My grandson has been playing my Leblanc Paris bass clarinet (vintage 60s horn) for three years now. At 14 he is very careful with the instrument, takes lessons from me and a pro instructor. But he never practices unless we do it together and can't play the clarion range above A3. For that matter, neither can I reliably on this instrument--I have absolutely no problem with my Selmer Privilege 67.
I have this into the tech three to four times a year and these are good techs. It's always something new and as far as I can tell is not from misuse. If Nicky luv'd music more I might buy him a better instrument. He ends up using the school loaner (while his is in the shop). It's a Yamaha student model, but it is in worse condition than his/mine.
He has a killer mouthpiece (Walter Grabner) and his sound is strong and sounds great until he gets to the clarion range. It's so bad that his teacher has asked him to bring a soprano clarinet to lessons so that he can make some progress.
His band teacher makes a lot of allowance for this kid; he's failing in almost every class in school and has gotten what amounts to a social pass every year since fifth grade. I hate to get another bass clarinet, don't want to lend him mine, and am loath to buy yet another instrument that will not get used when he finally gets the gumption to tell me to shove it.
His parents could care less about him and are now divorced. He lives at my house 4 or 5 days a week as I am working with him to become self sufficient and raise his grades. I've had some success but when I went on vacation for two week, he missed four days of school, missed a concert, and did absolutely no homework. So the fourth quarter was a wash.
Should I just keep doing maintenance on the horn even though it won't play well above A3, rent another horn, or what? Sigh, it was much easier with my kids. One horn plus a double lasted them their whole music career through high school.
I have this into the tech three to four times a year and these are good techs. It's always something new and as far as I can tell is not from misuse. If Nicky luv'd music more I might buy him a better instrument. He ends up using the school loaner (while his is in the shop). It's a Yamaha student model, but it is in worse condition than his/mine.
He has a killer mouthpiece (Walter Grabner) and his sound is strong and sounds great until he gets to the clarion range. It's so bad that his teacher has asked him to bring a soprano clarinet to lessons so that he can make some progress.
His band teacher makes a lot of allowance for this kid; he's failing in almost every class in school and has gotten what amounts to a social pass every year since fifth grade. I hate to get another bass clarinet, don't want to lend him mine, and am loath to buy yet another instrument that will not get used when he finally gets the gumption to tell me to shove it.
His parents could care less about him and are now divorced. He lives at my house 4 or 5 days a week as I am working with him to become self sufficient and raise his grades. I've had some success but when I went on vacation for two week, he missed four days of school, missed a concert, and did absolutely no homework. So the fourth quarter was a wash.
Should I just keep doing maintenance on the horn even though it won't play well above A3, rent another horn, or what? Sigh, it was much easier with my kids. One horn plus a double lasted them their whole music career through high school.