In my 5th grade class our teacher had us do a week long project called The Hum-Dinger.
Here’s how it went.
At the front of the classroom on a chair was a brown grocery bag. The teacher reached into the bag, apparently flipped a switch, and the contraption in the bag would hummmmmmmmmmmmmmm and then DING! then hummmmmmmmmm and then DING!
A Hum-Dinger. True to its title.
We split into groups of five.
One person from each group was elected to go up to the brown paper bag at the front of the class room and was allowed to reach into the bag and feel the contraption as it was humming and dinging.
You couldn’t look inside the bag but could touch what was in there.
Then each group was given it’s own paper bag that we were instructed to dump out it’s contents on the middle of the desk.
So now, on our desk was all the same (disassembled) components of a Hum-Dinger and we were instructed to make a machine that hummed and dinged.
We’d all heard the machine. One of us had felt the machine. None of us knew where to begin building a machine like this.
So we began.
It was a lot of the one person trying to communicate what they’d felt in the bag. Maybe this wire goes here, errrr, no, maybe this wooden dowel has to be connected to the paper clip and the paper clip is hitting the bell. Lots of attempts, no solutions.
So that was Monday.
On Tuesday, new insight. Everyone from each group got to go up to the front and touch the machine that was inside the brown bag.
So now there was lot’s of new ‘expert’ opinions. No I felt this. No I think it was that. There was a lot more talking about what to do than actual doing.
Wednesday everyone got to feel the machine again. Still not allowed to look in the bag.
The second go-around with everyone in the group being able to feel how that machine worked seemed to be the tipping point.
We recognized that there were some parts that were just fluff, just for show. They were only really there as a distraction and didn’t have anything to do with the hum or the ding.
By this time we had the hum locked down, and were searching for a consistent ding to sound off intermittently.
Our group figured it out Thursday…we were the second group in the class to get it. When the first group figured it out before us we were all jealous and frustrated and wanted them to just show us how they did it so we could be winners too.
But when we got it (without the other group telling us how), it was pretty awesome.
It hummed. It ding’d. And that was the sound of success.
The sound of success sounds a lot different now. Or what I want success to sound and look like.
I’ve decided not to point out every nuance and life lesson that this story so beautifully illustrates.
Because honestly, there’s way too many for one blog post.
I’m pretty certain that everything about working, succeeding, failing, relationships and persevering in the music business is found right here in 5th grade building The Hum Dinger.
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I’m always interested in your perspective, whether affirming or dissenting. Continue the conversation anytime: gabethebassplayer@gmail.com