Caught Cheating

No one loses but you when you cheat at reading your music.

I love a story my dad tells from his 10th grade Latin class. The teacher followed a predictable pattern of having each student stand and recite the next 10 lines of whatever writing from Horace or Cicero they were reading – in Latin and then translated. A classmate counted, determined what section he’d be reading, and prepped his “pony” (a cheater publication with the translation printed). When it was his turn, he stood, gave a clean translation, and sat back down. The teacher said “good” and moved on. It was only after class that his classmates would be able to tell him that he had translated a section that didn’t appear in their abridged textbook version! He had been caught cheating, in the most obvious way.

Sometimes I hear my students make equally obvious errors in rehearsal – singing through long rests, singing the page 2 version of a phrase rather than the page 6 version, or some other mistake that would be clear with even a cursory look.

In those moments, I want my students to remember that even if their musical literacy is well below fluent, they can still glean a lot by looking at the page. My dad’s classmate wouldn’t have made that mistake if he had even glanced at the textbook, and you’re not going to sing through a bar rest even if you’re not completely musically literate. What’s more, you’ll improve your literacy much faster if you look at the music!

I don’t know what happened to that cheating Latin student, but I do know that this kind of mistake isn’t going to result in a low grade (if I’m even giving grades) or any other punishment – except the self-inflicted consequences: Less music learned. Easier music chosen. More time spent on rote repetition.