Block 21

I hear music and there's no one there

I smell blossoms and the trees are bare

All day long I seem to walk on air

I wonder why, I wonder why.

~Irving Berlin

(I Wonder Why) You're Just In Love

written for the musical Call Me Madam

 

Block #21

I always seem to hear music when no one is there.

I hear it in the wind,

in the sound of traffic,

birds chirping outside,

rain.

You name it,

I hear a rhythm.

 

4th grade . . .

Mr. Marocco travels to every elementary school

in the Logansport Community School Corporation.

It's time to start introducing students to instruments

that they will be able to play in the band.

 

This was right up my alley.

 

I go home,

tell Mom what had gone on that day

(Like she didn't know . .

she was the school secretary!)

and let her know I want to play a Cornet.

 

Had the Music Man been a movie then,

I surely would have wanted to play in his band.

According to Prof. Harold Hill.

this is what a band looks like:

Seventy-six trombones led the big parade

With a hundred and ten cornets close at hand.

They were followed by rows and rows of the finest virtuo-

Sos, the cream of ev'ry famous band.

Seventy-six trombones caught the morning sun

With a hundred and ten cornets right behind

There were more than a thousand reeds

Springing up like weeds

There were horns of ev'ry shape and kind.

~Meredith Willson (1957)

76 Trombones

from the musical The Music Man

This was,

and still is,

my kind of music.

Want to make me smile,

just play a John Philip Sousa march.

I'll be tapping my toes

and out of my funk in no time.

But,

I digress.

Mom and I went to Marocco's Music Mart,
the record,
sheet music,
and instrument music store in town.

Prof,
everyone called Mr. Marocco "Prof,"
asked me if I could do this . . .
basically,
put my lips together
and blow through them in,
what I would learn was,
a "brass" sort of way.

No problem-o,
didn't even "pth-th-th-th"
any spit out at anyone.

Next, came the actual mouthpiece.
I can still remember what it felt like.
Small,
circular,
cool brass
touching my lips.
It became a common feel for my lips
for the next 8 years．

Spit fights with Mark Nethercutt
in elementary school band.
(Actually . . .

spit fights from elementary through high school.

Wonder if any brass player can say they never had one?)

Switching to a baritone in junior high school band.

Chasing John Ulery

all around the football field

during practice for a halftime performance.

The little bugger

crashed the symbols in my ears.

Prof was so awesome . . .

when we were done running around the field

all he said was,

"Got it out if your systems yet?"

Did I make any friendships in band?

You bet 'cha.

I think all were guys . . .

but what would you expect?

I sat in the middle of the brass section. (99% guys)

In front of the drummers. ( 99% guys)

I  put my cornet

in front of my favorite drummer . . .

again,

that was just the way it had to be then

so it had to be that way in the sampler.

Behind the tenor sax section.

(1 guy sat right in front of me.)

Speaking of the tenor sax section . . .

I forgot this . . .

I learned how to play the French Horn

for the "concert season"

in LHS band.

That was a trip,

left handed fingerings . . .

totally blew my "left minded" brain.

What an awesome instrument!

Dear Lord, 

How can I thank you for the gift of music? It has become such an important part of my life.  Listening to music . . . what can I say . . . one of my best habits. One I wouldn't ever want to break. Tapping my  toes is a part of me . .  almost as important as breathing.  

My life, at times seems like an episode of American Bandstand, "I'll give it a 10, Lord  . . . it's got a great beat and I don't care if I can't dance to it . . . you know I don't dance!"

Please keep my ears in working order, Dear Lord. I don't want to miss a sound.

Now Lord, let's leave everyone with the finale of The Music Man. Are you ready? As Lawrence Welk would say, "Ah-1, Ah-2 . . . " 

Amen. 

(572)