I’ve been making the rounds of the local elementary schools, talking up the summer reading club.
On one school visit, I passed a classroom where a teacher was bellowing out, “A, G, F….!” repeatedly as her class of 23 grade schoolers were all blowing unmusically on recorders. All I could think of was, “What horrible thing had she done in some past life to deserve that fate?!”
The recorder: Instrument of the Devil! I think the Spanish Inquisitors may have used them…
I dunno, any child on any instrument usually sounds like some sort of torture devised by medieval inquisitors. String instruments especially seem evil in the hands of an unmotivated beginner.
You never do see kids playing the banjo in elementary school bands or orchestras though. Why is that?
Reminds me of a banjo joke:
What’s the difference between a banjo and a chainsaw?
The chainsaw has a dynamic range.
Ba-dum-ching!