Let's take a momentary side track and talk holidays. As I said yesterday, it was Arbor Day today but since I don't have a lawn to my name, I didn't think it would be wise to plant a tree willy nilly. However, the landscaping crew on campus did plant two or three trees right outside our building in the past week. They are still pretty young compared to the trees in our neighboring res hall, but it adds variety to our "lawn". Today was also Richter scale, but I didn't do any educational reading on the subject. I just looked and there was a 6.2 quake today off the coast of New Zealand. Hopefully people there are okay.
As you probably picked up on in the previous paragraph, there wasn't a daily holiday that I set out to celebrate today. To be honest, I didn't deliberately set out to celebrate a holiday, but things happened to line up well. Like I mentioned before, today was productive on a personal level. Two things that created that feeling in particular were taking time to read part of The Fault in Our Stars and plucking away at my guitar. Long story short, I inherited a guitar from some old co-workers and haven't really went and played it. I got a guitar stand a few months ago and I picked up a tuner on Wednesday in St Joe. I only spent about 30 minutes on basic finger fretting exercises, but it was nice to set out to learn a new instrument. Oh, and April is International Guitar Month.
TC (kind of)
In fourth grade, I started to take trumpet lessons. Band didn't start in school until 6th grade, but since choir had started in 4th grade, I just started on both at the same time. My sister played the flute/piccolo and my mom played flute/oboe when she was in high school, so I don't fully remember why I went with the trumpet. I do think that part of the reason was the versatility of the instrument, thinking about things like jazz music, classical music, and marching band. Yeah, future band nerd.
I do remember getting frustrated in the first year of playing trumpet. My lips would be worn out and I would come downstairs from my room, only to get encouraged by my parents to keep at it. My early practicing did pay off since I quickly took first chair parts in the middle school band. When I got into high school, I had an impressive range for someone that young. Now, I don't want this to just seem like I'm tooting my horn (heh), but I definitely had talent. During the first half of high school, I was one of the best freshman trumpeters and was involved in the jazz band, marching band, pep band, and show choir band, in addition to the concert band.
During my sophomore year of high school, our band traveled to Chicago for some contests/workshops, including a session at the University of Chicago. There was a professor of brass there who listened to our band play Procession of the Nobles. I played the 1st/solo trumpet part and it is a fairly technical and difficult piece, at least compared to the other things we did. If you're unfamiliar with the piece, have a listen!
After we completed the piece, the UC professor gave his critiques, which included advice specifically to me about changing my mouthpiece in order to change my tone. For non-brass players, your lips form different shapes with different mouthpieces so changing cup sizes isn't a simple process. Well, in a moment of blind faith, I switched over to a new mouthpiece size without consulting my high school director, the trumpet professor I knew at my hometown college, or the guy I had taken lessons from since 4th grade. To my shock, my ability dropped, most notably in the range of notes I could hit. The second half of high school still included a number of band activities, but I was covering 3rd/4th/5th chair parts depending on the group. There were some other talented musicians in my class, so it's not like the band took a massive fall, but I was at a loss when I thought back to how easy it all was before that trip to Chicago.
To put a positive spin on the Chicago story, I really learned the importance of getting a second opinion before making changes that could have major consequences down the road. I was in many choirs from 4th grade through high school, including madrigal choir and show choir. Needless to say, the music department was my main niche in the high school, closely followed by theater/English. When I moved to college, I didn't do any band activities because I was worried that the rehearsals would cut into studying and doing homework. I had been eyeballing the marching band as well and while I wasn't in it, there are several friends I got to know throughout undergrad that were in the marching band (and simply put, they are all awesome people). I was able to be in the top-level Chamber Singers ensemble for all four years, which was an absolute honor and treat.
When I moved to Missouri, my musical activities took a long rest (heh, another music pun). The university ensembles met at night, which is when I work and have to be around for the students, and I still haven't heard of any big music groups in town. (I would do church choir, but they also meet on Wednesday nights.) So, I've definitely been itching to make music again.
I had messed around with the guitar in very short bursts (although I did learn for a term back in middle school - weird how that memory was hidden for so long), but today was the first day in a long time where I sat down and went through exercises. I thought back to my first year of playing trumpet and told myself "just keep plucking away and in a few weeks, you'll notice improvements". I have been thinking about doing a song for a talent show with the students, but we're talking about next fall, so I have time.
So, that is one overview of the music I've been a part of with more of the band focus. Obviously my music situation is more individually focused this time around, but I think I can take what I learned in middle school/high school/undergrad and will learn to play the guitar. So, there's no reason to fret... wait a minute...
Alright, hope you enjoyed the story. DFTBA and I'll see you tomorrow.
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