The Almost-Best Moment Ever

Finding something that makes you an individual is a great thing. We all want to aspire to be the person we ourselves define as perfect. To me, that means music. I can see myself in a symphony and a few big bands in the future. I'm trying everything I can to get myself there; it's my dream. It takes dedication to be good at something, and a life to be great at it. Having to share my dream with my twin brother, however, absolutely sucks.

One day, my brother had to go to another town for a night. My father was taking him, so I figured I could go along instead of spending my Friday night alone in my bed with a bag of Cheetos to comfort my sad, introverted, and depressed feelings. We dropped my brother off at his destination (otherwise known as nerd-landia), and my dad asked if I wanted to go anywhere. Naturally, I asked to go to Summerhays (otherwise known as music-nerd-landia), and my dad drove me immediately there.

In my mind, I developed a plan. I needed new strings for my guitar, so I planned at looking at and buying a pack of those. However, I forgot about one measly detail. It was the semi-annual instrument sale! As soon as I walked in, they had a whole table filled with trombones. In case you didn't know, new instruments are about as shiny as looking into a pool of gold and metal spoons. I immediately went over and picked up one of my metal soul mates. Most of the horns were tenor with f attachments, and a few were bass. My dad was looking at model numbers while I was playing with the slides.

The manager came over and watched us. Pretty soon, he offered to let me play a few. I looked at my father with my big puppy eyes, and he gave the dude a nod. Mr. Manager picked up a few horns and carried them to a practice room. I played two horns, both Xenos. Xenos are the Ferraris of trombones, only because they cost about as much as a Ferrari or, you know, ten.

I contently played licks I memorized, a few from Mr. P.C. and Come Out Swingin'.  After a few minutes on each, my quality of play on the horns was definitely noticeable. The model I sounded best on was the Yamaha YSL 882OR with lacquer finish. The worst part, though, was the fact that we couldn't afford two new horns for my brother and I (Anyone have $3,329 to lend me?). When we decided which model was better, I got my strings and left.

My future soul mate courtesy of Amazon

The best thing ever to happen was when I was eating dinner with my family the night after. Since my brother was gone awing at geeky things at nerd-land-tacular and didn't know what happened, my father explained it to him. I was zoning out until I heard the words, "Emily first,". WHAATTT? OMIGOSHOHMYGOSHOHMYGOSHOHMYGOSHOHMYGOSHOHMYGOSHOHMYGOSH Eh, my dad was only explaining to him that since we were needing two horns I would be the first to get a new one.

Sometimes, being an obsessive freak over something has its advantages.

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OKAY, SO ORIGINALLY I WASN'T PLANNING ON BEING SO EXCITED THAT I WOULD FALL OUT OF A CHAIR... BUT I AM THAT EXCITED. I HONESTLY NEVER THOUGHT I COULD BE SO EXCITED THAT MY ENTIRE BODY WOULD TREMBLE, CAUSED BY A SIMPLE QUESTION.  MY BODY TREMBLED AND MY HANDS DRIPPED SWEAT FOR TWO HOURS STRAIGHT. MY JAW CLACKED AGAINST MY TEETH AND MY FINGERS COULDN'T STOP MOVING. AS A MEASLY TEENAGE GIRL I CAN'T BELIEVE THAT JUST HAPPENED TO ME, LET ALONE IT EVER HAPPENING AGAIN IN THE FUTURE.

Drum roll please.....

TODAY I GOT ASKED TO GUEST CONDUCT THE UTAH WIND SYMPHONY!

Yeah, sorry about the overuse of capitol letters, but my excitement needed the emphasis. Seriously though, how many times does a small and unimportant teenage girl get asked to do something that big? Assuming you don't know what it means to conduct, it's when the person at the front of the stage starts waving that stick thing until the music stops. A meager teenage girl worth less than nothing has the honor of doing that.  Conducting is like getting to lead a group of people through a maze of notes and rhythms.

The Amazing Utah Wind Symphony

Today I was sitting in the band room all humpty-dumpty because the Utah Wind Symphony was holding a rehearsal in our school. The students of the band program were allowed to sit in and watch because that's the deal the band director made in return for hosting them. Me, an overly emotionally expressive girl who just happens to be obsessed with pretty sounds, was fangirling over every chord and unison pattern that came floating out of all the instruments in that room. At one point, the ensemble played a march that I''m pretty sure had the trombones sliding all over an assemblage of sixty-fourth notes. Just letting you know, it sounded gosh darn amazing and so professional. After the piece was over, the conductor told me it sounded sloppy. Ha, no.

The Utah Wind Symphony is a great thing to experience in concert. They are one of the best bands in America. They all are exceptionally great at performing, all because of their talent. Every person in that band knows the music they play. The members have told me that they do it because they love it, they would do it even if they had another job.

During one point in rehearsal, they took a ten minute break. One piccolo player said that we, the six students that sat in during rehearsal, were the best audience ever. I was first greeted by a trumpet player. Apparently my facial expressions I made when I was fangirling had made her day. She said it had made the forty-three years she spent playing trumpet worthwhile. Then another trumpeter came up to me and told me he watched us while we were listening. My expression when the march was being played had cracked him up. Dang, do I really show that much emotion?

Well, if you need me, I'll be falling out of a chair practicing my conducting.

What most people think of conductors, courtesy of Swing's The Thing