Music to my ears

So here I was sitting at my desk with nothing to do yesterday. A majority of the students were out yesterday due to sports tournaments in which Shinji got hammered in them all save one. Turns out our girls table tennis (ping pong) team is a fierce competitive force to be reckoned with! So any student who played a sport was out, most of the teachers were gone to watch the games and i didn't really feel up to traveling (see last post).

Between killing time on the net and trying to come up with new ideas for my English board, i started hearing sounds. Sounds I had not heard in a while. They resembled a duck howling at the moon, if a duck could do so, and it took me a while in my absent mindedness to figure out what was going on. Band practice!

All the classes got cut early so the students were practicing on their own in preparation for the 3 o'clock full band rehearsal, current time was a little after one. I had been told earlier Shinji had a brass band club. Only problem is they don't get to practice until 5pm usually because, surprise, surprise, all the sports get the first after school slot for club time, 4-5. Any of the Arts like music, painting, industrial shop class....they all get the 5 til whenever slot. The vice principal, that last person to leave everyday, locks up around 7. Its not uncommon for students in junior high and highschool to get home well past the sun setting.

Clubs in the Japanese school system are like electives back in the states. When I first heard club, I thought of it as most of us would, as an organization you attend when you have the time. Not so here. A club might as well be class, you are either in or your out.

So I'm at my desk, listening to the clarinets and saxophones practice warm ups on their mouthpieces when it happens. A sound I haven't heard in a while. My old friend the trombone. Granted there were nights this past winter when I would get drunk off box wine in the cabin and then play for the dogs some scales and "O Holy Night", but that doesn't really count. I searched out the sound and found our schools two trombonists. Ayaki and Shiomi. To happy girls with great laughs. They knew I played trombone from my self introduction during English class. At the mere sight of me, Ayaki disappeared and then reappeared minutes later with an extra trombone in hand.

The music teacher/band director speaks NO English. I do know that he plays the baritone and since the first day he found out I could play an instrument I think he had a plan. We have been taking turns showing each other music in the teacher's office. I pulled up the TTU Goin' Band's website and played some of the fight songs and stand tunes. He hummed along with them as if he knew them his whole life. He in turn showed me video of the past several concerts and competitions they have been to. They were playing some pretty hard music.

So I grabbed the trombone case from Ayaki, threw the old girl together and sat down next to the girls. The first song they we're practicing was "Just a spoon full of sugar". I haven't read music since I was a sophomore in college, and it turns out doing so is like riding a bike. We blew through it, turned over the next sheet and its a Disney Montage. "It's a small world", "A pirates life for me", the old "Mickey Mouse Club" them song, its all there.

For the next couple hours I phase in and out of practice, helping the girls where I could with tuning and rhythms. Three o'clock rolls around and everyone with an instrument heads to the band room, which is no bigger than an average class room. I decided to join. Why not, right?

I might as well have been Paul McCartney sitting in with a teenage garage band. All the kids were excited, and really good. They take practicing a lot more seriously than me and any of my friends did when we were younger. I sang the lyrics to the songs they were playing and that gave everyone a chuckle. The director is a good guy. I do have to say though, I had flash backs of how boring it is to sit and wait while the director chews out another section. Though no one could ever top Hopkins in that category.

To end this rather long story, I got to help make music....for the first time in a long time. Looks like I might have a new trombone trio as well.