Forced into Music

All of us kids were forced into music. I was first of course, and it all started after mom and dad bought a used, silver alto saxophone. It had been dropped at some point in its life and created a slight mismatch that caused two or three of the biggest pads to not quite line up right. It was a mostly a non-issue really because it only affected the two or three lowest notes that it would play, and they were hardly ever used. Besides, it was cheap. Although dad's motives were golden I'm sure, I have to laugh when I remember what he told me when he bought it. "If you get good at it you can play in taverns and you can make a lot of money!" he'd say. I'm sure he meant it in the best way and only wanted me to succeed, but that was the only thing he could relate to apparently. He was not a worldly man. He also was not a tavern man. I'm not sure where he got that notion from. He probably overheard it somewhere. Anyway, there was one flaw in their saxophone plan: Schools (at least our school district) do not start a beginning student on a saxophone. Instead, they require them to play a clarinet for two years. Why? Well, the clarinet is actually harder to play. It's keys are mostly two-part, consisting of a hole that your finger has to cover, as well as a ring around it that has to be depressed at the same time. It's also a lot more restrictive as far as airflow goes, requiring more practice to get tones instead of squeaks and squawks. The good thing about a clarinet was that it is much smaller and lighter, which is always a good thing when you're a diminutive fifth-grader. So theoretically, when it comes time to switch over and play the saxophone you have the techniques down and you can go for the volume and fingering speed.

Theoretically.

Truth is, I was never much of a "practice" guy. Anyone that knows anything about music knows that music requires practice if you want to become good at it. Lots of practice. Me--I had to be practically beat with a steel pipe before I'd practice my clarinet or saxophone. It also doesn't help when you're the oldest of five kids, live in a little one-bedroom shack, and there is no chance for privacy. Zero. That didn't help given that I found practicing to be embarrassing.  Being raised in that little bitty house probably has a lot to do with me always wanting to get away and be by myself. Anyway, when we first found out about the school district's reluctance to allow a new student to play a saxophone, my parents were caught off guard. We had no money for a clarinet. As I mentioned earlier, music classes started in fifth grade. Because there was no formal music class at Algona Elementary School, the district created a sort of combined once a week class that combined music hopefuls from Algona and the neighboring elementary school in Pacific. There were only about half a dozen of us combined. Every Thursday, the instructor would stop by our school and pick us up in his car and drive us to music class in Pacific. His name was Burke Sower, and he was a very tall, gangly man, with a bald head and deep-set eyes under a pronounced forehead. He was a very striking man in his black suit and tie, much like a funeral director. He was a very nice man and I respected him.  It was he that lent me a clarinet (a beautiful, all-metal one of his own) to play during those early times before I was able to have a clarinet of my own.

As much as I hated practicing, I enjoyed all the things that being a band member exposed me to.  As members of marching band we played at all the football games and marched formations during halftime shows.  We also marched in lots of parades.  Concert band was our chance to be polished and allow the band instructor to be proud of his teaching.  My favorite was pep band.  That was what we called it when we played from the bleachers during basketball games.  It was fun, laid-back, and festive.

The parental music thing didn't stop with me. All of us kids were required to play an instrument. Don played drums, Jackie played a baritone clarinet, Denis played trumpet, and Denise played flute. I was the only one that had to endure the humiliation of practicing in our little Algona house though. When me moved to Auburn after I finished the 6th grade we had a much bigger house that even had a basement to practice in. My folks even upgraded my saxophone after a couple years. They paid a visit to a music store in Tacoma that was going out of business and bought me a brand-new Bundy alto saxophone. maybe they thought it would give me incentive. Maybe the old one was actually holding me back. I don't remember. None of it really worked to make me any more than a marginal player. Of all five of us kids, Denis was really the only one with any talent to go farther with his music. He had the gift.  The problem was it didn't interest him. He received additional lessons from one of our music teachers at the time (who had a jazz background) and ended up playing pretty well because of it. In addition to the school marching band and all the other regular things that happen when you're in high school band class, Don and Denis were both in a non-school related group called The Black Watch marching band. They had lots of competitions and marched and played in quite a few parades.

I don't really know a lot about my siblings' activities during high school because I was away in the Air Force, but I believe we all mothballed our music instruments when we finished high school. I actually donated my saxophone to the Auburn High School music department in later years. I knew I was never going to use it again, and it wasn't a very good one that someone would have paid much money for.  It also needed some routine maintenance. All those reasons coupled with the fact that there are a lot of budding musicians out there with no money for an instrument of their own made me decide to donate it. I also remember times when I was in school and someone would forget their own instrument at home and needed one to play for one day. The music department had a bunch of "secondary" instruments people could use if the needed to.  I took my daughter with me when I donated it so she could experience a little philanthropy.  The music teacher was beside himself.  It may as well have been a solid gold alto saxophone to him.

As much as I hated being forced into music as a kid, I'm glad we were.  It created a lot of great experiences and taught things that were very different from regular school classes.