I don’t teach many young peeps. The few that I do manage are always characters, and my two Monday kids are no exception. Yesterday, Noah and I were talking about his impending move to a full size cello, and he was lamenting the flatness of the bridge on his current instrument at school. I told him that he could always ask for a Belgian bridge on his new ax. He snatched a scrap of paper and jotted it down. “Anything else I should ask about?” he asked. “Sure. Get a Larsen A on whatever cello you do end up with.”

“Isn’t that a felony?”

Bahaaa. Larceny. Excellent.

Then I went over to Laura’s, where our girl is valiantly recovering from fractured left hand fingers. We did some ear training and theory to keep her moving forward while giving her injured paw some rest.

Now, some students (especially those without prior piano instruction) occasionally volunteer “H” as a note when I quiz them on a scale. I usually give them the eyebrows and they giggle at their mistake. Laura nearly knocked me off my chair when I played B, C, and then…”Is that O?”

O?? O??? My teaching life flashed before my eyes. How could I have led her so far astray? O!

I looked at her and laughed. “No. That’s not O. There is no O.”

“O. . .pen D?”

Right.

All was well.

I get such a kick out of these kids.

Coming soon: Learning a symphony in a day. Possible, but not recommended.