literally act in concert.
Our Project is fragile
“ …the project is tied to individual people and not to the wider institutional educational system. For this reason we hope the project is taken up elsewhere so it cannot be ignored and a structure is created that functions independently….” Iacopo Maccioni – School President
“…The project does not have an objective to search for and demonstrate individual brilliance, which we all know will emerge in any case. Rather the objective is to spread the musical word to all students and for them to play together. Students who have had this experience will not forget it and will surely have developed an attention and sensitivity that will lead them as parents to be more aware and appreciative of music….” Roberto Buoncompagni – School Director of Music