Band Geeks

I had a great moment in symphonic band rehearsal yesterday that I just have to share. We are working on this great piece called Abracadabra, by Frank Ticheli. Ticheli is my favorite band composer and we've played one of his pieces on every concert I've done in the last 2 years here. The kids really like Abracadabra and always want to play it all the way through, from beginning to end, but I am constantly stopping and starting to work on different sections (as you should do in rehearsal). They worked really hard yesterday on another piece we are doing and there was 5 minutes left at the end of class, so I told them we could finally play Abracadabra through, beginning to end, no stops. They did a great job focusing and played it pretty well (it still isn't ready for the concert in 3 weeks, but it will definitely get there). They were playing with lots of energy and there was just a good feeling about it as we were making music together. And the best part was the end. After they played the last note, they sat there for a second, then broke into applause. It was wonderful!! I love that they had that reaction about their playing and that they felt so great about what they had just done. It was an awesome moment!