Waking up unreasonably early for a Saturday, the members of the symphonic band prepared to travel to Penn High School to perform three selections of concert music. After several extra rehearsals and clinics, the symphonic band earned the opportunity to present their music to the public and display their hard work and talent. The band successfully played “Cloudsplitter”; an intense, brief piece with complicated time signatures; “October”, a selection blossoming with color and passion; and finally “The White Rose March”, a light and bouncy march by the infamous Sousa.
If you didn’t already know, I am a member of this band and participated over the weekend as well. Going into it, I was not entirely thrilled since I was required to play in the symphony orchestra earlier that morning, previous to the band’s performance. Waking up around five in the morning, my mindset and attitude was definitely not a positive one and lacked the spirit of desiring success. Altogether, I pretty much dreaded the idea of moving forward to a state competition, which consisted of another insanely early morning the next Saturday, and a long bus ride down to Indianapolis. Many other band friends held the same opinion and viewed traveling to State as a complete waste of time and energy, since the future nearly positively did not hold an extremely hopeful placing, or at least one to compensate for the effort.
However, yesterday, as I enjoyed my relaxing Sunday afternoon, feeling lethargic and not even caring, I received a text message on my cellular telephone informing me of our success. Not surprising at all, the friend who told me of the news did not act overwhelmingly excited about the situation and even mentioned that Saturday will “suck”. I thoroughly wish that the symphonic band, including myself, would appreciate the opportunity and find joy in attending the competition. Unfortunately, there is no desire or spark within the musicians and the idea just never sounded appealing. Last year the band failed to move on to the next level and not a single band member was disappointed or affected in a negative manner. This year, those feelings are present and ironically the band has received a higher honor and performed much better.
I still attempt to uncover the reasons behind our attitude. Perhaps playing the music over and over, repetition after repetition, drives us crazy and creates a burning hate for the pieces we are practicing and performing. It is the idea of having too much of a good thing. That’s one possibility. Maybe it is the pressure and desire we see in the band directors that leads us to not hold the same wants and expectations, in sort of a subconscious rebellion. Perhaps we do not wish to put more work into the music, or play it any further, since we have already been overloaded with several rehearsals and practices of the pieces every single day during the school class period. No matter what manufactures this disgust toward band success, nearly every single member wishes against moving forward and would rather simply sleep in and enjoy a regular, music-lacking Saturday morning.
I am trying my very best not to sound pessimistic (yet I know I’m failing) since I do wish to see that hope and passion in the band, including myself. I’m not saying that this weekend will always be a dread to me throughout the week, especially because I want to change my attitude and once again put forward my share of effort and work. I truly do believe that the directors put all they have into seeing their bands succeed and desiring to influence their students in a positive manner, hoping they as well want to strive for a higher goal. This article is not meant to be discouraging or disheartening, but merely to express my opinion which parallels with several others.
