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Zaraskabat · 02-10-2007, 02:55 PM

Back in 1963 I was in the fifth grade. In those days they selected kids to begin band. They took the top third or so of the class, and had us do little auditions, they had us sing to see if we could carry a tune, they played a Sousa march and had us march around to see if we were coordinated enough to march to the beat and they turned us loose with tamborines and bells to see if we had any rythm. The ten or so that were left were analyzed physically, the tall ones were assigned trombones, etc. Well, because of my lips I was assigned cornet, whatever that is......... Well, they never told us what it was all about but invited our parents to a meeting and dropped the bomb on them then. Mom was dead set against it because we had to pay for something, dad took me the next day to the music store and bought me the best cornet he had there, a Getzen Super Deluxe three tone thing that was beautiful to me at the time. You see, mom and dad got into such a blowout after that meeting, he went out and shot some craps and he must have won because he blew it all on that horn. Well, another blowout when we got home with it and mom saying things like he won't stick with it, he won't practice, etc, well, just to show her, I practiced relentlessly and she never complained again. So thanks to mom I got pretty good at it. We won't get into high school and my trumpet envy with all those Connstellations playing first trumpet parts.........sigh........... not to mention Herb and the boys getting very popular as did Blood, Sweat and Tears.

Ken
"What is that God-awful smell behind the green velvet?"

02-10-2007, 02:55 PM	#33 (permalink)
Zaraskabat Pianissimo User Join Date: Jan 2007 Posts: 79	Re: So how did you get into playing trumpet? Back in 1963 I was in the fifth grade. In those days they selected kids to begin band. They took the top third or so of the class, and had us do little auditions, they had us sing to see if we could carry a tune, they played a Sousa march and had us march around to see if we were coordinated enough to march to the beat and they turned us loose with tamborines and bells to see if we had any rythm. The ten or so that were left were analyzed physically, the tall ones were assigned trombones, etc. Well, because of my lips I was assigned cornet, whatever that is......... Well, they never told us what it was all about but invited our parents to a meeting and dropped the bomb on them then. Mom was dead set against it because we had to pay for something, dad took me the next day to the music store and bought me the best cornet he had there, a Getzen Super Deluxe three tone thing that was beautiful to me at the time. You see, mom and dad got into such a blowout after that meeting, he went out and shot some craps and he must have won because he blew it all on that horn. Well, another blowout when we got home with it and mom saying things like he won't stick with it, he won't practice, etc, well, just to show her, I practiced relentlessly and she never complained again. So thanks to mom I got pretty good at it. We won't get into high school and my trumpet envy with all those Connstellations playing first trumpet parts.........sigh........... not to mention Herb and the boys getting very popular as did Blood, Sweat and Tears. Ken "What is that God-awful smell behind the green velvet?"