Klarinet Archive - Posting 000223.txt from 2004/10
From: Haschengeliebter@-----.com
Subj: Re: [kl] Flutophones, First Act Instruments
Date: Thu, 7 Oct 2004 13:47:51 -0400
I have seen First Act at toys R us also...not clarinets flutes and trumpets
but everything else. I am not teaching my son to play a recorder...it is his
toy...it was a dollar...if or when i teach him to play something we will buy a
real one...at a music store...he is only 1 1/2 i am just happy he enjoys it and
can blow on the thing. my sister played the recorder in elementary school and
hers was like 10 bucks for the book and the instrument. The school ordered
them my guess would be to avoid the kids playing crappie ones. oh...and isn't it
nice how they have the more "serious" instruments displayed in the toy
section as if they are toys but still good horns??? I have a friend who is still in
high school and her mom though t she would be nice and go out and buy her a
flute (hers was beyond repair) and I warned them about 1st act and her mom came
home with it a day later before they could talk. and not to upset mom she
accepted it...she WAS a pic soloist in the marching band this year and I think she
WAS going to be in symphonic (the higher up high school band) but who knows
now...she says it sounds like crap...as an alternative my little sister is
going to let this poor girl use her geminhart (sp?) that she is no longer using
because she took up Tuba and loves it much better. Odd switch don't you think???
Flute to Tuba...
~Krista~
In a message dated 10/7/2004 10:30:36 AM Pacific Standard Time,
Elgenubi@-----.com writes:
This is sort of a BLOG entry. No new info or questions, but my reaction to
musical happenings in my town.
I just went to KMart, and saw First Act guitars and guitar strings, one each
Clarinet, Flute, and Trumpet, and First Act recorders, wood recorders no
less.
It's a thoughful selection of the best selling musical stuff. Tehachapi,
California, where I live, is a small town. We have one music store that
rents,
sells, and repairs band instruments, but he is small enough to not be able to
stock anything besides his rentals; he sells and rents the best he can, which
are small name imports. I trust him, though, to carry higher quality than
First Act. The other music store, where I help, carrys mostly strings,
though I
want to offer more wind products sometime soon. In all, my town doesn't
offer
enough band instruments and supplies to provide a good choice.
I know that First Act Products have been condemned here on this list. I have
a student with a FA clarinet. It's ok, sort of. Twice I have had to bend
the keys back into position to make it play, and it sounds better now that I
have sold the student a Fobes Debut MP. Obviously he would be better off
with a
better instrument from a music store.
So KMart is pushing the issue. I need to, first, talk again with the other
music store and warn him what's coming, second, write the manager of the
local
KMart and tell him that he is doing a disservice, and third find a souce of
my
own for inexpensive, but better than First Act, winds to offer. What that
source is, is another thread, maybe.
Back to Flutophones. There are cheap recorders available in every music
store in the United States. They can be bad, they can be ok; I assume a
cheap
wooden one like the First Act will be worse than a cheap plastic one, because
the
windway needs to be precise and stable, even in a cheap instrument. As noted
by others a good recorder is a real, and wonderful musical instrument. But
they are not suitable for little kids who are probably not going to get very
serious teaching. I think every music store in the US should toss out their
cheap toy recorders and replace them with Flutophones.
Do I need a disclaimer?? I don't have any stock in a Flutophone company.
(Smile)
Wayne Thompson
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