Meet my Jazz band. This is a picture of us in New Orleans my junior year during spring break to play Jazz. I decided upon this picture because this band has had such a profound impact on how I frame my future. My connection with music through the piano has been fostered ever since I could reach those shiny black and white collection of keys. Starting at the age of four, playing the classical music of Mozart and Bach was what my musical background was founded upon, with tangible medals and accomplishments as achievements.
("A Quote) When I sit back and think of all the ways band has changed my life for the better, I realize it was not just the music, but also those who are in the band. Wirt County Tiger Marching Band was literally my go to for the longest time, especially after my parents split up, the only people I wanted to talk to were those in band. I started band when I was in the fifth grade and I played a clarinet for about two weeks and realized that I had made the biggest error thinkable. After two weeks passed I then tried out the trumpet and
Do you wanna join marching band? Come on, let's go and play. I never hear you anymore, Come out the door, It's like you've gone away.
The clarinet as we know it today did not have keys to begin with. It only had holes. The clarinet comes from its ancestor, the chalumeau, which was essentially a recorder with a clarinet mouthpiece and a reed. The evolution of the clarinet has occurred in 6 major stages. The clarinet begins with the chalumeau, then to the 2-key clarinet, 5-key clarinet, 13-key clarinet, 17-key clarinet, and the modern day clarinet.
She gets off the bus and runs home to her mom begging her to email the band teacher and get her a clarinet. The director unsure at first because of how far behind she will be, agrees to let her join band. Six years later, this once little girl grew up to be a section leader for the clarinet section and a drum major her senior year. She found joy in
Another thing that he did was enhance the melody of clarinet, through his Clarinet Trio in C for Viola and Piano, the Clarinet Quintet, and the Clarinet Concerto. He loved the tone and character of the instrument, but through these works, he brought these characteristics out a bit more and “creates an apotheosis of melody, in which one tune seems to flow out of another naturally, spontaneously, organically, as though the melodic material were breeding within the tissue of the work” (Johnson 115). These works aren’t just pieces of
As our program grew in size, the band focused purely on winning. The less we won, the more they yelled, and the less we wanted to work. That cycle of negativity carried through the next few years, and as the positivity that the upperclassmen sustained disappeared with graduation, the negativity within the band began to spread. I can remember in my sophomore year, we came back with only two third place trophies for one of our competitions, and were yelled at during the bus ride back about how we were slacking off; not a single positive word was said. By the beginning of my junior year, band had become a chore rather than an anticipated hobby; the love that it had brought me began to wear off.
At five in the morning, my father rolled up in front of my tasteless high school to drop me off for a weekend getaway to Virginia Beach with my beloved band and orchestra. My charismatic friends bolted towards the sight of my father’s silver Buick as I sprung out to wearily, yet excitedly, drag myself into the band room of the unsanitary construction zone, better known as Wethersfield High School. I strode to the ivory room to get my glossy, wooden, semi-professional clarinet, and my light blue monstrosity of a suitcase. Once I retrieved my things, I made my way outside to see the golden sun rising over the horizon, turning the violet sky into a brilliant light blue, to be embraced by the scent of crisp, clean spring air.
I selected this piece because it such an exciting piece and it challenges the students. Here are some things that you can listen for in the piece: the clarinets begin with a lovely melody that ---, the brass later ---, and its truly exciting when ---.” Hopefully the parents can become more invested in the product that their students are about to present.
The battle begins here because I wanted to play the flute, but my mom forced me to play the alto saxophone. The first three years of band is the time I struggled the most. I didn’t want to be in band and everytime I asked my mom to quit she would say no. Her reason why was because she was paying for it every month, I couldn’t quit until the instrument was fully paid off.
I have always been a particularly musical person. When I was younger, I wanted to become a singer when I grew up, but upon joining the choir in elementary I realized I did not have the talent for singing that I thought I had. Continually singing off key and never sounding as good as my peers did, I decided to confine myself to singing at home where only my family could hear me. Despite this revelation that I was, in fact, a terrible singer, I still wanted to participate in some type of musical performance and decided to join the band in middle school. After trying out various different instruments, I settled on the flute and quickly fell in love.
After having to struggle and not making a chair placement my freshman year, by the time sophomore year rolled in I was determined to make a chair placement in the Georgia All-State Band ensemble. From the very moment the bass clarinet etudes were released I did not waste any time practicing and rehearsing at home and after school to achieve my goal of getting a chair placement. Amazingly, the long hours I spent learning rhythms and perfecting my tone quality paid off in the end because not only did I manage to get first chair placement in District Band, but I achieved the first chair on a statewide level in the Georgia All-State Band ensemble. These achievements only begin to exemplify not only how important setting goals are to me, but also
Have you ever been so terrible at something—perhaps a class, a sport, a game—that no matter how many hours you spend desperately trying to improve your performance on such an activity, you still make little or no progress? If not, then props to you for being a superstar at everything you do, but if so, then the speaker in the poem “Practice” by Joseph Campana likely relates to you. The speaker talks about how he used to practice playing the clarinet a long time ago, but his self-seemingly unsatisfactory playing forced him to quit and now causes him to renounce the idea of picking up the clarinet again. In this poem, music functions as a characterization tool by playing a key role in the speaker’s past experiences, exposing his negative emotions and giving the reader insight into the speaker’s decision to abstain from playing the instrument he used to practice on a regular basis.
The clarinet /ˌklærəˈnɛt/[1] is a musical-instrument family belonging to the group known as the woodwind instruments. It has a single-reed mouthpiece, a straight cylindrical tube with an almost cylindrical bore, and a flared bell. A person who plays a clarinet is called a clarinetist (sometimes spelled clarinettist). The word clarinet may have entered the English language via the French clarinette (the feminine diminutive of Old French clarin or clarion), or from Provençal clarin, "oboe".[2] It would seem however that its real roots are to be found amongst some of the various names for trumpets used around the renaissance and baroque eras.
Band has given me tons of friends and lessons in life that I will remember and carry on with me
