Our band director, and many other directors in my county, have been with their respective programs for 30+ years, so we might have a new wave of directors in the area in 5-10 years. Hopefully these new ones won't be as bad as your mentioned nightmares, or else the whole county goes downhill. You're right about your last statement, bleeding gums. Jazz is the only genuinely American thing to come out of America (as in without any influences from other cultures), because intrepids were daring enough to change standards that were set for centuries. i.e.: Improvisation (God forbid we can play what's not written down, a problem with my school's lead tenor in jazz band), swing eighths, the saxophone in classical orchestra scores (thank you Ravel), and a bunch of other stuff. Fortunately, my school gives a lot of opportunities to play in a large group. Throughout my area, we have concert bands, marching bands, jazz bands, pep bands, pit orchestras, county band, district band, county symphony, a proposed sax choir (hopefully), and community bands. If only the rest of the world were like my area. People don't appreciate good, quality music anymore, and the decadence of the popular music industry is becoming the downfall of our society. Not to impune anyone that jazz and classical are the only ways to go, but without those, western society would have no music industry. Classical led up to jazz, and eventually jazz ensembles turned into good old oldies bands and singers like Little Richard and Elvis Presley. These groups, through the invention of the sax's (what I think is) worst enemy instrument, the electric guitar, turned into the crappy bands of today, although I'm somewhat indifferent to a select few. This decadence of the music of today, as i mentioned before, slowly lowers the morals of people. The lyrics can sometimes be over the top when it comes to its ability to be played on the radio or at dances (namely, "My Hump"). I'm not anti-music, just anti-crappy music that have no morals behind them whatsoever. Don't even get me started on music videos. I apologize for the lengthy reply and the violent change of topic. Saxjunkie89

Would it not be funny if your teacher is writing in another forum My Sax student is A Nightmare !!! Live with it ,,you could probably learn something from him

Saxjunkie what are you on about? 'jazz is the only genuine American thing to come out of America (as in without any influences from other cultures)' That is complete rubbish. Jazz evolved from other music just like every other genre. Jazz rhythms and improvisation was brought in via the slave trade just as blues music got it's blue notes. Jazz music is heavily heavily rooted in African music and what I would call American folk music such as Ragtime, which in turn isn't born and bred from America. Sorry to be a pain but the music industry is booming. More music is being published and sold than ever. Just because you don't find the quality of music pleasing doesn't mean the industry is declining. It's precisely that a business which is now so big and power hungry that most musicians in minority genres can't get the record deals etc. any more and have to resort to live gigs in local areas. Though even the power hungry music industry is getting better at accommodating with music for musicians.

saxjunkie do your research on jazz, you would be suprised. america is lucky enough to recongnize good things and use them, but not creative enough to create most. with out africa the sax may have not been as popular as it is

i'm just saying that the quality of the mainstream music itself is declining, not the music business. I know the business is booming, but most of the music today that is popularized is total crap. This is just a matter of opinion, coming from a person who would rather listen to MODEST Mussorgsky or Tchaikowsky than say, Fergie?

fergie sucks. it isnt real music, its just stupid sexual comments. its sad that fergie represents our music industry so much and in so many ways its sad. i do likea nice john coltrane sometimes or charlie parker

YES!!! SOMEONE WHO SAYS OUR MODERN POPULAR MUSIC STINKS!!! THANK YOU!!! I agree, those Coltrane and Parker are good to listen to.

Yikes.. grammar...I meant I agree, Coltrane and Parker are good to listen to.