That’s me and Jason Philpot in the seventh grade. We were playing a duet on the Iroquois Middle School Spring concert. I can’t remember the piece we were playing, but I’m pretty sure it had the word bugle in it somewhere. It seems like all the pieces back then were called bugle something or other. This would have been my first time playing any kind of solo or duet with a band. Though I can’t remember, I’m sure I must have been nervous.
I had this opportunity because of my band director Mr. Jarrett. He had asked Jason and I if we would like to play something with the band, and not having any common sense we both said yes. (Clearly I was born to play the trumpet!)
Now this next part has nothing to do with the picture, but I can remember playing an actual solo the next year in the eighth grade. It was Trumpeters Serenade or something like that. Mr. Jarrett had written a cadenza for me to play and I was really excited to play it because it had a high C in it. (Again, note the lack of common sense.) I remember this concert very clearly for two reasons. First, during the cadenza I fell off of the high C several times. To my credit I didn’t give up on it for a really long time. There used to be a tape at home, but I had it destroyed. It was so bad that even my Mother noticed. Sad but true. The second reason that I remember this concert is because of a rehearsal leading up to it. We were in band class and I was playing the Trumpeters Serenade when suddenly no sound would come out of my trumpet. When I say no sound I mean really no sound. I was completely freaked out and asked Mr. Jarrett what was going on. He took my horn and looked at it. Then he took out the mouth piece and uttered words that are burned into my memory forever. “Andy, there’s a peanut in your horn boy!” I had a Payday bar at lunch and apparently some of it had stayed behind.
So here are the two morals of this story. One, don’t eat Payday bars before band class, and two, if you have a picture without a great story, tell a story about something else. It works every time.
Andrew
PS – Look at how my friend Jason is looking at me in the picture. That’s the look that all trumpet players have right before they take your trumpet away, hit you over the head with it, and start playing your solo line. Don’t ask me how I know that, let’s just say I heard about it somewhere.
