Two months, two surprisingly short months were spent by Sparks High School's orchestra, practicing for our October concert. Our concert, focusing primarily on a Halloween theme, went rather well considering how much fooling around goes on during rehearsals. It's not that we don't get anything done, but there's a lot of talking that goes on. Sometimes it's so loud that my teacher Mr. Ames can't even talk. "Ames has to repeat himself too much." (Observation Notes, 9/22)
I know I sound like I'm complaining, and I kind of am, but we'd get a lot more practice if everyone was respectful during rehearsal time. It's literally the only rule in our class, to be respectful and quiet during rehearsal. I've noticed that Ames gets upset himself when the students aren't paying attention. I can tell because he runs his left hand (it's always his left) through his already thinning, blond hair, sighs a little and shakes his head to himself. I feel bad for him. He's a really nice guy but he should be a bit stricter if he wants the kids to behave. And the kids aren't bad kids at all! I'm not supporting the stereotype that all orchestra kids are nerds but they seem like good kids. I dont really know many of them since they're freshmen but my instincts tell me they're good.
Okay. Enough about the chit chattering children. Let's talk music. Our October Concert, like I said earlier was focused on a Halloween theme. We played various songs to go along with that theme such as The Adam's Family theme song (snaps included), the Jaw's theme song (we should've had a pretend shark), Phantom of The Opera, and a few others. I couldn't help but notice that a lot of the kids were nervous. The girl sitting in front of me was shaking! I wanted to hug her but..... that would've been awkward.
Now that we got our new set, I have to figure out how to stop myself from humming Christmas songs since, our whole set is full of Christmas songs. I don't understand why we'd get Christmas songs so early! Halloween hasn't even passed yet and I'm already humming to Carol of the Bells. I probably sound like a weirdo, but at least I sound like a jolly weirdo. For now, I'll just worry about not going crazy with so much Christmas music. "I might just go crazy soon." (Observation Notes, 10/3)
I think the stereotype of orchestra students being relatively good kids holds true. I wonder why that is. Is it because they are students who are interested in something other than social life? Is it something about learning to play music? Maybe it's about commitment? It might be interesting to research. Ask Mr. Ames what he thinks.
ReplyDeleteWell like how you've been describing your class, they tend to get off topic really fast and super loud at times (just like our Freshmen year). Maybe you should try to convince Ames to be more like he is in zero, that way he can have more control of his class and still have fun.
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