Remembering Band

So last night I was up a bit later than usual and my music major friends starting posting things involving bass clefs and music theory and I got a bit nostalgic. This, along with a conversation about jazz clubs in Paris with my friend Kate got me thinking about my own musical past.

It's not exactly something I put on my resume or anything, but I bet you didn't know that I play piano and saxophone. Now, I'm not an aficionado, but I can play a few things still. I played saxophone for eight years - seriously, I was two years shy of having my 10,000 hours in. And actually, I started out playing the violin, which I hated.

Now what does this have to do with anything? Well, I had the sudden realization last night that I haven't picked up a saxophone in about three years. At one point in my life, couldn't go a week without it. It just didn't happen. I spent some of the best years of my life working and perfecting and playing and now it's just...gone.

I feel like the muscle memory would come back if I picked up the sax again. It wouldn't have to be any one in particular, but I'm partial to the tenor sax. I mean, I haven't purchased reeds in years! I know that none of this is structured and I'm just expressing these things as they come to me, but I suppose my point is this: I miss it. All of it.

I miss waking up early to walk to the football field early in the morning before classes started so that we could walk to the football field for marching band practice. The sun would be up, blinding us, but we didn't care because we had the music memorized. And there was a vein that popped out on our director's forehead when he saw someone wearing flip flops or the clarinet section was off step and out of line again because they couldn't get their shit together - ever. Our shoes were always soaked because the dew never dried on that field and I kinda miss my neck being sore from the weight of the sax as I carried it.

I miss the upperclassmen hiding my sheet music before class and freaking out when I found it in the baritone case in the back room. I miss being squad leader and having my "freshmen" to mentor, which basically meant I bossed them around. I miss my saxophone that I named Achilles because he was new and awesome with tiger's eye keys. I miss ensemble competitions that started way to early and lasted all day while we slept on wrestling mats until everyone was finished. I miss playing for the football and basketball games. I miss "Rumble on the High Plains" which was composed for our school and we begged to play because it was so much fun.

I miss jazz band and getting solos and improving and messing around in middle school. For goodness sakes, I miss the stupid uniforms we had to wear. I miss the people and the directors and everything.

So maybe I just needed to remember, but when I get some time between everything else that I do - I need to pick it up again.