Everyone in my class was required to learn an instrument too. Maintaining, cleaning and checking whether everything works was literally one of the first things we were taught dude. No way that kid never properly disassembled their clarinet.
This story is a good analogy for when they try to force kids to learn by certain methods instead of accepting that another method might suit them better
When learning to weld, it’s recommended that you start with Stick welding if you want to be serious and learn all the types eventually. It’s harder to start with, but forces you to learn better hand control. Stick welding isn’t like a broken clarinet, but the story reminded me of that.
I find myself using that quote on the regular still. TNG had some absolute insanely talented writers.
Then again… Code of honor… Yuck.
The first season had some episodes that were indeed a bit tone deaf, especially when viewed through the perspective of today.
Code of honor was terrible through any lens. Sub Rosa, and others were bad weird, but understandable. It really amazes me how a show can go so high and so low on the same season sometimes.
Yeah, not going to dispute that the series overall had some bewildering and sometimes downright bad episodes mixed in between the treasure trove of gems (Sub Rosa being an odd duck for being both THAT bad and that late in the series).
I guess that’s what happens when you have multiple writers running episodes in parallel to each other. Nowadays (with all the explicit continuity series go for) that’s less likely to happen as writers are at least expected to have plot and tone carry over between episodes, but for older episodic “villain of the week” type shows like TNG it id more likely to happen.
Part of a band teacher’s job is maintaining the instruments. The band teacher deserves all the blame attributed to those bad pads.
Was looking for this response. A band director should have noticed that shit immediately.
All of the community’s job is to fund the school district. There’s not much a band teacher can do if there’s no money for maintenance…and very often there isn’t.
Not that I’m defending band teachers. Some are great. Some suck. Just like everyone else. But it’s not like the pads grow on trees.
Or maybe they do. I don’t know. I’m not a musician.
There’s a big difference between “sorry, we can’t afford pads” and “your fundamentals suck. Git gud, n00b.” And that difference is a bad band teacher.
Also, the student or parents were willing to pay for private lessons. My private lessons all the way back in the 1900s cost 3-4x more than clarinet pads cost now. I’m sure they would have much rather covered the cost of new pads.
Finally, back when I ran technology for a middle school, I’d often help the band teachers repair and maintain instruments while chatting in my free time. If a band class/school district can’t afford clarinet pads for years, then they are weeks away from every single instrument turning to dust in the hands of teenagers.
Which brings me back to my main point: if a school-owned clarinet has bad pads for years, then that band teacher ain’t band teachering.
Yeah, like I said, I’m not defending any band teachers. However, my kids’ elementary school band teacher was awesome, but the saxophone she loaned my son one summer was absolute shit. My daughter struggled with the drum kits in every grade because they were always falling apart. And our school district is considered one of the wealthier ones in the area.
I would bet that one clarinet’s pads wasn’t the only issue in the school district. It’s more likely that the pads went unnoticed because there were so many other more significant problems that no one ever got around to dealing with the pads.
I’m not defending the band teacher. Just suggesting there might be a lot more to this.
That is very generous and understanding of you. But I’m sure if you casually mentioned to the band teacher that the saxophone was absolute shit, they’d probably agree with you.
What OOP is describing would be the equivalent of a language teacher telling you that your child is illiterate because their pencil broke while they were filling out a multiple choice sheet.
I can be in board with this story until he moved from last to first overnight. While I realize that’s exaggeration, at most I’d believe he moved up a bit unless he also changed schools or the band teacher changed. That would require the band instructor to admit they were wrong in their judgement of the student, which almost never happens.
I played clarinet in 5th grade and was last chair. I challenged the girl next to me a couple of times and won, but then she’d take it back the next week. In my case it was because I didn’t practice and didn’t want to play the clarinet, I wanted to play the sax, but we already had a clarinet, so that’s what I got. I still have the clarinet, it’s in my closet.
And sometimes the clarinet is not broken and you have to give up things you love doing for things that you are simply capable of
Ah yes, the weighted training clarinet
Lesson here is that I should definitely buy the new set of golf clubs
There’s some math tricks that can help, too. Like for each hole, subtract 5 from your stroke count, and suddenly par doesn’t seem so ridiculous. Or it wouldn’t if golf wasn’t such a ridiculous sport to begin with.
Just change your golf pads.
Hi. It me. The clarinet.
Please change your pad
Have you tried putting your mouthpiece on a different clarinet?
I like where this is going.
Yeah this one hit me right in the mental health journey
Sometimes your clarinet is just broken.
Happens more and more as you get older.
this happened to me.
i wasn’t last chair, I was “always second” but I was stuck with a hand me down clarinet with shit pads.
my mom was too poor to even look into having it repadded for years.
i silenced the class and got moved to first chair after playing with proper pads.
it was frustrating and glorious. you’re just not allowed to blame your instrument. but I think we can all agree.
fuck em.
Same here. We were poor and got finally saved for a brand new Vamdoren mouthpiece. First day at a football game some child ran into the bell of my clarinet and I chipped the mouthpiece on my tooth. I sounded airy ever since and couldnt get out of the low chairs.
Exactly what i thought of first
