Memorial Day Concert

Band has always been one of my favorite classes. We get to play music, see lots of friends, and do performances. I really like to do all of these things and many more things in that class. This quarter we did an assembly for the school for Memorial Day. Overall, the concert was a great success and went very well. Though it was very tough to set up and get right, our teachers did an amazing job. But it wasn’t just the teachers that had to do a lot, as the students helped a lot and played really well. Even though lots of people had to miss class to help practice and had to make up the work, they did so anyway and that really helped the band sound good.

For a few weeks before the concert even began, our class had to practice a lot. We have a huge class this year but we still all got lots of parts to work on. After the first few days, it began to get rough. We practiced with recordings of the song and they went way faster than our class had been practicing them. We also practiced them much more than just the first few days. Even if we weren’t in the main room practicing, we split up into our groups and went into the smaller rooms to practice them too. After the first few weeks, when we started to get a hang of the songs, we didn’t have to practice as much. Then the day before the concert, everybody missed class for the big rehearsal.

On the day of the concert, all of the classes that were playing in the concert met in the gym. The practice as a group took forever as there were so many songs and speaking parts that had to be done again if they were messed up. Overall, most things went through the first try, but some took longer than they needed to. For example, when the people up front were saying all of the states and the years that they were declared states, the people up front talking would always be either too slow or too fast so they would go through it again. When the song that I played a solo on came up, I started to tense up, but I did good and everybody else did too. As the rehearsal started to go along, it seemed to get shorter and shorter until my next song came up. This song I didn’t have a solo in but the part was still very hard. I messed up a few times but overall, it went pretty well. The rest of the practice after that seemed to fly by, and soon, the rehearsal was done and we were all headed back to our classes until the end of the day.

During seventh period, when I have band, we anticipated the next period. It was very exciting and scary all at the same time. After going through my song one more time, I felt confident about the part that I had been having troubles on. Finally, eighth period came and it was time for the concert. Everybody started to climb into their seats while the band and orchestra were tuning. The third song in the program was the one I had a solo on. When my song came on, I was so nervous, but I pulled through it and did good on the song. The only really hard part left of the concert was the part that I always messed up on. That was the second to last song in the whole concert, so I had a long time to wait. The anticipation grew and grew, until finally it was time for the song. I concentrated as hard as I could on the song and the one part that I always messed up on went perfectly. I was so happy that I got that part right and that the concert was done.

Overall, the concert was a huge success. Everybody helped out to make it a very special moment in our community. The teachers, who organized and designed the whole thing. The students, for playing the music and doing good at it. The people who came and supported their students and veterans. And anybody else who had contributed in any way shape or form to help the concert become what it was. It takes a lot of patience and time to set up an activity like that.  It was very fun to perform in and present and I’m glad I got to be a part of it.