In sixth grade, each student is required to be involved in something music related. They can pick band, orchestra, or choir. Brandt opted for band, and came home with a note saying he had been picked to play the trombone. We have a saxophone, and as instruments are expensive, I emailed the band teacher and asked if he could play the saxophone. Sadly, they don't do saxophone in sixth grade, so the trombone it was/is. Rather than rent an instrument, Kent decided it would be much more economical to just buy one, so he found one on KSL and we are now the proud owners of a trombone. Brandt loves it and spent the first week we had it carrying it around with him practically everywhere, and blarting at anyone in the vicinity, whether they wanted to listen to him or not. And it's mostly not at this point. He doesn't really practice at home, but I know he's learning something because he was playing notes the other day and told me where his hands should be when he plays them. And a great thing about playing this particular instrument is that Brandt can tell everyone he plays the sackbut, which is a type of trombone, and is such a funny word. Usually when he starts saying sackbut, he doesn't stop for a long time. "Sackbut! Sackbut! Sackbut! Sackbut! Sackbut! Sackbut! Sackbut!"
Tonight was Brandt's first big concert. I use the term "big" here lightly. The concert was anything but long, but it was big in the sense of being something of note. It was the first! The band played together with the orchestra, and from where we were sitting in the gym, we couldn't see Brandt at all. The orchestra was on the floor in front of the audience, but the band was on the stage and as a trombonist, Brandt was in the back. We could see the very top of his head and nothing else. He happened to stand up just after I took the first picture, to see where we were sitting, and so I was able to snap the second picture which is very blurry. But that's him. The band and orchestra took turns playing short pieces, each fairly painful to listen to. The tunes, however, were recognizable, and I was impressed at the patience of the band and orchestra teachers. As each group finished their last piece, we applauded enthusiastically, and then each group did an encore performance, but parents could come up and film their child as close as they wanted. How perfect is that?! The whole show was finished in about 20 minutes, and we all went home happy.
Those dimples!
The trombone section.
All four of them.
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