[Saxplayer67]

I took on a new student last week, twelve years old (not the youngest saxophone student I've taught). He'd been having lessons for a year and a half and his teacher - I was told - 'disappeared'. Luckily, the kid's name isn't 'Damien' or I'd have cause to be worried! But does his house number, 666, cause concern for anyone?

Anyway, his timing's excellent, his sight reading's great, I identified his three main issues as:-

• Everything is played with a strong attack ( a hard tongue), so I demonstrated everything from hard to soft to slurred playing. I suggested lots of legato tonguing exercises. Dynamics need work also, as all at one volume.
• Sax in need of repair, specifically a plastic tube missing from the octave mechanism where it meets the doodad (technical term) on the crook and also the round cork missing from where the G sharp key is pushed down with our friend the left pinky, to meet the sax body. The kid told me it was purchased second hand and those bits were missing then. I would have though his old teacher would have advised or sorted this out before.
• Despite his protestations, heaven knows when the sax was cleaned last. It took me a while to prise the crook from the main body and it was all green on the tenon. The mouthpiece was stuck but I got that sonofagun off. The reed was stuck solid to the piece, even with the lig off. I got it off and the reed was dark brown in colour. Inside the mouthpiece it was all gungy - yechhhh! So I got covered in all sorts of grollies, taking all that apart. Recommended copious cleaning of all the parts and of course a new reed!

Does anyone else have any horror stories (and whether their student is named Damien!)?

 

[JimD]

You think he's going to tell you that his name is Damien?

 

[playitfunky]

The dark lord has found you. All you can do now is teach him scales and triads and hope he allows you to live once he takes over the world.

 

[area51recording]

When he's there for a lesson do you ever look out the window and see a rottweiler outside?

 

[Reedsplinter]

Does his head turn all the way around? Are you prepared to clean up the green projectile vomit?

 

[bandmommy]

I feel your pain.
I had a similar experience with a student as far as the nasties living inside the horn.
The kid would come to lessons unprepared. 'Forget' to bring his lesson book. Have only reeds that looked like rodents had snacked on them and expect me to give him one from my personal supply. And then intentionally damage his instrument so that he wouldn't have to play.
That was the second kid I ever told not to come back untill he was sure he wanted to play the sax.
The first was a young lady with ADHD and Combative disorder. She called me a Devil Worshiper.
If the kid listens to you and can follow directions, things should improve. I've got my fingers crossed.

 

[Seasax]

he isn't called Lucifer instead is he :twisted:

 

[spinmaster]

Some scholars, such as Delbert Hillers (Johns Hopkins University) of the American Schools of Oriental Research and the editors of the Oxford & Harper Collins translations, contend that the number 666 in the Book of Revelation is a code for Nero,[179] a view that is also supported in Roman Catholic Biblical commentaries.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nero

 

[Saxplayer67]

I feel your pain.
I had a similar experience with a student as far as the nasties living inside the horn.
The kid would come to lessons unprepared. 'Forget' to bring his lesson book. Have only reeds that looked like rodents had snacked on them and expect me to give him one from my personal supply. And then intentionally damage his instrument so that he wouldn't have to play.
That was the second kid I ever told not to come back untill he was sure he wanted to play the sax.
The first was a young lady with ADHD and Combative disorder. She called me a Devil Worshiper.
If the kid listens to you and can follow directions, things should improve. I've got my fingers crossed.

I agree. This one will be no trouble, once I make sure he cleans it regularly. My third student I taught a few years ago was, I was told, mildly autistic. But I think maybe he had the same as your young lady and acted like the first one you mentioned. After teaching him for a few years, suddenly he just didn't want to do anything, until I did something I do not do as a rule - I threw in the towel and said enough's enough, I couldn't teach him any more. I still tried to involve him in our Christmas gigs - at least the practises - but he just couldn't cut the mustard.

As for reeds, up until recently I was forever supplying reeds and whatnot to at least a couple of my pupils and then the parents expect you to continue, as they don't 'have time' to buy consumables. My 'guinea pig student' when I first started teaching sax, she didn't buy one reed, I supplied them all. I try not to be a soft touch now!

 

[Saxplayer67]

Some scholars, such as Delbert Hillers (Johns Hopkins University) of the American Schools of Oriental Research and the editors of the Oxford & Harper Collins translations, contend that the number 666 in the Book of Revelation is a code for Nero,[179] a view that is also supported in Roman Catholic Biblical commentaries.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nero

Actually, I don't think about it, just thought it was funny to say to start with. I'd never watch the Omen films due to the subject matter. I do have my faith in God and guess when it comes to 'the other guy', I bury my head in the sand and try to ignore him.

 

[hakukani]

I feel your pain.

The first was a young lady with ADHD and Combative disorder. She called me a Devil Worshiper.
If the kid listens to you and can follow directions, things should improve. I've got my fingers crossed.

My first beginner band at the high school was 25% (yes, 1/4) ADHD. That's one of the reasons I don't teach band anymore....

 

[RootyTootoot]

The first was a young lady with ADHD and Combative disorder. She called me a Devil Worshiper.
QUOTE]

Ahhh.. Kids, eh? Don't they say the FUNNIEST things!

 

[Saxplayer67]

The first was a young lady with ADHD and Combative disorder. She called me a Devil Worshiper.
QUOTE]

Ahhh.. Kids, eh? Don't they say the FUNNIEST things!

The Devil thing could be right - don't forget Michael Segell's excellent saxophone tome (though I don't like the title - see my Omen comments above) entitled 'The Devil's Horn'!

 

[hakukani]

Corma turien te
Corma tuvien
Corma tultien te
Huines se nutien.

 

[Saxplayer67]

Corma turien te
Corma tuvien
Corma tultien te
Huines se nutien.

Sorry don't know what that is all about.

 

[stefank]

We have a school clarinet with the inventory number 666 engraved on it - it's a must for all those Metal clarinettists!

 

[RootyTootoot]

Corma turien te
Corma tuvien
Corma tultien te
Huines se nutien.

Is that wizard talk?

<

<

..or hawaiian

again..?

 

[hakukani]

Is that wizard talk?

..or hawaiian

again..?

You stay so lolo.

No, it's the LOTR prophecy in elvish---or is that Hobbit?.

 

[Saxplayer67]

Am I the only one to find the LOTR films boring and full of mock-seriousness? I tried reading the book after seeing the first film (I am a great reader, even from a very young age but never got around to Tolkien) and thought that boring too and only got forty-five pages into Two Towers. I did sit through the films at the cinema and thought 'what a waste of time, I could be playing sax'!

 

[hakukani]

I found the films lavish, yet longish and boring.

I read the books the first time in the 70s, while in high school. I reread them a couple of years ago.

It's fantasy. Fantasy is about descriptive writing. If you like detailed descriptions of things that don't exist, fantasy is for you.

Otherwise not...