Does the world really need another music blog?

Most likely the world does not need another opinion stuck out on the web, but I'm going to take a stab at it anyway. Maybe if I have a forum to get my rants out online, less people will have to listen to my soap box sermons on the music industry and music education.

I think I will start by saying that the biggest problem with American education of any type (music or otherwise), is not a lack of skilled instructors or a defined curriculum, but rather expectations that simply fall too short.

I have been constantly amazed with the young musicians I have had the opportunity to work with. In just a few short years they have received international recognition and many accolades from critics and the general public. Is this because Utah just had a rush of talented musicians? Or because the nuclear waste storage here began to mutate the musical skills gene? It certainly isn't our proximity to the great music meccas of the world. I feel confident that it was because the expectation was set that they could and should be the best at what they do.

How many times have we seen this same story played out in sports movies? The underdog is convinced by a mentor that he or she has the ability to achieve greatness, and the movie concludes with them taking home the gold and stunning the crowd.

One of the best examples I've seen of this in the music education arena was from my good friend, Kandis Taylor, when she was a band director at Timberline Middle School. Although skilled as a jazz drummer, she felt jazz band instruction was a weakness. She decided to change that.

I remember the day she approached me and told me she wanted to be recognized as having one of the top jazz bands in the state. After that day, I stood back in awe and watched as she convinced her band of essentially non-jazz players that they were going to be the top junior high jazz band in Utah. In less than a year her band won first place in the largest jazz festival in the region. As I recall, that band had never even PLACED in a jazz competition!

Now, did that happen because Kandis woke up one morning with serious jazz chops? Obviously not. While she did apply herself and worked to develop her own skills, there are many gifted musicians and educators with significantly more experience that never achieve those results. It happened because a clear expectation was conveyed to those students that they could - and should - be the best at what they do. The results speak for themselves.

If you want to turn a group of ordinary kids into something extraordinary, start by sharing an expectation of greatness.