The Bryson Buzz

If you looked at the title of this post, you may not realize the word “inspiring” is intended to be an adjective, not a verb.  As an educator, most of the time I am looking for ways to be inspiring to my students.  However, yesterday, the tables were turned on me.  I was truly inspired by my students.

In addition to my responsibilities as a classroom teacher, I direct a small “pep” band that plays at the school football games.  As the years have progressed, I enjoyed being a band director less and less.  I won’t go into the details of why this occurred, for they are various and are irrelevant to my ultimate point today.

And so, another year begins, and yesterday I had my first rehearsal.  I was secretly embarassed of how much I was dreading this event.  And then the kids showed up.

There were three of them: YY, LJ and KL.  They got set up and we started playing a simple warm-up exercises, and we stayed there for a while because two of the three who showed were attempting to play a different drum than years past.  To my surprise, it wasn’t bad.  Not bad at all considering these kids touched a drum for the first time about two years ago (and we only play during the first part of the school year).  And two of the three had no musical background before joining band.  But I digress…

So, warm up goes well, so I start some alternating RLRL sixteenth notes.  I expected it to be rocky, and it was, but it smoothed out quickly.  Again, I’m surprised.

Next up, we did some independent rhythmic exercises, and practiced listening to one another.  And I think my point is made; these guys were doing an excellent job.  Three kids who haven’t touched an instrument since last December were tearing it up on the first day!  I was so pleased with them, I couldn’t stop smiling.  That was when it hit me; for the first time in probably two years, I was getting excited about the band again.

I don’t think YY, LJ and KL realized what they did for me yesterday–just three kids.  And even if my band doesn’t exceed 10-12 members all total, if those 10-12 are committed to putting their full effort into it, I am completely OK with that number.  I wish our administrators and football spectators could understand that size doesn’t matter.  To quote my favorite paranoid lunatic with a heart of gold, “it’s small, but it’s fierce.”

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 19th, 2009 at 5:05 pm Filed under Uncategorized and tagged band, commitment, inspiration, music, quality vs. quantity. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.