High school band my Freshman year did not approve of me doing sports. I wanted to be in band again (because even then music was a huge part of my life) and the resounding answer was a direct "No." To be in Symphonic Band you had to be in the marching band. To be in the marching band you had to go to band camp at the end of the summer and give up most weekends during the school year. That just wasn't going to fly. I played D1 soccer in Everett and there was no way that I would give that up.
Not a chance.
So I didn't end up playing my freshman year because of that little problemo. I thought it also applied my sophomore year, but apparently with the new director it would have been fine. So I didn't play my sophomore year either. That was a sad couple of years because I missed music during that time. Music is a fun way to develop skills, lung capacity, and the ability to work within a group towards a common goal. Ensembles strive to make music with a group-wide balance, and when it is achieved, it sounds beautiful.So that was kinda lost for two years of my life. Then I packed up and moved to the great white north world of Alaska and was almost immediately asked to play in the pep band for when the cruise ships came around. Now, this was after 2 years of not playing at all, so it was pretty terrible. Yet I stuck with it and ended up in the Region II Honor Band on trumpet that year.
I think that one event started my enjoyment of music as it is now. I played in the Honor Band, then traveled with the Jazz Band to State Solo and Ensemble that year as a fill in for someone who couldn't go, then started having fun with messing around with instruments. I played the chimes for a choir song that year too because random percussion is fun. Way less stress too when they don't expect any sort of genius skill or memorization, they just wanted me to play it and have fun with it. It was great.
Senior year I played the trumpet for the first semester because of some.... mishaps. Like my first trumpet of the semester I sat on. It still played (kinda) but the bell was bent at something like a 30 degree angle. Never put your instrument on your chair for standing breathing exercises... Then the next trumpet I had broke inside of the spit valve and so it couldn't retain air properly to make the right tones. (That one wasn't my fault either!) But that happened so I needed to find an instrument to play. Why not the french horn? We already have 6 trumpets in the band and no french horns so I'll play that! And so I did. Sure I cheated a whole bunch (I took all the F horn music and transposed it to Bb music, then played the french horn with trumpet fingerings and the Bb key held down the whole time. It kinda worked... But not really). So that started that in my life.
However the funniest music news of the year came with Honor Band auditions. So Kasey and I were doing our auditions on the last possible day after ski practice having never practiced any of the music before. We were there from 5:30 to 11:30. It was great. ANYWAYS, I finished up my french horn audition tape pretty quickly and it was terrible. TERRIBLE. Okay so I had only been playing it for about a month and a half and had been cheating, it was destined to suck. But then since Kasey was still working and I didn't want to desert him, making a percussion audition tape seemed like a logical choice! So I went and looked up what some of the symbols meant in the percussion music (because I am uncoordinated with my left hand and have never played percussion) and gave every song one recording and submitted a CD. My song for mallet percussion took over 5 minutes for a song that was supposed to last for 1 minute (because I am just that awesome). But the tape was really just for laughs.
Except then it became serious when I ended up as 3rd chair for the Honor Band out of something like 24 applicants. CONFUSED. Our director called me in on parent-teacher conference day to ask what on Earth happened and to explain how I was picked. Apparently to be a percussionist you don't really have to be that good, just be able to follow instructions and independently keep a beat. And I was fully intent on playing percussion in the Honor Band! This was hilarious and I couldn't stop laughing! Or at least until I found out the bad news to the story. Kasey ended up as 1st alternate for the Honor Band. Sadface.... So of course I gave up my spot. He's an awesome percussionist and one of my best friends and Region Music Fest was actually in Valdez so I wouldn't take that spot from him.
(It was still super funny though).
I also played the djembe for choir that year.
And the bass drum for Valdez High School's first ever Command Performance at the State Solo and Ensemble competition.
Basically it was an awesome year for music in my life. So now here I am at college and music has stayed with me. I remember walking in at orientation and going to find my room key where Hadassah told me to go and try to join Wind Symphony. Sure I went and auditioned, but man was it UGLY. Dr. Gustafson didn't even let me do the sightreading portion of the audition because it was just that bad. I made it in though! Music in college is way better than it is in high school too. The people actually want to play (for the most part) and the music is a lot harder! And slowly but steadily I have been improving. Like the fact that I can actually read my music and pitches that are written in F now. Its kinda important. Plus my Jury grade was a B! That's exciting for me!
Its my horn!
So now this is semester 2 of music and we are playing all sorts of fun stuff in Wind Symphony and I really enjoy playing music. It is a good way to learn a new skill, learn how to keep a beat, and to listen/play some really good music. I guess this means that the point to take away from reading this is that you should play some music. Whether you have or not in the past, it is really relaxing (so long as you don't take on too many music commitments) and sounds pretty cool too.
Music makes me happy :)
No comments:
Post a Comment