French Horn
In school band I play the French horn. I am also in the by-invitation group, Whittier Winds. I was invited to be in the All City Honor Band to play French horn, but I couldn’t participate because it conflicted with my commitment to SDSYO (where I play cello).
When I was in 6th grade, Whittier Winds had the privilege of performing at the South Dakota Bandmasters Conference at the Oscar Larson Performing Arts Center at SDSU. Here I am playing horn at Bandmasters.
This year, in 7th grade, I auditioned for All-State Band and made it in. Those audition pieces were hard!
Recently I competed in the solo/ensemble contest at my school and received a superior + rating for my french horn solo, and a superior rating for my ensemble. My solo judge was Jason Rygg, assistant principal horn for the South Dakota Symphony Orchestra, and he was so kind in his comments! He also directed one of my band’s songs at All State band this year, and I really enjoyed working with him.
I take horn lessons with Andrea Carlson, and I practice my horn 15 minutes per day.
Bass Guitar/Jazz Band
I play the bass guitar in jazz band. Last year I played keyboard. At some events I will play my horn. Jazz band gets to play at fun things like a Skyforce basketball game, touring to the feeder elementary schools, and in the talent show.
Here I am playing horn at the Skyforce game last year.
Other Instruments
In 3rd grade I took piano lessons. I learned a lot – one of those things being that piano was not my instrument. We have a piano at home, and I play around on it and use it for tuning purposes. Lately I’ve been playing parts of the first movement of Mozart’s Piano Sonata No. 16 in C Major, because Mozart is one of my favorite composers and it’s fun.
In 4th grade I played violin in Harmony and at school. In 5th grade I started band with the baritone (switching to French horn in 6th grade).
A while ago I had been picking up a novelty wooden flute my parents got in Hawaii and playing it every day. When I randomly started playing “The Swan” on it, my mom decided to get me an alto recorder, and now I’m very casually learning that. It sounds way better than the novelty one!
I have a lot of interest in obscure instruments and wind instruments. It’s one of my dreams to grow hands big enough to play the bassoon.
And speaking of hands, I do a hand whistle at all the high points I summit/visit and at various cliffs and valleys to check for resonance and echoes in the area. I got an ocarina for this purpose, but I dropped and broke it before I even got it into the house. Oops! That’s okay – I don’t want to have to carry an ocarina to the top of Mt. Rainier or Denali.
Here I am whistling at Ponca State Park in Nebraska; Britton Hill, the high point of Florida; Mount Rogers, the high point of Virginia; and Driskill Mountain, the high point of Louisiana.