For the Band Kids

The Babies (Part 1)

Let's face it, sixth graders say some of the craziest things (even if they are usually true). I've had some moments with them that are absolute gold, so I thought I'd share a few. I'll do this in multiple parts, because if I did them all in one part that would be way too long.

(It should be noted that I'm actually in beginning band. I play French horn as my second instrument in there.)

Moment One:

At the first beginning band concert, our director warmed us up around five minutes before the start of the concert, then advised the brass players to empty out their spit. I play French horn, so I decided to do that.

For those of you who don't know, you empty the spit on a French horn by taking out various slides, and sometimes by spinning it around in a circle (it looks really dumb). I started the process of emptying out everything in every way possible. Thankfully, I have a single horn or that would have taken forever.

Anyways, there was a lot of spit in there. One of my sixth grade babies, who sits next to me, was watching, and as the puddle of spit grows he's getting more and more disturbed. As I finish spinning it around and go to work on the valve slides, he speaks up.

"Oh my god, that's so much spit!" He looked surprised and scared that a single horn could hold so much spit. (We'd been playing for a little less than two months now, so he's never seen what an instrument looks like after a four hour rehearsal. That is a lot of spit.)

So, I emptied out the first valve slide, and he started to panic. "Oh my god, make it stop! What are you doing to the floor!" he shrieked. By the time I finished emptying the entire instrument, he was shrieking his head off, and every kid within a two chair radius was laughing their heads off. 

We somehow escaped the notice of our band director.