I started band in the fifth grade at Morgan L. Martin Elementary School in Green Bay, WI. Why the sax?? Well the year before me, only ONE boy decided to play it and I thought it would be cool to be different like him. Apparently a bunch of other kids thought the same thing. No worries though, I loved it all the same. That saxophone and I have been through a lot together. We moved to Ohio. We took a hiatus freshman year and missed each other so much we rejoined the band. We've marched outside in 100* weather with 95% humidity AND in 20* weather with whipping winds. We've marched through mud and dirt, in parades, at Disney World, and in state marching band finals. How far have we marched? Well one week of band camp was calculated to be about 26 miles of walking. Times that by 3 years of band camp plus the hundreds of hours outside camp that we march and I figure I've carried my saxophone over at least 200 miles...at least! We've played for Glenn Beck, Stanford Olsen, Jon Huntsman, Jon Huntsman Jr. (potential future president of the United States), thousands of audience members, and numerous conductors, judges, and church congregations. We've played classics, pep tunes, jazz pieces, and originals. We've had our shining moments as a soloist and shared the applause with friends. We've made about a million mistakes but shared in two million personal victories.
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| Band Camp 2008 (I'm on the left in the green John Deere hat) |
I never got a new saxophone. I still play on my student model from the 5th grade. Sure, I would have LOVED to get a nicer model. They're so much easier to play on and tone is automatically increased 100%. But it didn't really matter that much.
There's just something so satisfying about playing a beautiful piece of music. And not just from playing it well. It's sight reading it and sounding awful and then rehearsing for hours until finally it sounds how it's supposed to and you can actually feel the music.
There will always be songs that I hold dear to me because of band. An American Elegy is my absolute favorite. I played it my sophomore year of high school and to this day if I listen to it, I have to stop everything else I'm doing for 11 minutes and 20 seconds and just listen. I know every moving line, every crescendo, every swell and every moment of silence.
The other two songs are staples at the high school (and in many schools across the country). I will always love the classic Sleigh Ride and Stars and Stripes Forever. Whenever I hear them on the radio or played by another band I hum my part or try to remember my fingerings. I also can't help but compare them to how we played it because in my mind, our band was the best. IS the best. We played the originals!
I know I can no longer call myself a band geek because I go so long between playing and my scales go at half the speed they used to, but I still love my saxophone and I love playing every chance I get. Band gave me some of my best friends in high school and some of my best friends in college. How can I not be grateful for that?! I've also learned to make a top ten grateful list on days when things aren't going so well. In honor of Mrs. Meeks (my long-time director) I've decided to blog one. They don't need an explanation or even a good reason if you don't have one (but usually you do....), you just have to be thankful! Try making your own. It's just whatever pops in your head first :)
1) Clouds
2) Chocolate chips
3) Fresh cut grass
4) Spring flowers
5) Digital Cameras
6) Sweatshirts
7) Broken-in reeds
8) Inside jokes
9) Airplanes
10) The mailman
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