Personal Narrative: Concert Band

Ten minutes is all they get. Ten minutes of nearly constant simultaneous movement and playing; along with being aware of each step and how it's taken, where is taken, and how big it is taken. Awareness of positioning, posture, drum major, spacing, tempo, guiding, and each other. In ten minutes everyone in the stand will see what people spent hours going over; running and rerunning it again. If someone second guesses, messes up, goes out of tune or steps wrong, they don’t get another quarter or another inning to redeem themselves. All they have are those ten minutes from when they are called to attention to when they march off the field. And what is this all done for? Why spend hours a week doing this. It is a passion. A passion for hearing …show more content…
I was not in a class band, and although marching band motivated me to join a concert band, watching these guys play was the final push I needed to join. I took up playing saxophone the end of my junior year, and although knowing how difficult it would be to try and get on the level of the other kids, who have been playing far longer than me, I was determined to learn, so I took lessons with the woodwind advisor for our marching band. Although I came into the band only playing for three months, the encouragement and lessons I took allowed me to join feeling more ready than I originally believe I would be, and in a position where I can progress to join the jazz band Over the past year and a half, the band program has given me more than I could ever begin to repay it for. It allowed me to develop socially from an antisocial, shy kid to someone who has better social skills going into adulthood.
The band also taught me how to work as a team,. When you have to march, play, create forms and run drill with sixty people, it isn’t going to turn out well if you can learn to cooperate and communicate with others; and due to the band, I am now better able to do …show more content…
As my band director pointed out to us at the end of band camp, you do not spend an entire week at your school, in extremely hot weather for nine hours a day if you do not love band. This band has taught me what it is like to be dedicated; and to spend hours at home and school practicing music; running drill set by set, countless times. Even when you get more into my specific section, percussion, you realize that we have to learn more music and cadences than any other section. This band taught me how to be dedicated to something, even when it seems to be too much at times and to honor my