Klarinet Archive - Posting 000354.txt from 1997/12

From: Roger Garrett <rgarrett@-----.edu>
Subj: Re: Student Level Clarinets
Date: Tue, 9 Dec 1997 09:08:54 -0500

Jennifer,

There is no crime in going to an outstanding high school and university.
In fact, those experiences have probably contributed towards your being a
very fine musician (at least....we hope so!). However, you made some
comments with regard to people taking care of instruments and that it
seemed odd to you that instruments would be available to anyone outside of
music major status. If you are music ed (and it is hard to tell here),
you are in for a rude awakening upon leaving a school the quality of North
Texas State......most school districts are not like your former high
school.

I was fortunate in that both my parents were music educators and when I
left the ivory palace of U. of Michigan, I was prepared for the twenty
school owned instruments that all needed overhauls at the school at which
I worked. In fact, one three valve baritone was absolutely flat as a
pancake....someone had run over it with a car and just put it back in the
bins.....no one held him responsible. It hung on the wall for my three
years (in that district) as a reminder to all who entered what NOT to do
with an instrument.

Please try not to take it personally that so many people have experienced
so much that you have not......it is not a problem. Just recognize that
your experience was an example of how it can be....not how it often is.

Roger Garrett
IWU

On Sun, 7 Dec 1997, Jennifer Rose McKenna wrote:

> sorry--i picked i good university and went to an outstanding
> high school--oh well. Of course i don't thnin its too much to
> ask that instruments be taken care of..and when they are you
> can get better ones..try it, it works.
>
> JENNIFER Mckenna
> universty of north texas