Flute Frenzy

My daughter joined the school band this year, and wanted to play the flute. This was GREAT to me, because I also played the flute in the school band, and I had kept my flute all these years. I didn't have to purchase a new instrument for her to play, she could just use my old one! And really, this solution worked just fine until a couple of weeks ago when my daughter said that the flute had stopped playing. Lovely. Repairs required.

The music stores that provide repairs are nowhere near our house- a half hour drive to just fine out what was wrong. I drove out and showed them the flute. The repairman was an extremely soft-spoken, and extremely knowledgeable person. He immediately began listing off what was wrong with the flute....and he kept going, and going, and going.....bottom line? It was going to be $100 to fix the flute, and he couldn't fix it until the next week because he was getting ready for the music store's big used instrument sale that weekend. Ding! Used Instrument Sale!

You see, my flute was purchased used when I was in fifth grade and decided to take band. It was something that had been stored in someone's attic for a thousand years, and we bought it for $100. I don't think it had ever been repaired until a couple of years ago when I needed to replace a couple of pads on the keys. To pay $100 for repairs when we bought the whole FLUTE for $100 seemed like a bit much for me. So we decided to check out the sale! I asked the repairman what the flute prices would run at the sale and he softly said, "I don't know, a little over a hundred..." Bingo! Problem solved.

We went to the sale very hopeful that we would walk out with a newer, and in much better condition instrument. We hit two branches of the store. We walked in. We walked back out. The LOWEST price was $250. This is very reasonable as far as flutes go, really, but not really what the budget could handle compared to repairing the old flute. My daughter was distraught, I had driven all over town for nothing, and we still didn't have a flute we could play.

Plan C involved begging a friend to use her old flute while I got this one repaired. It didn't play well either, and my daughter ended up using the band leader's own flute after the teacher took pity on her. I drove out to the music store...AGAIN...to repair the flute. Voila! Two days later, we got the call that the flute was done. Today, I went back to the store. The flute was beautiful- newly polished, all fixed up, everything lovely. I paid for the repairs, and went out to the car. A feeling came that I really should have tried PLAYING the flute before I left the store. I really didn't want to come back a fifth time because something was wrong. So in the parking lot, I put the flute together and began to play. NOTHING! Not a sound came out of the flute! I couldn't even get a single NOTE out of it!

Beginning to get a tic in my eyebrow over what had become a big ordeal, I strode back into the store. The salespeople looked at me questioningly as I shook my head muttering about something being wrong. I went back to the repair counter, and opened up the flute case, "It still doesn't play!" I said, trying to disguise my frustration. To prove it, I put the flute together and blew into it. "See? Nothing." The repairman said, in his quiet quiet voice, "Um...yeah...that would be because the cleaning rod is still inside the flute. I stored it in there because I didn't see a slot for it in the case. " I looked down the body of the flute. Filled with cleaning rod. Well, that would certainly make it unable to play. I laughed sheepishly, tried the flute without the cleaning rod stuffed inside of it, and it played wonderfully. I went home.

Maybe I can convince my youngest child to try a different instrument.