Solo

Andrew participated in his first Solo & Ensemble Festival on Friday. For those of you who are not band geeks, this is an opportunity for band students to play a solo in front of a judge, who offers them constructive criticism and encouragement and gives them a rating. It's a pretty big deal. I still have all the medals I earned from this sort of thing. I think he signed up without having any clue what he was doing. He just likes to sign up for things. He was, in fact, quite surprised to learn after he'd completed his solo that there would be a rating. I had to explain the whole system to him. So, he was duly pleased to find that he had received a "superior." That's the best rating you can get. And I hear some of you already going, "Of course he got a superior. He's an amazing kid!" But know that it's not easy to earn that rating and he's only been playing his instrument since August. The judge was pleased with his performance. Then he asked how long Andrew had been playing. And he was floored. Flabberghasted. He kept trying to offer a little further instruction and draw a little more musicality out of this phrase or that, but several times he stopped mid-sentence, looked over at the "audience" (me, my mom, and his band director) and just saying, "August!" So I know he was pretty impressed. So, for those of you are interested, here's the solo:


DAILY BLISS: A lovely Valentine's Day which I will tell you all about tomorrow. I hope you had a lovely one as well