G.A.S. Can Start Very Early
Author: Helen
I read the funniest, but very poignant thing this AM. Pete Hales, the man formerly know as saxpics, now the creator of TheSax.Info Calendar & an Administrator on the Woodwind Forum, was responding in a thread about beginning players coming to discussion boards asking for advice on buying new mouthpieces, ligatures, and reeds, because they disagree with the advice they’re getting from their instructors. Pete said:
Studentia don’t need GAS. They need antacids.
How true it is! (If you are unsure of what GAS refers to, or missed my post on it last November, you might find this amusing.)
How many times in on-line discussion boards have we read posts by young players who ask questions about what horn to buy. What mouthpiece to get. What reed or reed strength to use. Or which ligature to get. And how many times have experienced players chimed in with answers like: That depends on a variety of factors namely X, Y, & Z. You should get a teacher, and ask him/her for their input. To which the young player responds: My teacher said I should keep using what I have, but I don’t like it. Or something equally meaningless like: My teacher said I should work on my tone before I change my mouthpiece, but my sound sucks. What saxophone will give me a better sound?
As a teacher, when I come across threads like this, I barely know how to respond, and many times don’t. That is unless the thread appears in a forum that I am a Moderator on, and then I’m obligated to respond. It is a really difficult situation however, because most likely what you write, the young player will not listen to anyway.
After years of giving advice to young players and being ignored, many seasoned players have just given up. They think: What’s the point? I could write a well-thought-out post, for the 100th time in like 5 years, but it too will be ignored. I might as well go shed. This is really a shame, because I suspect that occasionally we end up missing legitimate questions by young players, because we’re jaded.
Providing sax information on-line is a bit like providing sex education to your kids. You can give them all the correct information, but what they choose to do with it when the time comes, is out of your control.
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sam netherland on
You are under no obligation to answer the question. Sometimes I wonder what would happen if no one took pity on the new player and the question didn’t get answered. Never happens though.
No you’re of course right. Even as a Moderator I’m not obligated to answer the question. However, I do feel a certain moral sense of obligation to try to answer the question, because even if the poster doesn’t “get it”, maybe another reader of the thread who has a similar question will.