This past Tuesday, a whole bunch of
parents escorted their sixth graders to the middle school’s common room in order
to sign contracts that will hold us accountable to monthly payments making our
children the proud renters by proxy of whatever musical instrument they fell in
love with over the past couple of weeks.
My son picked the trombone.
At first, my husband, Chris, and I
were worried about his selection because, aside from his skateboard, the boy
has a less-than-stellar track record when it comes to sticking with new
hobbies. Granted, band is a graded class which makes it slightly more
influential when it comes to level of interest, but we have never once heard
the child discuss a desire to ever touch or play a trombone.
Chris and I had pictured this active
kid banging away on a snare drum or maybe just crashing some cymbals together
like I did when I was in high school marching band. I would’ve done more in
band, but I joined in the 10th grade and couldn’t read music, so I
got stuck with the “easy” stuff because no one wanted to bother teaching me
from scratch so late in the game.
Chris played the flute and the
French horn. Our son tried the flute, but his bottom lip is “substantial” in
size and, because he couldn’t seem to sufficiently flatten it out, it kept
flopping into the hole. The reed instruments, like the saxophone, were also
posing a problem when it came to sound quality.
He declared that the trombone fits both
his lips perfectly and, since he has long arms, he can reach all the notes. In
addition, it was his feeling that the low brass sound is manlier than the
high-pitched tone of the flute and the trumpet.
My best friend, Damon, played
trombone in band. I remember all the spit that he used to have to empty out of
it. My son was sure to request an old washcloth for this unfortunate
consequence of his new passion.
Damon was also talented on piano and
could sit down and play Beethoven’s “Moonlight Sonata” like it was the easiest
song in the world. Who knows? Maybe the trombone will kick off a love affair with
music for our offspring and we’ll get to see him perform a masterpiece on stage
one day.
Part of being in middle school band
is that the kids have to bring their instruments home to practice and the parents
are supposed to be encouraging and supportive no matter what sound comes out of
their horns.
In all seriousness, this boy is
making some fairly decent noise with his trombone. I wish he wouldn’t suddenly
blast it right when I was walking around the corner and scare the tar out of
me, but he’s got some solid sounds happening which is more than I would’ve
expected.
To all you other new band parents, I
hope your children are as excited as my son is. I can only imagine what the
trumpets are sounding like.
Kids, keep plugging away and don’t
give up. You’ll be glad you did one day. I heard somewhere that children who
learn to read music are smarter overall. A parent can certainly have her
dreams.
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