Get back into music

I remember how happy and satisfied I used to be when I’d played the guitar all the time. It really took me to another place, It helped me focus. I used to play 4-5 hours a day, I would never stop… It used to drive my parents nuts. Haha…

Now a days; I almost never play anymore. It’s almost lost its feel, I’ve become jaded… I’m so good at playing, really I am. It’s just…, I don’t have the time or the motivation. I have to start playing again, at least an hour a day practicing chops or something.

I have left my bass and amp at Kelly’s. Go got it.

Then maybe you can get an electric guitar.

I was very active in band in High School. I was in marching band, made it to Drum Major, was first seat clarinet, and was a soloist in Jazz Band on alto saxophone. Then came college and after that, life. Fast forward 15 years and I saw an ad in the chamber of commerce newsletter about a new community marching band to be formed for our city’s summertime parade. I jumped on it. But, I had to buy a book/CD kit to learn where the notes where on my alto. For a couple of weeks when practices began last Spring (2005), I had my fingering chart right next to the music.
Well, this year, I am playing tenor saxophone in a community concert band and next month (March, 2006), I will be returning to the Citrus Heights Community Marching Band to play alto.
It feels great to be back into music much the way I was in High School, reading music is getting better, too. That was always my downfall, I was used to playing by ear, primarily.

Attached is a picture of the Community Marching Band making its debut last year in the Citrus Heights “Red, White & Blue Parade”.

I really miss singing and playing musical instruments. I should have been a music major in college, but I didn’t have enough self-confidence to believe that I could do it, and I didn’t want to embarrass myself if it turned out that I wasn’t that good. I had an awful choral director in high school who sucked all of the ambition and love for music right out of me, and a trumpet teacher in college that didn’t believe me when I told him I’d played a particular solo in high school and got the highest rating on it at the state solo contest. My social awkwardness has always gotten in the way of my artistic achievements, and I really want to cut that out.

I should mention that I had two excellent choral conductors in college – at both schools I went to. I took lessons from Karl for a while at IWC, but I wasn’t very dedicated to them, considering I was not taking them for credit and he kind of just squeezed me into his schedule, plus I was going through some major depression right about that time as well. I wish I’d been more dedicated and focused on them, though, because I learned so much from him in choir on how to sing with feeling, and also just how to push my voice out better. Kathleen was awesome at ISU – I was only there for a year, but I wish I could have just gone and sang in the choir (she said it would be possible, she’d had people do that when she was at North Dakota) even when I was done with school. And now that I’ve lost some weight, I could probably do a lot better with breath support if I worked on it some.

I guess this all boils down to being a jack of all trades and mistress of none. If I had to choose something to buckle down on, it would be music. And someday, I hope to do just that. It’s going to involve other ripples in the pond, though, like moving to a larger area where the opportunities are greater.

Not only would I love to get back into singing, but also to join a wind ensemble of some sort – I love the French horn and the trumpet, but I seem to be a little better coordinated on the horn (I think it’s the left-handed thing)... it’s just frustrating when I’m in a group that plays primarily marches, like our community band does… I hate being the “oompah” part. If I wanted to do oompah, I’d play tuba. Trumpet is great, and I actually own one, but I don’t really excel at it, at least not at this point… if I got my front tooth fixed, I’d probably play a little better, since I chipped it near the end of my senior year of high school, and it’s cut into my lip ever since when I play the trumpet. It doesn’t bother me on the F horn, since the mouthpiece is smaller.