Klarinet Archive - Posting 000919.txt from 2000/04

From: LeliaLoban@-----.com
Subj: [kl] Practicing at school (was [kl] Gender bias - survey?)
Date: Sat, 22 Apr 2000 08:03:53 -0400

Bill Hausmann wrote,
>To get ANYBODY to play low brass is like pulling teeth. I assume they have
made a mental measurement of the size of the instrument as compared to their
seat on the bus and done the math! >

Parental preferences may enter into this equation, too -- the "Are you
kidding? That thing would take up half your bedroom!" reponse, followed
quickly by, "And don't even think about leaving it in the living room!"
Though I begged for the chance to switch to a big, bass instrument as a kid,
I must admit with adult hindsight that shlepping a bass whatsit to the bus
stop half a mile from my house, then hoisting the equipment up and down the
stairs and through the door, would have been a dauntingly strenuous
undertaking. Also, in my overcrowded, baby-boomer schools, the buses were
crammed with kids, wedged three to a seat and standing in the aisles.

With music budgets cut so much lately, do schools make practice space
available any more? I don't know if this is a reasonable idea today, but for
kids with no access to a car ride, permission to use a practice room before
or after school might make a difference in kids' willingness to play the big
honkers, such as contrabass clarinets. Omitting the commute might save wear
and tear on the school-owned bass winds. Practicing at school also solves
problems with noisy home environments or conflicting schedules, when more
than one kid in a family plays an instrument in a house or apartment where
sound carries.

If it's at all financially feasible for the school to build a row of
soundproofed practice cubicles along one wall of the music room, with windows
into the room so that the students in the cubicles can see out and the
teachers can see in, I think it's an investment worth funding. In high
school, I did nearly all of my Bb clarinet practice in the cubicles.
Students could sign up for any time of day when a teacher had to be in the
music building anyway to do paperwork or hold class. We used study hall
periods, lunch hour or time just before and just after school (when the
extracurricular music groups rehearsed). Kids who signed up didn't need
much supervision -- we just signed in, practiced on our own or in small
section groups and then left -- so we didn't create a lot of extra work for
the teachers. They seemed happy with the arrangment, since it encouraged
kids to practice.

Lelia

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