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Abstract: This article documents a journey taken to Mexico to investigate Mexican banda and the methods involved in its training of instrumental musicians. The author worked and studied with a group called Banda Atrakadero in San Pancho, Mexico and discovered that their system of training involved an "apprentice-type" learning which focused on ear training and the Solfege method of notation. This method seemed to be extremely effective, resulting in rapid instrumental learning as well as prodigious memorization in performance. This type of instrumental education may offer valuable insights for educators used to teaching standard notation in formal instrumental environments.
Banda is a brass-based form of traditional music which has flourished in Mexico for well over a century. As a form of authentic popular folk music, it has been practised by young and old musicians occupying all walks of life. Every Mexican town seems to have one or more bandas which traditionally provide musical services for most of the festivals, parades, rituals, and ceremonies taking place within the community. Banda now seems to be experiencing a renaissance in Mexico and has become a very popular form of activity for young people. Towns may support two or even three independent bandas, each in competition with the other. It is a vigorous and dynamic form of popular community music that is much loved and appreciated by the Mexican people.
I have long been interested in banda and in the methods of music education used to bring it about. My investigations, however, not been successful in locating detailed information. The techniques and procedures used by banda to organize, learn, rehearse, and transmit knowledge are difficult to uncover. Actual written resources appear to be very rare. I did discover enough to learn that the forms of education used to train banda musicians are somewhat different from those practised in Canadian schools and culture. This left me some questions about the whole banda experience. I certainly wanted to know how bandas are organized and managed. But most of all, I wanted to know how their methods of instrumental and musical training differed from those used in Canada.
To find answers to these questions, I decided to journey to San Pancho, Nayarit, Mexico to work with a popular banda group...