My first touch in playing music began in 6th grade at Conway Middle School. The band director, Mr. Kagi, passed out various instruments and mouth pieces for us to test out on and to see which would be suitable for us to play. The first sound I made out of all the instruments was the clarinet and being satisfied that I made at least some sort of sound other then my breath blowing into it, I chosen it as my prime instrument and asked my parents to rent to own a plastic clarinet from the Band Room store.

My first clarinet was a plastic Yamaha, a good instrument for most beginners to use...and also cheap. The wooden clarinets cost well over $1,000 and for a beginner, plastic was the only way to go. Of course when we went to the store, we had to make an order and wait a week for it to arrive for us to pick it up. No big deal I told myself, it will come. I was truly excited about playing and I did not know what world it would bring me too. One week after the order and we get a call saying that the instrument has arrived and even though I did not show it at the time, I was overjoyed! It came with a starter pack, and cleaning kit. The usual cleaning cloth, swabs, cork grease, reeds, ligature, and mouthpiece cover. Never at the time did I know the importance of a lot these things and how expensive they are when I need to buy more of them.

After a week into the school year and when nearly everyone has their instruments�the beginning band was ready to practice and learn. If I remember correctly, one of the first exercises we did was basically blowing into the instrument with a proper lip embrasure�that if done correctly, will allow us to play in a proper manner. This is probably the most difficult thing for a beginner to do and even for intermediate players to sustain while playing a piece of music or even doing daily practice scales. But that is when long tones come into handy for most musicians. Long tones are where a player will hold a note for a long period of time, which are usually done in a manner of a major or chromatic scale. Long tones are usually effective in warm ups before a performance to keep a player in tune�which is a whole other aspect of music.

After practice and practice of blowing into the instrument�we began to go into the red book. Yes, the infamous beginner book, a standpoint in a musicians playing career. The book was called something like, Standards of Excellence. It was a decent book but by the end of the year we all despised it and wanted to play actual music. The contents of it comprised of basic lessons such as learning notes and fingering the instrument, learning a few major scales and a few basic songs such as, "Merry Had a Little Lamb". Thinking back when I played these exercises gives me a silly feel now since the music and exercises I play is much more difficult.

My first concert with the band was during the beginning of winter, hence the name the Winter Concert. In the most obvious of cases, a winter concert can't forgo the tedious Christmas music that the winter athmosphere brings. It was quite impressive though in my beginner mind of the time, since my taste has only touched a little bit of music. I forgot how we did but I am sure it was no spectacular performance, maybe in the eyes of our parents but what do they know about music other then to clap for pride of their child attempting to play an instrument (yes, I know there are musically educated parents but they don't critique a performance when their child is in the ensemble). The music we played was common enough that anyone could recoginize...music such as, "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer". The most embarrassing part of the concert was not only that it was held in a gymnasium(which is more of a disgrace) but also that we had to stand up as a section to play certain parts; a drastic change in my later years with the high school band where we didn't do any sudden movements at concerts.

I will honestly say that I thrived my first year and I was progressing well. Although, the biggest mistake I made was not practicing during summer during my middle school years and from then on I was not doing so well individually. I keep forgetting my major scales and with my shyness came shaking nerves when ever we had to do playing tests at the end of the year. But during seventh and eight grades, I stayed at an average level�knowing only half my major scales (there are 12) and playing music with a small amount of practice. I never had outside help such as private lessons but I improved a little bit each year nevertheless. But the last year in middle school gave me the first taste of prosperity in playing my 2-year-old clarinet, which sustained my decision to continue music in high school by playing in their concert band. I wanted to join the symphonic band but I was not qualified for it...but I was not upset about it. But little did I know the required effort and work to put into high school band. And even when I did not practice much in middle school, high school would push me to do it.

My freshman year would establish the kind of musician I would be. It opened the doors to a whole new realm of music and learning. One of these new learning experiences was marching band�something I never experienced before. Our director, Dr. Conger, was quite the friendly person but as an instructor, he expected a lot and had a temper. Conger, as an instructor, was not really great since he only had interns to direct the band the whole year. But when he did direct the band, he did it well.

The first time I experienced high school marching band was at "band camp". The term leaves an embarrassing mark sometimes when I say it since it is perceived as a dorky and geeky type of thing. But I have gone past that and I really don't care what others think of it.

Band camp was two weeks long beginning at the end of July. Daily activities consisted of a short orientation in the morning, marching drill outside, lunch in the cafeteria, and rehearsal inside the band room. The first week, band camp was held in the mornings and in the second week, it was held in the afternoon to night. The most agonizing yet fun part of band camp was marching. Never did I realize that band would bring physical activity, something I was trying to avoid for the longest time. One of the toughest things to do is stay at attention(what the military do when they stand in uniform) for long periods of times while looking unimaginably still for the audience. Attention shows the discipline marching band endures and the way we work rehearsals I think reflect our discipline through our attention.

Now, I don�t want to go into too many details about marching band because a lot of stuff you probably wouldn�t understand unless you were in marching band. But the effort reflects in our shows that we perform and that is all an audience needs to know or see.

My first performance was at a Friday night football game, and we had an incomplete show because two weeks of band camp just does not cover it. Our theme for that season was the Beatles which consisted song of Eleanor Rigby, Back in the USSR, Hey Jude and some other song that became our closure. The first half of the game was pretty simple, just sit down and stand when instructed to play. But then came the nerve-racking part of that Friday night, going to warm up. Now you probably wonder why would that be nerve-racking, it seems harmless. Well yes, it�s harmless but vital because without a good warm-up our performance on the field is meaningless. But when you step up to that field, there is no turning back because we are performing. With so many people watching everything you do, moving to itch something or adjust while performing will stick out like an eye sore in a motionless band.

The first year that I made the top band at our school, we went to State festival with fantastic music. It�s a good sign to see that a band enjoys playing the music they rehearse. The music we played was The Fairest of the Fair by Sousa, Harvest Hymn by Grainger, and Chester by Schumann. Although challenging, I myself enjoyed this music that was given to us. Now, being the first time going to state, again I was nervous. I was getting sweaty palms and the heat in the warm-up room wasn�t helping either with our full tuxedos on. Before we went on stage, Mr. Simpson (our director), told us that it does not matter what the judges say and that all we have to do is perform for the audience. The speech was longer but for the sake of simplicity, that was the gist of it. We went on stage and performed with all our might. When we were done, the audience clapped and then we were hurried off to sight reading. Nope, it is not over yet. Sight-reading is where the band reads music that we have supposedly never seen before and try to play it with only 3 minutes of rehearsal. The old judge there then told us to leave after we are done and then we can finally rest after a long day. We went on to watch a couple of other bands perform then when the results came in, I was quite shocked. We received two Superior ratings, and one excellent rating on stage. In sight-reading, we received a GOOD rating which left us with an overall excellent at state festival. Tired and somewhat happy that it�s finally over, we left for home.

There is much more to my music experience, I didn�t even mention the parades and fund raising we have to go through but I pretty much covered the general basics of it all. To explain everything would take whole bible to fill. But maybe I will do it in segments later....oh well. :)

-Dave