Where I Ve Been In The Orchestra-Personal Narrative

   When I moved back to Georgia the first time, I was placed into an orchestra class that made me feel like a 30 year-old woman stuck in first grade. I was uncomfortable with the fact that I wasn't being challenged and my love for music was slowly diminishing. It wasn't until I moved back to Virginia that I was put into one of the most highly-recognized high school orchestras in Chesapeake, Grassfield High School. My orchestra director, Mr. Vutsinas, pushed me to new heights of musicality that I did not know I could not

Yeo says that The nice sides of being a payed orchestra member is that you get to do something you really like to do as a job. You play your instrument on a daily basis and nearly everyday, in the evening, of the week you play a concert, and have an audience aplaud for you.

When I was younger, I loved to watch musicals on our small tv at home, especially The Sound of Music. I would sit for hours, watching it over and over. I learned all the songs by heart and would walk around the house singing “Doe a deer, a female deer” over and over until I was blue in the face. Finally, my parents took me out to see Hairspray on Broadway. Throughout the whole musical, I kept asking my parents where the music was coming from and after the show, they took me down to the pit to meet the orchestra. From that moment, I wanted to play one of those instruments. I realized that even though pit orchestra isn’t the most focused on the element even though it wouldn't be a musical without it.The music sets the mood, foreshadows and tells a

I thought I was just signing up for a marching band, not a life-changing experience. It was about a week before my first year of high school started. My mom was reading the newspaper after breakfast when she showed me an ad calling for 12 to 18 year olds to join a marching band. I loved to play the glockenspiel, so I immediately jumped to join the band. I called the number and got the date, time, place, and a brief synopsis. A week after school started, we drove to Pickering High to sign up. Turns out, the band was part of the Ontario Regiment 2525 Royal Canadian Army Cadet Corps.

Orchestra has always been one of my favorite classes to go to during the day. After choosing to play the cello in middle school, I continued playing the instrument in high school. It was in this class that I had made most of my closest friends, many of whom I still love to this day. I also loved how the rich deep tones that came from playing each note of the cello and how they were able to blend with the rest of the orchestra. I knew from my freshmen year that I wanted to get into the top class, Chamber Orchestra. I thought that I would have done everything in my power to get into the class, however when the time came I could not even bring myself to audition.

Like almost every other 3rd grader in my elementary school, when the enrichment program came to talk about joining the orchestra and band, I was fascinated. I admired the kids, not much older than me, who could play their instruments flawlessly and effortlessly. Immediately I knew that orchestra was for me, and I rushed home with a paper in hand begging my mom to let me take lessons at my school. Originally, I wanted to play the cello and pleaded with my mom to let me play one; I loved the deep, rich sounds of the strings. Instead, my mom convinced me to play the violin, a less expensive instrument and much easier to carry around than a cello.

Whenever I moved to Boyle County and found that Boyle County High School was my desired school of choice, my parents found themselves continuously urging me to join their band program, specifically marching band. I had previously been in band at my former high school, located in an exceptionally small town, in which a quality music program was not necessarily valued, much less a competitive marching band.

While the dancing was fantastic, I could barely stay awake during the first two pieces (though I did enjoy seeing Tess Reichlen in Red Angels). Normally I love Hyltin and Stanley, but I just couldn't get into Varied Trios. These 2 pieces were just blah... to me.

AO Orchestra is a huge honor to even be able to audition for. I feel like that I belong in AO Orchestra because I am a natural born leader. During the month of April I attended a leadership camp called HIPP where I was taught leadership skills and what it takes to be a leader. From those leadership skills that I was taught I have learned to always put your best effort forth, be kind, be trusting, and to be selfless. I will put forth all of those traits that I have learned to make the orchestra better. I always put forth my best effort, I will always come in and out of class with a smile, and I help my fellow students if they need anything from grabbing a pencil for them to listening to see if they’re playing the piece or section correctly.

I've played the violin for a while now; since the beginning of fourth grade. Orchestra has been a part of my life for around five years, and I've gotten used to being on the stage with the rest of the orchestra for a few minutes at a time. But this time was different. It was the first time I would step on stage at the high school, and I was terrified.

I have a lot of experience in music. I've been in concert band for six years now, I've been in marching band for four years, and I've been in drum corps for two years, playing multiple instruments, such as mellophone, flute, and trumpet. I plan on going on in drum corps and going into DCI, (Drum Corps International) when I turn 18, to give me more experience. Music teachers help shape musicians and bring out talent in students while also leading and guiding them to be the best they can be. Music needed a tempo so it all stayed together, so in early orchestral days it was brought about.

When I first joined the band, I was a quiet, emotionless guy. I didn’t have any close friends in the band either, so honestly, I wasn’t having the best time. The people around me always seemed so happy to talk to others, and it confused me in a way. But then when band camp rolled around, people started to talk to me, so naturally, I began to respond to them, and eventually I began to start conversations for myself. I was a whole lot less awkward as days turned into months, my stuttering was reduced to almost none, I'm pretty loud, and I'm pretty friendly too.

I took a deep breath. With my left fingers poised across the strings, I began moving my right arm slowly, but as I started playing, I hit a wall. My fingers stiffened and my right arm faltered, my violin producing a horrifying sound that could not even be described as music.

If orchestra was a sport, I would want to sign up ever year for it. Sadly it's not. I play a viola. A lot of people don't know what it is. I have been in orchestra for 3 years. I plan to stay in it until high school and if they have it in college I will sure joy that orchestra to. Also, I take private lessons, so I can get better at playing. It's really payed off. I have been first chair viola for all the concerts that we have done in 7th grade.

I first joined the band in the fourth grade playing the drums. I played for about two weeks then I quit because I didn't like it, mostly because of the teacher. In the sixth grade we got a new music teacher and told me I look like a trumpet player, so I gave it a try. I was taking music lessons but after the first one my music teacher told me she had to leave because she