 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Sarah
Date: 2003-04-05 21:07
My school is holding an instrument petting zoo for 3-5 year olds. I am playing a little kids song on clarinet, and then there is time for the kids to go around to the different instruments. Does anyone have any ideas on what I should have the kids do? The obviously can't play, so I don't know if I should just talk about the clarinet or have them do something. I think having them do something would be more fun, but I just don't know what to have them do.
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Author: janlynn
Date: 2003-04-05 21:49
I was part of an instrument petting zoo last summer .. the children were a little older , but there were some real little ones in the crowd too.
for the real little ones, i let them blow into the barrel/mouthpiece. they just light up when they make a sound, whether its good or not, the right way or not. if they can make a sound, you can ask them to 'honk' out a simple rhythm - you sing it and have them copy you. after i gave them the reed as a souvenir. might sound silly but the kids liked it.
have fun! Janlynn
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Author: Katrina
Date: 2003-04-05 21:54
I've also let really little kids (2-3) press keys on my flute and clarinet while I blow. They like to be able to change the pitch, so if you play a low g and let them press any pinky key, they'll be able to do something.
If you're gonna let 'em blow, have a sanitizing spray and LOTS of #1 reeds there! I'd advise against that, myself...could get messy with lots of little ones...and DON'T use a decent mp!!!!
Katrina
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Author: hans
Date: 2003-04-05 23:23
Sarah,
Although I think it's a wonderful thing to do, I share Katrina's concern about hygiene. I once saw a list of communicable diseases that could be transmitted by sharing a wind instrument and it was very long. There could be liability issues.
If you can figure out a way to sterilize between "players", turning the mouthpiece 180 degrees will let a child blow while you do the fingering. It makes them feel like they are playing it.
Best wishes,
Hans
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Author: PJ
Date: 2003-04-06 00:43
How about sanitzing the mouthpiece after each child then give them the reed they play on as a souvenier since that is where most of the saliva goes. You can get germacide spray anywhere these days. Keep a cup of water there and throw a new reed in each time you take one out. You can get a NovaPak of Ricos for pretty cheap (I agree with the #1's). I say let 'em honk...just make sure the parents see you sanitzing the thing before they play and use a cheap mouthpiece.
I think this is a GREAT thing to envolve kids in! From time to time when my 4 year old niece is over, I'll let her blow on the moutpiece while I hold my finger down on the reed (to provide the pressure required). When a note comes out she just goes all to pieces. She talks about it for days afterward! She's determined to play the clarinet when she gets older.
Have fun!
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Author: Sarah
Date: 2003-04-06 01:00
Thanks everyone! I was leaning towards letting them press down some keys while I play. I will try to get a student instrument too, just incase. I am concerned about hygene and everything, but I think it would just be easier for everyone if they pressed down some keys. They will only have a few minutes at each station, and trying to sterilize the mouthpiece, and get reeds for each of them and have them honk would take too much time I think.
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Author: Webby
Date: 2003-04-06 01:04
I actually just got done with one of these, and we had some really little kids and they played all the instruments. It's unclear from the message and the responses---are you using your own instrument for this? I would say that's not a great idea. Most music stores will gladly come with instruments & help you if they can have a sign identifying the source of the instruments.
Sanitizing---pretty easy. The sanitizing spray will kill the germs, and if you want to be extra safe, get some alcohol wipes (~$1.50 for 100 of them). At our petting zoo, we all played a lot of the different instruments, and one of the guys got sick that night (so it was probably already in his system), and none of us got sick (or were sick before to spread it), so it would appear that it worked pretty well!!!
Also, the reeds---I'm not sure if you're exaggerating to make a point, but 1's would probably be TOO soft. We used Rico 2's, and they were never too hard---too soft was more of an issue. Our event was all ages, but most of the kids were in the 3-5 range.
We also found that the mouthpiece and barrel was actually more difficult for some kids than the whole instrument.
Hope that helps
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Author: Sarah
Date: 2003-04-06 01:45
There are some school instruments that I might be able to get, but this is all being done by MENC, so any reeds and sanimist would have to be bought by myself. I don't have any control over how this is done, I am just demonstrating the clarinet, and this post was to try to find the best way to do that.
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Author: funkymunky
Date: 2003-04-06 02:25
Letting the kids try it out would be a great idea. I think it would be easy to show them basic fingering(thumb hole and top 6 )can produce many sounds easily.
Useing #1 would be good or softer. anyone that knows how to breath lightly could use a #1. no sound would just be too much breath. no embroucher control is necessary, just cant blow hard at all. Use a plastic not a rubber mouthpiece with an alcohol based disinfectant. try EBAY for cheap reeds I think they are sellin some for $5 for 25 right now.
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Author: kenabbott
Date: 2003-04-06 03:07
I brought in my instrument collection to my daughter's second grade class (clarinets from Eb sopranino through BBb contrabass, saxes from Eb sopranino through Bb bass, oboe, EH, flute, tuba). I let the kids pass around the c melody horn (I didn't care about its condition), some reeds and a loose key. They loved touching stuff. The c melody sax was a big hit. Let them ask questions, too. They really liked that.
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Author: William
Date: 2003-04-06 15:44
Instrumental "petting zoos" prove the old adage that "a picture (especially hands on) can be worth a thousand words." You can show the instrument, demostrate it and tell all you know about it--but the personal experiance of making--or helping make--any sound whatsoever, is really "where its at" in molding a positve attitude toward music in a small child, or an adult, for that matter.
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Author: clarinetmama
Date: 2003-04-07 00:38
I play for my son's daycare, ages 3-5, once a year. I play some really low notes, some very high notes, fast, slow....concepts they can grasp. I play some songs they know and can sing along. I also bring a number of clarinets in many sizes and have them try to figure out in advance if they will be low or high playing instruments. As much as I adore these kids, they do NOT touch the instruments. Nothing wrong with learning that they aren't toys, and that you don't need to touch other people's things.
It is always the kid with the runniest nose who seems to want to touch everything. I wonder, is that some sort of Murphy's Law?
Jean
They make a really big deal out of high notes....covering their ears and such.
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Author: Henry
Date: 2003-04-07 02:30
Sarah - Perhaps the school could spring for a simple and cheap plastic toy flute for each child. You could point out the basic similarity with the clarinet and then let them loose on their own instrument! Should be fun!
Henry
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Author: funkymunky
Date: 2003-04-07 03:33
WHY a cheap plastic toy flute? I think a recorders are great maybe easier to play. You can buy them for $3 of good quality. Real recorders are probably cheaper than a toy flute. I still have mine from elementry school. Was probably my first instrument now that i think about it.
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Author: Henry
Date: 2003-04-07 14:06
It must be because I'm Dutch! Plus, the kids are only 3-5 years old, for goodness sake. (Of course, with "flute" I did mean a recorder-like toy.) But if there's enough money available: by all means, let's give them them all a R13!
Henry
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Author: Terry Horlick
Date: 2003-04-07 14:28
Webby,
You are right, "sanitizing" is easy to do with any number of sprays or wipes. There is a problem however, many folks confuse sanitizing with sterilizing.
There is an actual definition of sanitizing and sterilizing accepted by authorities. A simplified version is that sanitizing is a process where you decrease the number of pathogenic microorganisms on a surface. Sterilizing is where you eliminate all viable pathogenic microorganism from a surface.
In short sanitizing is easy because it doesn't kill anything. You can sanitize to an extent by dipping a mouthpiece in alcohol, or soapy water etc. I am a dentist who uses sanitization on surfaces like counter tops and chairs. The strong stuff we use takes about ten minutes on a surface to work. The liquid sterilants available take around an hour or more to work.
Since you don't have an hour between kiddie tries forget sterilization. What does it mean when you say you have reduced the microorganism load on a mouthpiece? Maybe you will be less likely to transmit disease, but probably not. I used to laugh at a mouth wash company's ad which stated that the product reduced the amount of bacteria in the mouth. What does that mean when it only takes an hour or two for the bacteria count to return to pre-treatment levels?
Petting zoo is a cool idea, but don't fool yourself into thinking you are doing anything of value when you "sanitize" an object you pass from one child's mouth to another. In the awful event that four or five kids show up in a few days with "cold sores" in their mouth who will the school blame?
Just IMHO TH
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Author: jenna
Date: 2003-04-07 14:36
You could give them Kazoos. =) You can buy them from some companies in grosses (144) for reasonable prices, I'm sure.
Parents would "love" instruments for the children. I had a flutophone (also an option) , and before that a little trumpet toy horn that "mysteriously disappeared."
jenna
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Author: Sarah
Date: 2003-04-07 18:03
Thanks everyone, but the school has NO budget for this. The advisor basically said not to bother trying to get them to make a sound, they can press keys if you allow them to though. They kids will have their own percussion instrument, because the school owns enough of those. And getting 40-50 five year olds their own recorder, even at $3 each, is rather expensive.
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