Benjamin O. Oz May 2, 2024
In this post, I would like to tell you about my journey through the world of music and how it has shaped me into the person I am today. My first experience playing an instrument was at a very young age. I started with the violin in elementary school, but I would lose interest in it within a year. That was when I discovered drumming. My school held an instrument "petting zoo" where each child was allowed to try using any instrument they wanted. The one that clicked with me was drums. I loved it all through elementary school and would even perform in my school's talent show by playing and singing at the same time!
When I entered middle school, I continued band class and started to see some improvements in my performance. I met some of my closest friends at the time and still to this day in that class. The teacher was very passionate about concert music and taught me a lesson that I will never forget. "Practice doesn't make perfect, perfect practice makes perfect." She understood that we were middle school students and didn't expect us to get everything immediately. Instead, she wanted us to focus on making small adjustments to get big results. This shaped the way I looked at most problems in life especially when it came to music. In my last year of middle school, my band class was invited to see what a high school marching band is like. I remember enjoying the pep tunes they played and the show they performed. At some point before I left the section leader gave me a pair of his sticks and told me he'd want to see me marching soon. This gave me the final push to continue band in high school.
Before I started my classes, I had band rehearsals during the summer leading into my freshman year of high school. We had two weeks of summer rehearsals; the first week's rehearsals were from 1 pm-9 pm, and for the second week, practices were from 9 am-9 pm. During the school year, we only had practice twice a week and sometimes on the weekends. I made many good friends and reinforced friendships from middle school. I enjoyed being in the marching band so much when I was younger that I decided to become a section leader. I was responsible for the other people in my section knowing their music and scheduled practices outside of rehearsals to refine. This position taught me many valuable lessons about how to lead others by example and ways to work through a conflict. Over time, I grew to love the sport and even tried out for a professional group outside of school. However, during my senior year, I started to feel burnt out and no longer wanted to perform. When I brought this up with the band director he explained to me that I could leave if I wanted to, but he really wanted me to stay just for one more semester. So I agreed and we ended up winning the state championship. This left me with a fond memory of the program and happened to coincide with when the pandemic hit.
During the pandemic, I stopped playing music entirely because I felt so burnt out by it from marching band. My mom was preparing to have a garage sale and asked me if I still wanted my drum kit. I regrettably told her she could sell it and someone did buy it. Through my Freshman and Sophomore years of college even though I was no longer drumming, I was still connected to the music world. My roommate was a music major and my childhood friend is also a talented musician. It was during my Junior year when I moved off campus with some friends and bought another drum kit. This reignited my passion for music which I had never lost. That summer I spent a lot of time at my friend's house playing music for fun and occasionally recording some stuff.
For the first semester of my senior year, I studied abroad in Ireland and was fortunate enough to take a class at Windmill Lane, a famous recording studio turned school. The class I took was focused on sound engineering, but further enforced my fascination with music. Before I went back home, I started talking with my former roommate about starting our own band and playing at some local venues. I told him I would be fully willing to make that work and that brings us to today as of writing this. We have successfully formed our band and we have a couple of shows lined up, but because we are new we are mostly focusing on making new music. This is the first time I have tried to pursue this aspect of music and I am hoping to learn a lot and meet new people to form connections and memories.
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