Into the Fold

It's hard to believe that Summer of the Oboe (SOTO) 2012 is almost over. Didn't it just begin? But, last night I had my last rehearsal with my community band and on July 29 I will play my final concert with them for the season. I hate to admit it, but before long I will be teaching on Tuesday nights and during my drive home, I'll be thinking about the band rehearsal that I am missing "back home." 


SOTO 2012 was too short, but all together enjoyable. This year offered a new adventure, which was playing next to a 14 year-old oboist. He's a great oboist and I was thrilled to have the opportunity to help bring him into the fold of community band. I was once a 14 year-old oboist in a community band--the Bath Municipal Band--and I was shown great kindness and patience by everyone in the ensemble, but most of all, by our director, Jimmy Footer. Perhaps I received special privileges because my parents were both music teachers, or because they both played in the band, or because my father sometimes conducted the band, or because Jimmy's wife, Betty, used to babysit my sister, Jen, and  me when we were little. Whatever the reason, Jimmy really extended himself -- he suggested that my then-closest friend and flutist, Traci, play the oboe solos with me because I was so nervous at first; he put up with asking me multiple times in a single performance to tuck my shirt into my pants; and I am sure that he tolerated me misreading the key signature on at least 25% of the pieces that we played and getting lost on another 25%; he may have noted some of these mistakes, but he never called me out in front of others. In fact, everyone tolerated these mistakes from me and I can't thank them enough. 

My father, my friend--Traci, and me after a Bath Municipal Band concert, 1987

Jimmy Footer, director of the Bath Municipal Band from  1961-2000

In truth, I didn't really need to demonstrate a lot of tolerance or patience this summer with our 14 year-old oboist, because he's a bit of a whiz. But, it has been great to reassure him about some of the things that I eventually learned in community band: 

1. Most of the time, you're so focused on your own music that you don't hear it, but people are missing key signatures and playing wrong notes and rhythms all of the time - so don't worry about a few of those from yourself.
2. Community band is an excellent place to improve your sight-reading skills. It might be a bit painful for those around you -- and the conductor -- but keep at it. It will only get better.
3. Everyone gets lost at some point. The goal is not to show it. Keep the horn on your face and just inhale until you catch up with the rest of the group. Listen to the right and listen to the left. You'll find your place, eventually.
4. It's a great place to develop a "poker face." When you miss a wrong note -- just keep playing like nothing ever happened. It's a good skill for life, in fact.
5. Your face will fall off during most concerts and most definitely during Stars & Stripes Forever, which is always placed at the end of a program and is brutal on all oboes everywhere (okay, and maybe piccolos, too). Find places to rest your chops while the brass is blowing away or when you have off-beats -- surely the horns will have you covered.
6. It's a wonderful place to meet people who are kind and who are also thrilled to get together for some music-making.

Welcome to community band: May it bring you all of the joys that it has brought players and audience members for generations, past and future.  Here's to SOTO 2013 - only 9 months to go!

The oboe section, summer 2012, gets ready to play!

The oboe section, summer 2012, cracks up -- literally, this time!