New Clarinet (jd)

As I have started to take private lessons on clarinet my lesson teacher said I was ready to upgrade to a wooden clarinet from my plastic one. For those who don't know the difference, a wooden clarinet has a much richer and fuller sound. But, it takes a little longer to warm up and can crack if it is left out in the cold. And it is much more expensive. But we (as in my parents) decided to get it. The instrument they bought was a used Yamaha YCl-34 model. It is much nicer and I sound better already. Here's a picture of the instrument.

County Honor Band (jd)

On Thursday/Friday I had a chance to participate in a countywide honor band. All the middle schools in the county submitted a list of students who wanted to participate. Myself and a few other band members from my school were invited. On Friday we went to a nearby high school to audition for chairs. For the Bb Clarinet try out we played our chromatic scale and an excerpt from one of the songs previously given to us. When it was my turn I was a little nervous. My chromatic was good until I took a breath and messed up a note. But I settled down and nailed the excerpt piece. So I thought, I had a pretty solid try-out. And so did the judges, because I was 1st chair. I was so excited. After all the chairs were announced, we met our guest conductor, Mr. Jones. He talked about himself a little and then we had 2 hour rehearsal. The next day we had an all day rehearsal with a short break for a pizza lunch. That evening was our concert. We played the march American Excultent, the Halo (video game) Theme, Shaker Varients, T.W.A. (Trumpets With Attitude), and another march Liberty For All. The performance was decent with a few mistakes but still good. But the experience was great and I had a lot of fun.