I believe that the parents are the ones that we should be developing a common knowledge of their student’s instrument, instrument products, and instrument care. Below will be a few tips to help our students parents as their child begins on his/her’s music journey.
Helping Parents Remember What Brand and Strength Reeds
You will be surprised with the numerous parents who come into a retail store and have no idea what they need to purchase for their student. Common conversations between a sales clerk and a parent may start off like this:
Parent: “Hi! I need to get reeds for my child.”
Clerk: “Great! What instrument does your child play? And what strength and brand reeds do they need?”
Parent: “I don’t know, the beginner kind? My child is in the sixth grade.”
That best thing I tell parents, once we find out the exact brand and strength of reeds, is to keep the lid from the box of reeds in their purse or wallets. That way they will never be in the dark of what they need to get.
Helping Parents Save Money on Reeds
I’m never astound with the endless complaints about the prices of reeds. At this moment, I begin to importance of rotating reeds. When rotating reeds the best way to keep track of this would definitely be is to purchase D’Addario’s Reed Guard. When the parent buys a box of ten individual reeds, I encourage them to only give their student four reeds and hold on to the remaining six reeds. I continue to explain that with the D’Addario Reed Guard will hold four reeds and each slot is already numbered. On the first day of the rotation, the student plays on reed in slot 1, second day the reed in slot 2, third day the reed in slot 3, and fourth day the reed in slot 4. Finally on the fifth day, the student begin from the top of the rotation with the reed in slot 1.
I take it a step further on how the parent can start to save money. The rotation process can make a box of reeds stretch a bit longer. If and when a reed needs to be replaced, the student will go to parent and ask for a new reed. This controls how fast the reeds are dispensed out. I usually give this likely example to the parent:
Imagine Little Johnnie is playing in class and Little Sally Sue is sitting next to him. Little Sally Sue breaks a reed and is fresh out of reeds. If Little Johnnie had the remaining six reeds with him, he could easily help Sally Sue with an extra reed. Being that he doesn’t (due to parental control of the remaining reeds), he definitely wouldn’t be giving out his used reeds. With the full rotation method in full force, the parents are only paying for their child’s reeds alone.