Ewan G., Centerville High School
Work for Wind Symphony
“I’d rather you make a mistake with confidence than play the piece correctly, but timidly.” This is one of many phrases my middle school band director would say that has stuck with me. He not only inspired me to have confidence, but also fueled my love for music. My musical passion runs all the way back to fourth grade, when my music teacher told me I was the best 5th grade recorder player. These simple words encouraged me to attempt the clarinet in middle school, being somewhat similar to recorder. All throughout middle school, I stood out from my peers as a musician. Once the end of 8th grade came, I knew high school tryouts were right around the corner.
My high school has three levels of band: concert, symphonic, and wind symphony. I was confident I could make symphonic band, though I wasn’t sure I could make wind. With only 3 weeks to prepare, I spent countless hours endlessly rehearsing my etude. Quickly, the due date arrived. I had just come out of a final lesson with my teacher. Filled with insecurity, my mom drove me to the high school. During the waning minutes, my mind wandered. I’m gonna squeak the high note, I’ll stumble the cadenza, My reed won’t respond properly, I am destined to fail.
While I had met the high school director prior, it was still a very tense atmosphere in the room one-on-one with him. He’s tall, with a somewhat intimidating stature. The door opened from the previous evaluation, a senior who I looked up to as one of the most talented clarinetists in the whole school. He fist bumped me “good luck”, which sparked a small amount of courage in me. I closed the door behind me and sat down in the chair. He asked me some questions, before letting me begin playing. I forgot my chromatic scale sheet at the middle school, so I had to play off memory, though it’s a fundamental exercise, so it wasn’t too difficult. Then, the time came to perform my piece. I swallowed the butterflies in my stomach, took a deep breath, and performed like no tomorrow.
Flawless.
From top to bottom, my air flowed fluently—with resonance and richness—and my fingers glided from key to key. Weeks passed before we got placements back, and all I could do was hope for wind symphony. One fateful day in band class, my director projected the list onto the board; three columns of concert, symphonic, and wind. Sure enough, my name was one of two in the whole band under that third column, a huge achievement for a freshman.
To this day, my self-confidence has been on another level. Over the following summer, I pursued marching band as well. Every performance, every rep, I have a newfound passion to play the greatest I personally can. This expanded to any and every aspect of my life too: do everything as best as you can, because YOU CAN DO IT.
