I'm With The Band June 2010

I often say my middle school band director is the reason I am where I am today. It’s true. Mr. Hamilton taught me everything I know about breathing properly—from the diaphragm; but also about things like sitting up straight, improving through practice and the value of being a part of something bigger than myself.


It’s amazing really to think about. Walking into band for the first time carrying a briefcase that housed parts of an instrument I didn’t even know how to put together, let alone make a sound on. And yet, he walked me and each student in our little band through every step. Putting each corked piece of my oh so foreign looking clarinet into its proper position, placing my hands in the right spots, positioning my mouth onto the mouth piece and finally blowing into it to produce the most amazing squeaky first notes. It must have been torture to his ears to be in a room filled with loud, but enthusiastic beginning band students. I just remember feeling so amazed that I could produce a sound at all. And then suddenly I shocked myself that I could play one, two even three notes on a scale. And I was even more surprised when I learned how to string them together into actual – music.

That’s why, in the end, being a part of the band was so much more than anything I’d ever expected. I had taken piano lessons but this was different. This was the beginning of the realization that alone one instrument was simple and beautiful in its way. But together, all of us, playing at the same time, it became rich and complex and fascinating to learn to hear each instrument adding its part-- the whole not complete without all the pieces. We grew something from nothing –performing our first concert for an audience of appreciative parents and grandparents. It was something entirely different than anything we’d ever experienced. And all the while Mr. Hamilton, standing before us, baton in hand, carried what became a familiar calm and patient grin that we came to appreciate as reward for a job well done.

And now, a shiny trombone sits packed in its case in a quiet middle school band room waiting to be discovered by my middle school son. He will soon walk into his band room for the first time, and take it out of its case and run his fingers over it for a first inspection, just as I did all those years ago. He will hear that skinny baton tapping on the metal music stand. He will begin to learn the very first steps of playing. Soon he will be able to discern the difference between noise and notes. He will learn, as I did, the feeling of being a small part of a larger instrument.

I realize he can’t possibly anticipate what he is about to encounter. But I believe he is so lucky to have the chance to go through the amazing transformation from middle school kid to musician. The launching pad for so much more and what for me turned out to be one of the great treasures of my life—the gift of saying, “ I’m with the band.”