So Who Was In Band, Back In School?

[TSJMajesty]

What did you play? Any good stories?

Talking about callouses...., I played the clarinet. Got really good at it...., was 1st chair, 1st clarinet in the MD Junior High All State Band in 9th grade. But it wasn't my first choice, and I grew to really dislike it. About the time I started playing guitar I asked my father if I could quit. He goes, "Yeah. Just as soon as you pay me back for all those private lessons." WTAF!!

So I kept on, until my parents separated, then asked my mother the same question (dad was out of the house at this point.) She was relieved, since she was having trouble making ends meet as it was.

You play the clarinet by supporting it with the side of your thumb, which had a hard callous. It took like, 2 years for that thing to completely go away!! (More like a corn by that time than a callous.)

 

[metropolis_4]

I was a percussionist and played in wind ensemble, orchestra, marching band, winter percussion ensemble, and the theater pit orchestra. I also played drum set in jazz band. I was first chair in each and was invited to be the drummer in the top jazz band at the school.

Some of the best musical times of my life!

And then college came along and ruined it all

 

[likitlikeyoulikeit]

I was in jazz band my senior year of high school, they asked me....I couldn't read music, all they wanted ..no lie, was for me to play single note lines while I went wacka wacka with my wah wah. So ridiculous, but ...the bus rides were a trip.


I often think of dizzy looking down shaking his head ..."what the hell that damn boy playing?"

If only I had known of charlie Christian then ...I could have worked in some sassy octave lines.

 

[DrewJD82]

Yep, my freshman year in Staten Island had a guitar class, I just cut classes and hung out there for the 9 months I lived there.

When I moved back to Maine for sophomore year I started marching band, concert band, jazz band and jazz band ensemble. 4 classes that were actually only 2, because marching/jazz band ensemble were extracurricular and competitive, so we just practiced all that shit during concert/jazz band as actual class time.

I had a blast with that stuff, though marching band was fucking brutal. Not with the music or anything, but standing in the August sun from 8AM-9PM every day during band camp with a bass drum or quads strapped around my neck/shoulders. My senior year everyone thought I was joking when I said I was going to play cymbals, I wasn’t joking!

I played guitar in the jazz band stuff. It was rocky the first and a half, I was a pain in the ass. Mr. Libby kicked me out of the band room at least 3 times for making guitar noises while he was talking. I remember it was just volume swells one day, another time I learned the EVH elephant/whammy thing and kept doing that. I used a fucking Metal Zone for all my solos that were largely out of key during class, then brought my Legacy halfstack for performances and cranked it WAY too fucking loud.

Man, I must have been a nightmare. My senior year things changed, that was the year I made the switch from shitty beginner to capable. I also recall my two bros (that I was at the Metallica show with) telling me I needed to knock off the stupid Vai wannabe shit during my solos, “Just fuckin’ pretend you’re David Gilmour, seriously, no one at these competitions think you’re cool shredding out of key on your JEM”

 

[KHAAAAAAANNNNNNN!!!!!!!!]

What did you play? Any good stories?

Talking about callouses...., I played the clarinet. Got really good at it...., was 1st chair, 1st clarinet in the MD Junior High All State Band in 9th grade. But it wasn't my first choice, and I grew to really dislike it. About the time I started playing guitar I asked my father if I could quit. He goes, "Yeah. Just as soon as you pay me back for all those private lessons." WTAF!!

So I kept on, until my parents separated, then asked my mother the same question (dad was out of the house at this point.) She was relieved, since she was having trouble making ends meet as it was.

You play the clarinet by supporting it with the side of your thumb, which had a hard callous. It took like, 2 years for that thing to completely go away!! (More like a corn by that time than a callous.)

I played clarinet from 6th through 10th grade. To this day my right thumb bends back farther than my left. I was also first chair, but really only became interested in playing guitar by 8th grade. I fucking hated marching band. We started daily practices in the August heat. As an avid golfer at the time, missing out on a month of golf during summer vacation sucked, and after 10th grade I bailed. But 5 years of private lessons are actually the biggest influence on me becoming a musician.

 

[FuzzyAce]

I didn't start playing guitar til my senior year. Never was in the school band either. My stepmom had a piano at the house so I'd "play" that when I could.

 

[TSJMajesty]

for making guitar noises while he was talking.

Oh yeah, guitarists never seem to want to STFU.

While I was still playing clarinet, I got into the band for our Jesus Christ Superstar play. Played some guitar too, on certain songs.
The guy who later became good friends with me and a band mate, who was a senior at the time, was on lead guitar. Dude, he was freaking GOD to me! Had his 76 LP Goldtop, and could play Led Zep solos! He was so cool!

But he just would NOT stop noodling during times when the director was, uh, directing. This is at a Catholic school mind you, and he finally flipped TF OUT! Comes screaming over, "JESUS F****** CHRIST BILL _______, WILL YOU STFU!!!

You could hear a pin drop. I really didn't think anyone could/would ever even say something like that at our school, especially a teacher. But I was wrong.

 

[TSJMajesty]

Our school was small (my class graduated 94 people), but our new band director started up a marching band and a jazz band. So I became the drum major in our 2nd year, as a senior. Our band camp was out in the mountains somewhere in western MD, so I don't remember the August heat being an issue.

What I do remember is dealing with the "kids" (seniors on down to 6th grade, iirc) was such a PITA! I understood what it was like for band directors trying to talk while someone in the band wouldn't shut up. I lost my shit one time. Not quite as bad as our play director, but still.

But that band camp was a lot of fun. I really enjoyed it. Our marching band sucked though, mainly because we just didn't have a big enough pool to draw from. I even took baton lessons from the drum major at Severna Park HS. (Yeah, I was into it!) THAT band was awesome (big school.) They won like, some national competition or something. Really tight with their half time shows.

 

[TVvoodoo]

Played cornet from grade 5-8 moved to trumpet. Was first chair for senior years, we did marching too. Hogan's Heroes theme, Dallas theme... hmm we did a LOT of show themes!
Went on to Uni on a mini music scholarship. Flunked out so hard, because me and my new friends wanted to party hard and rock instead

 

[PLX]

My high school offered a guitar course when I was in 10th grade. I had already been playing for about 5 years, so I took the class.

I used to sit in the bleachers (they taught choir in the same room) and play all the Zeppelin and Aerosmith riffs I knew.

Teacher hated me. I got a "C".

 

[norminal]

Garage band. Played at a few parties, but always we ended up getting so drunk that we wouldn’t even finish a set.

 

[Byrdman]

Played Alto Sax as a Freshman, all the girls were in band in Jr High so I started there. When I got to HS, the band was going on their every 4 year trip to Toronto so I stayed in band Freshman year then quit to play football.

Picked up guitar about 16 and played for a few years. Our HS had a band from the Chorus department made up of all the really good musicians and they needed a guitar player my Senior year, so I joined it and played. The funny thing is the Chorus band was called Natural High and I usually stayed stoned to the Be-Jesus most of the time, lol...

 

[Rock Chalk]

Started playing trumpet about 5th grade up through junior high, always 1st chair. Then I got a car and a girlfriend......

 

[Byrdman]

...Then I got a girlfriend......View attachment 27009

That's surprising for a 1st Chair Trumpet... LOL, J/K

 

[Sleezy E]

Tromboner through senior year.. Lotta poon at band camp

#AlysonHanniganWasRight

 

[la szum]

I never thought being in Band in High School would be a flex when I hit middle-aged man status.

 

[Byrdman]

I never thought being in Band in High School would be a flex when I hit middle-aged man status.

It wasnt then, and its not now either

 

[likitlikeyoulikeit]

Whatever....band camp was so freaky, I've changed the name of my bedroom....to Bandcamp.

I have flutes....bassons......trombones.......the whole she bang.

 

[Alex Kenivel]

I transferred high schools in the middle of my Junior year to a school that didn't offer some of the same electives I had previously so as an alternative I was allowed to join a beginning band class.

I had never taken band before but was already proficient at guitar.. So they put me on drums and at the end of the year I was invited the next year to play the kit in Jazz Band, which I did.

 

[sleewell]

I should have been in band. Woulda been fun.

Me and the other stoners built the sets for theater. It was fun. We had this cool hidden hang out spot in the back you had to take a ladder up to with sofas and music and old creepy props. We actually had a good show. Went to state and won my senior year.