The reason that the 12 year old from yesterday’s Part I of this story struck a resonant chord with me was that his story really is parallel to mine.
I started playing alto sax in grade 7, on a brand new, shiny, Mexican-made, Conn Shooting Stars model. It looked pretty much like this one:
Conn Shooting Stars model alto sax. Made in Mexico. Source: www.ebay.com
Then, after only 1 year, I knew that alto was not my voice. I pleaded with my parents to rent me a tenor. They got me a brand new, shiny, Bundy.
Bundy tenor sax by Selmer USA. Made in the US. Source: www.ebay.com
After a year renting it, my parents realized that they might as well buy me a sax, since unlike guitar, I wasn’t going to give it up. So my parents scoured the Vancouver papers, and we ended up buying a used La Monte tenor, which I still own to this day…I still even have the original classified ad from the Vancouver Sun. (Talk about being a pack rat!)
La Monte tenor sax by Orsi. Made in Italy.
I took private lessons from grade 8 through grade 12, and was heart broken when my private instructors wanted their summers off ❗ What was up with that anyway? (That’s why when I ran my studio in Fredericton with a full slate of students, I always gave them the option of taking lessons in the summer. I had a few that would take me up on it, for at least part of the summer.)
Whenever there was a band playing that had a sax player, or sax section in it, my parents would take me. I was a shy child (if you know me now, you’d never guess that) so my dad would always go up and engage the sax player in conversation.
He (the sax player seemed to always be a man) would take the time and talk to my dad, and if I wasn’t there, make sure to call me over. I don’t remember what the guys said, but I know that I loved looking at their saxes, and felt really special when they talked to me. I looked up to them, and wanted to do what they were doing.
Now I am doing what they were doing, and have always felt like I’ve wanted to give back in the same way these guys gave to me. I make myself accessible at shows, either before or after, & during set breaks. I am always willing to provide input or advice if it’s asked for.
When it comes to teaching, I have a very simple belief: I believe that the student and the teacher have to like and respect each other in order for the transfer of knowledge to work. So to help determine if the student/teacher relationship is going to be beneficial, my first lesson is always free: this gives both of us an out.
I also think that if a student is paying for a teacher’s time, the teacher owes it to the student (and to his/her parents if they’re paying for the lessons) to be 100% there, 100% of the lesson. That is something that I can’t currently be. I’m too dizzy, medicated for symptom management, & unable to multi-task, to be an affective, reliable instructor.
If I had any doubts in that department, that hour I wrote about in Part I, quickly put those to rest. I am certainly not able to be there 100% of the time at the moment, so it wouldn’t be ethical to take on students at this time. (BTW, I will keep my commitment, and do another lesson before September, but I won’t take money for it either.)
I’ve been very lucky in my musical life, to be surrounded by, for the most part, really great teachers. My hope as an instructor, is to be a role model for my students, so that if and when they become instructors themselves, they have some positive experiences to build on.
A couple of years ago I spent an pm shedding with the man who had been my first private instructor starting at the age of 13. (Who also happend to be my Jr. high band teacher.) It was a really eye opening experience. He told me that of all the sax students he has taught over the years, I was the only one who had gone on to play professionally. He told me how proud he was of me, and how he loves to hear me play.
We honked around and experimented with different effects for a while on his 2 tenors: an ancient Conn that pre-dates anything I’d ever used, and his 5 digit Mark VI that he bought new. Then we sat down and we played some jazz duets out of the Lennie Niehaus Jazz Conception For Saxophone Duets book.
We started on the easy ones, and when he had me lulled into a false sense of security, he flipped the book open to the harder ones, and proceeded to mop the floor with me. (I was sight-reading, and we were doing them at about 180 to 200 I think.) He then laughed, and said: Not bad for an old guy, huh?
From someone else that might have been considered nasty, but knowing him as I do, I knew he was just playing with me. I outshine him in some aspects, and he knows it. He’s OK with it, and encourages it. He has a great sense of humour, and knows me well enough to know that I wouldn’t feel insecure or threatened by being ouplayed by him…Especially out of a book that he used to use in our lessons… 
Guess I should’ve practiced before I went over. 😉
As instructors, we should never underestimate the influence we have over our students, sometimes years later still.
