Please, don’t march with an oboe or English horn. Pretty please?!

Besides volleyball, music is a big part of Sophia’s life. She plays clarinet and obo in the Dons’ marching band, obo and English horn in the school’s concert band, and also sings in church. At Duke, Dunworth plans to participate with musical groups during the volleyball off-season. “Scheduling time to complete all my studies, plus volleyball, and still have a social life is a balance I’ve had to work at since my freshman year,” Sophia said.

I’m hoping they aren’t saying she marches with an “obo” (I’d call that a spelling error, but in some countries it’s spelled that way so oh well!). Oboes are fragile little beasts. Reeds are sharp objects. And fragile littler beasts. Marching while playing makes the instrument sound yucky.

So many reasons.

I also see, in the quoted article above, the typical problem that many of my students encounter. They are doing too much! Now some students can handle a lot, but I have to say that nearly every student I have comes in yawning and exhausted. I always ask (as they wearily know), “How are you?” followed by “How’s the oboe?” Answers are almost 100% “Tired” and “Fine”.

I think kids are under such pressure these days to get into top colleges, and parent and peer pressure is so high, that many don’t even know how to have fun any more. Makes me kind of sad ….