Just to share an anecdote re: people’s ignorance of Irish/wooden flutes:
I teach elementary music in a school that goes from K-12. Yesterday, I was helping out the band director, who uses my room after school for fifth grade band. I was helping some students learn to put their instruments together (first day of band). The band director’s two high school assistants were looking at some pictures I have displayed of famous musicians. One of the pictures is of Jean-Michel Veillon playing his (Wilkes?) flute. I heard the high school girl say, "What is he playing? It looks like an ol’ stick!"
Aarrgh! I was not able to comment on her observation because of being occupied with helping the fifth graders. But, I believe I will next time!
Don’t you just love kids?
They just need some time to come around, I bet, and a good mentor… Good teachers can aleviate a lot of that kind of innocent ignorance.
It was actually my high school theatre teacher that started me on the Mandolin, which lead, logically, to the tinwhistle.
Here’s a pint on me for all the good teachers out there.
That’s true. I bring my Irish flute and whistles in and play them for the elementary kids. They’re really interested in any type of “unusual” musical instrument. (Wish I had a digeridoo!) I haven’t been at this school long enough to have taught the high schoolers, though.
I’ll surface for air for a few minutes before I have to get back to flute making (I am very busy right now) and say something about the days when I sold wooden flutes out of a booth at the Seattle Folklife Festival.
The most frequently asked question was “Which end do you blow in?”
followed by “Are these like a flute?”
I had one person confuse these with hammer dulcimers.
Several thought they were drum sticks and a few got broken.
Casey
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Years ago I ran an ad in the local weekly paper offering guitar instruction. A woman called and asked about instruction for herself. She asked about how she would keep the guitar in tune. She though that you could take it to a guitar tuner pretty much like a piano tuner. I explained to her that I would show her how to tune the guitar, that she could learn to do it herself. She replied, “Oh my, I wouldn’t want to play an instrument that I had to tune myself!” She didn’t say wether she was blond, or not. I didn’t play whistles or flutes at the time, so I lost a potential customer.
No, I don’t believe you did. Lots of people like the idea of themselves playing an instrument, but are not actually driven to create music. I have even seen people give up on tin whistle because it actually required some effort from them. These are not customers, they are time wasters. Be glad you were not burdened by this person for anything more than the length of the phone conversation.
I’m sure most of you who play blackwood sticks have heard, “Is that a clarinet?” or, “Is that an oboe?” (not uncommonly “a oboe” ). One of my favorites was, “Is that a real flute?” I once told a confused young girl who plays Boehm flute that I killed an oboe to make mine. Her eyes widened for a bit, and then she got the joke.
People are curious about it. I used to get exasperated, but now I see it as an educational moment, and enquirers get to learn not only that it’s a flute in period form (sometimes I lay on the dreary details very thick, heh), but also that any sideblown tubular instrument, no matter what it’s made from, is reliably a flute. They come away either informed and empowered, or sorry they asked.
I’ve had at least 3-4 people ask about my “clarinet”. I can understand that they’ve never seen a wooden flute, but I KNOW they’ve seen a clarinet before!! :roll: The hammered dulcimer thing takes the cake though. That’s hilarious!
I sometimes get the reverse problem. . . people ask me if my flute is an antique because they see the faux Rudall & Rose seal on my endcap - it’s fun to tell them is just plastic NOt just the clueless do this, but some fairly experienced/prominent flute players too.
Yeah, there was one lady who was frankly disappointed to learn that my flute was made in the past year in Seattle. “Well, there’s no romance in THAT,” she huffed, and went away.
I’ve had my bass fiddle refered to by a newspaper reported as a “big guitar” . Kids are always asking me about the thing… “what is it? how do you play it? is that a guitar?” etc. Some adults have the courage to admit their ignorance and ask those same questions.
I’m glad you got over the exasperation… most anyone who asks an honest question is trying to gain knowledge. That should be rewarded with enrichment, not scorn.
Anybody who knows a little can seem like an idiot to someone who knows a lot but has little patience or empathy (who can, in turn, seem like an idiot to someone who knows even more, and on, and on, ad nauseum). In similar vein, someone who knows a little, or plays a little, can seem like a genius or a wonderful player to someone who knows even less. Surely noone would argue that folks should somehow pop out of the womb knowing a fipple from a drumstick. There are people at every concievable stage of learning out there, and getting upset because they don’t match a certain standard is not much help to them or the upset one.
Since sports are much more highly valued than the arts in the US, many people simply have not had occaision to learn anything about music or the instruments and people who make them, except what they hear out of a stereo, TV or radio ( ), so for them to even attempt to identify an instrument is actually a good thing. To take an opportunity to enlighten and turn it into a chance to scorn is a sad way to deal with it, IMHO.
I was playing at a campground recently with a fiddler friend of mine, and a crowd gathered, including many kids. One asked what my instrument was, and I said it was a flute. They asked were I got it, and I said eBay. They asked how old it was, and I said about 125 years. One of them chimed in, “are YOU 125 years old?”
You know, in the US, this is all just an indication of the state of our arts education in schools. (sorry, I don’t see one with little tears streaming down.)
Just so’s you know, I always kept my impatience to myself. My momma didn’t raise no jerk! It was simply bewildering and frustrating to me that some people couldn’t see a flute for being a flute, and would get derailed by what it was made of. But that was my problem, really. I’ve come to terms with the fact that everyone has different filters through which they process information, and what’s obvious to me isn’t necessarily obvious to them. Even if it oughta be.
). One of my favorites was, “Is that a real flute?” I once told a confused young girl who plays Boehm flute that I killed an oboe to make mine. Her eyes widened for a bit, and then she got the joke.
NOt just the clueless do this, but some fairly experienced/prominent flute players too.
(sorry, I don’t see one with little tears streaming down.)