Klarinet Archive - Posting 000863.txt from 2004/07

From: "Christy Erickson" <perickso@-----.net>
Subj: RE: [kl] Christy:] First Act Stuff? i.e. The WalMart.
Date: Thu, 22 Jul 2004 08:59:21 -0400

Warren said,

> Now about that kid you blew away because of his/her bad playing... I =
hope
> you intend to call her or her parents to apologize. She's probably
> destroyed for life as she didn't return (or maybe she's back now =
playing
> better than ever on her First Act "instrument" ). Will she ever =
forget
> the
> words of her music teacher the rest of her life:
> (Christy:) "By the way, I have had some recent personal experience =
with
> emotional stress after sitting near a player with poor tone and
> intonation.
> It's very unlike me, but I told her I couldn't stand the sound of her
> playing and she didn't show up for our last band concert. I've NEVER =
done
> that before, and it's very unlike me but I really couldn't stand it
> anymore."

That "kid" was a full grown woman who's perfectly capable of defending
herself. You might be interested to know that this woman did show up =
for
our rehearsal and concert this week and she had taken my advice to =
heart.
In fact, I sat next to her last night and she asked me for more advice =
and
her playing did sound better. There were a few times I had to extend my
hand out to direct her to play softly in piano sections and she did a =
great
job of following. I have a very keen instinct about people and there =
are
certain people I never would have been that frank with (especially not =
any
of my students) but somebody needed to let this lady know she was =
irritating
the majority of the clarinet section players. She is a rather =
aggressive
person with a bit of an attitude and sometimes you need to fight fire =
with
fire. =20

If I was your principal, I
> might fire you.

Not sure what you mean by that. I teach music privately in my home so I
have no principal. If you mean principal player, I AM the principal =
player
and the band director was truly happy I completed this job for him. I =
also
want to make it clear this woman was certainly not a student of mine. =
If
she had been, my guess is she wouldn't have been playing so badly but =
you
should also no she seems to have a very poor sense of pitch and although
teaching can improve a players listening skills, there isn't much one =
can do
if a student has no innate sense of pitch to begin with. You seem to =
have a
way of pulling information out of e-mail messages that is not there.

Christy=20

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