Are there school band directors like Whiplash's Fletcher?

[Robert P]

Wondering if there are actually over-the-top directors like Terence Fletcher in school programs?
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[stumac]

1947 the band was reformed in the country town where I lived, I was invited to join the band as were most of the kids in the town, I was given a Tenor Horn and we had lessons before the main band rehearsal.

I sat in the front row on 3rd tenor in front of the conductor, often his stick would come heavily on my stand and told to "Blow it, not suck it" as a shy 9 year old this did not inspire confidence.

Regards, Stuart.

[homebilly]

i hear that Terence Fletcher sells insurance now

we are Farmers
dun ta da dun dun dun tun dun
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[HaveTrumpetWillTravel]

I haven't seen the movie, but my band director was briefly suspended for shoving the football mascot. The assistant band director started spending a lot of time with a senior, and left his wife for her after the student graduated. Band can have so much drama.

That said, I have huge respect for the band directors. 100 kids and every one of them has an instrument that can play louder than you can speak. It's kind of a miracle that band directors can teach in such an environment.

[GeorgeB]

During my childhood ( I am 85 ) schools didn't have bands. I had to attend a music conservatory to get my grounding, and the professor who taught brass playing was a horrible person. It didn't seem right to me to have to pay someone to teat you like a doormat so I found a profession al trumpet player who gave lessons and it was the best thing I could have done.

But in the area I am currently living, just about every school has a band program and I rub shoulders with some of the directors, and to me, they are unsung heroes. Many of their students play in the same band as I do today and they are damn good players who still have great admiration for those music directors who taught them.
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[trickg]

We had a director in my hometown who had a propensity for putting his hands on kids who gave him any kind of backtalk or attitude.

Part of the issue is that he was a VERY successful band director - the high school band was very good when he came - 70ish kids in a high school of around 200 kids - but he turned it into a 100+ student powerhouse that was untouchable in 4 states.

I witnessed a couple of things first hand in my 5th and 6th grade class. He gave an instruction to a friend of mine, and my friend started to say something in return, and in a flash he'd waded through the 1st two rows of the band and was in my friend's face. He ruled his band program with an iron fist.

He knocked around a few kids - threw one kid up against the band office wall, kicked another kid, etc - a number of incidents here and there - parents weren't happy about it, but the band kept bringing home trophies and the band was good. He left after my 6th grade year, but I knew some people who had him as a high school teacher, and they said that going to regional honor bands was a letdown because what they were doing every day in the school band was better than what the honor bands were doing.

I know there was some drama over his departure from our school - I don't know if the school threatened to fire him because he kept laying his hands on the kids, or if he left on his own because he didn't feel like had the support of the school board, (a few board members weren't happy that "The Pride of the Longhorns" was the marching and and not the football team) but he left.

These days there would have been no tolerance for that at all, but this was the late 70s and early 1980s, and corporal punishment was still kind of a thing - it was still allowed up through 1988 in Nebraska. This was also at a time when if you got in trouble at school, you'd get in worse trouble at home.

He eventually went into administration, but while he was still teaching band, every band program he led turned into a powerhouse.
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[Robert P]

[Uberopa]

I had the good fortune of playing for a high school conductor that was prone to shouting and throwing various missiles like pencils and broken batons in our general direction. Even so, he was beloved by students.
I played in a community band that took the place of a school music program. The conductor was a.retired RCN trumpet player. He was one of those classical characters who would conduct with a baton in his left hand and a cornet in his right. His favourite saying was "I wish you were all professional players. Then I could fire you!" Equally beloved by one and all he was awarded the Order of Canada medal for his service in promoting live music in the community.
I played in a cadet bugle band and the bandmaster was unimpressed by my efforts. This smooth faced Irishman with the thickete brogue in the RCAF appeared beside me while I was playing. He hissed in my ear "Jaysus Christ, Smout. On a clear day a bugle can be heard three fecking miles away. Three fecking miles!" Needless to say I redoubled my efforts. Equally beloved by the band.
I suspect that musicians are closet masochists.

[kehaulani]

I had two H.S. band directors. One was fine. The other a little martinet. He went to the Ernest Williams School of Music and evidently was impressed by his director's heavy handed approach. Real old school.

One day, for example, he threw a fit over the trombones. He reached behind him at the chalk board, grabbed an eraser, and launched it into the section on the other side of the room. Another time, I saw him slap one of the female flag twirlers on her face.

I don't like bullies, sexists or racists. No place for them in education, regardless of award-winning results. These are young, impressionable people.
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[Grits Burgh]

I had a junior high band director who was a tyrant. He was abusive (verbally, not physically). I was the lead trumpet and he seemed to take particular delight in yelling at me for the mistakes of the others in the section. He was simply a loud mouthed bully with a mean streak. He took all the fun out of playing music. Really, he wasn't all that different from the guy in the movie.

He also used to bring whiskey to school in a thermos bottle. I suspect that he had a serious problem with alcohol.

Warm regards,
Grits
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[Didymus]

[Jaw04]

Not anymore. Being abusive is taken very seriously in all spheres of public life these days. There are no more Bobby Knights that I know of. I didn't think the movie was very good, realistic, or relevant.

[ECLtmpt2]

It's an alright movie to watch but it doesn't make my top 100 list. Over the years I've played for band-directors that should have been teaching wood-working but even in the '60's/'70's my experience was with professional (realistic) directors.

[khedger]

The character was so unrealistic that it ruined the movie for me....and I really like JK Simmons. If I had a high school or college band director who got in my face or actually put his hands on me, I'd tear him a new a**hole really quickly. And I certainly wouldn't play in his stupid band no matter how many competitions he won.
If I was a parent and heard about a professor or band director who I was paying treating students like that I'd see that he was fired. If the school didn't want to fire him because of his award winning record, they'd find themselves in court.
There's nothing wrong with discipline and high standards, but it doesn't require screaming and physical abuse to maintain either of them.

Keith

[HaveTrumpetWillTravel]

[deleted_user_687c31b]

It's probably good as an (exaggerated) example of what can happen when applying the 'drill sergeant' style of teaching. For some, it can be a great motivational tool to get them to do things they didn't think they were capable of. For others, it can be a good way to tear them down completely. And it's not just physical abuse that's a problem, verbal abuse can have an even bigger impact. Those that teach this way should be aware when to back down, or it can have lasting repercussions.

[Dave_3]

I don't know what movie everyone is talking about, but...

In elementary school, our band teacher/director seemed like every other teacher to me. No better or worse. But for some reason, all the girls in our band, hated her guts. They thought she (the teacher) was a total witch. One day, before the teacher came in to the classroom, the girls got up and said something like: "OK, if she says one smart ass remark today, then we all (everyone in the class) agree to get up and walk out of class. Right?"

I was lost, and thinking, huh, what are we talking about? Don't think any of the other boys knew what was going on, either. LOL

Anyway, nothing happened, and no one walked out, but I never did understand why the girls all hated our teacher so much.

[kehaulani]

[area51recording]

When I was a senior in high school (1974-75) our band director quit over the summer for another gig in the district. Up until that point we had a VERY successful band, we won competitions every year, even going to Dublin and Limerick Ireland when I was a sophomore for international competition around St Patrick's Day and placing 2nd and 1st, respectively. The guy they hired was fresh out of college, so maybe 22 or 23. In order to make his transition easier they also hired this woman who had been working for corps in DCI. Her style made R Lee Ermey look like Fred Rodgers. The end for me came when during one field practice she literally got nose to nose with me, shreiking at the top of her lungs. I simply told her that, in my opinion, this kind of treatment was unacceptable for a frikken' high school band and walked off. After that it was concert band and jazz band for me only.....interesting side note, the band director and the drum majorette hooked up, and eventually got married and had a child. Thing is, he was 23 and she was 18, so it wasn't a legal situation, but it WAS something you can't do from an ethics point of view, so he lost the gig......

[Dave_3]