Mom was all about music.
I think I was six the first time we sang in public. It was the spaghetti feed at Piedmont Presbyterian Church. I can't remember the playbill but I do remember all four of us singing after I was coaxed on stage. I was ok with singing at home but I didn't understand it was leading up to a public performance. At home she played a white piano in a main floor bedroom off the dining room. The dining room tended to be a freeway for the four of us running from the kitchen to the front room. I can remember pausing and listening to the stern Beethoven pieces and seeing the determined look on her face and understanding that creating an interruption would not be wise. There was usually a yellow exercise book that contained the pages of music that haunted her. At some point a "Sound of Music" song book found it's way on to the piano music stand and suddenly the four of us were singing along. So much so that an invitation to sing at the Vancouver Grange Hall on the old Evergreen Highway came our way. I remember her having to cajole me into practicing my part for "You are Sixteen". I think I was seven when this occurred and I really can't remember being nervous at all. Seemed like just another day of singing. And this time there was strawberry short cake afterwards which was yummy.
In the fourth grade a group of string players showed up at school with a load of violins and an offer to teach those who were willing a song or two. The gentleman who demonstrated the instrument to me was impressed with the length of my fingers which made me a candidate. I played the violin for I guess three or four months anticipating that band instruments would be offered in fifth grade. My older sister played the flute which was obviously a girls instrument. My dad played the trumpet, which seemed like an option. But I was taken with the trombone and blasted out a couple of notes when the time came to try out an instrument. But when I came home she said the trombone was bulky and would get dented up; why not the clarinet? I was an agreeable lad so I said sure. I spent the rest of elementary school in band and in sixth grade band and choir. My teacher, Mr. Maas, insisted that the entire class take choir even though it was optional. That year we performed the musical "Oliver". I was Mr. Bumble and between the the theme song "Oliver" and "One boy for Sale" there was a vast range that my voice, which was changing at the time, could not cross. It was all she and the school piano player, Mrs. Lubers could do to rewrite the pieces to a key that fit my voice. After hearing it my dad even commented that it was a stretch for me.
On my way to junior high I tried to switch to trumpet but was overruled...seems barbaric now to deny a kid a crack at the trumpet. But again I was an agreeable future woodwind player.
I played saxophone and clarinet through my first year in college and had a great time. While I was in college she directed the choir at Vancouver Heights Methodist. And by the way she played the organ while directing. Quite a feat. I sang in the bass section, as a baritone. While I was there a group of guys were putting together a quartet and needed a bass, which I could fake but never really had a bass range.
It wasn't until I got to New Heights Church that a quartet was desperate enough for a bass actually enlisted my services. We sang for several years and I think that was the best time I ever had musically. A weekly rehearsal and regular performances are the key to accountability as a musician.
Now I am content vocally to blast out a song or two at our local karaoke club on the weekends. I am sure the results are not as good but it is fun. Then just last week I got a call from a friend that wants a sax player for local gigs. Now I wish I didn't travel so much. We still got together and played through the fake book. "Four", "Blue Bossa" and "Misty" were among the selections. My flirtations with the trumpet have been just that. I am a sax player first and always. But I still might try a trumpet tune at an upcoming event just to prove that switching is not fatal.....
Thank you for the clarinet, the reeds, the sheet music and the Sound of Music that was never far from us.
In the fourth grade a group of string players showed up at school with a load of violins and an offer to teach those who were willing a song or two. The gentleman who demonstrated the instrument to me was impressed with the length of my fingers which made me a candidate. I played the violin for I guess three or four months anticipating that band instruments would be offered in fifth grade. My older sister played the flute which was obviously a girls instrument. My dad played the trumpet, which seemed like an option. But I was taken with the trombone and blasted out a couple of notes when the time came to try out an instrument. But when I came home she said the trombone was bulky and would get dented up; why not the clarinet? I was an agreeable lad so I said sure. I spent the rest of elementary school in band and in sixth grade band and choir. My teacher, Mr. Maas, insisted that the entire class take choir even though it was optional. That year we performed the musical "Oliver". I was Mr. Bumble and between the the theme song "Oliver" and "One boy for Sale" there was a vast range that my voice, which was changing at the time, could not cross. It was all she and the school piano player, Mrs. Lubers could do to rewrite the pieces to a key that fit my voice. After hearing it my dad even commented that it was a stretch for me.
On my way to junior high I tried to switch to trumpet but was overruled...seems barbaric now to deny a kid a crack at the trumpet. But again I was an agreeable future woodwind player.
I played saxophone and clarinet through my first year in college and had a great time. While I was in college she directed the choir at Vancouver Heights Methodist. And by the way she played the organ while directing. Quite a feat. I sang in the bass section, as a baritone. While I was there a group of guys were putting together a quartet and needed a bass, which I could fake but never really had a bass range.
It wasn't until I got to New Heights Church that a quartet was desperate enough for a bass actually enlisted my services. We sang for several years and I think that was the best time I ever had musically. A weekly rehearsal and regular performances are the key to accountability as a musician.
Now I am content vocally to blast out a song or two at our local karaoke club on the weekends. I am sure the results are not as good but it is fun. Then just last week I got a call from a friend that wants a sax player for local gigs. Now I wish I didn't travel so much. We still got together and played through the fake book. "Four", "Blue Bossa" and "Misty" were among the selections. My flirtations with the trumpet have been just that. I am a sax player first and always. But I still might try a trumpet tune at an upcoming event just to prove that switching is not fatal.....
Thank you for the clarinet, the reeds, the sheet music and the Sound of Music that was never far from us.
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