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Joined elementary school orchestra
I joined my school orchestra when I was in 4th grade to learn to play viola. We met after school for an hour every Tuesday, and were expected to practice at home. I became discouraged when I couldn't keep up with students who were taking private lessons and quit before the end of the school year. -
Joined middle school orchestra
In 8th grade, I decided I wanted to try again. I was already years behind, but I was given special permission to join the intermediate level orchestra at my middle school with the 6th and 7th graders. I had grown into my older cousin's viola, so my parents didn't have to rent an instrument for me to play. -
Began playing bass
There was no bass player in the intermediate orchestra, so the director asked for vollunteers. Since I was essentially starting from scratch on viola anyway, I said I would do it. The bassist from the advanced orchestra (an 8th grade classmate) gave me a few basic lessons during our lunch break. -
First competition
I attended my first orchestra competition. The advanced orchestra went on before us, and then I had to run around like crazy looking for them backstage because we were supposed to be sharing the bass. The intermediate orchestra got average scores, but we were proud of the advanced group for getting very high scores. -
Bumped up a level
All incoming freshmen were put into the lower level high school orchestra, so I was now in the same group as the students who had been "advanced" in middle school. The bass player who had taught me was primarily a violist, so we traded places for different songs during the first part of the year. -
Fall Competition
My orchestra took the day off school to attend a regional competition. We were selected to workshop one of the songs with a judge after we performed, which was an honor. We did very well for first-timers in the high school bracket, but didn't move on to the next level. I don't remember the exact scores. -
Became a section leader
Right after the fall competition, I began teaching one of the cellists to play bass so the other bassist could focus his attention on leading the viola section. I was still behind most of the orchestra in skill, but I was now offically first bass, which meant I was required to attend section leader meetings. The section leaders were already my closest friends in the orchestra because they had been hanging out in the orchestra room during lunches when I was learning bass the previous year. -
Holiday concert
All levels of orchestra, choir and band had a combined concert in the evening at the end of the semester. My level worked together with the intermediate band on a song that needed a full symphony orchestra. It was a challenge to match the volumes because the band was bigger and playing louder instruments. Someone stole my tuner from my stand when I wasn't paying attention. -
Spring Competition
I didn't make it to the spring competition, because I couldn't get all of my teachers to sign for me to skip a day of class. I felt guilty for letting everyone down, but no one acknowledged that they were angry. One of my friends told me that I wasn't really missed. -
Last performance
We focused on Pomp and Cirmstance so we could play graduation. (The advanced orchestra was full of graduating seniors, so they were not available.) Auditions to move up to advanced orchestra were going on that week, but I knew I hadn't caught up yet, so I ignored it. By the time we performed that night, nearly everyone hated each other. I decided not to continue orchestra the next year, and slowly lost contact with all of those friends.
