So last Friday, my 11 y.o. daughter had a band solo and ensemble festival performance. She just started with the clarinet in the fall and switched to tenor saxaphone as soon as she could, which was this semester. I'm enjoying listening to her learn and progress on the sax, and she's doing great. They don't delay getting these kids to perform either, first concert last fall was only after the 6th graders had been playing their instruments for 2 months. Yeah, it sounded like you might imagine, but it's really amazing how far she has progressed since then, with a new instrument to boot.
So, she's been practicing her part for this ensemble performance and she played in a 5-piece along with an alto sax, two clarinets and a flute. All really great girls and they are friends and it sounded really good. I was a proud papa.
What the hell is FC going on about in the m*ch*gan thread?
We'll here's how this ensemble festival thing was set up. They told us her time slot and we showed up at a neighboring middle school and they directed us to a classroom where her school groups would be perfoming. It was requested that she (and us) spectate the groups before and after her ensemble, probably to have a decent sized audience for each group.
So the wife and I settle in for the group preceeding our daughter's, and this ragtag group of kids gets up there, akwardly introduce themselves, and proceed to introduce their chosen piece for the performance. "The Victors". Okay then.
So these kids, bless their hearts, proceeded to play the most out of tune and dirge-like rendition of that shit song from TSUN I've ever heard. And it was perfect. A perfect encapsulation of the state of their shit program. A requiem of sorts. I had to chuckle at the judge (yes, this was a judged perfomance, they ain't wasting time getting these kids schooled in musical performances) tactfully critiqued their sad performance, but I hope those kids know that there's no polishing that turd of a song.
Next, my daughters group got up there and nailed their perfomance, as best as a group of sixth grade girls could in their first year of playing. It was a fairly standed band tune, the name escapes me, but it was musical and dynamic and I couldn't have been prouder. I just know if she had come home with the Victors in her band folder, I would have told her to march in to her band director office and demand a song worthy of her attention.
