It was hard at first when I realized that simply for marching season at the start of my freshman year that I would have to memorize the music to the entire show, pregame and halftime. On top of that, we would have to learn our drill to go along with the music. It was something that was taken seriously and if after a certain point of the season, you could not play all of the songs from memory, you weren't permitted to march the shows. That was enough to scare a sense of responsibility into most of us. I know that I would hate to be the one person not allowed out there to perform because I couldnt play from memory. Although it wasnt spoken of, you would feel as if you somehow were letting everyone else down. It was an organization where there was ample people to help you if you asked for it. There was also a sense of discipline that was instilled in us as a group that no one was exempt from. Granted, there were some people that Mr. T would single out more often then others. At times, I was a fair target through simple lapses of concentration. I simply took it in stride and did my best not to repeat the mistake twice.
Concert band was our strong suit and what Mr. T lived for. Those of us that were freshman were now in the 'big leagues'. We had grown up listening to the high school band at various times and there was such a sense of wonderment at the complexity of breadth of music played that many of us wondered if we would ever be able to make it. I was especially nervous starting just my third year on the bari sax as I had switched horns in
The band was invited to perform at the National / International Music Festival in Toronto Ontario my freshman year. Our school had a large enough student body that we should have competed as a AAAA band that year, but Mr. T wanted to test us, and himself, against the best out there, so we always competed as an open class band under his direction. That meant we were not judged based on our size, but against the best. As a result, we had some difficult music to learn and everyone went to work trying to learn their parts. There was a bit of a sense of despartation on my part as one of the pieces, "Prelude and Aztec Dance" by Reed was by far the most difficult piece of music I had seen or tried to play up to that point. (Since then, there have been very few that come close in difficulty as well) I was staying after school to specifically learn just that one piece of music and found myself getting more and more frustrated by it as time went on. I eventually managed to get it down somewhat through after school rehearsals, sectional practices and individual time spent.
The trip itself in early May 1980 was the first time I had travelled without my family. We posed for a picture in front of the buses along with the high school orchestra which was also competing. On the way, we made a few rest stops and my seat mate Rob and I decided that we would at least make our window intersting to look at from outside while on this trip.
On our trip back home, we stopped at a rest stop and called one of the other local band directors who was staying for the results to see how we had done. Our concert band and symphony orchestra swept all of the first place awards that we were eligible for. The yelling and cheering of the four busloads of kids must have been quite a spectacle for anyone driving along the Interstate that day. It also set a precedence for us freshman to live up to as we got older. Mr Thomson may have been hard on us, but he certainly was able to bring the best out us as a cohesive unit. Sometimes thats what life has to do to us in order to get the best out of us. Often times, we dont really know what we can be capable of until we have no alternative but to strive to succeed.