By SHIRLEY BLACKBURN
Guest Columnist
When I told someone I was going to Westfield Intermediate School one evening to hear my sixth-grade twin granddaughters play their first band concert, I added that I was attending to support them – and not really going for the music. Turns out that was WRONG!
Admittedly, the band’s first few notes and measures, which did not lack for volume, were a bit tentative and perhaps even a little off-key. My husband and I exchanged “looks,” both of us thinking it might be a very lo-o-o-o-o-o-o-ng concert indeed.
But what was I thinking? This was a large elementary band composed of about 200 students, each of whom was doing something brand new. Each student had been handed an instrument to learn how to play as best as he or she could. That is only done with practice, practice, practice. Next, each had to navigate written music, which can be like learning a foreign language. And then, each had to figure out how to integrate his or her own instrument with all the other instruments in the band. And all of this was done in a matter of weeks!
No, it’s not brain surgery, but it does take work by the students and teachers – and the work paid off! The concert was a slow starter with elemental music and tunes. No matter, as the audience was full of people so very proud of what the students had accomplished.
(From left) Band Director Chris Sluder, Sarah Stella, Kinley Stella, and Band Director Phil Ward. Sarah and Kinley are the twin granddaughters of Shirley Blackburn. (Photo provided by Leigh Stella)
But wait! The audience began to realize, as the concert progressed, that the music was getting better and had become quite enjoyable. The instruments were actually meshing with each other, the sound became pleasing and entertaining – and there was even rhythm creeping in there, too. The family sitting in front of us found their “groove” and were dancing in their seats. But for embarrassing their own child, I thought they might actually get up and start doing the jitterbug! My personal favorite offering of the night was “Ode to Joy,” but the band’s rendition of “When the Saints Go Marching In” was much loved.
The concert turned out very well, and band members were rewarded with a hearty standing O from the audience when it was over. It was all pretty amazing, really, to think about what the kids had accomplished personally and what the band had presented collectively in a very short time.
Westfield Intermediate School Band rocked the room!
Shirley Backburn has grandchildren in Westfield Washington Schools and is a retired columnist for the Princeton Daily Clarion in Gibson County, Ind.