The Music Teacher

This week is Music Week at Vincent's school. They sent home a note requesting that any parent with musical ability bring their instrument to school to show the kids and play a little bit.

After some coaxing by my beautiful wife, I agreed to bring my saxophone in. I've been playing for 20 years now and don't play it as much as I used to, but since this wouldn't be a concert as much as a show & tell, I figured, why not?

So I showed up this morning, watched the goings-on for a few minutes before they introduced me as, "Vincent's Daddy, Mr. ___." That's right. I'm a Mr. (Last name left out to protect....oh I don't know. I'm paranoid about the internet.)

I. Am. Now. Officially. Old.

They had the kids right up against me in what had to be the closest I've ever been to an audience ever. That in itself was kind of scary. I mean, this isn't your typical crowd. This is 3, 4, and 5 year olds!

So I opened the case and showed them all the pieces - the strap, mouthpiece, reed, neck, bell, etc. and tried to have them relateable. The mouthpiece makes a "ducky sound" all by itself, the giant fuzzy cleaning thing that stays in the sax when I'm not playing it is "super silly."

I busted out some low notes and high notes, along with a little "Mary Had a Little Lamb." Kids laughed at the jokes, yelled things back to me about their brothers have saxophones that were "bigger than that one," and seemed to altogether enjoy it.

There was one problem, though. Vincent wasn't there.

The poor kid had a fever that kept him out of school. It figures that the day I was going to drive him to school, "in Daddy's car" and hang out with him and his teachers is the day he stays home. If it makes you feel any better, he didn't seem too bothered by it. When I called home after I was done, he ran down the list of his friends and asked if I saw them. "Did you seeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee Ashley? Did you seeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee Brandon?"

So all in all it was kind of cool. They told me I could come back "anytime." Next time I'll bring some friends and we'll go off on a whacked out free jazz session and see if they're still into it. Wait. That might make him sicker.