Today we had a short conference with one of the music/band/orchestra teachers in the school district. One of the really cool things that our district provides (well, free it isn't...but it's available) is for incoming junior high students the opportunity to try out a variety of band and orchestra instruments over the course of four days, to see what they like.

All of our kids have participated at this point, the current kiddo just finished his stint up. He went into it grudgingly, steadfast in his thinking that he just wanted to play the violin and nothing else. We did find out, through the whole camp experience, that he is not able to play brass - kiddo was just not able to buzz his lips. That's perfectly acceptable.

Two of the instrument styles, both I suppose would be woodwinds, he actually played very well. Clarinet and flute. Totally hilarious, especially when considering that he really, really, did not want to go those days because he would just not be able to do anything at all with them. Ha.

Even when all was said and done, what was his top choice? Well, still the violin. Totally cool. That said, his second choice was actually the flute. The actually also recommended that he try to choose the bass, he checked all the "hell yeahs!" on that one. Both the teacher that he worked with on bass, and the assistant, were former bass players and were very excited to see how well he performed. Fortunately, those skills do translate well to the violin.

All in all, we should now have half of a string quartet in our home now.

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Published 07 Jun 2024