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Published Friday, October 23, 2009 in Opinion

Learning a new lesson

Michelangelo didn't sell used cars. Mozart didn't drive a dung cart. Babe Ruth didn't sell peanuts at the ball park.

The greats knew what they were destined to do.

Unfortunately, some of us spend a lifetime trying to figure it out. Count me in that crowd. It wasn't that I never had any career ambitions. My problem was backing off whenever I lost interest. And even when I thought I had found my perfect spot, I flopped again.

When I was growing up, the man who influenced me more than anyone else was my high school and college band director, Dr. Johnny Long. There was no one I admired more or who made such a big difference in young people's lives. Plus, he had a ball doing it.

Because of him, I became a band director, hoping to inspire young people the way he had inspired me.

I loved it. Being surrounded by music all day was wonderful, and the teaching was (usually) a blast. But eventually I realized I'd never be as good as I wanted to be. Or as good as the students deserved.

I had a teacher's heart, but never managed to get the whole crowd pointed in the right direction. I gave it up.

Looking back, I should have realized early on I wasn't blessed with the teaching gene. The evidence was clear when I attempted to teach my first pet, a mutt named Pickles, how to do ... well, anything.

I guess I thought I'd be better at music. I wasn't. My teaching skills were clearly lousy.

Or at least that's what I thought. But a recent news story suggests that maybe I didn't use the right technique.

Long after I gave up teaching music, my son decided to become a drummer. He became a great one, and loved it so much he now teaches music for a living. He's as good a music teacher as you ever saw. Just ask his students.

Or ask the crowd at his sister's wedding reception, who jumped for joy when my boy did a guest appearance with the band and delivered a rousing rendition of that wedding day classic, "Wipeout."

My son is probably so good because he never asked me for a singe bit of musical advice.

Credit for my son's musical success goes to Dr. Doug Moore, who is now principal of Newnan High School, where he once taught my son to play.

Obviously, Dr. Moore knew the right technique and got the desired results. But things would doubtless have turned out differently if Dr. Moore had followed the teaching technique used by a San Antonio, Texas, man who recently made musical headlines for all the wrong reasons.

It's pretty clear that dad wasn't fond of his son's drumming. It's even more clear that the situation wasn't new, since dad was 83 years old and his son --who still lived and drummed at home -- was in his 50s when the two finally had the ultimate musical disagreement.

Maybe disagreement is too mild a word. In fact, cops used the term "aggravated assault" when they discovered that dear old dad had tried to improve his son's drumming skills by firing a bullet through the son's door during a late night practice session. Now that's a teaching technique that will get anybody's attention.

The aging drummer boy was wounded by bullet fragments. The dad was sent to jail, where poor drumming will be the least of his worries.

No one knows whether the father will be more musically tolerant when he leaves the pokey. Let's hope so.

But while this tale ended on a sour note, it left me with a smile. For years, I have wondered if I might have been the world's worst music teacher. Not anymore.

(send your e-mail comments to: alex@newnan.com )

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