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 Posted: Thu Mar 18, 2010 5:48 pm
So, me and my friend are auditioning for drum major. well, he asked me if i could tutor him at lunch with scales and his conducting. (Which is cause for everyone to laugh at us, because we were doing so in the locker room, with the door closed...But we were just practicing. People kept coming in and turnign the lights off)
Well, yesterday we were working on scales. And now I ask myself, and everyone else: How did he survive this long?
He didn't know what an eighth note or a quarter note was. Hes been playing for four years.
Good news, he knows his concert Bb scale. Bad news, it is the only one he knows.
Me and the most likely sl have agreed on one thing for next year: smackdown is going to happen in the clarinet section, whether or not I get DM, whether or not she gets sl, or whether or not I get sl. Whatever happens, this idiodicy will not go on. I should not have to spoonfeed him soemthing he should have learned 8 months ago. i don't know how he could survive marching band without knowing these scales, which we played by memory everyday during marching season. I don't know how he reads music, seeing as he doesn't know notenames and doesn't know what an quarter note is.
But the problem is, nobody else is trying to help him. everyone else has given up on him. Everyone says he is hopeless and can never learn. Even the bd. What do i say? I say exactly what my bd says. We are only as strong as our weakest member. Apparently, everyone else, including the one who said that, has forgotten that. People are telling me I shouldn't try to teach this kid. So i ask why not? Why should we just give up on him?
So my question to you:
Do you agree with me?
Any tips to help this kid?
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Posted: Thu Mar 18, 2010 6:47 pm
I have a kid exactly like that, a trumpet player. I'm the trumpet section leader, so I have to help him. He's not even my friend. But I don't have a choice in the matter. So, I do what I can for this kid, even though he can hardly hit an A on the scale. It's extremely sad, he's been playing since 6th grade, and he's in 11th grade now. People actually go up to him and say, "Don't you think you should have improved a little bit since then?" and other such comments. I personally don't feel sorry for the kid. But I help him, by figuring out one small problem at a time, fixing it thoroughly then moving on to another small problem. Of course, he realizes the inevitability of his own failure and suckish-ness, so he's not doing anything rash (like trying out for drum major). But, whatever. We don't have a time limit, so we can afford to fix his problems one at a time.
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