Author: Dutchy
Date: 2007-03-10 16:39
If your daughter is really that interested in learning the oboe, I'd say keep the oboe you have so she can start learning to play it. It could take weeks or even months to get in touch with a teacher and then obtain a teacher-recommended oboe, and that's weeks or months that she could have been starting on the oboe.
Showing you a picture of a non-Larilee full conservatory oboe won't necessarily help, because each manufacturer can have slight differences in their keywork, so what you see in a photo of another oboe won't necessarily correspond with what the oboe you're holding is capable of. Your best bet is the reliability of the seller--a reputable music dealer will know what he's talking about when he says "full conservatory", and will stand behind it. Who did you buy it from?
Try this for Larilee:
Larilee Woodwind Corp.
Elkhart, IN 46514 United States
(574) 293-2005 , (574)293-2005 fax
Dropping out of band for a year (or even two) is not such a bad idea IMO. Band is a social event as well as a musical event; it's as much about socializing with your fellow clarinetists as it is about playing music. And if she's not going to be a clarinetist anymore--if she sees herself as going to be an oboist--she feels a not unnatural need to distance herself from that particular social group known as "The Clarinets". Also, she's not going to have time next year to practice clarinet parts for band AND be learning the oboe.
The band director's experience has been with kids who drop out of band in 7th or 8th grade because after the first couple of years (5th and 6th grade), they're bored with playing "The Peanut Song" and "Go Tell Aunt Rhodie", and for them to progress to the next level of songs requires more practice than they're willing to put in. Also, when they get to 7th and 8th grade, suddenly there are a lot more things to do, socially, than band. They have more important things to think about, and "band" gets put on the back burner. They're not little 10-year-olds anymore who, when asked, "Would you like to play an instrument?" shrug non-committally and go along with the parental program.
So these are the kids who don't come back to band.
However, there are other kids who do drop out, and who do come back. My daughter took clarinet all the way from 5th through 8th grade, but when she got to 9th grade, was forced by idiotic school district scheduling to choose between Band and Chorus. She chose Chorus for her freshman and sophomore years, but got tired of the silly woman they had for a teacher, so decided to go back to band for her junior year. The band director suggested she have some catch-up lessons the summer previous, which she did, and she rejoined Band her junior year last September with no problems.
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