It's me again Margret! Another exciting day in the life of Rebekah! As always remember to contact me at clarinetdm12@gmail.com, Tweet, Like/post whatever! Like it up!!
Last Wednesday was my very first Concert Band concert. The communirt band was performing with all of the surrounding schools, so we had Fifth Grade recorders all the way up to people who are either in college or have graduated from college a while ago. With a HUGE performing group comes an even HUGER crowd! There were a BUTT-TON of people attending this performance. Usually, concerts are not this big, the reason why this one was sooo SPECTACULAR was because it was showcasing the band program(s) in our county. We basically wanted to advertise how awesome peoples' kids could be if they joined band in sixth grade.
Now being the Freshmen that I am; I was EXTREMELY nervous. This was my very first COLLEGE concert band performance!! There are a lot of differences between playing in a college ensemble versus playing in a high school ensemble. For instance--A lot of the people that are in my section, have been playing since before I was born. We'll call that time period, B.R (Before Rebekah).
Every ensemble has a specific uniform. I have become accustomed to white on top and black on bottom or the fashionable all black. This ensemble uniform consists of a red shirt, black pants and black shoes. WHOA!! I was not prepared for this!! Being the girl that I am, I HAD to run out and buy a NEW(used) shirt! Well, while I was in Goodwill I recieved a text from my band director asking if I would like to stand up during the concert and talk about why I enjoyed band during high school and how it helped me find my career...I recieved this text like three hours before hand...Now a normal person would have sat down and wrote a nice little speech about how band was inspirational, beautiful and fun. Yeah...I was not a normal person..for once. I thought it would just come to me and it would be awesome. So in other words, I was going to wing it.
NEVER EVER EVER EVER EVER WING IT
Band is very important to me! Everyone that was in band with me can tell you, we were family, I loved them all like they were my children! Most of them were! That's why it surprised me that when the time came--NOTHING wanted to come out!! I was very flustered and embarrassed, mainly because I had NO IDEA who the heck half of the people were that I was addressing. Which I don't really know why that bothered me! Usually if I don't know the people I'm talking to I get a serious case of Word Diarrhea!
So, because I did a terrible job, I am taking this opportunity to redo my speech!
In high school, I was a true 'band-geek'. I was section leader, drum major and a single mother of five kids. To me, band is like Kentucky--We're all family! I know my band family helped me get through lots of heartbreaks and aches, failed tests and other scandalous things.
If it weren't for band, I honestly do not believe that I would have gone to college. I knew that I wanted to teach, but I had no idea what exactly that it was that I wanted to teach. After being in high school for a couple of years, I was sure that music would be the best place for me. I love the feeling you get after a great performance and that feeling of belonging in a group of people that don't care if you're weird! Even though I get the wonderful opportunity to play with some very experienced, learned musicians--I would give anything to make music with MY band. I hope that you give your child the chance to experience the feeling I felt performing with MY band and I hope that some day, they can stand where I am now and share how they feel about THEIR band.
