L & M are for Little Mistakes

L & M are for Little Mistakes

Little mistakes, mishaps, things not going quite the way you thought they would, these can make a big difference. It's funny how so much of my band geeky-ness seems to be based on a couple little mistakes. Believe it or not, I had always wanted to play flute, and planned to do so almost right up until we chose our instruments in fifth grade. Near the last minute I first thought "Wow. French horn is awesome." and I now kinda wanted to play horn instead of flute. I became extremely indecisive. It was just because of this hesitation, this indecisiveness that brought me to being a cornet player. Pretty much my dad was like 'Why don't you play my old cornet to start off with. If you hate it, you can always switch.'

So I became a cornet player. And I was hooked.

All because of one little mistake in the way I thought things were going to turn out....and boom. I'm on my current path.

Learning trombone was a mistake too. I never meant to learn....I just picked up my brother's one day, played a couple of notes, and decided it would be fun to learn.

Jazz band was a mistake too. Sixth grade, I really didn't know what a jazz band was or did in the school. I really didn't care about it. I had not yet taken the plunge into the complete music crazy world I am in now. I only got into the jazz band because I was walking out of band one day and my band director stopped me. Our conversation went a little something like this:

"You'll be at jazz tomorrow morning?"

"Um.......I don't know? **stutter stutter stutter**

"7:10, here, tomorrow morning. You will be here."

At this point I was still very much intimidated by her....so I was there at 7:10 the next morning. And once again, the mistake, the chance that I had ended up there was a very good one. I had my first chance at playing lead trumpet, and my year in that training jazz band on cornet led me in the next two years playing second and lead trumpet in the performance band and having multiple solos. 

Marching band? Also a mistake. At the end of seventh grade I put my name on a list that basically said 'I'm interested in the marching band can I have more information?'

I got no more info.

Until I got a call in the middle of August. There was a guy on the end of the phone and this is what he said "Hi, I'm Matt and I'm your section leader for marching band and I'll see you for uniform fitting and our first practice next Monday."

So I ended up in marching band.

It just goes to show, little mistakes can lead to great things.