Give me music ed, or give me death!

The Limerick Festival continues! Don't be shy!
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I have lamented before these student musicians I get who don't know how to play with other people in a group. Folks, your kids HAVE to be in band. They HAVE TO. Or orchestra, or some kind of music ensemble.

I don't care how much time they spend by themselves with their piano music or their blistering guitar licks. If they don't learn to play with other people, they're not musicians. Even f your kid is sooooooooo talented that s/he can sustain an early career exclusively by playing solo, eventually s/he will need to work with other people. You don't learn to play with other people until you actually play with other people.

Now, if your group involves a music educator, they will learn amazing things, like the JOY of starting and stopping together. The ECSTASY of tight sound, that has everything to do with being in the same tempo. Your kid will learn about musical ideas, how to talk about them, understand them, how to tweak them. Your kid will learn how to play live, how to drop in, how to vamp, how to jam.

If your kid doesn't learn how to play with other people, s/he will either a) get discouraged, b) hit a plateau and never improve, or c) live a life fighting with their bandmates over "creative control." Seriously.