Band Try-Its

Today, I picked up Brandon first to bring him to the Band Try-Its for the first session, but it was quite full. We stopped by the new swim teacher’s classroom to meet her formally. I’d only been texting her, so it was nice to introduce myself face to face. After that, we picked Peyton up, and then we all went home. Brandon had a little under an hour to get some reading in, eat, and then head back to school. Peyton just tagged along. Brandon was asked to put on a name tag. We gathered around to hear the music teacher’s instructions. The second session was much smaller, so the kids didn’t have to wait as long. The kids were broken up into groups of two and sent through the various stations to try out the instruments. The mouthpieces were all wiped down with alcohol in between, and the kids got to keep their reeds for the reed instruments. Because it was a small group and there was a wayward kindergartener who had joined, they asked if Peyton wanted to try. She eagerly agreed, so she was thrown into the rotation. There were six instruments in total – flute, clarinet, alto sax, trombone, trumpet and percussion. The stations were run by the current band students, and they were all really patient and encouraging to give the newbies a rundown as to how to play the specific instrument. I toggled between Brandon and Peyton and tried to take pictures and record. I’ll have to update the video and pictures another time, since I just got off a planning session with my reading group for Friday’s appreciation dinner. Peyton and Melody, her friend from the next class, had such fun rotating through the stations. Both of them were barely taller than the trombone, had to rest the trumpet on their cases as they were too heavy to lift and blow at the same time, and had a yea old time with the clarinet. The flute station was manned by the teacher. She asked the girls if anyone took piano, and Peyton raised her hand without any prompting by me. I was proud of her for even doing that! The teacher confirmed that she would know her notes then, and she nodded in agreement. That prompted M’s parents to ask me about Peyton’s piano teacher, and then got her email address for a referral. After all was said and done, the parent band coordinators asked Brandon what instrument he preferred. He initially told me trumpet, but to them, he said, “Clarinet.” I’d asked one parent how much time her kid practices. She said, “10 minutes, logistically, though the teacher would probably say 30.” I told her I couldn’t promise 30, especially since the kids have other things going on, but they could probably swing 10 minutes. Peyton later told me she liked the clarinet, too! She wasn’t around when Brandon said it, so it was totally not influenced by what he had to say. I told them that I’d only be able to help with clarinet, and if they picked another instrument, they were on their own. They had fun playing around with their reeds. When I told Dave what instrument both kids chose, he said, “NO!” He didn’t want to deal with reeds. I told the kids they came from a “long” line of clarinetists 🙂 Grandpa, mommy, and daddy. They asked what grandma played. My mom said she thinks it was violin. Neither was a natural at flute, just like me. I could never make sound out of a flute. I’d love to see Peyton and M as trombonists in 3 years 🙂 Band starts at 4th grade…so we’ll see.

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