Question for our Canadians

Kaldaur · Post by **Kaldaur** » March 11, 2004, 5:35 am

I've been considering a move to Canada when I graduate college. I was wondering if anyone participated in a high school band program, and if they did, what it was like. I'm a music major, and I wish to teach high school band, so anyone who has experience with this from a Canadian perspective I would very much appreciate it if you shared that experience with me.

Lynxe · Post by **Lynxe** » March 11, 2004, 9:51 am

I participated in a ton of musical programs in high school, including orchestra, chamber orchestra, jazz band, choir, chamber choir, duets, trios, music class itself and a musical production of with about 150 students coordinated across 2 schools. We went to all sorts of musical festivals, competitions and got to travel. The types of music were everything from current tunes to classical. A lot of those opportunities were a direct result of the effort music teachers put into their programs so it could depend on the school someone was attending.

The downfall is that securing a full-time teaching job in this province requires selling your soul to satan

Have you got duel citizenship? I'm not sure how easy it would be to just "move" to Canada to work but I'd be curious.

Durew · Post by **Durew** » March 11, 2004, 11:49 am

You wont have a problem finding work in Alberta as a teacher. I took band from 7-9 as it was required, and even though it was quite a small school (rural school), everyone always had a fun time in band class.. nice step away from the ordinary grind of schoolwork

TheDarkreigns · Post by **TheDarkreigns** » March 11, 2004, 12:33 pm

I dunno if it'd be difficult to secure a teaching job here in Ontario....every Highschool I went to was always short of teachers.

I remember back in the day when I had a physics teacher that also had to teach gym and music because there weren't enough at the school at the time....

But anyways my spelling and grammar are horrible at the moment since it's 10:00 am and I just got off a 12 hour shift.

soimgoingtobedgoodnightormorningwhateveryouprefer

kyoukan · Post by **kyoukan** » March 11, 2004, 7:17 pm

it depends where you want to live. there's have and have not provinces when it comes to stuff like that at school.

ontario, quebec, alberta and probably here in BC have decent music programs.

have not provinces like sask. and the maritimes not so much. at my school in st. johns newfoundland, I think we had a piano. fortunately a lot of kids learn instruments at home though (my dad taught me guitar, violin and accordion).

To this day I still can't read music to save my life. I wish there was a music program at my school.

Dregor Thule · Post by **Dregor Thule** » March 11, 2004, 8:47 pm

The school band programs where I went to high school here in southern Ontario was pretty good. There were regional competitions, etc, etc. Pretty standard stuff. No marching band stuff that I knew of tho.

Lynxe · Post by **Lynxe** » March 12, 2004, 10:35 am

kyoukan, I don't know how long ago you attended school in St. John's Newfoundland or in what school, but that is where I live and went to school my whole life. I participated in something "musically" at at least 4 different highschools. We had teachers for everything from percussion to bagpipes (bagpipes practice was really annoying to be anywhere near). I used to play violin, piano and double string bass and wish I still could

Just checked my former highschool's site and they still have 4 bands, 5 choirs and a wide range of music programs. I did a quick run down through most of the highschool web sites in the city and other than a few that don't have any information on the site and the School for the Deaf

, they all have multiple choirs and bands. Hell there is a high school in Mt. Pearl with a Dance Choir that performed in Disney Land (last year?) and that program was so successful they have a post-high school choir that has performed in all sorts of cool spots globally.

I'm not sure if you went to a private school, they look like they might not be as well setup yet for music (those schools are kinda new here), and like I said sometimes it really depends on the effort put in by the teachers. However, having grown up in and having friends who now teach music in our highschool system, I'm pretty confident that overall the highschool music programs in Newfoundland kick ass

Animalor · Post by **Animalor** » March 12, 2004, 12:51 pm

When I was in Jr. high, they had music calsses throughout, but this was over 15 years ago.

Ran into my music teacher a few years after that and I think that in New-Brunswick, music classes are all but gone.

Sad really that creativity is being bred out of the curriculums..