Klarinet Archive - Posting 000774.txt from 1999/07

From: James Leonard Hobby <jhobby@-----.net>
Subj: Re: [kl] re: mail order - local store policy repairs
Date: Thu, 22 Jul 1999 22:53:03 -0400

Well, how terribly grand!

I'm really thankful you weren't my band director. I can just see it.
"Sorry, kid. You've got a leaking pad that I could fix in 60 seconds, but
you'll have to just sit there with your thumb up your butt 'til a repairman
can get it fixed, oh, in a couple of weeks." I'm sure I would have really
appreciated that. For the same reason, I'm sure my former students would
also be glad you weren't their band director.

Give repairmen their due. They perform a great service, but they aren't
needed for every little thing. Based on this premise, if your keyboard
comes detached from your computer, you would call a technician to come in
and fix it. If the air is low in your tire, you'd call a tow truck, rather
than stop and put in a bit of air.

"They're telling the student that anyone can perform repairs." Well, of
course, they can, up to a certain point. Over the years, I taught many
students to find and fix leaks, turn a screw back in, put a spring back on
that had popped off. Some of the better ones, I taught to do pad and cork
jobs. Instrument repair is NOT a mystical religious experience. As long
as you limit yourself to what you're capable and sufficiently knowledgeable
of doing, to waste the time of a tech is, to me, a far worse offense than
just fixing it.

Omniscient? Jeez. Just what a band director needs to do is enough without
adding god-like properties. I'd suggest that your real attitude is covered
when you say, "If you can't cover your tracks ...". Maybe that was the
problem. If you never learned to do the minor repairs that will keep a
student playing, then the best you can hope for is "covering your tracks."

Jim Hobby

==============

>Date: Sat, 17 Jul 1999 09:29:06 -0600
>From: Richard Bush <rbushidioglot@-----.net>

>While I think there is a place and a need for band directors to learn some
>musical instrument repair, I strongly feel that the major emphasis should be
>placed on preventative medicine. A secondary effort should be made to
learn >how to detect and diagnose problems.

>I have been a band director. The job is harrowing, overwhelming, and at times
>thankless. If a band director has his priorities straight (MHO), there is
>little time to also be the in-house doctor of horns.

>I have, in the past sold supplies to band directors, such things as pads and
>glue. I have seen the blighted fruits of their labors. On average, few
have >the requisite mechanical intelligence, the full range of supplies,
the real >time and the proper equipment to properly perform many or most
tasks. Often, >they are doing the reverse of a favor, the reverse of
performing any permanent
>improvement.

>More importantly, they are sending the wrong message. They are telling or
>showing their students that anyone can perform repairs. They are downgrading
>the real worth of repair technicians who spend all their time, energy and
>resources to do a job well. They are sending the wrong message to both
>students and parents in another way. They are telling them that music or
>involvement in music requires little commitment nor financial underpinning.

>If the band director wants to be omniscient, let him proceed. But if the
>repair job turns into a fiasco, he or her should be ready and responsible
to >have repairer or replace anything that is seriously buggered or defaced.

>If you can't cover your tracks, or don't have the finances to assume
>responsibility for taking on the world, then DON'T DO IT.

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