I started band in 6th grade, playing the trumpet. In 10th grade my band director switched me to the Baritone/Euphonium. I still play in the Orchestra at church and love every minute of it!

http://www.interstatemusic.com/wcsstore/InterstateMusic/ims/ipf/900002886.jpg

Anyone else a band geek? ;)

I played the bass drum in both middle school and high school. :drummer:

There was this one time at band camp.....

I joined the band in the sixth grade. I played my mom's flute, and kept playing until my junior year in high school. I was never very good at playing, but that was my own fault for not practicing like I should have. I think the highest I ever got was "Second Chair" in junior high. Anyone have those contests where you are placed according to how well you play? First chair was the highest.
Then in high school, I tried out for marching band, but didn't make it. We had four bands. The first three were marching bands and the forth was for people who weren't good enough to make it.
I'll never forget this. They decided to have everyone who was in fourth band try out for third band. I remember I practiced like crazy. Everyone in our band (Um, maybe about 20 people) tried out. The next week we saw the results and I swear everyone made it except for FOUR of us!How stupid is that?:mad: Marching season was over at that point, but we still had contest to worry about. Well, third band did, anyway.
So then they changed our schedule to have band from fourth period to third. Well, that made it worse because now we had to see all the people who had made third band every day even though we weren't in it! The four of us were forced to go into the practice rooms every day and practice. I told my mom and she totally freaked out.

So anyway, one day they told us that we didn't have to go to the practice rooms. Third band was having a study day, so we sat out there with them. The band director came along and passed out grade sheets for contest. He handed me one and I told him "I'm in 4th band, so I can't participate in contest" (which included a trip to Corpus Christie, Texas). Then someone told me that the four of us had been promoted to fourth band. That was seriously one of the happiest days of my high school "career". I had lunch right after band and I literally went running down the hall, looking for my best friend, yelling "I made third band!" People were looking at me like I was nuts!
Third band was like the worst of the three, but to me it was like winning an award!

In all honesty, I really wasn't good enough to be in that band, because the music was pretty hard, but it was fun.
I tried out again for my junior year and when I didn't make it, I joined the choir instead.

I was thinking the other day that maybe I should have perused another instrument like the drums or something. But those drums and bells are really heavy to carry around.

Still, excelling in band is something I regret not doing in high school. :(

The "unofficial" name for a band member in our school was a BQ which stood for "Band Q---R" :lol: I always thought that was hilarious!

Andrea

Band geek, no..band groupie...yes!

I played the clarinet in my last 2 years of high school. :wave:

I wanted to play violin in grade 6, but you had to have an 80% grade average to get into the class. I was just short of it. So in grade 7 I was in the band class and took the flute. I took it right into high school (you got to skip grade 9 band if you took it in middle school so I started in the grade 10 class).
I had to sell my flute in my 20s to make rent. I'd sure love to get one again. The prices have come down on them at least.

Then when I was 16, I joined my father's pipeband. I started with the pipes, but they needed a bass drummer so I switched to that. Nothing like marching in 85 degree, humid weather in full highland regalia with a 50 lb drum wrapped around your neck! It was fun though and I got to meet a lot of guys! ;)

After that, I played at bit with my brother's rock band, but never up on stage. Just when they were rehearsing at the studio or jamming.

Did you know that studies have found that children that play instruments in school usually end up with higher IQs? One of the reasons it would be terrible to cut out music programs in schools.

Nope, but close - choir geek (from grades 7-12).

i played the violin in our elementary school's band for three years. but i stopped after three years.

Band geek, no..band groupie...yes!
I am so shocked, Tara. :eek2: ;) :rofl: