Modern-day Commentary

Long before I discovered choral singing and conducting, two passions which will never be removed from my life, I mangled clarinet parts for school credit. I was dreadfully bad at it. So bad, in fact, that’s it is hard for me to believe that a lifelong interest in music would stem from these early experiences.

I guess part of the reason my passion was able to blossom, in spite of being a terrible clarinetist, is the fact that early on I developed a side-interest in following scores and studying composers, which ended up giving me a more holistic view of music than if I’d just continued to play a few squawky notes on the clarinet once in a while. My family thought it sounded like a barnyard whenever I would practice at home. Early on in college, after I’d given up the instrument and was getting all the more active in choral and church music, my father was talking with one of our fellow choir members and told her, without explanation, that “Ricky made it through high school by choking his chicken.”

The instrument lay dormant for many years until a couple years ago when I adapted a flute part on one of my choir’s anthems, and choked my chicken in front of the whole congregation. It sounded remarkably like it was being played by someone who hadn’t picked up the instrument in nearly two decades, but who had the hubris to believe that his improved musicianship in other fields since then would translate over to clarinet playing. Breath support, controlled embouchure, who needs’em? I was immediately taken back to a photograph of me soloing in a Joseph bathrobe and turban at a Christmas pageant in elementary school.

Anyway, back to the essay at hand. It’s pretty funny to see that this one-sheet accounts for “all I know about playing an instrument” and that the two things I seem to have learned were that practicing is important, especially with a studio teacher, and that band is a drag. Unfortunate praise(?) for my instructors at the time, Mary Pugh and Steve Yavarow, but clearly something they did caused me to want to dig more deeply, and I’m very grateful for their early work with me.

As for the process of “ironing out” difficult sections in the studio, I was probably referring to my inability to maintain a steady tempo in playing the opening octave leap on “Bali Hai”. I don’t remember doing much more than that in my lessons.

Band “takes up an awful lot of time” and seems “as though it will never end”. What a downer. I’m writing about my favorite subject in school, and can’t seem to put in a single good word about it… Oh, wait, here it is, the trademark closer to the essay where I change my stance entirely. Suddenly, I marvel at the “beauty” of sound when this “enjoyable hobby” comes to fruition. Whatever.

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Rick Seaholm
English
March 30, 1990
Mr. Luzi

In the following essay I intend to tell all I know about playing an instrument. I will use personal experience to back up my statements of fact . Also, I will show you the pros and cons of the subject from many different positions.

I play clarinet in the Hopkinton Junior High band and have been at it for four years. In these years I have found that practicing is a major requirement needed to succeed in music. Private lessons with a music teacher are vital because not only does this make you practice more, but if you have a problem with a particular section you and the instructor can iron it out smoothly and easily.

Being in the band takes up an awful lot of time and occasionally it seems as though it will never end. We practice twice a week during school and usually once or twice a week after school. In the spring the band performs about six times and many extra rehearsals are added to make the shows run well.

All of the hard work certainly pays off when you hear how beautifully a song goes during a performance and in my four -year career I have found that more often than not it is a very relaxing and enjoyable hobby that anybody who is bored or tense should pursue.