When I was a kid I paid my dues behind the music stand. Took piano and then went into orchestra and sawed away on a violin. Here is a photo of me in a grade school orchestra. (you won't see too many photos of don on bicycle log) I think this was the intermediate one but I did make my way into advanced orchestra. The girls in there were really cute as you can see in this photo. But cute as they were, they would kill you if possible, and feed on your blood. Every week you fought to keep your chair as one of these pretty little girls would go gunning for you. We always had all of this music we were working on for our next performance. None of the music was watered down, it was the real deal. You had to know your part. If someone who sat behind you challenged for your chair, the conductor would pick several bars at random and make you each play it. Then the orchestra would decide who played it best. They would clap by hitting their bows on the music stand. The vote was always fair. If it was too close to call then there would be a show of hands. The girl on my left is sitting one chair behind me in this photo. That meant she had to turn the pages on our music stand as we played. She's not happy about this. Our relationship was not so good. In fact, I don't think we ever spoke to eachother. I thought she was hot but she hated me. Needless to say, I didn't make too many girlfriends in orchestra.
RIP Luciano, no more fighting for your place.
2 comments:
I remember the last year I was in band. I played percussion. I was kind of an oddity because I was the only girl in the percussion section.
We had blind auditions to determine who was going to be first chair - you put your name on a line and memorized your number. Then you auditioned and later you would check later to see where everyone landed in the line-up.
I auditioned first and when the listing came out my number was first chair.
But at the final concert they gave the first chair certificate to the best friend of the mayor's son.
This is why I didn't take band after 7th grade. I opted for French in 8th grade and choir in high school. And even choir wasn't that great of an experience for me. Maybe music wasn't meant to be my strong suit.
I did like playing the violin, but I always wanted to be on my bike.
One time I had to leave a two day bike tour early on the second day to make it to a concert that I had to play in on a Sunday night. I really wanted to finish both days of that tour. I came within about 30 miles of finishing the 200 and some mile tour before my parents came and hauled me away.
It was a difficult day however. I rode about 80 miles in very strong winds, and then I had to sit through a long concert that night.
To make matters worse, one of the pieces we played was this contemporary thing that nobody could relate to and I'm sure the audience didn't even like.
The next year I rode the same tour and finished both days. The second day of that tour I fought rain and wind but no concert to play in. Wagners Flight of the Valkyries would have been a good number to play that day. :)
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