Klarinet Archive - Posting 000153.txt from 1997/08

From: Neil Leupold <nleupold@-----.edu>
Subj: Re: Kids Today
Date: Tue, 5 Aug 1997 23:36:42 -0400

On Tue, 5 Aug 1997, Todd and Lynnette Staley wrote:

> The first lesson
> you should get on any instrument is proper care.

It's amazing to me that the above thought need even be
articulated in a formal sentence. Yet based on what has
been revealed in just the last couple of days, the need
is clear. Nobody ever told me to make each student's
first lesson a practicum on proper instrument assembly
and care -- it seemed like a matter of course. Incred-
ibly, I've actually had a couple of parents complain
that I had wasted their money by spending 30 minutes
talking about things like grasping the instrument at
the proper points in order to avoid bending keys during
assembly. "What do you MEAN, talking about swabbing
out her clarinet after each practice? Is this really
going to make her a better player?" And where I teach,
some of these kids have brand spanking new R-13's. I
guess I should expect such attitudes from parents who
can afford a pro quality horn for their 8th grader.

But I still teach assembly and maintenance at each
initial lesson, in spite of them. I'll never be
the object of the plaintive, "But my teacher never
told me about that!"

Neil