Posted by JS on March 01, 2003 at 18:35:16:
My son is in the eighth grade. He's one of those weird kids who has a very sophisticated sense of humor, tops out on grades and achievement tests (' no prompting from us...See?...Weird.), but is too shy to talk to other kids very much. (Perhaps the "doesn't talk" thing is about normal for a 14-year-old boy.)
Being that he plays the trumpet, we just got back from the regional honor bands concerts where he and his older sister participated. He has "perfect pitch" (ex: whistles through his fingers and when he's doing it says goofy stuff like "I can get up to B flat, but not a B natural.") and with the "perfect pitch" thing he has a tendency to pick up odd brass instruments laying around the house (tubas, baritones, trombones, french horns, funky antique brass instruments, etc.) and, by ear, play other instruments' parts from pieces he's playing at school or has heard elsewhere.
Today (since we own a music store), there were four or five euphoniums laying around in the living room - all different brands. (I had been "auditioning" them.) He was playing different "band excerpts" (from the concert today) on various euphoniums with various mouthpieces and (hollering from across the house) asked, "DAD!!! Which brand of baritone can I use to play too loud on without getting a scratchy sound?"
Joe "sorry the set-up was so long for the punch-line" S.