https://youtu.be/JWz088slXd0
This is a song from the very first annual lab band record at North Texas, Lab’67. The band sight read an an original composition in the studio. Leon Breeden felt that music students were harmed by playing only a few pieces of music each year to take to contest. He thought this 48 years ago, and he was, and is in the minority of music educators to think this way. Considering he was in charge of the top stage band in the country, you would think more educators would have listened to him. One of the major reasons I made the One O’Clock Lab band my first semester up there was that I could read music well. It didn’t matter how many first divisions my high school band had been awarded. It was all about me, and my skills. I was prepared for college, and too many students aren’t, who come from very good band programs. Leon Breeden may have been right 48 years ago.