Band and Orchestra
I find it amazing that, as much of a band and orchestra kid as I was, neither of my kids play an instrument that can be played in either. My daughter plays the piano, and has since she was 4 ½ (with a two year break in between), and both kids sing, but neither was ever interested in a band or orchestral instrument.
I shouldn’t say that. Sam did play viola for a couple of weeks, until I found her, during her lesson, lying on her back, staring at the ceiling, refusing to stand up. (I thought the teacher, one of my teachers, was going to pop a vein.) I was fairly mortified by her behavior considering I was the teacher’s boss. Charlie tried violin, and I thought it was going swimmingly, but he didn’t. Then, in fifth grade, Charlie decided he was going to play the sax. I was elated!
So, I immediately brought the sax home from the store, set the case on the kitchen table, and together, we opened it to see the shiny, new instrument. That’s when I made the big mistake. Instead of putting the thing together and letting him have a go at it, I decided to give him a lecture about keeping his instrument clean, particularly the neck and mouthpiece. At which point, I threaded the soft cleaning swab through the neck to give him a demonstration and immediately, the swab got stuck in the neck. That thing wasn’t coming out in either direction – the way it went in or the way it was supposed to come out. When I got a knife, the crying – no, the wailing-started. “I hate the sax! It’s ruined! You ruined it!”
I remind you that I am a music store owner, and I had gone through this exercise with dozens of new sax students before Charlie. And, what had I done those times? Put the damn thing together and let them play it. But, not with my own son. I singlehandedly caused so much trauma for him trying to get the swab out of the neck (the knife worked, by the way, but please don’t try this at home) that he never touched the thing, and sadly I returned it a month later.
(It wasn’t all for not. I learned a valuable lesson and had every swab replaced in every with swabs that did not – could not- get stuck!)