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Two-Letter Words

Dan Blaufuss | May 2009


    A year ago I became fascinated with Scrabble. I have the board game, a version on my computer, a puzzle book in my backpack, and a puzzle-a-day calendar in my office.
    What sets competitive Scrabble players apart from those who only play an occasional game is word memorization. There are 101 legal two-letter words, and knowledge of these can improve your score by 50 points or more. Musicians have a head start as do, re, mi, fa, so, la, and ti are allowed, as is ut – a word unlikely to be known by someone who hasn’t studied music history. A common rack-management error is to end up with too many U tiles, so knowing words that use this letter helps.
    Serious players learn all the two-letter words and move on to three- and four-letter words, of which there are thousands. Rather than study tedious word lists for hours, I learn new terms by setting my computer on expert level and playing games. This is similar to learning music.
    When we were young, we studied privately with teachers who knew more than we did, and as teachers, the goal is to bring our students to even higher levels. Students learn best by observing and listening to others and applying these lessons. Serious jazz players know the benefit of listening to many recordings, and the perspective of a guest clinician – even if it’s simply the director from the next school down the road – can be of immense value.
    Whether it is learning to play an instrument well or improving as a Scrabble player, each takes time and effort, but I enjoy games more for the social aspect; competition is of little importance. This too parallels music. Among my fondest college memories are the impromptu jam sessions before marching band rehearsals. I played bass lines to popular songs on my sousaphone while friends improvised. There was never pressure or worry about how we sounded; we simply had a moment of fun before working on the next show.
    Another parallel I find in music and Scrabble is that each has moments of hard work and others of relaxation. One without the other would diminish the whole. As the end of the school year approaches there is always an overload of things to get done, from final concerts and graduation ceremonies to planning for next fall. I hope each of you find some moments to just share some fun relaxing with students and playing something that is delightful and fun – the other side of making music. This is not to be confused with muzjik, which in Scrabble is a much higher scoring, if completely unrelated, word.