Jazzophone
07-16-2003, 03:27 PM
I just thought I'd share this story.
I recently was at a summer camp in Ontario and they invited us to bring musical instruments if we played, so we could use them for the talent night and for random other things. However, although there were many kids that played instruments at some point or another in their lives, only three of us brought them. One was a counsellor, one was a friend of mine, and the third was, of course, me. Altogether we had a trumpet, flute and tenor sax. We 'jammed' and played some stuff out of my showtunes book and since there were only the three of us, it was a huge novelty.
They invited individual acts at the talent night as well as the requisite cabin group performance. All three of us signed up to play - more on request from the rest of the camp than personal initiative, I'll admit. It all went great, and then the next night (this being a religious oriented camp) there was a devotional literature sharing. Groups came up with their own devotional pieces both religious and camp-oriented, whether they were dances, songs, poems, visual art, etc. Again, individuals went up to share their personal devotions after the groups were finished. I was invited. So I went.
I improvised completely up there. There were sixty-some people in the room, sitting on the floor in front of me, listening to and watching everything I did. I told them beforehand that no, this was not a written song, I was improvising based on everything that had happened during our two-week sojourn at the summer camp. They listened to every note I played. It was the first time I could say that my heart and soul went into every one of those notes - and they heard it. They told me so. In my yearbook, a friend signed "The fact that you could get up in front of sixty people and improvise music shows what a strong person you are."
After the whole evening was done, one of the counsellors came up to me. She told me that she'd always wanted to play an instrument - namely the saxophone - but she never really thought she could. After seeing what it meant to me, she said, and how much could be communicated, she was reconsidering. When she got home, she was taking sax lessons. "You have really inspired me," she told me. I could die happy. My goal was to change someone's life doing what I do. I can already say I have.
So don't stop playing, guys, whatever you do. I'm fourteen and already can feel what the music means to me. I had thoughts of quitting music years ago, and it was the best decision I ever made not to. Keep it going. It makes a difference!
I recently was at a summer camp in Ontario and they invited us to bring musical instruments if we played, so we could use them for the talent night and for random other things. However, although there were many kids that played instruments at some point or another in their lives, only three of us brought them. One was a counsellor, one was a friend of mine, and the third was, of course, me. Altogether we had a trumpet, flute and tenor sax. We 'jammed' and played some stuff out of my showtunes book and since there were only the three of us, it was a huge novelty.
They invited individual acts at the talent night as well as the requisite cabin group performance. All three of us signed up to play - more on request from the rest of the camp than personal initiative, I'll admit. It all went great, and then the next night (this being a religious oriented camp) there was a devotional literature sharing. Groups came up with their own devotional pieces both religious and camp-oriented, whether they were dances, songs, poems, visual art, etc. Again, individuals went up to share their personal devotions after the groups were finished. I was invited. So I went.
I improvised completely up there. There were sixty-some people in the room, sitting on the floor in front of me, listening to and watching everything I did. I told them beforehand that no, this was not a written song, I was improvising based on everything that had happened during our two-week sojourn at the summer camp. They listened to every note I played. It was the first time I could say that my heart and soul went into every one of those notes - and they heard it. They told me so. In my yearbook, a friend signed "The fact that you could get up in front of sixty people and improvise music shows what a strong person you are."
After the whole evening was done, one of the counsellors came up to me. She told me that she'd always wanted to play an instrument - namely the saxophone - but she never really thought she could. After seeing what it meant to me, she said, and how much could be communicated, she was reconsidering. When she got home, she was taking sax lessons. "You have really inspired me," she told me. I could die happy. My goal was to change someone's life doing what I do. I can already say I have.
So don't stop playing, guys, whatever you do. I'm fourteen and already can feel what the music means to me. I had thoughts of quitting music years ago, and it was the best decision I ever made not to. Keep it going. It makes a difference!