Band Geeks

Bossy - Senior Year

I told you yesterday that Bossy started band in elementary school. She enjoyed the clarinet and all of her woodwind friends, but as she got a little older and a little better, she decided she wanted to branch out. That's when we bought her first saxophone.

My mom had given us the two clarinets, so I had never paid for an instrument before. It was September of 1995 and Bossy was not quite 11 years old. I must have been totally out of my mind! I walked into Riverton Music and plunked down nearly $1200 for something I wasn't even sure she was going to like. Thank goodness she arose to the occasion.

Bossy loved the sax! But after five years, she was ready to leap again. It seems like every time she changed instruments, we ended up spending more money...her beautiful new tenor sax cost about $1700 and that was in 2000. She was a sophomore and band was a big huge hairy deal for her. I wouldn't say it was her whole life, because she also did Track and Field and she was an amazing student, but band was certainly a big thing.

During her junior year she earned a position on the Band Council. Her job was to take care of all the uniforms and she put her heart and soul into making sure everything was arranged just so. She was certain it was time to upgrade the old plastic clarinet so we bought her a wood clarinet for Wind Symphony. She also stopped marching with her instrument and she joined the Colorguard. Band was definitely in her blood.

She played in the BHS Symphony which included early morning practices, Wind Symphony and both Jazz Bands. For a while she joined the Murray Symphony as well. Life was all about band and band friends. We had invested an incredible amount of money in instruments and band trips. It was time for our investment to pay off.

During her senior year, she started applying for scholarships. She was a Sterling Scholar Finalist in Music and her grades earned her academic scholarships at several schools, but we were hoping for more. She finally settled on Snow College. They offered her a tuition waver for academics and a fee/housing waiver with a little money for books...and all she had to do was agree to play in their band. What a deal! (She probably would have done it for free.) With the credits she had already earned at Bingham, she managed to graduate with her Associates Degree in just one year.

When she returned home, degree in hand, she started applying at other schools. The University of Utah offered her a scholarship to play in their marching band, but she accepted another offer... Gamer asked her to be his wife.

She still loves music, but the saxophones continue to gather dust. I keep waiting for the day one of these three clarinetists will decide they are ready to leap. And they better hurry up...Sport is old enough to start band next year.

***Bossy here, I needed to jump in and correct something. Hopefully this won't result in me losing my admin rights to the blog. First of all the U of U offered me $75 to play in the marching band, which was basically enough to cover the uniform fee and I am pretty sure they offer that to everyone. Secondly, you forgot JSO (Jordan Symphony Orchestra). It is the district-wide high school orchestra. My junior year I played clarinet and my senior year I learn how to sight-transpose the bassoon part for bass clarinet. As for the Murray City, I only subbed in at the last minute for a clarinet that was sick right before their Olympic performance. I actually subbed in a lot over the years for bands of all levels.

Oh and my favorite concert was with JSO. We performed the back ground symphony for the Children's Monster Concert in 2001. We were recorded in the Tabernacle and conducted by the leader of MoTab. We filmed over two days and one of them was my birthday and Craig Jessop sang to me. It was an amazing experience to work with children's choirs from around the world on that collaboration. ***

The Monster Concert

Cell phone pic from the Christmas Concert

Last night Princess and Prima Donna played in a "Monster" concert at our high school. That means that two middle school bands each had a turn to play, then the high school band played, then all three played together. It was pretty awesome with all of them on stage! The group barely fit...there must have been almost 300 kids up there. The combined number was the Battle Hymn of the Republic and with a group that big, they nearly blew the roof off the auditorium.

I took band when I was young.  You know I grew up in small-town Utah. Our elementary and Jr. High were housed in the same building. That made it pretty easy for things like band. The Jr. High band teacher ran an early-morning program two days a week for the younger kids. I played the clarinet just like my older sister. When she got tired of band, the instrument was passed on to my younger sister.

Mom bought two clarinets from Burt Murdock Music on their payment plan. I know it was a hardship for her to pay them off and I'm pretty sure she only bought the second one after the first one was already paid for. I played all through Jr. High and my first year of high school. I quit after that.

It wasn't necessarily that I was tired of band, but our band teacher just couldn't control the class and I felt like I was wasting my time. My sweetie never had the opportunity to play any instrument other than the piano, but when I suggested that I wanted our kids to have the musical experience, he readily agreed. Piano is SOOO expensive! Some of our kids have had sporadic lessons and I've taught them a little, but none of them play very well.

That's when we discovered the elementary band program. Bossy started in about 5th grade and each kid after her had the opportunity to learn. The band program is relatively cheap through the district (much cheaper than piano!) so I set another family goal. All of our children will learn to play a musical instrument (I do have to confess that this goal was set a little too late for the Gym Rat and Teach, sadly, both tried and gave up.) Now it's a requirement, even if they don't like it.

My mom graciously gifted her two clarinets to me and now Crafty and Prima Donna are using those instruments. Princess has a beautiful wood clarinet that we bought for Bossy when she was in high school. We also have a trumpet that the Dog Walker plays in the high school band and an alto sax and a tenor sax that are both collecting dust. But once upon a time, they were very important to our family...that sounds like a story for tomorrow.

Anyway, the kids are amazed that I can still play fairly well even though it's been 30 years since I was in their places. I think music is just one of those things that stays with you. What about you? Do you require your kids to play instruments?

Guest Blogger: Being in the Ballet by Prima Donna

There's me right in the center!

Scout is growing up into a beautiful ballerina!

I love to dance!! I have been dancing since I was three, doing two performances a year one at Christmas and one in spring. It becomes really fun when you turn nine because then you can participate in the ballet. They do an annual ballet every year and it is so fun!!  I have been in Sleeping Beauty twice, Coppelia, Swan Lake and now I’m in Sleeping Beauty again. A ballet is a dancing play for those of you who aren’t familiar with dance. I’ve never had any main roles, but Princess has. In Coppelia she was Swanhilda’s scaredy-cat friend, and in Swan Lake she was a princess the prince could have married (I guess that’s not a main part, but it was a solo). This year for Sleeping Beauty she has the best one though. She is Carabosse!! (Maleficent if you are familiar with the Disney version). She even gets to be on the advertisement poster!

Princess in the middle in her tutu.

   
The ballets aren’t just fun and games though, for 3-4 months we have practices almost every Friday night and Saturday afternoon. Normally practices are 2-3 hour, with most of us sitting there dead silent for half of the time. We have to be SUPER careful with costumes and props since they use the same ones year after year.

Sport is the second one from the left.

The ballets are so much fun too. We get three more performances a year, and we get to hang out with our dance friends every weekend. We get to buy candy from the vending machine in the school we perform at when we aren’t on. I mean we stay in the dressing room * sheepish face* and we get to character dance. Character dancing is cultural dancing with ballet mixed. It is the most fun thing EVER! I don’t have a character dance this year though. We get to do solos! We don’t do solos during our recitals so this is our only chance. We get to act, especially with Princess’s Carabosse figure, she has to act tons! She even gets to do a silent laugh!

Ta-Da!

We do the ballets as a family thing. Princess, Crafty and I do the normal dances. Dog Walker  is in it too. He is part of the Rose Adagio this year so he gets to flip and turn Aurora. Last year Sport was in it as a trumpeter. Mom always makes costumes. She made a BEAUTIFUL queen costume this year and is still working on the king costume.

 I love the ballets. I would do them twice a year!

Happy Valentine's Day!

I thought I'd let you have a look at two of my little sweethearts in their fun new Valentine's Day dresses. I love this pattern because it is so easy to sew.  It only has four pattern pieces and a zipper up the back. I've made dozens of them over the years for my girls starting with Princess. I've sized them from 6 months to 6X without a problem.

The hardest part was paying for the fabric! Can you believe that the regular price for this piece was $9.99/yard? I got it for half price and I only needed a yard and a half for both dresses, but it was still extremely painful.

When I was checking out, I got in line behind an elderly woman who was buying a new sewing machine. She was talking and teasing the clerk as her daughter ran the machine out to their vehicle. She called the salesgirl "annoying" right to her face, but then she said it was OK because old people can say whatever they want.

In an effort to explain her point, she turned to me and tongue in cheek said, "That is the ugliest jacket I have ever seen, you really should get rid of it." Then she laughed and said, "When you are in your 80s you can get away with saying anything and people just assume you don't know what you are talking about." Then her daughter who had just come back in through the door commented, "And if you aren't in your 80s, you can say whatever you want as long as you follow it with 'Bless your heart.'"

Then she proceeded, "She has been standing here so long she probably forgot she just bought a new sewing machine...bless her heart." Her mother chuckled, "What did you say I bought?" The banter continued for another minute or two as the two of them headed toward the door. I stepped up to the clerk with my fabric in hand. She smiled and called to the two women as they pulled open the door, "I hope you have a wonderful day!" So I piped up, "Bless your heart!"

That brought another round of giggles as they left the store. Sometimes I really miss my grandma. I hope you have a happy Valentine's Day.

Laugh much and love long...


As the Drama Queen would say, Happy Single's Awareness Day!

...bless her heart!