synthesizers

one of my friends just got offered a job teaching band at a school in Nigeria. She took the job before stopping to think that the only instrument she knows how to play is the piano. She told this to the school and they said that "it didn't matter."

it got me to thinking back to my teaching days in honduras. the school was so unpredictable and you never knew what you would be teaching from day to day. it seemed like every day something really funny would happen. but the longer i was there the really funny things started to just seem normal. for example, i taught the sixth grade. little guys. they all LOVED music class. sixth grade is the grade dedicated to teaching kids how to play the piano. but since the school did not have a piano the kids were told that they had to bring their own. now, at the time this struck me as being normal. but now, it's like the funniest thing i can think of. here's why: there was no standard piano that the kids were told to buy, borrow, or bring. therefore, the pianos that these small kids lugged to school with them every Wednesday ranged from the small keyboard that only had about 16 white keys and 12 black, to these ginormous synthesizers that had all the bells and whistles. they kept beats, allowed you to create a song and save it to play back later, and assigned different sounding instruments to each key so it could sound like you were actually playing the trumpet. it was a riot to see these kids trying to haul their pianos up the mountain to school. it was not hilarious, however, to have a room full of pianos all day!

i tried to ease my friend's worries by telling her this little story, but i'm not sure it helped. --SN