The first week of classes practically flew by, and I must say, despite the craziness, that I'm glad to be back. The orderliness of knowing where you have to be and what you have to be doing is positively wonderful. This is especially true for someone like me who procrastinates quite regularly. This orderliness means that I have no choice except to manage my time wisely.
Wednesday night was probably the highlight of the week. This semester I've joined the University Wind Ensemble, despite having not played my clarinet in over 6 years. I'm starting to think that I'm being a bit crazy for attempting this, but our Band Director is so pleasantly cheerful and irrepressibly optimistic that I couldn't turn him down. So, Wednesday night I filed into the band room with my clarinet, and timidly took my place amongst the 3rd/4th Clarinets.
The best part of this is that my stand partner is my younger brother, Ravioli. Ravioli is only in his early teens, and has been taking clarinet lessons for a year and a half, but he's utterly amazing. I convinced my mom to let him join, because I knew that if he didn't have any performance opportunities, Ravioli would grow bored with his instrument, and he would let his incredible talent wither away. (I know this from experience...)
You see, being home schooled can really stink sometimes, especially when you're in a school district that is none too friendly towards homeschoolers. Legally, the school districts are supposed to let homeschoolers participate in school activities, but our particular school district doesn't like kids who don't attend the schools on a daily basis. So, we're excluded from swim team and chorus and band and orchestra and soccer and basketball and cheerleading and the list goes on and on. Basically, if it's in any way affiliated with the school district, we can't take part.
And, even if they did let us join, there is the great controlling factor known as "Mom." My mother, God bless her, is an extremely firm believer in homeschooling, and therefore the one constant whenever she's considering allowing her children to do anything is whether or not her children will have any contact with "public school kids." She is very wary of said "public school kids," and I can see her point. She's worked very hard to protect her children from all the influences of the culture of death, and the last thing she wants is her 13-year-old coming home and asking, "Mom, what's a
So, when I fielded my Mom about Wind Ensemble for Ravioli, I was very sure to mention that he'd be next to me the whole time, it's a very professional band (which it is), and rehearsal time is rehearsal time, not social hour, so he won't have to speak to any "questionable" people. He'll just have to talk to his half-crazy, stressed-out sister.
Let me tell you, after the first rehearsal I was so glad that Mom said Ravioli could join. He is the most amazing sight-reader ever! I was getting lost-- me the college student taking Advanced Music Theory and Education Methods classes-- and my kid brother was just chugging right along. It was very impressive.
Aside from that, he was really handy as a stand partner. For instance:
Band Director counts us in at an insane tempo for a piece the ensemble is just sight-reading.
I look at the key signature, as I put my lips to the mouthpiece. A muffled "Eep!" is heard.
Ravioli looks at me, half his attention on the Director. "What?" he whispers.
Then we begin.
--A page and a half later during a 16 measure break and I had managed only to get out 25% of the notes on the page--
"Ravioli," I hiss, ducking my head behind the music stand.
"What?" he hisses back.
I grin sheepishly. "How do you finger A-flat?"
"High A-flat? Like this..." His fingers rapidly move to the appropriate position.
"No, not high A-flat. Just normal A-flat. You know, the one above middle C?"
"What? Really?" Ravioli squeaks, revealing that his voice hasn't finished changing just quite yet...
"Yes," I respond wryly.
"Oh. Like this."
Ravioli shows me the proper fingering and I nod my thanks as we take off once again.
Oh yes, he was quite handy, indeed... Now, where is that clarinet fingering chart...?
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