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I had a pretty good music teacher in grade school. As an adult, I feel sorry for the guy because I think his job was on the line every year when they worked out the budget (because nothing is more expendable than fine arts education!) but they managed to keep him every year. It was good to have that continuity. He was a super nice guy, a genuine music nerd, very gentle with students and enthusiastic and eager to increase our appreciation of music. I remember his playing us Peter & The Wolf. I remember him introducing us to PDQ Bach and him just being in fits of giggles as we sat there bewildered about why it was just so amusing to him.
The weird memory I cannot erase, much as I'd like to, is how in 4th or 5th grade we got some new music books. New, modern, HIP music books, which had things for us to learn and sing that weren't, say, Turkey in the Straw. The memory I would LOVE to expunge involved this one song that he made us sing. I remember the dull tune and some of the lyrics:
Fen-der Ben-der
yeah yeah yeah!
Play, Play, Play
yeah yeah yeah!
Even at the tender age of 9 or 10, we knew that it was cheesy, and dreadful, and it was made even MORE dreadful by the fact that we were all staring down at the books on our desk, none of us willing to sing very loud. As karaoke has affirmed for all of us, the only thing worse than a terrible song is a terrible song sung half-assed. It was mortifying, and I didn't know who I felt worse for, the class, or the terribly earnest music teacher.
Mr. Naumann, I am sorry. But I hope you are sorry too.
ETA: OMG I'm not the only one who remembers that awful thing. Check out #1 on this list: http://monkeyblogmonkeydo.com/2009/06/16/songs-burned-in-our-brains-from-grade-school-a-musical-musingsmy-boss-pauls-top-five-list-joint/
The weird memory I cannot erase, much as I'd like to, is how in 4th or 5th grade we got some new music books. New, modern, HIP music books, which had things for us to learn and sing that weren't, say, Turkey in the Straw. The memory I would LOVE to expunge involved this one song that he made us sing. I remember the dull tune and some of the lyrics:
Fen-der Ben-der
yeah yeah yeah!
Play, Play, Play
yeah yeah yeah!
Even at the tender age of 9 or 10, we knew that it was cheesy, and dreadful, and it was made even MORE dreadful by the fact that we were all staring down at the books on our desk, none of us willing to sing very loud. As karaoke has affirmed for all of us, the only thing worse than a terrible song is a terrible song sung half-assed. It was mortifying, and I didn't know who I felt worse for, the class, or the terribly earnest music teacher.
Mr. Naumann, I am sorry. But I hope you are sorry too.
ETA: OMG I'm not the only one who remembers that awful thing. Check out #1 on this list: http://monkeyblogmonkeydo.com/2009/06/16/songs-burned-in-our-brains-from-grade-school-a-musical-musingsmy-boss-pauls-top-five-list-joint/
