Flexibility in Young Musicians

In his article, "Creating Musical Flexibility Though the Ensemble," Brandt Schneider describes his journey of improving upon the traditional model of music education, which all too often focuses solely on rote performance, at the sacrifice of our students' creativity and musicality. Schneider puts an emphasis on ear training, to the end of teaching his students to be more "flexible musicians." As part of this effort, he also introduces his students to arrangement and composition.

While I agree that a well-rounded musician should be able do all of the things mentioned in the article, including transposition and "Switching Genres," I don't believe that those skills are necessarily useful outside of a band setting. In singing, the accompanist can change keys, and the chorus will follow suit, maybe not even realizing that a change has been made (unless someone has perfect pitch). And in a string orchestra, all instruments are concert pitch, so the example of having a saxophonist playing the flute part would not apply. Several years ago, there was an instance in which I was playing in a pit orchestra, and we were asked to transpose a number up by a whole-step because it was too low for the actor. Nonetheless, as a cellist, I don't see this coming up very often.

A good musician is aware of precisely what is going on 'behind the scenes' of the music, and can make changes to blend with an ensemble or stand out when need be. However, it seems to me that the ability to change styles and keys at will would only be useful for certain musicians playing in 'popular' settings, i.e. jazz or rock bands, which traditionally only include a small selection of instruments.