Scenario:
A student approaches his band teacher during a pause in the rehearsal. He asks the teacher to look at his horn because it doesn’t seem to be working. The teacher notices a bent key, and decides to straighten it. The student is right there, watching closely and the key snaps off in the teacher’s hand. With disbelief in his voice the- student says “You broke my horn,” turns to the band and says, “He broke my horn.” This is not fiction and it is truly sad.
This has happened numerous times to teachers that we have worked with over the years. One way to avoid this is to teach the student how to properly care for their instrument. If the student is concerned and informed about handling his instrument the likelihood of an accident is greatly reduced. But, accidents do happen, and you as an educator are often put in a position of giving the student advice in recovering from an accident. The best advice is to have them take their instrument to a qualified repairman. In the future we will be discussing some “emergency” repairs that you can do safely.
