Marching to the Beat of a New Drummer!

Okay, I am a choir girl. Singing is my thing, always has been. I took piano lessons for a few years, but that was it. Fast forward to the now......still waiting for you to catch up.....there you go!!

Okay, last year Brianna decided she wanted to play an instrument. I signed her up for a music class and she chose the trumpet. The first week she brings home the trumpet and blows into it and....nothing, no noise. Well, me being so musically inclined and all yank it from her and proceed to inform her that she needs to blow from her diaphragm, not her shoulders for goodness sake! Then I go to show her....nothing. I decided she received a broken trumpet and we would have it fixed next week.

Those of you who know anything about trumpets probably are already smiling...glad I could humor you. She goes to class, I tell her instructor it is broken. Instructor takes trumpet, blows, low and behold a noise comes out. Obviously I did not know anything about band. Brianna worked really hard for that year and pumped out a short song for the end of year concert and then retired from the trumpet business.

New year now, she wants band again. I tell her that she probably really wants choir, no she says, she wants band and she wants to play the flute. She REALLY wants to play the flute. Okay, I go and find a home school band class.

She has an excellent teacher who told us exactly what to buy. We get home and again, I assume the flute is broken. This time it was in three pieces! Apparently I was wrong again and they are supposed to come apart. I pick it up to show her how to blow...(no people, I don't give up easily!)...nothing! She calmly takes it and blows...noise!! Obviously her mouth was made more for flute than trumpet and she is loving flute! She practices hours and hours each week, and it actually sounds nice (unlike the trumpet practice).

Okay, so for her band class, they are told to go watch a marching band contest that was held in Plano a couple of weeks ago. We go and watch! Oh my goodness!! I am blown away by a few things.

1. Obviously a band director has to know how to play each instrument in the band, or at least have some passable skill.
2. A band director for a marching band has to spend hours and hours planning where everyone is going to go.
3. Not only are they the music teacher, but the choreographer!
4. Instruments are wwwaaaayyyy more difficult to play than I ever imagined, especially the wind instruments!

For all of you band people out there, I tip my hat and say WELL DONE!