The reluctant tubist II
The first semester of my freshman year in High school, I was absolutely DONE with the tuba. I sat last chair the whole year in eighth grade mostly because we never had any challenges for seating. I mean we played all the same part so it really DIDN’T matter what order we sat in, so I quit. Besides, I was on the football team and that just didn’t matter. I was under the impression that you couldn’t do both band and football, so I chose football. After all, I was going to be the greatest football player to ever come out of my high school. I was not.
On Friday nights, when the varsity team was on the field, I basically stood on the sidelines for the entire time. I would listen to the band playing in the stands… and I missed playing the tuba. I decided that somehow I was going to get back into band. I waited until the end of football season, you know just in case I would have to decide between football and band.
My first day back in band, I am introduced to a new type of tuba… well new for me because my only experience with tubas had been piston valved. I just couldn’t wrap my head around the rotary valve. It looked like a French Horn on steroids. I was not amused. But then, I started playing it… and I liked the sound… The valves were super comfortable, and I could rest my hand so much lower. It was great. There was only one problem: my music reading skills were garbage. Don’t get me started on sight reading!
I was happy to be back in band, but I still would have rather played a different instrument. Trumpet was out- my sister destroyed mine. The slide on the trombone just didn’t make sense to me. French Horn? Nah, I’m not left handed and I hate that rumbling sound that they have. (I was still thinking that they would sound like they did in 8th grade). After I discovered what a euphonium was, I decided that it was just a tiny tuba, so I guess I was just stuck playing the tuba.
I asked my band director how I could be in the band and still on the football team. He had a very easy solution: I just wouldn’t be in marching band. BET!! I could do concert band.
Back then, on game days we would wear our jerseys to school… Kind of like a badge of honor. I felt cool and powerful being the only person in the band wearing a football jersey. I did end up getting hurt that season. I tore the muscles in my stomach, the transversus abdominis to be exact. (I was also on the wrestling team and I was a MUCH better wrestler than football player. This will come up later.)
By the time football season of my Junior year rolls around, I am still not 100% healed but I have this “Suck it up and go” mentality that never really served me in any positive fashion. I am thinking that this will finally be my year. I am going to be a football STAR!! Nope. I re-injure my tear except it is worse. The doctor tells me that I have a choice: either sit out of football so my injury can heal (I will still be able to wrestle); or I can continue with football, possibly injure it worse and maybe never wrestle again. I chose to quit the football team. Like I said, I was a MUCH better wrestler.
I over heard my former teammates and even some of the coaches making all kinds of jokes about not being able to play football because your stomach hurts. None of them knew the severity of my injury; but I finally discovered where I stood with them. Not all of my former teammates, and not all of my coaches, but enough.
Since I was no longer on the football team, I figured being in marching band was going to be a BREEZE. I mean I could already play the tuba. It’s just playing and walking around. How hard could that be?
I missed band camp because I was still in summer practice, so I couldn’t be in the first show. I just watched it. Looked easy enough. I mean it’s marching band, how hard can it be? We already walk around everyday so marching is in the bag. I can already play the tuba. Boom! This is going to be simple.
Marching Band was EXHAUSTING. I couldn’t keep up at first. Mark Time? What is that? Marching in step? Wait, why do I have to start with my left? I am right handed; most people are, so it makes more sense to start with the right foot. And why in the name of everything pure and holy, is the sousaphone SO HEAVY?! Whose Idea was this?! I wanted to fight John Phillip Sousa for creating this monstrosity! I wanted to fight all of my band directors for finessing me into playing this dreadful mutation of an instrument! But most of all, I wanted to fight my little sister for breaking my trumpet way back in the summer before 8th grade.
With marching band, not only are you physically fatigued, but you are emotionally drained, mentally worn down. It is an overall exhaustion. At the end of that season, I decided that I was going back to football because I was never this exhausted.
As my Junior year came to a close, the band director was having an audition for next years drum major. The current drum major was about to graduate, so it only made sense to replace her. I figured why not try it? Yeah, I am going to audition for Drum Major. It turns out that this one decision changed the entire trajectory of my life. But that is a story for another time.
