Grand Avenue by Mike Thompson for March 25, 2025

At least Mr. D. is trying here! Either elementary school teachers whip out the recorders or they’ll be incompetent and let their students watch cartoons of music for entire periods. Unfortunately, I had the latter when I was in elementary school, and barely remember anything from those music classes. Mind you, my memory is like a steel trap, and I can remember things from when I was 3 years old. This was when I was 5-8 years old.

It teaches parents that ear plugs are sanity savers.

Panel Two: Dad, have you been hitting the powder a little hard lately?

I’ve heard some pretty good recorder performances. It’s the person, not the instrument to blame.

It teaches nuttin! If your musical inclination is not in the wind instruments line, it’s awful. If it is, it’s worse, as you try & get good music out of a hunk of plastic with holes in all the wrong places! And if you have no musical ear, you drive everybody to jumping off the proverbial cliff!

It teaches us to stop financing the music programs.

I had a roommate in college who played the recorder…often.

It teaches the teachers how to hide from an angry mob of parents.

Horrible instrument. A whole classroom stumbling through a piece with them is disturbing. I’ve been there. Being one of the players.

Having no idea what a recorder is, I googled it.

The instrument called a “recorder” was named after the Middle French verb “recorder” (to remember, to learn by heart, repeat, relate, recite, play music) and its noun form “recordeur” (one who retells, a minstrel) because it was used by court entertainers to recite poems and play music.

It would help if they played some recorder music first, (don’t know how much help.) Frans Brüggen and Bernard Krainis are some the finest examples in my experience.

Recorders were / are the bane of any school bus driver. The “notes” are almost impossible to drown out and the safety issue of driving the thing through the kids skull if you suddenly stop. I banned them from being played on my route every year. Grumpy old dude, yep – get off my yard too.

Recorders are mentioned in Hamlet.

I had to sit through numerous recitals where the kids played Three Blind Mice on the recorder. It was torture.

It was used in the “Music for Elementary Teachers” course when I was an undergrad in college. I was not an Elementary School major.