Suzy, Jim, John, and I had our second gig so far. Remember we are all late bloomers, with two to four years experience on our instruments so far. Suzy started playing last year, John the year before that, and Jim the year before that. All three had played clarinet in some capacity in Jr. High or High School. I started four years ago on the same instrument I played through high school. We are a shy bunch, well some of us anyway. Some of the group thinks we should only play when we get around to sounding good. :o)

I believe that you learn as you go, woodshed like crazy, and then do the best you can for the gig. Of course, I am usually out voted by the rest of the group. So when Tammy offered us this chance to play in front of not-too-descriminating kids, I jumped at the chance to do just that. We played a number of songs, usually soprano, alto, tenor, and bari sax. But one that was requested was ‘Prayer’ by Humperdinck which is written for alto, alto, tenor, and bari sax.

Then we talked with the crowd of youngsters about our experience, instruments, and favorite music memory. The kids ranged from three to five years of age and were very active throughout the performance. There were some teenagers and adults there to perform crowd control and of course Tammy, who created the syllabus and taught the class. Because it was snowing so heavily, we combined three classes into one and then high tailed it for home, shortly thereafter.

By the way a little snow in Seattle can really be devastating. There are a lot of people who can not drive in snowy weather. Suzy and I, being from the mid-west have no troubles with what little snow we have in Seattle. But we really have to be careful of the drivers who should not be driving because they don’t understand the dynamics of ice and snow.