Music-y Wednesday

Wednesday is my music day. I have piano lessons and then band practice. I had one of those piano lessons where I play a piece and I think it's kinda mediocre and then my teacher starts gushing over the dynamics and how 'controlled' it was and I'm going "ooo....kay....". Which is always nice, since my practice week last week was not the best and I always feel good when I come out of a good piano lesson.
Then, at band, I was there really early like I usually am (and I like it) so I helped the director carry stuff, because really what he's carrying is his music stand, my orchestra bells (well, they're his bells, but I use them) and my keyboard, so I feel like I should really help him out. We talked some while I was setting up chairs and he was setting up the keyboard and bells, and I got to brag about my grade seven exam (not much, just a bit), which was good. So then, as I'm almost finished setting up, one of the directors from the other bands comes in sorta half-playing his clarinet and half-singing. I think I met him once before. Anyway, he's past middle-aged, maybe in his fifties of sixties, and he's a sort of Santa-like character. So he walks in and our director (Bill) and him sort of chat, but what's funny is that when Bill says "What's new?" he totally doesn't answer the question, but goes off telling this long joke about an old lady who put a dead horse in her bathtub so she could tell her husband what was new. And the whole time he's twiddling little tunes on his clarinet between bits of the joke. I really liked him, even though he was eccentric, and when he strolled over to see if our old piano (I don't use it, because it's too heavy to move) was in tune he played this amazing jazzy-sounding bit of music. I loved it.
Anyway, moving on to band, we finished warm-up and tuning really quickly and then rehearsed the one song that actually has a proper piano part, Cold Snap, which went well - I have this back-and-forth harmony with the alto sax, which sounds cool. But I'm much better at my part than Jason is at his, if I do say so myself. Then we did the one where I really don't do much, I play the tambourine for the first twenty-five bars and then nothing. I may play the triangle and the crash cymbals later on, but we don't have either, so it's just tambourine for now. Then we did Winter Fantasy, a medley of Good King Wenceslas, O Christmas Tree and Deck the Halls, which I have bells for. I actually did pretty well. I mean, I didn't suck. So all in all it was a very good practice, maybe the best yet, and then I came home and played Rummoli until after nine o'clock. We used Rockets and Smarties for poker chips, seeing as we have so many, and then at the end you got to eat whatever you were left with. I am a little behind on quizzing, however, but I won't stress (I WILL NOT) because it's only four verses and it's not the end of the world.

~Sil