The class in school that drove me crazy had to be the music class. Sure, we only had it a couple of times a week through elementary but it seemed to be designed to make any kid hate music.
First it was the teachers and their choice of songs. I can remember Mrs Levatte with her pitch pipe on a string around her neck starting off with a key (she never explained what a key of a song was) and then we’d be forced like some chain gang to sing a song that was forty years old and was probably a big hit in the Newfoundland outports. (I’m thinking “Jack Was Every Inch A Sailor”)
Meanwhile I had discovered the local top 40 radio station playing all the hits and I never once heard that song on the radio.
Next class we all had to grab these objects that looked nothing like musical instruments, they were mostly blocks of wood and sticks and other baubles and suddenly we were a band or at least the rhythm section of one. I’m sure the Beatles’ Ringo did not start out that way! And, trust me, not a one of us had any natural sense of rhythm.
Eventually our parents were forced to fork out money to buy something called a recorder. It was popular during the Renaissance, which would have been the 1600’s but died out after the Baroque period which ended around 1750. I fully understand why. I think the only tune we learned to play on it was Greensleeves. (another big hit from Henry VIII’s time !
Here’s what I think of the recorder:
