The Little Things

It has amazed me so far to find out how happy I get when things get fixed that used to seem like small matters. For example, I had a group of flute players last week who, for the life of me, I could not get a decent, consistent sound out of (if any). This week, they came in and they're all nailing the low octaves of the notes we've learned. I almost jumped for joy.

Then in marching rehearsal, there's one student who seems unable march in time. Several people have told me that he just can't. However, I've been standing next to this section drilling "left, right, left, right" as they march during many of our rehearsals when I see people out of step, and last rehearsal he was actually marching in time 90% or so of the time (even times when I wasn't saying it). Granted, it's not always the correct foot, but I'll take what I can get so far. This time I literally did jump for joy.

Another time that I wanted to yell "yippee!" was my first time pulling a mouthpiece out with a mouthpiece puller all on my own. So far, I've had three trumpet players get their mouthpieces stuck. The first one I pulled out myself no problem (he said he loosened it for me; that made me smile, considering he had previously been pulling with all his might. Hey, you never know). The second one I couldn't figure out the puller so I had to have the string teacher help me. But the third one I did all on my own! Wahoo!

That's also something else I've found that I didn't expect: I knew I'd occasionally get things like stuck mouthpieces and similar occurrences; I just didn't realize how frequently. Within two weeks three mouthpieces have gotten stuck, one trombone bell got stuck on the slide (the bell moved side to side but I couldn't unscrew it), I saw a trumpet player at the middle school drop his horn and dent the bell then try to fix it himself, and two saxophone players at the high school were playing catch with their saxophone bells and a coin. Fun learning experiences abound :) I'm lucky my kids are so great, they're awesome sports and even when things don't go as planned and I have difficulties fixing their instruments the bear with me and we make it through until I can solve the problem (or have someone help me solve it).