Mr Brown was a stern and stoic music and band teacher. Had I known what he was like I would have never signed up to take clarinet and be a part of the band. He was a task master; there was no fooling around in his class! I was nine years old at the time and that shiny clarinet had wooed me into signing up. I wanted to be able to play it well. I just didn’t want to play the kind of pieces Mr. Brown was assigning. I tried everything I could to get out of practicing those pieces.