Author: SecondTry
Date: 2022-08-04 21:37
Hi Jen:
Your points are well taken, and I'll try to respond to them with a non-defensive posture, providing context to my situation.
It was 1st grade. My music teacher handed out these new plastic recorders in a green corduroy pouch. They probably wholesaled for $2.25, if that, in today's money. But for me, that instrument was pure gold and a truly life changing event where with age, the natural progression was to clarinet, with the rest being history.
So I not only do I get what you're saying, I hope to some extent I've walked the walk of which you speak, having refurbished all but discarded Selmer and Buffets at my cost, and given them away to students who can't afford them, at my nearest urban HS for the arts.
With this said, and the following I say void of opinion but relevantly, I live in an affluent area where I have helped music students prepare for State music auditions, mostly for the purposes of building their college resumes to pursue non-musical study.
With access to their doting parent's money they've flipped their iphones to web pages of the latest gear from nearby Weiner music, claiming it wrongly the missing link in why some difficult musical passage continually goes played with errors, despite their ownership of a near brand new professional instrument.
It's at this point, disinfectant spray within reach, that we swap instruments to my successful play of said passage, re-disinfecting instruments to their owners.
Thereafter, my response is something to the effect of--and I'll quote you a recent one literally--"Bearmann, page 26, Bb major, play flawlessly at a speed you can handle, work your way slowly up the metronome no faster than you can play accurately."
You see Jen, I completely get the challenges of growing up and how nice gear can motivate and improve the outlook of youth. But my youth, who CAN afford such stuff need a reality check in what is truly needed for them to get to the next level, which is practice. 
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The Clarinet BBoard
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