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(Non-members welcome)
Why I chose to play:
| Flute Trumpet/Cornet |
Baritone Doubler Trombone Alto Saxophone |
Clarinet Bass Clarinet Tenor Saxophone French Horn |
About this page by Roy Ernst, Ph. D., founder of
The International New Horizons Music Association
Dear William:
I loved reading those stories. Each one is a little gem. They would be of special interest to anyone thinking about starting. I think we might want to consider making a link to the national web site for this, or adding something similar to the site.
I have fond memories of my visit to your beautiful city to meet with people about starting a New Horizons Band. That evening, I attended a concert by the community band in the park. The director introduced me and I conducted a number. It was all very nice.
Please give my best wishes to everyone. And thanks for writing.
Cordially,
Roy
Roy Ernst, Ph. D.
New Horizons International Music Association, Advisor to the Board
Eastman School of Music, Professor Emeritus
201 Pine St.
Corning, NY 14830
Phone/Fax: 607-962-1125
E-mail: royernst@aol.com
Kimberly Berry - Trumpet
Last night Ephraim mentioned that we should get together every once in a while and have a social event to get to know each other and that was one of the very good suggestions I received in my survey for the new members committee and I hope we get to do that! I also think it would be fun to ask why you choose the instrument you did and what other instruments do you play and what would you like to learn to play.
I chose the trumpet in the 6th grade because of my father; he loved Louis Armstrong and Herb Albert and the Tijuana Brass. He played them all the time. When I started band, I was told that a trumpet is not a girl’s instrument and to pick something else, but I am a bit stubborn and insisted. I played baritone in high school and college because though I loved the trumpet, well let’s say I wasn't that good on it, LOL.
I’am working a lot harder now. Between college, the Army, and life, I hadn't played seriously for almost 25 years when I strolled into Gracewinds a couple of years ago and saw the beginner’s class sign and joined right then. I am bound and determined this time to become a good player on my first love, the trumpet. My dad is thrilled for me and I send him tapes of our concerts every time we play. I can play piano (not well) and guitar (not well). I would love to play the drums and learn to play the French horn. I’ll leave those reed instruments to the big boys and girls, LOL.
So, it would be nice to learn why you chose the instrument you did and when you started playing it. I guess you can just post your response to dbrb@PEAK.ORG
Kim, Girl trumpet player
Paul deLespinasse - Baritone
My folks started me on piano lessons in the second grade. I did not much like the piano, and quit lessons as soon as I got to the 5th grade and could start band. (Later on, I regretted not going further with piano when I started playing the pipe organ as a senior in high school.) We were living in Redmond, and my father was the school band guy there from 1946 to 1952, so he was my band conductor.
A year or two before I got to 5th grade he had brought the Willamette University concert band in to play a concert during their tour, and I was quite taken with their first chair clarinet player, who wore horn rimmed glasses. I think I could picture myself doing that, and that may have been how I decided on clarinet. (Oddly, when I was a student myself at Willamette U, I wore horn-rimmed glasses and played first chair clarinet.)
Dad had played baritone since he was 14 years old, and a few years before I retired he gave me a few lessons when we were visiting in Oregon from Michigan. Because of my interest in composing, I wanted to learn a bass clef instrument, and it seemed that playing baritone runs in the family----my father's father also played baritone. But I never followed up until a year ago in November, when I finally started baritone and started coming to New Horizons Band. I am glad I started when I did, because Dad and I were able to play duets a number of times before he died in July.
Paul
I wanted to play in the band when I was in sixth grade. I already played the piano so I could read music. The only instrument the band had left was a flute. My parents were delighted and gave me flute lessons. I remember a funny, little flute instructor used to come to our house in Connecticut. So I played in the elementary school band and in the high school band my freshman year until I changed schools. The new girls school didn't have a band.
As an adult, I actually bought a used clarinet and had it repaired. I always wanted to play one. I ended up giving that to a granddaughter. When we moved here, I saw the sign in Gracewind's window for a beginning band. I wanted to play a clarinet, but my husband wisely suggested that I rent a flute and see how I liked band. At least I knew how to blow the flute and might have some success!!
I really liked band with Stuart and decided to buy a flute. I need lots of practice, but I love the band and I am willing to work hard. I played in the jazz band during the summer and worked up enough nerve to play a solo at the concert!! I enjoy all the folks.
Robbie
George Novak - Trumpet
I play the trumpet because my Dad played one.
Back when I grew up choice was reserved for those who could afford it. If you had an instrument in the family you were one step ahead of those who didn't. I went to a country school where the music department consisted of a wind up victrola and some records mostly of sopranos singing what sounded, through the scratches and pops, what I later determined to be something resembling opera.
When I got to high school, I started on the family trumpet and played 3rd cornet for three years. I did play solos for contest for two years but made the mistake of asking my girl friend of the time to play the piano on the second one. We did not make a compatible match. I put away the horn after graduation, only taking it out to display it (I was asked not to play) during a military review when the band wanted some more bodies to fill their ranks during a long hot ROTC parade. I decided my country could wait since the band got to sit down during the speeches.
That was my last public appearance until I took up my son's Bach trumpet which as a third generation on the instrument played in the Blue Tones, Harvey Brooks jazz band. They were not a good high school group, they were a good group period.
So after a 50 year hiatus, I have returned. I can play almost anything, just not the first time which does make for a problem sometimes. But I enjoy the attempt and the camaraderie and look forward to our Thursday night encounters.
George
Ephraim Hackett - Cornet
When I was a kid, like George, we lived on a small farm and money was just not available. I wanted to play piano so my dad traded a cow for a player piano from a bar! I had a few lessons from a friend of my grandmother and, bless her heart, I (about 9 years old) just couldn't relate to the old lady and to daily practice.
When I got to 5th grade we had the opportunity to join beginning band and my older cousin had an old cornet which I could borrow (I really wanted to play saxophone!). The cornet had been her grandfathers and he had played in the town band sometime around the beginning of the 20th century. After a year in beginning band we all became members of “the Victor School Band”. I think our membership was around 12 or 15 members. We changed band instructors just about every year.
When I was in high school I had the good fortune to have a band director who encouraged me and that led to my life as a band director--a decision I have never regretted. Now how about the rest of you?
Ephraim
William L. “Bill” Howard - Trumpet and Clarinet
I chose trumpet. Well, I didn't. You see, Dad was in the habit of sending a big part of every paycheck to his crippled retired divorced school teacher mom in Houston, TX. This annoyed my mom no end.
So when I wanted to do anything that cost money she had to really pull strings to make it happen. Or, I had to get out and make the money myself.
It was sixth grade in Garden Grove, CA. where I attended Woodbury Elementary School. There was no music program but we could be bussed to the Junior High School. By the time the string pulling process was complete, or maybe it wasn't complete, the only instrument left in the store was a trumpet. I think I wanted a clarinet. Of course, lessons were out of the question.
Seventh through Ninth Grades I played trumpet at Kodiak Elementary and Kodiak High School in Kodiak, Alaska.
Soloing in one competition in Anchorage, I received a “B". That was good considering that no one clued me into what was happening. Suddenly I was on stage in a large auditorium with a piano accompanist and told to play.
I also led a drum and bugle corps in Kodiak.
The rest of high school was spent at Churchill County High School in Fallon, Nevada. There I also headed up a drum and bugle corps and a German Band and a dance band. I soloed in many concerts and in church. I earned enough money to attend music camp at Lake Tahoe with UCLA band director, Clarence Sawhill. Big Tiny Little and Jasper Hairston were also there.
During High School my trumpet had to go in to Reno for repairs. I found an old clarinet in the attic of the band room and the first sound to come out of it to my delight was “Old Man River” with very good tone. In my little dance band I would switch off to clarinet when my lip would get tired. In my German Band I just played trumpet.
I played in the Nevada State Honor Band two years. We were recorded and televised. I still have the records.
People liked my sound on the clarinet. Still my Solo instrument was the trumpet. The pinnacle of my HS career was playing Carnival of Venice in concert ending on high C.
Almost forty years later I took up playing instruments again. The last several years I have played trumpet in one concert band and clarinet in another one. I have helped a beginners band at their concerts and during the summer and I mentor in music in the schools. On Friday's I lead a jam session.
Yours truly,
William L. “Bill” Howard
Rita Mallon - Clarinet and Bass Clarinet
When I was in second or third grade, my sister started playing the clarinet. When she switched to flute the following year, it was naturally assumed that I would play clarinet.
I did not want a hand me down choice. But I got it. Meanwhile, we watched a movie about all the instruments and I decided I would play oboe. It was harder to play, more special, and I believed, more delicate and graceful than the clarinet.
And the answer to that was “Great! Clarinet is the beginning instrument for oboe” Who knew. So I went to band class. The teacher was gruff. He briefly showed us how to hold and play. There were two or three of us. I tried to do it. He immediately wrenched the clarinet from my hands and growled something to the effect of “what, are you just plain stupid?” I never went back.
We moved around a lot. From town to town and family to family. By 5th grade, my next door neighbor was a high school band director. (A marching band!) We went to all the football games and sat with the band. I loved that man, and his fierce cocker spaniel, Grumpy. He loved me too and encouraged me to choose and play an instrument.
He came to visit us when we had moved yet again to another town. I still had not gone back to band. Ah, but I must have music, he insisted. What instrument did I like best? He would get me one. I told him it was like the clarinet but different. Ok, he said, will do. A few days later, my instrument arrived. A coronet!
Well, we moved again, and I could not take the coronet, but my new family thought that was tragic and got me a trumpet, sigh, and that is what I played in band, switching to french horn in 8th grade.
As a young adult, I came across a clarinet in a pawn shop. I carried it around for about 30 years, once in a while tootling around with it.
We moved to Corvallis and my husband joined the band. He was having a lot of fun and kept reminding me that music makes the heart young. Ok, I decided. I would learn bass clarinet, taking the oboe thing to the other end of the spectrum. A nice, wooden instrument, not so brassy. I went down to the music store to discuss this with Stuart. He said “Great! Clarinet is the starter instrument for that.” I had a clarinet in the closet, so.............
By the way, in Europe, bass clarinet is more common and folks actually start out on it. I think there are more parts available for it also. The truth is, I first asked Stuart about alto clarinet but there are very few parts for it. I do now have a bass clarinet waiting in the wings for my dream plan. I love being in the band.
Rita
Trombones Rule!
When I started seventh grade we were encouraged to play in the junior high school band (in those days junior high was 7th, 8th, and 9th grades). Despite the fact that my cousin and two of my best friends decided on the trombone, I opted for the clarinet.
BIG mistake. It took less than a week for me (and the band director) to realize that the clarinet and I were not mutually compatible, or even agreeable. The sounds that emanated from the clarinet during that week resembled a cougar's screech at best, and the band director politely suggested that I consider another instrument. So, I went with my buddies and started in on the trombone.
I found it was much more to my liking and far easier to play. I played for three years, then I found that football and girls (not necessarily in that order) held more attraction for me and I stopped playing in 1954.
After 23 years in the Air Force and 17 years at HP, I retired for good in January, 1999. I have a lot of hobbies and I wasn't particularly bored at all, but decided I wanted to learn to play the banjo.
Alas, that turned out to be almost as bad as the clarinet.
I had a CD of the Boston Pops playing Sousa marches and it brought back memories of the trombone. I thought it would be cool to play it again, but I had no idea where I could do so.
On March 4, 2003, my wife had me running some errands, one of which was to Gracewinds. I mentioned to the clerk that I used to play the trombone years ago and I'd like to start again.
She said “Have we got a deal for you!” I started with NHB the following week, having spent a week practicing. It was amazing to me how much I remembered, but it took quite a while before I could play higher notes. I began lessons with Warren Baker and, more recently, with Henry Henniger, both of whom are highly regarded professionals.
I began playing with the Corvallis Community Band in June, 2003, and I enjoy that very much. I think we all can be very proud of how much we have improved over the last three years. Most of what we're playing now would have been virtually impossible for us then.
Don
How I took up baritone horn
I took piano lessons from age 6 to 12; both my mother and grandmother had been church pianists. In high school, to get into the band,
I took up trombone, mainly because even back in middle-school days I had thought about a low brass instrument, like tuba (but that's too large). I played trombone in college at Whittier and also one year at Stanford, but had to quit because of becoming a serious “academic.”
From 1955 to 1990 I had a career as university professor and researcher. When I then retired, I got back into music through the OSU Theater, performing 8 summers in Gilbert & Sullivan operettas.
Then in 1998 I decided to try the Corvallis Community Band and took up baritone as a change to a horn with valves, not a slide. I like the tone and range of the horn, and the larger bore gives it a richer sound than the trombone--but try telling that to a trombonist!
I still want to improve, and New Horizons Band is helping me do that. That's my story.
Ken
I have always wanted to play in a band but my folks sent me to piano lessons when I was growing up and it would have been hard to play that in the Newport Marching Band.
After school I got busy working, raising kids, and just life in general and didn't have time to play any instrument until I finally retired several years ago. Then I saw the advertisement from Gracewinds for the New Horizons Band and decided it was time to learn a band instrument if I was ever going to.
I thought the clarinet had a “cool” sound (and it does when it isn't squeaking). Anyway, I am having so much fun playing in our band, and much thanks to Ephraim for teaching us. I have learned a lot.
Virginia Cooper
You might think that one chooses flute because it is the lightest in weight.
In my case, it was because my dentist said no to my idea of playing the clarinet. (My son had left his clarinet behind when he went away to college.) Thinking I would take up the clarinet with that free instrument, I took one lesson from Steve Matthes and then reported to my dentist. (My front teeth are an artificial bridge, due to a diving accident in my younger days.) Dentist said no. . .you will ruin your bridge if you play clarinet.
Steve M. said, well, I know a good flute teacher. . .how about taking up the flute?
So I did, and now I am glad, for the less weight I have to carry up those stairs the better.
Edie Madden
I am not sure why flute always looked so attractive to me, but it did.
When we start band class, we are allowed to pick our two favorite instruments and try the mouthpiece to see which we are better at playing. The teacher rates us on a scale of 1 to 10 on each instrument, and that should be the influencing factor for our choices. Ha, note the “should”.... So I knew I wanted flute, and got in line for that immediately. My second instrument was clarinet. I got something like an 8 in flute, and a 9 in clarinet.
I wasn't swayed. I took flute in school band for 5 years, and have wanted to pick it up again, but never really had an opportunity to play in a band since. When I saw the sign for NHB in gracewinds window, I jumped at the opportunity, though for the first lesson, I didn't have my instrument (it being in Portland at the time).
My main instrument is the organ, and have been playing that since I was 8. I have always wanted to play the guitar, saxophone, and have within the last few months gotten it in my head that I want to play harp. Maybe someday when I am rich (ha ha, I just made a joke), I can gather together all the instruments I am interested in, and learn them between work and life. Diana
Yaney LA MacIver - Tenor Saxophone
I have always loved the sound, even as a youngster. My ears always picked up when I heard it, sort of like my eyes glomming onto The Pleiades, I mean they are so faint, why would I since very young notice them first.
My folks got a piano at one point, and of course I took piano. My piano teacher Mrs. Lang, always had an engraved plaque on top of her piano, saying “Expect a miracle". She also liked to drink buttermilk straight.
I tried it, but prefer it better in cornbread, etc.
I recently found some of my piano music, that I thought was long gone. One of the faves was a Boogie Woogie book, Winchester Cathedral sheet music, and my very long lost Yellow Submarine songbook, where my mom and Mrs. Lang decided they had to magic marker out the words to Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds. But they did such a bad job that you can still read the lyrics. Now the lore says that it was a picture that young Julian Lennon drew for his dad, like one you'd find on your refrigerator, not that it referred to any illicit, mind altering substance, which I would and still won't try. I've got strange enough dreams!
Along with my finds was a Donovan song book of his A Gift from a Flower to a Garden (dual LP, box set), and my Jesus Christ Superstar songbook (all for piano).
Of course since, Donovan was my Beatles, I tried to learn guitar, but had a horrible teacher (play what you want--well heck I didn't even know how to play, so how could I play what I want). Thank you Stuart for being a dang good sax teacher!!!!
And then along came John Coltrane, what more can I say. Trane lives, he was divinely inspired to play, and man did he take the sax to a whole new level, that I just love. But it took me until 1999 to realize that, this after a rather interesting dream about Mick Jagger, which got me reinterested in music (and got me out of the politics for breakfast mind set). So I started listening more to the music shows on KBOO, especially the jazz shows because I've always loved jazz. I have the clipping from the paper of Louis Armstrong on the day he died, and wasn't I under 15 then. I know Trane died when I was 12 so I never got a chance to see him.
One show in particular on KBOO that I started listening to was The Outside World hosted by my now friend Daniel Flessas. He does many tribute shows, such as the annual John Lennon B' day Special, Mother's Night (Frank Zappa and co.), but the best by far is the annual John Coltrane b' day special at the end of September. So after being reintroduced to Trane. I just had to learn the sax. And my daughter had taken sax when she was in middle school, so finally her dad (my ex) sent out the alto sax that was hers and it took another couple of years for Stuart to have room in his schedule and I started playing just a few months before my granddaughter was born, which was on August 6th, 2003. In fact I went to my lesson early that morning, then on to the Jazmyn birthing party (then on to my folks 50th anniversary celebration--what a long day!!!).
But I think I was born to play the sax, cause I remember tonguing when I was very young, just making that motion. It was very calming to me at around three and a bit older.
Anyway, I found a tenor at the ARC Resale Store for $300 and a few repairs and now I have two, and I really like them both for the different pieces the play, I think the Alto is better for Yesterday for example. Of course some of the songs in book 1 and book 2 that I used to play on Alto, I have to relearn for Tenor.
And they have names: Alto is Mick Angela; Tenor is Keith Anne, not sure of last names yet.
As to my guitar, I gave it away to my ex's, ex wife's brother while he was following The Dead. I wish I still had it, cause now I think I could tinker with it better. But then I'd have to have all short fingernails and they're finally growing.
Yaney LA MacIver
Stuart Curtis - Doubler
I began with piano when I was quite young.
When I started fifth grade, my parents took me to school band orientation. When I arrived at the front of the line and stood in front of the band director, he glanced at me, grasped my jaw, peered briefly into my open mouth and pronounced: “clarinet”!
To this day I do not know what he saw in the oracle of my young, open mouth, but I was content with his choice. My best friend was also a clarinet player and his older brother was in band in high school. I remember him showing me his brother's alto saxophone case. It had extra nests inside for clarinet and flute. I was astonished and fascinated that anyone would even attempt to play more than one of these instruments. And somehow I was fascinated with the idea of traveling around with a whole flock of instruments in one case, ready to perform at a moment's notice.
By 1970 I had reached tenth grade and had hair down to the middle of my back. My high school band director was a no-nonsense kind of guy. He called me into his office and said: “We have a hair problem!” Despite the fact that he was bald, this was understood to mean that I had to either cut my hair or give up on band. Being a teenager, I naturally chose to quit band. I continued studying piano. I also bought a used portable organ, built an amplifier from a kit, and played in rock and blues bands.
After high school I worked as an accompanist in the Modern Dance Department at the University of Utah. I began playing the clarinet again to give myself an alternate voice in my accompaniment duties. I heard Paul Desmond and was captivated by his sound. I managed to buy a used saxophone and began studying that. I began working with a theater company and also bought a used flute to have a variety of voices at hand. I began traveling, touring with theater productions and various jazz ensembles.
By the mid 80's I was based in Hamburg with a contract to play the musical CATS eight shows a week that lasted 11 years. This gave me an ideal base from which to freelance. I was able to play in orchestras, radio big bands, musical productions, chamber ensembles, recording studios, and dance bands. I was also able to follow my interest in collecting and studying new instruments.
I ultimately ended up performing professionally on eleven different instruments. My all-time favorite doubling experience was playing West Side Story with the Lubeck Opera. In that production I played a part consisting of piccolo, flute, clarinet, bass clarinet, soprano saxophone and bass saxophone. One of the things I like about doubling is that you get to play with great players. Because I was in demand as someone who could play several instruments, I often got to play next to players who had spent their career concentrating on one instrument.
I have performed next to some astoundingly good flute and clarinet players that I never would have had a chance to play with given my abilities on either flute or clarinet alone. That has been a great learning experience and an inspiration. One other thing I like about doubling is that you begin to see the principles that carry over from one instrument to another. This really helps with teaching. Doublers also have an experience that few other players have. With each additional instrument, there is a “premiere”, a first performance in a professional setting. Most players only go through this stressful but exhilarating event only once!
Stuart Curtis
I never got to choose the sax I play today.
There was no band in elementary school, but our high school had an award winning band that my sister was in. In those days, being in the band was "Everything"! I was 14 when it was assumed I would be in the band.
What instrument? My grown cousin was in the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, so my father, whose fine concertina music I'd grown up to, called Paul to ask what instrument HE thought I should play. It was a long discussion weighing in the difficulties of sax vs. French horn. My brother had played a saxophone for a very short while, but chose football over band. So, there was an E flat alto saxophone in the house going to waste. That was the cincher, and how I came to play the saxophone.
I've been in many great bands for many years except for a 15 yr. lay-off to raise my family. We tried starting a band in Salem for 2 yrs. but nothing came of it. Then one day, while my father was playing concertina at a dance in Salem, 2 members of the new Albany Civic Band were there. We got to talking, they ended up visiting our fledgling band and invited us to Albany. I've been there over 31 yrs., also was in the off-shoot of it, Albany Swing Band for about 30 yrs.
Kathy Fox
Kollene Dunn - French Horn
My parents, poor but musical, bought their first born, at age 7, an accordion.
I still don't know whose idea that was. Mother played the piano and saxophone. Daddy played violin with a beautiful vibrato.
He had broken his wrist years before and said he could not produce a decent vibrato so he constructed a stand-in of a marble sized ball-bearing welded to a thin pedestal of spring-metal and mounted it all on the violin bridge. He played beautifully and I was always fascinated watching the ball-bearing nodding gracefully above the strings, producing his vibrato.
I took lessons on the accordion from the same teacher for the next 10 years. He introduced me to classical music and classical accordion as played by people such as Charlie Maganate. I remember going to several of his concerts and was so impressed. I practiced hard but never obtained what I considered even fluency much less mastery. And I was terrified to perform publicly (still am). I never really cared for the accordion, so spent the last 3 years studying music theory with my teacher.
However, High School Band to the rescue! Because I could read music and had some experience, as a sixth grader I was allowed to play with the high school band which was brand new and in need of players. We were a small mountain school in the Rockies and the band never counted over 15 players. Of course Mom's saxophone was the instrument of choice and I played Alto for one year.
The next year we had a new band teacher who was a horn player. Since we had several sax's and no horn, he convinced me to switch. I simply fell in love with the sound of the horn. The school French Horn was in E flat (as opposed to the more common F or B flat) and I remember having to transpose some of the sheet music we had. My theory lessons came in real handy. We played mostly marches and the usual high school music fare for that time.
During marching season (brr!) I played tenor drum as the horn went badly out of tune and who could hear me anyway! The drumming kept me warmer and we needed all the help we could get marching in sync. I played French Horn (referred to as Horn these days I find) in the all schools honor band my high school years, and in a brass ensemble during the holidays when we played at one of the department stores in the big town of Denver. We also performed in parades on the back of one of my Dad's flat bed trucks.
That was huge fun. In the years after, I occasionally dragged the accordion out, but my heart was always with the horn. I became a musician's groupie in Santa Cruz California in the 70's and 80's. Wonderful music and times. Many of my friends (and a couple of ex's) are professional musicians from those days. At the time I said I was the "audience" all musicians needed and had no desire myself to perform. But deep down I always longed to play horn again someday.
Then two years ago, I walked into Gracewinds and saw The Sign. Sharon was behind the counter and was exuberant in her enthusiasm for the New Horizons Band. She said I could rent a horn, take some lessons downstairs, and join up. It sounded simple, so I did. But with so many (don't count 'em) intervening years, not only did I not remember how to play a horn, I could barely get a sound out of it.
Excruciating weeks and months later, I finally made it upstairs. There I sat in the middle of the band and heard once again "the sound" of music being created surrounding me. It was awesome, I'll never forget it. And it still gives me a rush.
Thanks to you all for making this possible, Ken and Sharon, Ephraim, Stuart, and the rest of our band who share in this wonderful experience.
Kollene Dunn
Horn Player
It was a cold crisp autumn day, possibly 1951, a 4 year young lad sat on the curb near his house several days a week to watch the shiny glint of sun reflecting from the brass instruments and listen to the sounds of the likely very small Burns,OR High School marching band as it passed by his house.
This fall ritual likely started in 1950 and lasted to the fall of 1952.
He new he would someday play the Sousaphone because was the largest and most impressive in appearance of all the instruments. From 1953 through 1957 both at Grants Pass High School football games and city parades he was more and more impressed with bands and marching.
It gradually came to him that especially in a marching band a Sousaphone/tuba would be too heavy and fatiguing with which to struggle. At Highland Elementary in September 1957 at a pre-band meeting it was down to the clarinet and trombone. The clarinet wasn't shiny enough, but the trombone was and it wasn't huge like a tuba or Sousaphone.
A chance for euphonium, french horn and tuba came in junior high and though he was 6 feet tall and a healthy 180 lbs. in 6th grade Don stayed with the trombone until this day.
Fine
Don Van Walk
In fourth grade I chose to play flute. I liked the sound, the
director, and I had friends playing it also. It was a good
choice. I was in a very active school music program (band,
orchestra and choir--much different than what is available here
in Oregon today for our kids!) and played in all the contests,
summer camps and events until the end of high school.
I've set it aside several times, but its reappeared throughout
my life. In the Army, marching through basic training we
created a kind of fife and drum corps. Playing for my children
was always a treat. There have been many hidden canyons and
hideaways that have heard my calls... I continue to enjoy
playing the flute, even though I've learned other instruments,
it feels like my musical home base. It's especially fun playing
with Sharon, who is playing an instrument for the first time, in
our New Horizons group. We are sounding so good together, the
players are happy and enthusiastic--it is a real pleasure I am
most thankful for.....
Ken
Sharon Walker - Flute
My mother offered classical guitar lessons for me when I was fourteen. I had a
few years of lessons with a wonderful instructor and continue today to enjoy
playing for myself. :)
When I was in school in Portland I decided I needed to take up the flute just because I loved the music it produced. It took me nearly the entire first lesson to get a sound out of it. My instructor was an elderly gent. who gave lessons above a music store and enticed me by promising I'd soon be able to join his city orchestra. From the day I went to listen to them perform I couldn't wait to be ready to join.
After not quite a year of lessons, I transferred to school in Monmouth with the intention of commuting to flute lessons once a week. That lasted one week. I attempted to join the college band, but without any band experience I walked out in utter humiliation the first day I attended class. The closest experience to band I'd had prior was playing duets with my instructor.
My daughter had taken up clarinet with Ephraim as a sixth grader. I decided since I always wanted to be in a band, She would take band! I dreamed of the day I'd see her march in a parade! After one year, she decided band wasn't for her and she focused on piano.
A few years ago when I saw the ad in the paper about the New Horizons Band
mentioning Ephraim Hackett I knew I had to be a part. Since I failed at
living vicariously through my daughter, I was delighted to know it wasn't
too late for my little dream to come true.
Sharon
P. S. I still hope someday to learn to play the fiddle!
My musical career started in my mid teens and I chose the guitar. I took lessons from Mr. Ab Hine who was noted as the banjo king of Canada and after 5 years of lessons I managed to join a 5 piece dance combo and began making money. We got $50 a night for Legion Dances and $100 for New Years Eve.
However, after many moves and 7 years in California University schools my guitar got stuck in the closet. My wife realized that old age was beginning to affect our brains so she came home with a rental clarinet which we both took turns playing. I liked the sound very much and bought a student model for both of us.
Unfortunately my wife lost interest when we began learning the higher register which requires more wind and breath control but I have stuck with it and got over that hurdle. Now I feel okay playing just about anything but I still like playing the guitar and even more so in the summer when our band converts to jazz and I love doing the background rhythm. Amazingly my fingers just seem to know where to go to hit the chords but I have not sensed that with my clarinet playing and hope that does happen before I kick the bucket.
Harry
It has apparently been rumored that there is a flute player lurking downstairs, who for some reason is reluctant to venture upstairs to the Esteemed and Venerable NHB.
Well, here I am to confirm the truth of the rumor and explain the reluctance.
Despite Stuart’s amazing skill and patience, and the encouragement and welcoming gestures from several of you, I am still literally learning the basic elements of music ( notes, vocabulary, embouchure, ‘rules’).
Here is my story: My daughter chose to play flute in sixth grade and played through her junior year of high school. We had purchased a good flute for her, as she had progressed well beyond the ‘student model’ we were renting. I loved listening to her practice, and give recitals. When she quit playing and we were in despair, we brought the flute back to Ken O. to see if he would buy it back. He said, "Oh, I think you’ll want to hold onto this. She will probably want to play again ... perhaps when she has a baby". His advice seemed wise and reasonable, so the flute rested in our closet for 12 years.
When I retired in 2001, I put ‘learn to play flute’ on my list of potential projects, but 4 years went by and it was still a ‘potential’. Then one fine September day, I brought it in to Gracewinds to have it checked and get information about teachers. I was full of apprehension, and totally without confidence that this scheme would work at all: I had never read a note of music, nor played any musical instrument beyond the radio. I didn’t even know how to put the flute together. This would be quite a new trick for an ‘old dog’!
I consider myself exceedingly fortunate in the timing of this endeavor, since I was directed into the Downstairs Band, and I believe my time there has been more instructional and supportive than any lessons could have been. [I am still not a grandmother, and my daughter laughs out loud at the thought of her mother going to band practice!] My plan is to arrange my schedule to be able to stay later more often, even though I truly cannot play anywhere near the complexity of even your simplest pieces, nor at your tempo, which sounds so fun from downstairs (Stuart can attest to the veracity of my words here!).
I do want to thank Kim for her welcoming efforts, and the others who have also encouraged me. I have made progress in the past 17 months, and shall continue on toward the Grand Goal of UPSTAIRS ...Every once in a while, we should do something that we have never done, don’t think we can do, and are afraid to do.
Kathryn Switzer, beginning flute
I've worked for the LBCC math department since 1984--answering questions at the math assistance desk and teaching developmental math until 2003. I retired from the desk then, but have continued teaching classes, both in Albany and at the Benton Center (behind Borders bookstore). My husband, cat, dog, and I live west of Cheshire. Besides traveling, I like to quilt and knit.
I play flute because in the 1920s my great aunt thought flute playing would be good lung exercise and she bought a wooden flute. My mother wanted to play in the high school band in the 1930s and there was no money--but Aunt Hannah wasn't playing her flute....When I was in the 6th grade I wanted to play in the band and there was no money...Mother let me play Aunt Hannah's flute. (My brother, a trumpet player, has that flute.) Other than playing in the band, I've had no training or lessons. I went to a small rural school in Kansas and there was only one band for grades 6 or 7-12 and probably about 225 students grades1-12--that was after a big consolidation. I also played in the band at the small college I went to in Chicago.
I didn't know of any way to continue flute playing in a band until now, so my flute has sat mostly unused for years. In the last couple of years I've started playing on occasion with our church choir and some other things at church.
I've enjoyed getting started with this band.
Nancy