What to do?
What to do when you have a stepson who's mother does not always give the best advice? My stepson (he plays the trombone) has a band competition tomorrow. Last week, his band teacher asked all the parents to make sure the kids were bringing their instruments home and practicing outside of school. Well my stepson brought his instrument home from school yesterday but did not have his music. I asked him about it and he said that he was not going to practice - his mother told him that there was such a thing as practicing too much, and that if he practiced too much, he may freeze up at the performance. I was flabbergasted! I have never heard that logic before. At least not in matters of playing an instrument. Let me tell you, I was in band and also play the trombone, and I have never practiced so much that I froze up at a performance. Quite the contrary in fact. The more you practice the more comfortable you are. I think in some things you can be too rehearsed, like for a speech, and your delivery may come off as too monotone but I don't think any teacher or many music performers are going to tell you not to practice.
I asked my stepson if he asked his band teacher about it. He said no, so I asked him what did he think his teacher would say about that - he kind of waffled on that. I think he knew what his teacher would say, he just did not want to practice.
I just think his mother is crazy. This is the same woman who a week ago was telling us to curtail our parenting time to make sure our son was able to participate in all his activities. She is afraid that we will keep him from band activities (track also, and social life) and therefore he will not have the opportunity to get a scholarship. She made a big deal about him having this opportunity for this scholarship. Yeah - most people who get music scholarships practice their instruments. They practice their instrument guite a lot, until they are sick to death of it and beyond (and if you play trombone - until your lips are red, puffy and numb). So if his mother wonders why my hubby and I don't take her seriously; why we think she is a double talking liar, it is because instances like these.
This one time at band camp....
OK, it didn't happen at band camp, but I was in band (I played the trombone) and I had tryouts. I had only been playing the instrument for about a year. It was tryout time to see which band (concert was intermediate and symphony was the top band) you would be in and what chair (which part) you would get. We were given a peice of music to practice and then we would have to tryout in front of the class. I practiced my butt off. It was a good thing too becuase I was terrified of playing in front of people by myself. I didn't have a problem with playing with a group or with the band but to have to play alone was very scary for me. So I get up in front of the class to do my tryout. I was sweating and shaking. My arch enemy, Beth sniggered at me from the saxophone section. I started playing. First we had to do scales, then a few other things and then perform our practice peice. By the time I got to that portion of the tryout I was starting to lose my vision. I started the peice and I lost my vision - I could not see! I was lucky I practiced my butt off because even though I could not see, I still was able to perform because I knew the peice (through all the practicing it became automatic) at that point. I also was starting to lose my hearing by the end of the tryout. It was crazy. Even though I lost my sight for the tryout and was super nervous I actually did very well, because I practiced. I got first chair! I made it in the symphony band! My band director was amazed at my playing. I will always remember that.
No comments:
Post a Comment