| I am dedicating this page to my musical interests. I am a classically trained clarinetist. I have been playing clarinet since I was nine years old. I started in the school music program and beginner band. I soon stopped playing in the band because of some bad harassment and bullying. It was not acceptable for guys to play clarinet. The name calling and teasing began. I continued teaching myself how to play, all the fingerings and some technique through the books I had. Throughout the rest of my primary school years I kept playing. In the seventh grade I talked to the band director and asked to join back in. He had me play some pieces and soon found out that I was better than some of his high school students. He accepted me and I was back in the band. I played clarinet that year in the marching band and bass clarinet in the concert band becuase he didn't want a seventh grader sitting higher than his high school girls. The bad thing is that we were short on low brass players for the next year, and he asked me if I would be interested in learning baritone or trombone. I took a baritone home with me and taught myself how to play it over the summer. I came back to marching band my eighth grade year and took section leader, and had a solo. The following year I switched to trombone and took assistant section leader. |
