Percussion

Yes, some of you may have heard via "The Household Post" (Calvin's daily newspaper--subscribe at JCKotrba@comcast.net) that he chose percussion for his band instrument.

I swear on a stack of Bibles, that it was a total coincidence that the session I volunteered to help the band director with try outs, was the same session Calvin got to try the instruments.  Truly.  Bill should have been the volunteer because I could scarcely tell the difference between the clarinet reeds and the alto sax reeds that we were cleaning in between each student trying them.  All those ligatures looked the same to me as well.

I did however recognize the french horn mouthpiece.  (See earlier posts. . . )

Mrs. Smith lets the children take as much time on each instrument as they need to decide what they like. I took a test and the band director put me on french horn.  Mrs. Smith lets the children decide their instrument.  How courageous of her.  I noticed not many children were choosing the french horn.

It was so cool to see the children having their first peek at the clarinets and saxophones and trombones.  They were so full of innocence and sparkle.  One poor kid fell in love with both the oboe and the trombone.  I felt sad for him that he loved them both.  It is so hard to choose.  Especially between oboe and trombone.  Note sarcasm.

I also noticed that Calvin couldn't wipe the smile off his face the whole rest of the day after trying out the drum set.   Dear Lord, what have I done. . .

Turns out he didn't really like the french horn after all.  I tried to demonstrate for him, but twenty years is a long time to lose your chops.  At home I did play some Barry Tuckwell Mozart Concertos for him on the stereo.  If you don't love that what do you love?

In my heart, I do believe percussion is the right thing for him.  The kids has rhythmic energy coming out his pores.  But, I did really want it to be his decision.  I didn't tell him my student has a xylophone and snare drum to sell us until after we got home.  I would have bought him a french horn too.  Just not a Yamaha screw off bell model blah blah blah. . .. with a Conn II mouthpiece.

Bill opened up last night too and asked me what had he done wrong that Calvin never even hinted that he might want to play saxophone.  We all have our baggage.   So, with a french horn major mother and a professional tenor sax father, we now have a percussionist, something that neither of us know anything about.  I'm so glad.  It can be Calvin's journey.