Len Wohadlo and Kristen Judd at the 9th Digital Dealer Conference

I remember being a fourth grader and being so excited when my music teacher told my class that we would each get to pick an instrument to learn to play it that year. It was explained that we would be able to borrow an instrument from school before purchasing our own. I selected the flute as my instrument of choice. At the time, I wanted what my friends and I considered to be a “girl” instrument which essentially left me with the choice of a clarinet or a flute (in retrospect I wish I had been less concerned with gender stereotypes and picked the trumpet). I ruled out the clarinet because I didn’t want to deal with changing the reeds because the whole process seemed somewhat unsanitary. The flute, with its lighter more streamlined case, won for reasons that had nothing to do with making music.

While I enjoyed toting my flute back and forth to school for a while and announcing that I played an instrument, I didn’t really, at least not outside of music lessons at school. I didn’t practice. Not surprisingly, I didn’t improve. When the time came time to return the borrowed flute and buy my own or discontinue lessons, the inevitable conversation with my parents took place where actual passages from the official parents’ handbook were bandied about like – applying myself and getting out what you put in. I find myself thinking about the applicability of these concepts as Layton and I fly to Las Vegas to attend 3 Birds Marketing’s first Digital Dealer Conference and we discuss what our goals are for the show. (more…)