We attended a middle school concert last week. Our middle schoolers performed in the chorus. We had attended the fall concert around Christmas, and it had been all we expected it to be. If you want to know what learning sounds like, go to an elementary or middle school band concert, especially in the first semester. It’s messy. There’s always one drummer lost, one clarinet or saxophone squeaking, and a trumpet that doesn’t cut off. It’s beautiful and painful all at the same time.
I could hardly believe the improvement in the strings and the band. They played with much more confidence and command of the music. I grinned through the John Phillips Sousa march and only winced a few times through the concert band’s adaptation of Katy Perry’s “Firework.” The chorus did a good job, although most of them looked as though they were terrified, miserable, or nearly dead.
I sat on my hands and tried not to rock myself while we waited for all the groups to perform– the chorus was near the end of the concert. Ransom had been given a duet the week before, and I’m pretty sure I was more nervous than he was. I kept winking at him and giving him a thumbs up until he sternly mouthed the words, “STOP IT.” Clearly, I’m making progress on winning most-embarrassing-mom-of-the-year award between chorus and soccer. Here’s a video of the song where Ransom sings a duet in the opening (he’s the blond out in front, while Memphis is in her black power bow on the far right.) Forgive the acoustics– we were in a gym, and somewhere around :45, the passing bell rings.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X9t14YvDu8Q]
I am thankful to be in a school system that still has music classes (for now) with an administration and community that supports the arts.
