Thoughts From A Woman Trumpet Player

 have Permalink to the question: http://mustech.wordpress.com/2007/03/19/assignment-3-copyright-and-ethics/

(copyright: yotophoto.com) I think that schools should be allowed to film concerts, but for educational purposes. I know a widely used teaching technique is going over a video of the concert in class after the concert with the ensemble. This allows the teacher to let the students hear themselves and listen and point out the parts done well and the parts done poorly with them. This really allows the teacher to be exact and gives the students a chance experience their  concert for themselves  as the listeners and not the players. Also, it allows them to ask specific questions about their performance. This also gives the group a chance to grow together and strive for new goals for the next concert. Isn’t that the point of instrumental programs at school? To teach students to become proficient instrumentalists and help them to get there? If they’re not able to hear or see how they played at the concert, how are they supposed to be accurate judges for themselves and as individual musicians? Also, an important part of the learning process as growing musicians is that the students need to be able to study their performances and hear/see their weaknesses for themselves. This also teaches them to have a better ear for intonation, mistakes, and tuning.

 As student musicians learn and grow it’s important for them to learn self discipline and learn to become judges of themselves. It is also important for them to hear justified criticisms, which would be from the teacher and maybe from other peers. To help with this it’s important for them to have tools such as films of their concerts for them to use as learning tools and as memories. I think it’s a good idea to give the ensemble members films of their concerts. They were the ones that played the music so they should have the right to listen and watch themselves.

 I also don’t think it’s fair for the schools to release videos of a performance “for cost”. That would be selling the recording for a profit, which would not be legal. I do find it fair to have a film done of the concert free of cost for memorabilia purposes. Once a video is being sold for profit, that’s taking away the rights of the composers. I don’t really agree with the law in this case about only one copy of the concert can be legally made for filing purposes but the students can’t really have any. I know it’s important to me to be able to have films of concerts for my personal enjoyment; it’s something to be used only in the privacy of a household, not something to make a huge profit off of. Plus, on a realistic note, most people won’t want to buy a random video of a high school or middle school band concert off of the internet, and if they did, it wouldn’t be for much. Films of concerts are a personal thing, I know I don’t like watching concerts of an ensemble where I don’t know anyone. Most parents want to be able to have their childrens’ concerts on file at home so they can enjoy it once and a while and show relatives that live far away that were not able to make it to the actual concert. Isn’t this law in a way infringing the rights of the family? Isn’t it a grandma’s right that lives across the country to be able to watch their grandson or granddaughter in their band concert when they come over for a holiday? To me those kinds of memories are very important.

 As a future music educator I feel like copyright is going to be even more an issue because of the technology advancements. It’s important to be updated on all laws especially as a teacher. It’s important to know limitations and boundaries because composers don’t want teachers stepping on their toes. It’s particularly hard since teaching music and having concerts requires so much copyrighted material. But each musician really deserves rewards for their work. Whether its the composer or the students, it’s important to make sure all laws are being followed. There would be no concerts if there were no composers, so we must do them a favor and make sure we grant them all of their rights and give them the recognition they deserve. Also, on the other hand, composers should make sure students musicians and teachers are granted their rights too. As performers and teachers, they should have a right to film and distribute (free from cost) performances, but for educational purposes only. This is such a hard issue, even for today, but I feel like musicians, composers, and teachers, need to work together, to come up with the best agreements with the most logic behind them, which is already being done. I just want to live in a world where teachers, musicians, students, and composers can live in harmony! (enjoy the pun!)