Music is Priceless?

Being a musician isn't cheap. To be honest, I really don't even know how much it all actually costs, so here's a general tally for what I think I will end up spending in the four years of high school:

3 boxes Vandoren V12 reeds per year: $324

1 box Vandoren tenor sax reeds per year: $57

neck strap for tenor sax: $12

Blessing Horn mouthpiece: $45

valve oil: $12

music stand: $25

mallets (4 pairs): $100

drumsticks: $32

practice drum pad: $33

snare stand for drum pad: $55

timpani mallets:$24

professional wood clarinet: $900

Four years of marching band: $1580

odds and ends (ligatures, flipfolders, pencils): $250

audition fees: $200

(prices from Woodwind & Brasswind)

Grand total? $3649. That's a lot of money, and it doesn't even include performance trips, food at all the competitions and festivals I go to, and the gas to get me there.

It isn't just monetary cost either. I spend an average of two and a half hours a day doing something musical. That doesn't include then days when I have rehearsals. For one week this marching season, I was at school until at least 10PM every day. Even now that it's festival season, I'm still never home. Between Wind Ensemle rehearsal, Jazz band, Gainseville Youth Symphony Orchestra, and percussion ensembles, I'm lucky to have an afternoon to myself.

Despite all the costs, I still think music is worth it.

I Like Drums

You know that really bad drumset player at your aunt's wedding who couldn't keep tempo and is flailing around like a fish out of water? Yeah, he's not a real drummer. In fact, that set player is an insult to percussion, and is probably just making stuff up as he goes along.

Percussion is more that just hitting stuff. It's knowing how to hit stuff the RIGHT way. You don't hit a rosewood marimba with brass mallets if you want to live very long. Crash cymbals are not supposed to be played like one of those monkeys with hats that inevitably end up in horror movies (or Toy Story 3). Bass drums must be played with the knee.

One of the greatest things about percussion is the utter randomness of the average percussion ensemble piece. For instance, my school has a percussion ensemble concert every year in April. The two ensembles I'm a part of are playing what I believe to be the weirdest combination of music ever. We've got rave music, country "hoedown" style, afro-caribbean, jazz, and body percussion. We were going to put sensors in a couch and drum on that, but apparently that's a fire hazard.

Honestly, I'm really glad I decided to double in percussion. I could have doubled in concert band and played some random wind instrument, but somehow I don't think that would have been as fun. There's something very satisfying about beating the crap out of my practice pad first thing in the morning. It's fantastic therapy.

P.S. THUD is the group in the video, and they're AMAZING.

DCI: NFL For Band Kids

Around this time of year, band kids everywhere get a craving that only marching band can satisfy. We're sitting in band having to play quietly, and all of a sudden we remember the feeling of playing LOUD. I'm not just talking about "oh, that's loud." No, I'm saying it's the kind of loud that you can feel in your chest; the noise you can't escape.

DCI stands for Drum Corps International. Essentially, it's major league marching band. High school and college age musicians from all over the country (and the world) join together over the summer to form bands consisitng of only brass, percussion, and guard; no woodwinds allowed. They create epic shows that are part live music, part theatre, and all awesome.

These shows aren't your average marching shows. They normally include tons of props and plenty of acting. I know I've seen at least three shows that involve a fight/death scene. They're theatre productions without the words. Instead, these bands use their music to tell the story.

Above is a video of one of my favorite bands: The all-guy Cavaliers. The show is called "Mad World", based off the song by Gary Jules. If you can't tell, it's about going insane. Turn the sound up for full effect.

Clarinet: It's a Love-Hate Relationship

I've played clarinet for six and a half years. However, I feel like I've only REALLY played clarinet for about three. To be honest, I was absolutely awful for the entirety of middle school. Yes, I knew notes, but clarinet covers nearly four octaves, and  I could only hit maybe two and a half octaves. I play five scales at most, and those were complete catastrophies. I played straight third clarinet parts all three years. Sad, right?

I was told in sixth grade that clarinet is an easy instrument. The problem is that I think they forgot the last half of the sentence. What I believe they meant to say was "Clarinet is an easy instrument until you start to play the really hard music." Really hard music on clarinet is hard for a reason. Playing crazy runs that skip random notes, jumping octaves, and holding ridiculously high notes perfectly in tune for long periods of time are common place. It's the kind of music that makes you wish you played a different instrument.

I love playing clarinet. I really do. The low range is stunning, and all the fast notes are fun once you learn them. However, it's a struggle to play all the crazy music directors and composers decide to throw at us. Whole notes are a relief.

Resumes

When your entire life is music, you try not to see farther than the next performance. Since I have essentially less than a year until I have to audition for music school, all these performances count in a BIG way. The longer the resume is, the better your chances are. It makes an impression before any sound is made. If you show up with merely high school band on your resume, it won't really matter if you play the Mozart Concerto (watch the video, turn up the volume, keep watching, and you'll understand). Ever since I realized this, I've taken every opportunity that comes my way. There are days when I nearly go insane between the rehearsals and such, But in the end I think it'll be worth it.

So what have I done? Well my primary instrument (my "day job", if you will) is clarinet. I play that in the Wind Ensemble (top band), and we play some seriously difficult music. Last year, I took basic music theory and learned tenor sax for the jazz band. This year, I opted to double as many more advanced musicians at my school do. Normally, these wind players double on another wind instrument in the Concert Band, but that seemed a little too expected for my tastes. So I now spend every first period in percussion class, banging away. I decided to march mellophone randomly, so now I have a little brass experience. My school drama department did the "Wizard of Oz", and I spent entirely too much time being a "pit winky", or a member of the pit orchestra. I'm a member of the League of Extraordinary Percussionists (the "LEPpers"), and to be honest, I have no clue how I got into that particular ensemble, since my audition was bad paradiddles. The most recent accomplishment was entrance into the Gainseville Youth Symphony Orchestra, another miracle audition. When I'm not playing, I'm organizing the band's endless amounts of music and equipment. In short, if it makes noise or is connected to making noise, I do it.