 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Paul Aviles
Date: 2011-10-19 09:34
It's about time someone banned the saxophone.
....................Paul Aviles
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Author: David Spiegelthal ★2017
Date: 2011-10-19 10:16
I was fairly small as a kid, so the bass clarinet I was constantly lugging around on the bus and through the school hallways made an excellent battering ram for clearing a path through the masses of larger kids. I was rarely late to class because of its excellent path-clearing properties. A bass clarinet case, coincidentally, is about the same size as the 'banned' tenor sax case in the article sited.
Yes, we've gone overboard on safety. I'm lucky to be alive, three of the four automobiles I drive regularly don't have airbags! OMG!
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Author: BobD
Date: 2011-10-19 11:17
I suspect there's much left unsaid about the situation. My main question is "Who owns the instrument?". If it's a school instrument and the family doesn't own a sax then they should invest in one so that transport is not necessary. Leave the school owned sax at school. Schools often provide the more expensive instruments for the students' use.
Bob Draznik
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Author: Chris P
Date: 2011-10-19 12:45
It makes me wonder what kind of tuition he's getting seeing how he's holding this tenor!
I was surpried a while back that I was allowed on a bus during the day with a contrabassoon. There was nowhere to stow it so I had to make the five mile journey which took around 20 minutes with the case stood upright and propped against the armrest of a sideways facing seat behind the driver's cab, held there tightly with my right knee. Then realised when I got to the cathedral they had parking for players of large instruments (basses, timps, etc.) on the grass by the bell tower so I could've driven there instead! There have been instances where tuba players haven't been allowed on buses, even when there aren't that many passengers.
Former oboe finisher
Howarth of London
1998 - 2010
The opinions I express are my own.
Post Edited (2011-10-19 17:26)
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Author: justme
Date: 2011-10-19 13:05
Chris, I was thinking the same thing...
If you can't bring a tenor sax on the bus, then you also wouldn't be able to bring a tuba, cello and many other band or orchestra instruments.
"A critic is like a eunuch: he knows exactly how it ought to be done."
CLARINET, n.
An instrument of torture operated by a person with cotton in his ears. There are two instruments that are worse than a clarinet -- two clarinets
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Author: William
Date: 2011-10-19 14:30
When I was teaching, our bus providers also had issues with larger instrument cases taking up too much room. To help cope with that, I was able to let many of my larger instrument students keep an instrument at home fore the entire year and bring just their mouthpiece to school to use on a "community" instrument kept full-time in my band room. Some parents rented instruments from local music stores and were allowed to use the community instrument free of the usual school rental fee. City buses are always a problem when it comes to transport of musical instruments, but there are often solutions that can be worked out.
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Author: David Spiegelthal ★2017
Date: 2011-10-19 14:54
I don't see why, for just about any instrument of euphonium size or smaller, a kid can't just hold the instrument case upright in his lap the way I used to. Block's the kid's forward view maybe, but doesn't intrude on anyone else's space.
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Author: DNBoone
Date: 2011-10-19 15:06
David, I would say that issue is that if the bus crashes, the kid would bust their head on the instrument. Thus a 'safety' issue.
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Author: David Spiegelthal ★2017
Date: 2011-10-19 16:23
I'd rather bust my head on a tenor sax case than on the head of the kid in front of me, or the seat frame.
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Author: DNBoone
Date: 2011-10-19 16:29
Back when I was in high school that is what we were told the safety issue was. The article does mention that the sax case fits under the seat and we tried the same approach. But since there are no cages or anything to keep things from sliding, things put under the seat become a tripping hazards in case of a fire since they can slide around.
Not saying this is what I believe, it is just what I have been told in the past by school board officials.
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Author: SteveG_CT
Date: 2011-10-19 17:08
When I was in high school I remember successfully convincing the bus driver to allow me to bring a contra alto clarinet on the bus a few times. I just stood the case up vertically in the footwell and sat next to it (it was one of those 1pc Bundy cases that are ~5ft long). I guess the schools are probably much more worried about potential lawsuits now than they were when I was in school.
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Author: JEG ★2017
Date: 2011-10-20 00:40
This reminds me of when I was in junior high school and high school, when my major instrument was baritone saxophone. As David Spiegelthal mentioned with his bass clarinet, the case was an excellent tool for helping to cut through crowds on the bus and elsewhere. Back in the 60's I never heard anybody voice any safety concerns, and if I remember correctly, I usually sat in the back of the bus with the horn in the aisle. It's hard to keep a bari sax case in your lap. I also took it on the train from Westchester to Buffalo NY for NYSSMA Allstate in 1966, so I did do a bit of travelling with it.
Seriously though, as was mentioned above, I think the issue is more one of potential lawsuits more than anything else. Everything we do has risk; what we should try to do is eliminate foolish risks. Taking a musical instrument on a school bus does create some risk, but so does participating in school sports, any science lab activity, walking in the hall, etc. If the saxophone is part of the school curriculum it seems to me that the school and its participating organizations have an obligation to accommodate it.
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Author: donald
Date: 2011-10-20 01:01
Heh, i've just finished doing a run of Anything Goes doubling Clar/Bass clar/tenor and baritone, and now have to find a way to get my tenor/bs cl and the Baritone sax i borrowed home from the theatre- there is no parking in downtown Auckland (especially with the Rugby World Cup on) and to get the instruments there was epic. Just getting the instruments up 4 flights of stairs from the basement pit is like a trip to the gymn! And i'm a big guy.
d
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Author: Tobin
Date: 2011-10-20 02:49
Haven't been on a bus recently -- do they now have seatbelts for each kid? If they don't they're all at risk in an accident, tenor or not.
James
Gnothi Seauton
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Author: bob49t
Date: 2011-10-20 05:55
Donald,
I did that show a few yrs ago and purchase a sack barrow (renamed my SAX barrow) I added a strong removable blockwood base insert to increase the support. I've used it numerous times since, for similarly aerobic shows. The use of bunjee straps is a convenient way to stabiise the set up.
I assume this is why doublers in every other country than GB get doublers rates.
If I'd really thought it out I would have gone the extra mile and got a barrow with triple (triangular wheels) for stair climbing.
Next show Seussical... same thing... clar, bass, tenor and bari...
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Author: Tony F
Date: 2011-10-20 07:40
Many years ago the RAF band I played in were booked for a ceremony. The Air Force coach quit at the last moment, so a civilian coach was hastily booked. We were all relieved when he arrived on time, but he then announced that he could take the people with small cases, but not the large instruments. It was apparently company policy.
The fact that the coach had been hired to take a military band to a job didn't seem to register, and it was the threat that if this was their choice their company would get no more business from the Air Force, and since we a major source of their business it worked.
Tony F.
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Author: donald
Date: 2011-10-20 09:14
As a 16 year old i did a tour playing A/Bflat clarinets, Bass Clarinet, Alto sax and Tenor sax. EVERY GIG i was the last person packed up, and the last person on the bus... which wouldn't have been such a problem except that there were too many people on the tour for the number of seats on the bus... exactly ONE PERSON too many. I was the youngest person on the tour by about 4 years, and they were all sooooo mean!!!!!!!!! After the first week some others started using a private car so the seating situation was resolved.
d
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Author: John J. Moses
Date: 2011-10-20 14:42
As W.C. Fields once said, "The definition of a Gentleman is someone who owns a Saxophone, but doesn't play it!"
I play the Saxophone, so there you have it!!!
JJM
Légère Artist
Clark W. Fobes Artist
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Author: BobD
Date: 2011-10-20 16:46
From what I've seen the biggest danger involved with school buses is the driver.
However, yes, the principal issue is lawsuits....so it's the old CYA issue....
Bob Draznik
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Author: Bob Phillips
Date: 2011-10-22 05:38
Have you ever seen a school bus with seat belts?
So much for actually being concerned about passenger safety.
Bob Phillips
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Author: DNBoone
Date: 2011-10-22 15:52
@ Bob,
A few, (very few) of the new ones do. But the driver generally doesn't enforce students using them.
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Author: Bob Bernardo
Date: 2011-10-24 00:03
People on these school boards need to find a new life. This is the most stupid thing I've ever heard!
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