I just got back from a middle school retreat at somerset beach camp. [shout out to phil and sara for a great weekend]. I took 9 of our students there and had a great time. It was cold, but there was enough snow to give us plenty of sledding and snowboarding opportunities. However... there is always a price to pay for going to somerset. Each lodge has a piano in the common room.
I'm sure some well intended geezer made a donation specifically for piano's thinking how nice it would be to be able to sing hymns together 'round the fire (not realizing that today we have electronic pianos called keyboards which are portable and have volume control). I don't have an issue with piano's per sey, but rather an issue with the rotation of kids who relentlessly pound the keys during every waking hour. There are 4 basic types of piano players found on a retreat weekend:
1) THE NOODLER- this kid has never taken any piano lessons, but has some musical ability. He never performs an actual song but just plays random keys and chords trying to figure something out. He never gets there and infuriates everyone in the process.
2) THE REPEATER- this student knows how to play one song. Only one song. It could be a classical masterpiece or the thing you play with your knuckles. But it doesn't matter which one it is because any song played 93 times in a row is unbearable.
3) THE POUNDER- this one's pretty self explanitory. Most of us see a piano as doorway to heartwarming harmonies and rising melodies , but he sees it as an invitation to shatter ivory and eardrums.
4) THE SCAMMER- this guy is similar to the repeater because he probably only knows one or two songs. The difference is that the song that he knows is a ballad he learned to play for the sole purpose of impressing girls. It makes him seem sensitive and mysterious (bonus points if he has hair that hangs down in front of his eyes), but he's out of place during the winter retreats since the girls aren't allowed in the building. So he just practices playing that emo song and looking angsty.
Are there any ones I'm leaving out?
4 comments:
I can't believe you let it go on. We actually have a rule against campers playing the piano unless it's organized by a leader. . . which is information that probably would have been more useful 48 hours ago. Then again, I've met leaders who fall into more than one of these categories.
Alex - How true about the pianos at camps. I think that has been going on for generations -- makes me smile. Glad you and your group had a great time at the retreat. Love you - Mom
haha! Glad that didn't happen to us. we called our piano 'dead'. it was so out of tune that no one even wanted to play it.
Well, I'm somewhere between the scammer and the repeater. Thanks for bringing it out in the open.
word verification: peacesse
adv. re: shalom
"Wow, dude, I feel so peacesse"
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