Klarinet Archive - Posting 000585.txt from 2001/02

From: Bill Hausmann <bhausmann1@-----.com>
Subj: RE: [kl] beginning student
Date: Fri, 16 Feb 2001 07:27:26 -0500

At 06:11 PM 2/14/2001 -0500, Karl Krelove wrote:
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Sharon S. Fuller [mailto:ssfworthy@-----.com]
> >
> > I haven't posted on the list before. I am a new general music and band
> > teacher in an elementary school. I agree that the mouthpieces
> > that come with
> > the beginner and rental clarinets are so incredibly varied that I can't be
> > sure what reeds strengths are best. Next school year, I am thinking of
> > asking all the parents to buy the same basic mouthpiece. Does anyone have
> > any experience with "requiring" a mouthpiece?
> >
>
>I'm sure it depends on your school situation. If it's an affluent enough
>student body, you might consider trying to get the local vendor to supply a
>better quality mouthpiece in the rental instruments before your kids even
>get them. But that will raise the rental fee, more than likely, and the
>vendor will be hesitant to order the mouthpieces unless you can give him a
>pretty clear idea of how many you expect that he'll need. You can certainly
>recommend one or even several better quality mouthpieces, but you won't then
>have solved the problem of inconsistency. You will have _some_ of the kids
>playing on decent mouthpieces.

Our company does this for several school districts, although it IS a royal
pain. Especially when they all want DIFFERENT ones! When the additional
cost to the parents is spread out over a 36-month contract, it is not too
bad. But you are still going to have the kids who show up with Aunt Edna's
clarinet that she played in high school in 1965 with whatever it had in
it! ENFORCING mouthpiece requirements is difficult, if not
impossible. You may simply have to individually check the others, and
STRONGLY recommend replacement for the seriously deficient ones.

Bill Hausmann bhausmann1@-----.com
451 Old Orchard Drive http://homepages.go.com/~zoot14/zoot14.html
Essexville, MI 48732 ICQ UIN 4862265

If you have to mic a saxophone, the rest of the band is TOO LOUD!

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