The unfortunate part of this is the fact that he is, indeed, quite talented in the Percussion arena. Now, one might think that having a talented 7th grade percussionist would be anything but unfortunate, and that person would be right, were it not for the incredibly large ego that goes around with said percussionist. It is much easier to work with and teach and train a person who has less talent, but is willing to listen and work hard and learn than it is to try to teach a person who believes he is the best thing since sliced bread.
This student has been giving me grief all year long. Like most percussionists, he is twitchy and incapable of sitting still. He also has an irrepressible personality; He never gives up, and unfortunately is usually quite amusing and charming about it.
This, however, grows old after about the 4th month and I have been immune to this student's charms for some time now. In fact, he has become so annoying of late that I have begun to employ a technique they taught us in college (*gasp!* yes, I'm actually using something I learned!) and trying to get rid of his behavior by ignoring him completely unless he raises his hand and asks a pertinent question. I think it's working because he's getting worse, but it has a tinge of desperation to it as if he can't figure out why he is no longer the center of my attention and he's sure he's going to die if he can't get my attention back on him.
But I digress.
As I was saying, this student has been giving me grief all year. He truly is a better drummer than I. He has an innate sense of timing and is able to play anything I put in front of him (except mallet percussion. He has no desire to play that, so he hasn't bothered to learn it.). Now, don't get me wrong. I am a better musician than he is. I have more musical training and am just better at music than he is. He's just a better drummer.
He doesn't see it that way, however. He feels that drums are the only instrument and has no respect for me because I don't play them. And as a result, he rarely listens to me and feels that he can mouth off any time he wants.
For the last few months, I have been thinking about the day in high school when he will get schooled by a high school drummer and I have been hoping I would be there to witness his downfall.
We have a small Jazz Band performance tomorrow night, and our bass player can't be there, so I recruited a high schooler to help us out. He came in last week and read the music down cold. The middle schoolers were impressed and a little awed (the girls especially. I mean, he's a good looking, older man! What's not to like?). He came back today and we rehearsed the music again and we ended about 10 minutes early. The following then took place:
7th grader: "Look what I can do." *proceeds to show off*
10th grader: *takes sticks from 7th grader and shows him up, ever so slightly*
7th grader: *eyes get a little wider* "But look at this cool trick." *shows off again*
10th grader: *takes sticks and shows him up again*
THEN:
10th grader: "do you know your fundamentals? Flams?" *proceeds to do cool tricks using only flams."
7th grader: *eyes the size of saucers*
10th grader: "what about paradiddles?" *proceeds to do cool tricks using only paradiddles."
7th grader: *eyes the size of dinner plates* "But what about this?" *proceeds to do a fairly good (albeit sloppy) snare solo, playing loud and fast, with lots of stick flipping and rim shots*
10th grader: *does amazing snare solo using only fundamentals* *looks at 7th grader* "learn your fundamentals" *hands him back his sticks and walks away.*
And as he walked away, I held out my hand for a "five", because after all, this sophomore had just made one of my fondest wishes come true. I had known it was coming, I just didn't think it would come so soon, nor that I would get to witness it.
That same day, in a discussion that began "Miss, I got schooled today", I learned that my 7th grader now plans to "practice his fundamentals". Thank you sophomore. You have accomplished something I have been trying to do for the last 9 months.
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