Musical Memories

Where do I begin? I guess at the start of my love for music. My first musical memories are singing in the church children’s choir from the age of 4 at Augusta Heights. I was the loud one…. We only sang hymns, but I loved singing. I think this is where I get my love for traditional hymns. In high school, I sang in the Youth Choir at first Methodist. For the first week of June, we went on Choir tours. We sang at different churches along the way to our fun destination. Once it was Dallas and Six Flags of Texas, another year it was Washington D.C. Another year it was Nashville TN, Where we stayed in the Opry Land Hotel. But my favorite stop along the way was the Children’s hospital in Montgomery. We sang for all these little kids who were dying. They smiled. And for a moment, I think we gave them a few minutes where they didn’t think about dying. They didn’t think about the hospital bed waiting for them… they just enjoyed the music & the stuffed animals we had brought for them. I cried the entire way to our next destination.

When I was in 4th grade, my mom moved her old piano from her parent’s house to ours. We took piano lessons from an old hag down the street… I picked up relatively quickly. My sister played too. I overheard her telling mamma one day that she wanted to me better than me at something. I was better at singing (so she thought- She can sing both alto and soprano.. me? Only soprano) and playing the piano. I was always cast in the church plays and my sister was only an extra. But she was four years younger. She just couldn’t understand that she’d get better as she got older. But I felt bad. I wanted my sister to be happy. I quit taking piano and claimed it was because I was too busy and that Melissa seemed like she enjoyed it more anyway and I’d let that be her thing. 6 months later, Melissa quit. It wasn’t cool anymore b/c sissy wasn’t doing it…. Go figure. I’m going to get the piano from my parent’s house this summer and have it tuned. I ‘m going teach myself to play again.

I began playing the Clarinet in the 6th grade. I wanted to play the trumpet originally, but my braces got in the way. I loved it! Band became a real part of my life. I am a band geek and I am not ashamed. I think I was more dedicated to band in high school than anything else. I loved it all. I loved the way the notes worked together. I loved the patterns we made on the field as we marched to Souza and Williams. The south Georgia heat was more than my asthma could take sometimes. This wasn’t really a problem at football games b/c they were at night and it had cooled down enough… but at competition in Hawkinsville, it never failed. I had an asthma attack on the field every time. It was usually during our last #. I never walked off the field though… I had taught myself how to breathe into the clarinet as if I was playing but not make a sound… The small airway almost did the same trick a paper bag would do. As soon as we marched out of the judge’s sight, the jacket came off quickly and I’d grab the inhaler from the top pocket of the uniform. Of course, the people in the ambulance would see me and I’d get a quick treatment of pure oxygen just before having our picture made. Mr. Nelson fussed at me every time, but I hear in the few years after I graduated and before he retired that he used me as an example when he talks about being dedicated to the band. I wanted to be in the Marine Band and I had full intentions on auditioning, but I knew I’d never survive basic training.

At Andrew College, I had all intentions of being in the band… brought my clarinet, but AC only had a jazz band. He already had a clarinet… but he asked if I’d ever played the bass clarinet. I told him I had played that and the contrabass clarinet. He grinned as he handed me a huge case. Expecting to find a bass clarinet, I open the case to find a Barry Saxophone. He showed me how the fingerings were almost exactly like the upper register of the clarinet. On the weekends I went home, my sister gave me private saxophone lessons since this is what she played in the high school band.

As I was signing up for Jazz Band, the Choraliers instructor, Miss Jeffries, walks over and asks if I’m a singer too. I explained that I’ve sang in church choirs all my life, but don’t have any formal training. Right there on the spot, she asked me to sing something. I froze… so she took me to her office and grabbed a hymnal. She had me sing “Once in Royal David’s City” which ended up being my solo in the Christmas production. I sang with the music until the night before the performance when she told me “oh, by the way…” You’ll be singing this accapella and you’ll be on stage alone. After you sing the first verse, everyone else will walk in and join in the second.” Holy Crap was all I could think… but it was great. & she knew I needed that last minute “by the way” treatment or I’d have chickened out.

I transferred to VSU where I was planning on double majoring in Vocal Performance and Music Ed. I enjoyed my 8am theory class. I hated ear training. It was in Ear Training that I was informed I didn’t have the ear to cut it through all of those training classes. I hated that instructor. I quit the music program and moved into the English department, and while I am happy with what I teach, I can’t help but wonder what would have happened had I staying the music department to tough it out. I’m sad to say I haven’t played my clarinet since. I want to brush up though… maybe I’ll get good enough to play in the symphony. I’m sure it will take a few years, but we’ll see.