A long time ago, in a place far, far away, I played the French Horn. It's a tough instrument, and I wasn't very good at it for the first couple years. In fact, I believe my loving mother said my playing sounded a lot like a "moose in mating season" during one of the many times she tried to convince me that I really didn't have to be in band if I didn't want to.
(If you want to hear how I sounded: )
Unfortunately for her and our neighbors, I was dead set on playing the French Horn and I continued blasting away all the way from sixth grade until I graduated high school.
After high school though, I realized a very important thing: musical instruments (and French Horns in particular) are REALLY expensive!
At my high school, we were able to participate in a fantastic music rental program. For $50 per year, we could take home one of the school's instruments. The students who played larger instruments even got to keep one instrument at home, and another at school so they didn't have to cart their tuba on the bus everyday.
Now, my high school didn't have a lot of money and the band program was continuously in danger of being cut. We were lucky though that we had more than enough instruments for every student who wanted to play. If we didn't have those instruments, however, I can tell you with absolute certainty that our band program would not have survived!
That's why I'm really impressed with Ear Candy, a nonprofit in Arizona I learned about last week.
This nonprofit is cool because it collects unused and forgotten instruments and gives them to struggling school music programs.
What I really like about Ear Candy is how they made a connection between two common music problems:
Problem 1: Many music students purchase their own instruments, and then abandon playing when they go to college or enter the workforce. Most of the time, they have no idea what to do with their instrument, and hope one of their relatives will take up playing the trumpet (or whatever) so they can pass it along. Meanwhile, it just sits there with an accusing look - reminding them that they stopped playing.
Problem 2: Many schools are cutting music programs because they do not have enough money to run them. One of their biggest expenses... take a wild guess... musical instruments! Needing to buy new or used instruments can often be the straw that breaks the camel's back and dooms the band.
So Ear Candy collects these abandoned instruments and gives them to programs who would not otherwise have them. Over 85% of the instruments given to Ear Candy were in someone’s closet collecting dust! That's a lot of instruments that were given a second life.
To make it even better, Ear Candy even tracks where the instruments go - so donors know exactly who they're helping. Pretty cool, huh?
Here's the innovation lesson from this: Sometimes, a fantastic solution to your problem could just be sitting in someone's basement.
A lot of people think they need to fix a problem from scratch. Many times though, a good solution to a problem is already out there - it just needs to be found.
So, if you're facing an innovative challenge, stop trying to reinvent the wheel and start looking around you.
If you're lacking something... think about who might have a surplus. If you need to get rid of something, think about who might benefit from it. Figure out a way to create a symbiotic relationship with someone who has the opposite problem from you.
And, if you're looking to get rid of that trumpet you bought years ago when you were still convinced you were going to be the next Louis Armstrong... Ear Candy could be a great solution for you!
This is a great idea! And I'm very sorry for your parents and neighbors if you really sounded anything like that moose! ;-)
Posted by: Tobias Singer | April 02, 2009 at 02:38 PM