it's in the attic

August 20, 2008 at 2:57 AM

My beginners all started today-40 third graders, at least 12 beginning Suzuki violinists, plus all the others. I think there are about 100 string players at my elementary school. The other half of my job is now just elementary music. Only almost 500 names to attempt to learn. Definitely an improvement over last year.

I also heard a new reason for why a student did not have a violin and would not be continuing. Her mom "put in the attic and she can't go up there" (I translate that as mom told a fib because she returned it to the store). And if she did stick it up there, well, I can only imagine what a summer in a Macon attic would do to a violin!

From Karen Allendoerfer
Posted on August 20, 2008 at 2:02 PM

When my parents moved in February, I went and helped them clean out their attic. I found an old VSO there, which had been there about 25 years. It was the violin I left at school during high school. I kept my good violin (the one I still have) at home to practice on, took it to lessons, and brought it in to school for concerts.

I thought my mom had sold the old VSO years ago, but apparently not. Twenty-five years in the attic were not kind to it. The strings were broken and the varnish crumbled off when I picked it up. My parents had called the folks at 1-800-GOT-JUNK for the stuff my brother and I didn't want anymore, and I let them take it.

That experience has made me want to loan out or sell my kids' old instruments as much as possible while they're still in reasonably good shape. It's much better for violins to be played than stored in an attic.

From Tom Holzman
Posted on August 22, 2008 at 7:45 PM

Is summer in a Macon attic hot enough to melt a violin or cause it to spontaneously combust?

From Patricia Baser
Posted on August 23, 2008 at 1:19 AM

Well, the second day of school, it was hot enough that some wood chips on the playground caught on fire. The temps have been slightly less than normal this week, but we hit 100+ very often in the summer.

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it's in the attic

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