Silence, sour notes expected at first-time band try-outs
Blats, giggles, and dead silence came in equal proportions Friday as Marion Elementary School fifth graders tried out band instruments for the first time.
It's the first step in what could be eight years with school bands at the elementary, middle, and high school levels.
Instructor Mike Connell, who has been with the district for 21 years, says those few minutes with each student give him a sense of what instruments they enjoy and what suits them best.
Connell brings in representatives of Senseney music to help him with tryouts.
"I used to do it by myself but it took three weeks," he said.
Band is optional but all fifth graders are asked to go through tryouts.
Some won't join. Others will stay with it for a few years, before jobs, other hobbies, and the opposite sex leave band in the background.
But many will remain, helping Marion High School maintain a tradition of top ratings at state festivals.
It all begins with tryouts.
Sounds of silence
Few MES students have experience with the brass and woodwind instruments, Connell said, so a sour note — or no sound at all — is expected.
"For most of them, this is probably the most complicated thinking-thing they've had to do in their lives," he said.
Jaclyn DeForest is typical. She sits on a folding chair in the multi-purpose room, facing Berle Willis, of Senseney Music.
Willis holds the instrument at first, so Jaclyn can concentrate on blowing correctly.
They try the mouthpiece of a flute. Jaclyn blows, but no whistle results.
She has much better luck with the clarinet. Jaclyn blows smoothly across the mouthpiece while Willis manipulates the keys, running through a series of notes, up and down the scale.
She also plays a trumpet, French horn, and trombone before joining Connell at another desk. He asks students to pat their knees in time with him to show their sense of rhythm.
Jaclyn takes piano lessons, but this was her first chance at the traditional band instruments, she said.
EmmaLee Hett also tried out. Like many of her classmates, the main reason she's considering band is that most of her friends want to join, too.
Lee Vogel liked the trumpet but was willing to play other instruments if that's what the band needed.
"I always thought band was pretty cool," he said.
Connell encourages students to expand their view so a wider range of instruments are available, which consequently gives a wider range of music to the band.
"It gives us a chance to get all the sounds of a real band," Connell said.
Parents are the difference
In his 21 years in Marion, less than a dozen students showed true ability at tryouts.
"I've had very few start out as stars, but I've had an awful lot develop into stars," Connell said. "It's all in how they make that ability work for them, and an awful lot of that is due to the parents."
Connell said band students who have the most fun and are most successful are those whose parents are willing to learn the rudiments of the instrument, too.
"It's the same with math, where parents check the math problems, or spelling, where they work on words with their children," he said. "Those things that are nurturing are advantageous, because the child feels they're not in it by themselves."
That leads to the other important part of the equation: helping parents and children find the right instrument at the right price. An instrument display was held Tuesday at the school.
