Purchasing Music

[ALICEWINE <ALICEWINE...>]

Dear Rick,

I agree that some of the learning is by participation and that the sharing of
music is essential. 
However, the fact that you have attended such a "training session" for
songleaders indicates that you are in the "business" of doing so.  A person
who has set him/herself up as a "professional" does have the responsibility
to own the tools of his or her profession.  

As one who not only teaches, but who has written music curricula, it is
essential that  the
written music be available, too.  There are those who need to see the notes
in order to learn, as well as to pass on what is being learned and/or taught
to others.  Those curricula are still in place at those temples, though I
have moved on.  If the music wasn't there with them, how would another
teacher be able to learn all the music, let alone teach it??

For example - though I knew the music I was teaching, there was a family
service when the temple choir was to join the junior choir in some of the
Chanukah music (Debbie's, Steve Richard's, Peter Yarrow's).  They needed to
see the music and learn it.  Had I taught the student choir "by ear" what I
thought to be the music and had the adult choir singing from the notations,
there would have been chaos on timing, possibly on some notes, etc.

Another example - I have co-presented workshops on Enhancing your Curriculum
with
Music.  During the hour or so sessions, we introduced a great deal of musical
ideas.  Had we not been able to provide bibliographies and discographies for
the participants, there was no way they could incorporate the ideas into
their own classrooms.

Last example - my own daughter attended the UAHC camp at Zionsville for many
years. 
She would come home with lots of new songs and songsheets with the words
only, no
references to where the music could be found.  There were lots of songs which
I would have liked to incorporate in my work, but for some of them she was
not real clear on the music, nor were there any references to who had written
the songs or where I could get the music.  

Underlying all of this is not only the responsibility for seeing that the
music is available to
the learners as well as the leaders, but our responsibility to support the
composers who
produce this music.  Just as choir directors should purchase (not copy) the
music for their
groups, so should song leaders purchase the publications of the songs they
are using.  If we don't support the composers, they cannot or will not
continue to write!!

Shabbat Shalom,

Alice Weinstein