Saturday I once again volunteered (well we do get paid a little bit, but I'd probably do it for free!) for the Rochester Orchestra's "Honk, Squeak, Scratch, Boom" program, provided to 4th and 5th graders to come to the civic center and try out instruments before they start band the next year. They come and register, pay a small fee, and get 5 tickets and can choose any 5 instruments to come and try out. Each instrument room has several "pros" who sit down with the kid, show them how to put the instrument together, how to hold it, where to put their fingers, and finally how to play. There is a morning and an afternoon session, so kids could do up to 10 if they paid for both sessions.
I'm always amazed at: 1) how many kids come and do this (it's great!), 2) how quickly and easily some of them get a sound out and even start playing notes, 3) how fast 2 1/2 hours goes. I estimate I helped 25 kids, and we had 4 saxophone people for the session I was at, and some were taking two kids at a time in some cases.
While I'm quite happy with the instrument I chose way back in 6th grade (won't even say how many years ago that was now!), I sure do wish we had had something like this - maybe I would have picked the same thing, but it would have been interesting to try others to see. And I'm willing to bet that some kids come in with an idea of the one they want, and find out it's totally NOT what they want by the time they leave.
Kudos to the Rochester Orchestra for putting this on every year!
(oh and watch for me in the Post Bulletin, I don't know how many pictures they took but they did take my name and took several pictures with one of the kids I was helping - so maybe I'll be "famous" :)
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