Klarinet Archive - Posting 000154.txt from 1997/08

From: Bill Hausmann <bhausman@-----.com>
Subj: Re: Kids Today
Date: Tue, 5 Aug 1997 23:39:15 -0400

At 07:34 PM 8/5/97 -0500, you wrote:
> What's the matter with *kids* these days? Well, speaking as a
>kid whose first band director never told me how to do anything with my
>instrument, I ask what is the matter with band directors these days. I
>never was even told how to choose a reed or how to correctly swab my
>instrument until our school hired a real woodwind two years later than I
>started. The first director played trumpet and couldn't even put a
>clarinet together, let alone teach us how to care for it.
>Sorry, I just had to vent.

You have struck a nerve (see previous posting about players and
self-maintenance). As a school services representative (roadman) for a
music store, I see the deplorable condition of the instruments the kids in
school are playing. They don't know, and worse, the TEACHER does not know,
what is wrong with the horn, or even that anything IS wrong with it. It is
no wonder kids get frustrated and quit. They think they just have no
talent, when in fact, the problem is entirely mechanical and easily
repaired (often on the spot). Congratulations on surviving the ordeal!

Bill Hausmann bhausman@-----.com
451 Old Orchard Drive http://www.concentric.net/~bhausman
Essexville, MI 48732 http://members.wbs.net/homepages/z/o/o/zoot14.html

If you have to mic a saxophone, the rest of the band is too loud.

   
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