Re: Re: Re: How did you get your start?


[ Follow Ups ] [ Post Followup ] [ TubeNet BBS ] [ FAQ ]

Posted by Rick Denney on January 28, 2002 at 14:04:54:

In Reply to: Re: Re: How did you get your start? posted by Mike Ross on January 28, 2002 at 11:36:13:

Not in this case. That approach would appeal to logic, a skill not available to most 7th graders. Instead, she put a trombone to my lips, and without the slightest instruction, commanded me to make a sound. The result, while not silent, was not musical in the least. So, she spent a few minutes explaining to me how to buzz, and then let me try the sousaphone. I made a good, strong, single tone. Seeing that I had impressed myself, she launched into the Hard Sell, explaining that tuba players were too few, and would always have a group in which to play (which has proved true), and that because of this, I would be Popular (which did not prove true, and the fact that I believed it proves the inability of 7th graders to apply logic).

My mother came along because of the requirement to bring a parent, but she had an agenda of her own. My older sister had played 'cello, which did not fit in the car in any reasonable way. So, my mother, who can be quite firm when motivated, determined that I would choose the flute, or maybe the clarinet. But she quickly saw that the tide was flowing in the wrong direction, and no amount of paddling brought her to shore. The band director's compromise with her was that I could just bring home the body of the sousaphone for practicing, and leave the bell at the school.

On the subject of cute girls, the tuba just reinforced a pre-existing tendency that was not reversed until MUCH later in life.

Rick "who envied the trumpet players at the time but who would not change anything about his life now" Denney


Follow Ups: