For the past two years, Lisa’s Clarinet Shop has been successfully teaching woodwind repair online. We have found two common themes among our 50 participants who have been band directors, private lesson teachers, professional musicians, school service representatives and amateurs: it takes too long to get instrument repaired and back into the hands of students, and it’s not a positive experience for students when they are unable to participate in band, sectionals, or a private lesson because their instrument isn’t working properly. Repair challenges can cause students to doubt their abilities and even think music may not be for them because they can’t distinguish between their own abilities and that of their instrument.
Even if a road rep from your local store calls on your school once a week, it’s often not timely enough to help ensure small problems students encounter can be corrected quickly to help them continue to play and perform on a daily or weekly basis. Helping your students be as consistent as possible is key to long-term interest and short-term success in music.
To address this challenge, Lisa’s Clarinet Shop is launching a 12- week summer class for Band Director Only. In it we will teach all the essential tips and tricks you will need to keep flute, clarinet, and saxophone students engaged in learning and playing in your ensemble with a high functioning instrument.
Following the successful completion of our For Band Directors Only summer repair course, you will be able to:
Describe basic construction and terminology of instruments in the flute, saxophone, and clarinet families.
Gain awareness of common problems in flutes, clarinets, and saxophones, and troubleshoot repairs.
Select and use common tools and materials for repairing flutes, clarinets, and saxophones.
Disassemble and reassemble flute, clarinet, and saxophone keywork.
Replace pads on flutes, clarinets, and saxophones.
The topics we will address include:
Parts of the instrument and related terminology.
Tools needed and their use in instrument maintenance.
Care and maintenance of the instruments.
Disassembly & reassembly of body keywork.
Cleaning body and keys.
Adjusting springs and posts.
Oiling mechanism.
Replacing instrument specific corks (head cork, tenon cork, and neck cork).
Replacing key corks and working with related materials.
Basic keywork adjustments.
Evaluation methods.
Visual inspection
Testing rods and screws for movement/addressing stuck screw and rods
Play-testing
Replacing pads
Pad removal
Closed keys
Open keys
Working with various types of pads (synthetic & bladder)
Designed to increase student engagement, help reduce the overall cost of district repairs, and incentivize school districts to complete more small basic repairs “in house,” our short course will give you the ability to be of service to your classroom, campus and community of musicians who need small common emergency repairs.
Our For Band Directors Only course is taught by master repair technician Bruce Marking and master woodwind repair technician Christina Colston.
About Bruce Marking
For the past 14 years Bruce has worked at Buffet-Crampon- servicing Buffet clarinets, Keilwerth saxophones, and Powell flutes. As a repair technician he has spent over 25 years working for full-service music stores in Florida. Bruce is a full-service repair technician with almost 40 years of experience repairing professional clarinets, saxophones, flutes, oboes, bassoons, trombones, trumpets, French horns, and tubas.
About Christina Colton
Christina is a flutist, repair technician and teacher who has a bachelor’s in music education from Southwest Oklahoma State University and Six Certifications to repair woodwind and brass instruments from the Colorado Institute of Musical Instrument Technologies (CIOMIT). She has been repairing woodwind instruments for nine years and teaching how to repair for four years.
Continuing Education Credit
We can award two continuing education units, or CEUs, to music educators who successful improve their knowledge and skills and successfully complete our course.
Course Dates
June 18, 25, July 2, 9- FLUTE
July 16, 23, 30, August 6-CLARINET
August 13, 20, 27 September 3- SAXOPHONE
The cost is $1700 and includes all supplies for the course. For SBO readers, enroll before May 15th and you will receive a $200 discount with code PSEYKUZK. Go to www.lisasclarinetshop.com.
About Christine Carucci
This course was designed by our new curriculum specialist Dr. Christine Carucci. She received a Bachelor of Music with concentrations in music education and performance from the Eastman School of Music, a Master of Music in performance from the University of Southern California, and a Ph.D. in music education from the University of Kentucky. In addition, she has received certifications in Orff-Schulwerk, Kodaly, First Steps in Music, and Cognitive Coaching. She has held positions teaching music at St. Cloud State University, University of Minnesota-Morris, and University of Rhode Island. She has also held positions teaching general music and instrumental music in NY, CA, and MA.
