OK, so this new "Boy Wonder"...............

[tubafatness]

I had a somewhat similar situation, and I just decided to, pardon my language, be an *** about it. There was no other way to convince the kid to keep his ego down then to over-inflate my own. For instance, when he missed a note repeatedly in one passage, I bluntly told him, "You're missing that note, that's not good." I know that it is the wrong thing to do in almost every case, but this was my last resort. And, hey, he did improve! Now we get along fine, and he misses less notes.

[Kevin Hendrick]

... Next week he gets it all to himself for a week.

That should be "interesting"! Keep us posted ...

[Kevin Hendrick]

... I'm having two wisdom teeth cut out that day though. I'm not even messing with trying to be there.

I would hope not! Hope it goes well.

[Biggs]

he's already asking our minister of music if we can have "chair try-outs"

It's a no-brainer: have chair try-outs and beat him quite handily. Both of my teachers have taught me to always, always let my playing do the talking.

[Tom]

Your job is to show up and play tuba.

You have no responsibility to do anything else.

Let the playing do the talking.

You can force the playing to do the talking by doing exactly what was suggested...just happen to "forget" your tuba or be "sick" for a rehearsal in order to force him into a "sink or swim" situation.

[windshieldbug]

I'll be danged if I'll allow chair try-outs between myself and a middle school student.

Aw, come on! Crush the little sucker like a bug!

[SplatterTone]

Rub the mouthpiece in poison ivy.

[Doug@GT]

Rub the mouthpiece in poison ivy.

And then it just happens that the kid is allergic to poison ivy and dies, and poor Schlepp gets schlepped off to jail.

Doug "would prefer Schlepp not to have to use TubeNet-on-a-rope"

[Tom Mason]

I refrained from posting until now because I wanted to see where this would go, so here it is............................

If your music minister has the intellegence that he/she should have, then they know the score already. A brief talk with them should help solve the situation.

If the minister does nothing about the situation, then maybe its time to consider trying to form a small quintet/group out of the upper level players and do something in parallel with the orchestra.

Hopefully, the minister will address the kid. The kid needs to realize that he is being a destructive part of the group. No matter how he feels about playing in church, a participant should never be a negative in a positive situation. As a church music minister, I would remove a person who is being a negative influence in the group. Yes, I would try to get the kid to change his/her ways, but there is a point that one's behavior will cause others in a group to falter. When that point is reached, action needs to happen.

As for your participation, hang in there. (Not trying to preach here) There are times when outside influences will try to keep you from a worship experience. The kid may not know it, but he might be a tool to keep you from a worship experience. On the other hand, he might be the way for you to be a positive influence in someone's life, even though its not obvious now. Whatever you do, don't give in to being driven away from your service in worship.

If it helps, I have driven away from participation in worship before, and I regret the times I didn't take a firmer stand.

Hope this helps.

Tom Mason

[Joe Baker]

I refrained from posting until now because I wanted to see where this would go, so here it is............................

If your music minister has the intellegence that he/she should have, then they know the score already. A brief talk with them should help solve the situation.

If the minister does nothing about the situation, then maybe its time to consider trying to form a small quintet/group out of the upper level players and do something in parallel with the orchestra.

Hopefully, the minister will address the kid. The kid needs to realize that he is being a destructive part of the group. No matter how he feels about playing in church, a participant should never be a negative in a positive situation. As a church music minister, I would remove a person who is being a negative influence in the group. Yes, I would try to get the kid to change his/her ways, but there is a point that one's behavior will cause others in a group to falter. When that point is reached, action needs to happen.

As for your participation, hang in there. (Not trying to preach here) There are times when outside influences will try to keep you from a worship experience. The kid may not know it, but he might be a tool to keep you from a worship experience. On the other hand, he might be the way for you to be a positive influence in someone's life, even though its not obvious now. Whatever you do, don't give in to being driven away from your service in worship.

If it helps, I have driven away from participation in worship before, and I regret the times I didn't take a firmer stand.

Hope this helps.

Tom Mason

The hands down winner, in my opinion.
__________________________________
Joe Baker, who was thinking the same thing, but could have never put it so well.

[Mark]

Okay,

I've thought about it and I've decided to make my contribution to a solution. Tell the kid that the next rehearsal will be out at Pantex and that as a joke he should sneak in over the fence.

[Mark]

*for those who are not familiar with "Pantex"

http://www.pantex.com

I'm not kidding, this is their motto:

Maintaining the safety, security and reliability of America's nuclear weapons stockpile.

[Kevin Hendrick]

*for those who are not familiar with "Pantex"

http://www.pantex.com

I'm not kidding, this is their motto:

Maintaining the safety, security and reliability of America's nuclear weapons stockpile.

Appropriate -- he seems to think he's hot stuff!

[ThomasDodd]

On the other hand, he might be the way for you to be a positive influence in someone's life, even though its not obvious now.

Given that this is a church orchestra, I must agree with the above. Contrary to the other suggestions of moving on to another group, or it not being your place to correct this behavior, it is your (and the rest of the congregations's) responsibility to do so.

Oh, if you can find anyway at all to attend a rehersal where he is playing alone I'd do so. Take a tape recorder and spend the entire time commenting on his performance, like a contest judge would. Then give him and his teacher and/or school director each a copy.

That way you have his actuall playing recorded and the comments together. No way to deny what's on tape* and the problem with it. Just commenting at the end of a piece about a probelm in the middle leaves too much room for denial.

* My son (when he was 7) tried to deny video tape though. After attempting to correct flaw in his taekwondo form, and his constan denial of what his mother and I saw, we reverted to using video to prove it. Still he tried to claim the camera lied! but eventually it worked, and he got much better about being corrected.

[TubaRay]

I refrained from posting until now because I wanted to see where this would go, so here it is............................

If your music minister has the intellegence that he/she should have, then they know the score already. A brief talk with them should help solve the situation.

If the minister does nothing about the situation, then maybe its time to consider trying to form a small quintet/group out of the upper level players and do something in parallel with the orchestra.

Hopefully, the minister will address the kid. The kid needs to realize that he is being a destructive part of the group. No matter how he feels about playing in church, a participant should never be a negative in a positive situation. As a church music minister, I would remove a person who is being a negative influence in the group. Yes, I would try to get the kid to change his/her ways, but there is a point that one's behavior will cause others in a group to falter. When that point is reached, action needs to happen.

As for your participation, hang in there. (Not trying to preach here) There are times when outside influences will try to keep you from a worship experience. The kid may not know it, but he might be a tool to keep you from a worship experience. On the other hand, he might be the way for you to be a positive influence in someone's life, even though its not obvious now. Whatever you do, don't give in to being driven away from your service in worship.

If it helps, I have driven away from participation in worship before, and I regret the times I didn't take a firmer stand.

Hope this helps.

Tom Mason

The hands down winner, in my opinion.
__________________________________
Joe Baker, who was thinking the same thing, but could have never put it so well.

I agree 100%

[ThomasDodd]

Right out front of the administration buildings is a small rectangular section of land that's surrounded by a very tall heavy chain link fence and topped with some of the nastiest looking razor wire I've ever seen. In the center of this is a guard tower. There's nothing visible inside the fence except the tower. This leads me to believe that there's something REALLY sensitive under that particular bit of turf. I figure if a man really wanted to committ suicide, that would be the place to drive straight into.

Now what good is an unprotected guard tower?
Should have some bullet proof material too, so the guy up top don't get picked off by a sniper.

Still, could be some interesting stuff under though....

[SplatterTone]

The tower is just a decoy. The good stuff is in the trunk of that old Studebaker Commander up on blocks outside the fence.

[Kevin Hendrick]

The tower is just a decoy. The good stuff is in the trunk of that old Studebaker Commander up on blocks outside the fence.

You don't suppose ... nah, couldn't be York #3 ... could it?

[Kevin Hendrick]

The tower is just a decoy. The good stuff is in the trunk of that old Studebaker Commander up on blocks outside the fence.

You don't suppose ... nah, couldn't be York #3 ... could it?

I dunno, but it's got bullet holes all over it.

Well, shoot ...

[Tom Mason]

There are plenty of "deer gun" rounds that would be respectable in a 2 barrell auto set-up.

Get some small bore high verlocity belted magnum round like a 7 mm or .264 magnum. The bullets would hit before the sound got there.

Tom Mason