whatever it takes to exaggerate your dynamics

Ever wonder what it's like to be in a Grammy-winning contemporary music ensemble?

Well, as it turns out, it seems suspiciously like the 7th grade.

Music in schools -- or more specifically, MY school

My mom sent me an article last week about the apparent demise of my high school's music program. As some of you know, I grew up in Ukiah, California, a small town that often feels like a boring, yet quirky, independent film, complete with cross-cultural misunderstanding, bizarre human interactions, and mild violence, all chronicled by the dizzying journalistic force of our local daily. Each time I return, the place feels more economically depressed.

I don't really have to say that music in school is important. If you are reading this, you probably already know it. Among just my own classmates, this music program produced a freelancing bassist in the Bay Area, a freelance trumpeter in Boston, three school band directors, and me. Music became our lifestyle and our livelihood. And that doesn't include the kids that were helped in countless other ways by music in school: kids that had clinical depression, family troubles, learning disabilities, and problems adjusting socially. Music helps kids understand the pretty heavy concepts of discipline, working together, and supporting your neighbor. The trips my band took when I was in high school were sometimes the only times my friends found themselves outside of Mendocino County. And for my high school, the band represented not just intellectual and artistic development, but a window into the world at large, and a community in which to belong.

It boggles my mind that a country like Venezuela, with its poverty and problems, can provide free musical education to every single child without question -- and yet, in the richest and most prosperous country in the world, it takes a backseat.

There seems to be a movement to restore the Ukiah program, but my frustration is how it could have been allowed to go to seed in the first place. I only left seven years ago, and it was a healthy program with five bands that met every day. It only underscores how fast things can go wrong -- one bad hire, a couple dispassionate administrators, and a lackadaisical parent community could all contribute to the end of a program in your own school.

I don't want music to be only the passion of the elite. Send some money to your public high school band program. Even if you don't have kids, even if your kids are out of school, even if you don't know much about music -- ask what would be most helpful. Whether it's money or some organizational help, I know that they need it, in some cases desperately.