Competition is Hurting Our Band Programs (11/30/2022)

Competition is Hurting Our Band Programs

Ed Dumas

When I was a student way back when dirt was a new thing, there used to be competitive band festivals that we participated in. Each group would come in and get their chance to play, and sometimes there would even be a sight-reading component to the festival. At the end of the competition, a list would be created that ranked the bands from the best down to the worst. Oftentimes the list did not include just the winners but included all the bands and where those bands were ranked among the group. In a system like this, there truly was a loser, none more so than the band at the bottom of the list.

This is NOT the kind of competition that worries me today. Most of these kinds of festivals have been done away with and are now replaced with festivals that rank the performances against a fixed standard rather than against each other. In the new system, any category could have every group achieving gold if they all meet the gold level. The new system creates a challenge for the adjudicators who need to know what the standards for these levels should be. Thankfully those difficult questions are now left to adjudicators and not students.

No, the kind of competition that worries me today is what I often see between the students in the same group. If you are thinking that I am talking about what too often goes on between musicians regarding musical part placement, that is part of it. For example, it is almost cliché that trumpet players would say, “Well, I am the best so I should be playing first trumpet!” That is very hurtful, but there is something far more insidious among our students that starts to tear at the fabric of a good band. That something is the Competition for Attention.

The students that we see today have been raised in the Attention Economy. Most adults still have their heads stuck in the idea that our world is a data-driven world, because that is how these adults were raised. While data collection online is still relevant, if you look around for a bit you will see that the Attention Economy gets the most press, and is the most fashionable trend in the economy right now.

An examination of who is achieving the most wealth these days shows it is the people who gain the most attention on the internet. We call them The Influencers. These could be people that post videos of the latest clothes, makeup, technology, electric vehicles or just about any other goods they are willing to hawk for a sale or sponsorship. They have hundreds of thousands, or even millions, of followers who then all run out to purchase whatever the Influencer now says is the latest and greatest in exchange for getting some kind of royalty from the producer of that consumer good.

If you doubt the strength of the Attention Economy, just take a look at how it has captured politicians who now put out extremely irresponsible ads using military assault weapons for props! No matter how extreme the statement, the mantra has often been, “The politician who captures the most attention gets the most votes!” As an aside, I have said for years that instead, we should be looking for the most boring, unexciting, and intellectual person to lead us, because, in politicians, excitement is not a benefit!

Now consider the attention economy from the perspective of our students. Today’s children have been raised on the idea that “the person who gets the most attention gets the most benefits” and they have applied this philosophy to the classroom. For them, popularity comes to those who shout across the room or down the hallway the most. They also have the most amount of time of other students looking at them, for negative attention is still better than NO attention. These are the students that are often the most intentionally disruptive in class even though it is damaging to others. They have now come to believe that it is their right to be this way because this is what the world says is successful.

Raised on their phones, which are primarily used for attention-getting, these students find few consequences for not getting their work done. Instead, they gather great benefits by doing the most asinine things possible in class just to draw attention to themselves. Heaven knows that as a deeply introverted student I would have had trouble surviving today in an attention economy classroom.

Is it as bad as I am making it out to be? No, probably not, but you will all likely recognize something of the trend that I have described for you. I was reluctant to write about this issue until I found another band class with a few students deeply ensconced in the Attention Economy that the result was very damaging for everyone else.

I have always seen this Attention Economy problem as one of competition. That is, the students that are trying to gain attention believe that attention is something that must be competed for, and only the mightiest will win. Honestly, I can see why they believe this since that is the message from all corners of our world right now. The only trouble is, I can also see that it is a very false and troubling message.

I have read all sorts of articles over the last few years of corporations now realizing that they need “soft skills” displayed by prospective employees on a resume. Oftentimes these soft skills translate into “Teamwork and Cooperation.” Employers are finding that employees who are constantly viewing the world using Attention Economy lenses are not pleasant to work with and are not successful in group settings.

Attention seekers might succeed in a lone setting, but have trouble working with others. They are incapable of accepting any other ideas not credited as their own or even just brainstorming for problem-solving in a team. As well, they are also incapable of any level of competent management which is in seriously short supply these days.

For decades now, the education system has touted using sports teams for developing team-building skills in our students. The theory is that those students that play on a basketball team, for example, have learned to play together in such a way that they are able then to change their game (adapt to changing circumstances) in such a way that they can defeat the opposing team and win the game (prize). While some team development skills are happening, I would rate sports at a “C” level for success in developing teamwork.

Here is a good illustration that I am paraphrasing from Dr. Tim Lautzenheizer, who was a guest Keynote Speaker at BC Music Educator’s Association Convention some years back. A beginning-level basketball program would start with dozens of players, all striving to develop skills good enough to play on the winning team in their senior years. Over the years of skill development, though, these big numbers become whittled down to 5 core players plus a few extras at the top level.

When one of our basketball players is not performing up to an adequate level in one particular game, he might suddenly find that the coach has opted to remove him from the game and play another in his place. This program is now encouraging competition between the players and is defeating teamwork and cooperation. The players must compete with each other to win the right to then cooperate with others in playing against another team.

If you doubt that this competition between players on the same team does not happen, consider this scenario. My younger brother is a retired pro hockey player. When he was in his late teens playing on a major junior hockey team, he found himself having to separate fighting players who were in a raucous brawl throwing punches and knocking each other senseless. My younger brother was the designated person to do the task of breaking up these fights as he was the only one big enough, including the coaching staff, to get in the middle and stop the bloodshed.

Oh, did I fail to mention that those players he was separating were in the dressing room on his own team?! While we hope this never happens in secondary school sports, this is a sad story illustrating the dynamic of competition within a team and how it can be so destructive to that group.

Imagine the following scenario in a band. During a concert, the conductor begins to give the clarinet section the eagle eye wondering why there are some truly weird sounds emanating from within the band. Finally, the conductor decides that little Johnny sitting in the third row of the clarinet section is the culprit so he points to him and says, “You out!” He then points to another clarinet player sitting waiting in the stands and says, “You in!” This would be a ludicrous situation but immediately highlights the strengths of any music program.

In the world of music, this comic scene illustrated by Dr. Lautzenheizer would never really be created in earnest. In our musical world, ALL musicians must play up to the standard required for the performance and not just the select few students who are chosen to perform. In our musical world, the best students would get even more recognition for the entire group if they chose to HELP those that need some extra instruction or practice to play acceptably in the performance. This is a vision of cooperation, not competition.

Now, Let’s go back to the scenario that is commonly seen in some beginning-level band classes. Most of these students would be working in earnest to learn some skills on their new musical instruments. But a small few are working earnestly trying to gain attention from everyone else in the room because they are ensconced deeply in the Attention Economy. They could be talking out at every possible moment, chatting on their phones, playing alone at the wrong times, or just doing silly things to gain attention which means social rewards later from others in the room.

Most of our students understand that the Attention Economy has its time and place. These students will also understand that using the Attention Economy philosophy as a driver in music class simply does not work because music is built upon cooperation, not competition. The few that are striving hard for Social Attention need to be taught directly, though, that those behaviours must change for the good of everyone in the room. A line will need to be drawn for them with an explanation that constant attention-seeking in music class is antithetical to creating music.

To move the class forward, I have had some success talking to the entire class about what is wrong with constant attention-seeking. Students seem to recognize that attention is based on competition as if attention was something that is doled out in tiny amounts. I have found that if I explain the roots of their attention competition, these students will often come to agree that this does not need to happen at every moment in every class. They can agree to call a truce on that competition during the band class for the good of everyone in the room.

By bringing their constant personal attention-seeking behaviour to the attention of the class to be analyzed, it seems to take away the students’ desire and power to act in this way. When students understand that their learning and even fun in the music room has been held hostage by a worldwide focus based on individual attention, they seem more able to personally negate its effect on them.

This kind of group self-analysis seems to work to help students overcome some insidious programming for self-indulgent attention-seeking. It is important to note, though, that the analysis of this competitive attention-seeking in class needs to come from a logical point of view, and not from an emotional one. Yelling at the students to “settle down” does not help them settle down. But a “looking back on what were you trying to achieve there” discussion followed by an explanation of classroom musical attention needs does seem to get some traction.

Here are some statements I have used that have helped clarify these dynamics for students.

• “It is amazing what one group can achieve if no one is worried about who gets the credit for the results.”
• “All musicians support all other musicians at all times, including outside of the music class.”
• “Did that behaviour help you DESPITE the class needs, or did it help the class as well as your needs?”
• “In music, competition for attention does not help our group become better. We all need to focus on cooperation to improve.”

I am sure that you will come up with your own summing statements to help students develop a more cooperative and sharing attitude in your music class. Feel free to use any of the above.

This open discussion with your students regarding competition vs cooperation in band classes should now be illustrating to you another strong reason why the education system needs music classes now more than ever. I have heard statements such as “Music Makes You Smarter” for years and always kind of cringed a little bit on the inside at hearing those thoughts. What if, for example, it is found that music does NOT make you smarter, but rather that smarter people naturally gravitate towards participation in music? I have usually found the latter to be more truthful.

But, an open and frank discussion with parents, students and educators about the value of using music studies to help encourage cooperation among our students is likely long overdue. Most music teachers understand this concept, and so have good, aware administrators. Bringing it out into the open on a large scale for everyone to see and recognize would give our music programs new life in an education system looking for direction. At this moment in our cultural development, few would not recognize the benefits of valuing more cooperation in our world. Music education can do this better than any other studies in public education and should be openly sought out for the benefit of, well, everyone.

Ed Dumas is a retired band director who taught his entire career in the Maple Ridge-Pitt Meadows School District. Ed is now retired and living with his lifelong partner Laurie, and their little dog Sprocket in Parksville, BC. Ed & Laurie also work as Mid-Island reps for Tapestry Music while enjoying music in retirement.

You can find Ed’s other writings for the MusicED Blog at: https://www.tapestrymusic.com/news.aspx