<p>@simplelife-</p>
<p>I recommend re-reading some of the posts before saying things that aren’t true, in my reading, most people said LMK’s D should hold up to her commitment as I would with something I was doing and what I would tell my S as well (not that I would have to, he has gutted through more then a few unpleasant things). Music requires that kind of commitment, getting through the audition process with music schools alone is a major test of that, and it tests the commitment of the students and parents alike, financially, time wise and so forth. </p>
<p>I think people were commiserating about the experience LMK was having, saying they understand the frustration and more importantly, telling her that this was not indicative of what it meant to go into music, that high school and community musical pit bands are often hell, because quite frankly the musicians are often taken for granted. Speaking from personal experience (from a generation, mind you, that suddenly over the span of 30 years has gone from being spoiled kids, raised on tv, who would never do much, to suddenly becoming the purveyors of traditional values, even though we didn’t walk both ways,5 miles, to school, uphill <em>smile</em>) it wasn’t about the long hours, it was the presumption that somehow we were ‘the help’ or something that galled. In our case, no one expected to be in the program with bios, few do that, or any big deal, all we expected was to be treated with a bit of courtesy and respect, which last I checked, was an old fashioned value, too (like, as in the Golden rule, treat others as you would wish to be treated). The kids in the pit are giving up a lot of time to do it, they are sacrificing time they could be doing homework, doing individual practicing and so forth, and all this is about is getting a bit of recognition for that and not feeling like they were being taken for granted. As others have pointed out, the school music director and the person directing the musical should have someone kick them in the butt, since they seem to share the opinion about the musicians. I also will add that if the idea of school is to encourage kids to do things, treating them ‘hired help’ isn’t exactly going to encourage them. </p>
<p>Pit can be a wonderful experience, as is being in the musical, doing makeup, costumes, scenery and so forth, as long as it is a shared experience. The irony is that the actors would probably be throwing hissy fits if they weren’t acknowledged, they would probably get their nose bent out of joint if another person in the cast’s bio was longer then theirs, but they can’t see the other side <em>shrug</em>…it is no different then what I have seen with school music directors with talented students, but that is another story…</p>
<p>As far as pain and playing, I agree with GlassHarmonica, that it is important to get it checked out and if you think it is going to cause damage, or if a doctor recommends not playing, it may be wise not to. The same thing goes on in high school sports, where coaches would tell kids to ‘walk off’ injuries, tell them they are okay, and there are signs that things like concussions are causing damage at the high school level. One of the things to think about if doing other musical things, like pit band or whatever, is to judge that against the other things you have to do, like practicing repertoire if thinking of heading into music. When I was in high school, I was a casual musician (okay, I loitered in front of my instrument), so doing a 6 hour practice wouldn’t kill me, because I wasn’t practicing X hours a day, but for someone doing that, doing things like pit band might be really difficult, so think twice about it. </p>
<p>What I always told my S is if something turns out to be crappy, learn from it, learn the signs, and if something looks like more of the same of what he experienced, say no, especially when it is a volunteer thing. In the real world there are times when to make the rent you have to do crappy things with less then favorable people, but at least there there is pay; with a high school production from hell, you are putting in the effort as a volunteer and being treated like crap, what does that teach? It doesn’t do much musically, most show music, even for a crappy musician like myself, is not musically challenging, there is a reason why show music is not part of standard repertoire for music performance…</p>