Why do I do it?
One of the things I will never forget is how much my mom nags on me about being in band.
"It takes up too much of your time!"
"It makes your life too busy to focus on school!"
And after hearing this for 4 years now, I began to think why am I still in band?
Then I smiled, and realized what a stupid question that is. Although many of my friends also ask me why I am still in band, the answer is so clear: Band completes me.
What other activity do you know of that uses so much of your body, soul and mind? Do you know the intense pleasure one feels when the B flat chord is played so richly and purely that is reverberates into an overtone (which plays the 5th of the chord) and causes various objects to resonate with such glory? Listening to music and watching football is alright I guess, but playing football, making music - it is the most beautiful thing I have ever done in my life! There have been moments in band where I have felt such emotions that I couldn't properly express them in any way but music. For example, my freshman year was when I played my first solo in La Fiesta Mexicana. We were playing the second movement. (Mass, based off of a Catholic tradition) It was so solemn and gravious, I felt absorbed into the music. I can't really explain it, but it was something I have never felt before. I played my little solemn solo as purely as I could. C, B natural, A. 3 notes. It started like a a distant autumn breeze, grew, grew, GREW, then faded back into the shadows. Like a venus fly-trap pursuing it's prey the music crept in and out furtively. I just can't explain it. Mahler's Symphony no.3 made me feel grandiose, powerful, but it was SO ENGIMATIC and advanced I couldn't make myself understand it. I can't explain it! You listen to it and tell me what kind of story you hear, because it is so beautiful and elusive I honestly can't. Some advanced music just can't be explained without somehow indignifying it.
http://www.lincoln.leon.k12.fl.us/classes/band/sounds.html is the site with all of the music. The url to the actual piece is: http://www.lincoln.leon.k12.fl.us/classes/band/Sounds/StateMPA04/LincolnHSSymphonicWinds-Mahler3Finale.mp3
And you know you are truly playing real music when it moves you. When a piece of music makes you tear up and cry for what seems to be no reason. (unless the french horns are sharp again) there are so many strong emotions in advanced literature that when you finish playing it you feel drained. Not physically, but emotionally.
Music also teaches promptness. Being ready by 4:44 means start getting ready at 4:00 because when it is exactly 4:44 you are called to attention and you better have your hat, gloves, flip folder, lyre, black socks, black shoes, music, instrument, etc etc. I have never been in a more tightly runned oraganization in my life.
Most importantly though, as I said earlier, music completes us. Some people will argue that music isn't for everybody. Maybe it isn't. But when you work hard at it and get to a certain level music really changes you. Sitting on a bus after a football game on the way home at 3:00 am doesn't sound so bad anymore. I have enjoyed music so much because it has given me more of an essence for life. A unique beauty that can't be achieved in science, math, or even latin. Doing well on a test because you worked hard at it is one thing. But hitting a chord so beautifully that it causes you to tear up is something no scientist, mathematician, or latin major can quite explain. It involves so many emotions it can be tough at times. Try watching a Japanese band play. Whether in middle school or on the professional level they all move to the music because it moves them.
Music is soul, it completes us and connects us from reality to unreality and vice versa. Anyone can play music. But to make music is something that few bands can do, and I am glad that Lincoln High School's band can make music.
As I try to sleep at midnight from the Leon game (after we beat the crap out of them... we better lol) this Thursday, and as I try not to sleep at 7 am after 12 hours (7pm-7am) of researsathon on Friday, I will be thought blessed, because music the most beautiful thing I have ever done in my life. I sincerely hope that every note I play reverberates in your soul, that maybe something you can't explain moves you emotionally. Listen to that song, it is so beautiful I would be surprised if you aren't moved at all - I still get MAJOR goosebumps just listening to it.