World of Pageantry

In 4th grade we had a professional dixieland jazz band perform at my elementary school. I immediately fell in love with the trombone. The slide just gives it away as different. Everything else seemed too complicated to look at. I was simplistic, and yet artistic because what I saw was an instrument unlike all others. And you can imagine a trombone in a dixieland jazz band, up down and all over the place. It struck me then.
5th grade I picked it up and started playing it. I broke my right arm and was in a full arm cast for a month. I almost quit, but I didn't. I am very glad I didn't quit. Or else I would not have the same hopes and dreams I attain today with music. I have been playing the trombone ever since.

All because of one single performance of a dixieland jazz band...

i opened the case and it was love at first sight... there she was, all golden and beautiful... a BUNDY...

Started taking piano lessons in fifth grade and pretty much hated it for two years, but stuck with it cuz my mom made me.
Just before entering middle school (7th grade in Utah) I saw a Blast! performance on PBS. I decided to be a drummer. The middle school band teacher only let people with previous piano experience play percussion, so I had to thank my mom for that one. Ever since then I've been playing pretty much any percussion instrument I can get my hands on.
Always wanted to learn Alto Sax, but never got around to it.
My passions have always been Marching band and Jazz band.

I pretty much had an introduction the the recorder in 3rd grade and we all played that which was quite fun. In 4th grade I decided fulte, who knew i was going to be the only one. I dropped that becuase I wanted to try most of them.
5th grade was Clarinet. Didn't work out for me at all becuase I did not know how you can hit the high notes. hehe.
So finally in 6th grade my dad decided to buy me my Alto Sax for $600 and use it for ever. To this day i still play it and I love it. Tho i do need a regular mouthpiece. (Mine has a jazz). So there's how i got my instrument.

Also the flute and clarinet were rentals

i actually played flute in 4th grade because i didnt have any classes with my friends.. so that was one class we could have to talk... stuck with that till high school and teacher asked me to play tuba... yea wierd i like both now

At my Jr. High I played clarinet for quite some time, and definitely wasn't horrible at the instrument.. but I found it incredibly boring.

I went to see my cousins perform in the CW marching band show, Bald Mountain, and I was really close to the pit. I didn't even care to watch the band, I was just amazed by how easily the mallet players moved and controlled their four mallets across the instruments.. so I switched. It's been almost three years and I still love it. Yay.

Teehee. Maybe I'll inspire some poor kiddo to pickup the marimba. xD.

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In 4th grade we had the 5th grade band paly for us so we could have an idea about joining band next year. No one played my instrument at the time so we saw it. We got to sign up to come and try out the instruments. I just liked how it looked and how it sounded. Also that it was pretty easy for me to play...unlike woodwinds.

I just loved the circular shape and how many people didn't play it.
The Horn is my instrument.

In 4th grade, the band teacher came up and looked at me, said :"you look like a baritone player, See me tomorrow at 8:oo, and the rest is history.

well.. i started out on clarinet in 5th grade.. then came freshmen year where i met the worst section leader in the world who made me feel like nothing. i decided to look for a different instrument and instead of switching to another wood wind i thought to myself.. "woodwinds can't march drum corps" so i chose mellophone. I played french horn and mellophone to this day. and soon enough i'll be playing french horn in the United States Marine Corps Band ^^ talk about bando.

Unless you're going to the President's Own in D.C., please be forgiving in Boot Camp...

I was in 5th grade and my local middle school came by and did a performance to encourage students to take beginning elementary band.

So I asked my parents, and we went to the nearest music store to get me an instrument. The only one I knew was the flute so I had my eye on that.

My mom thought the clarinet would've been cheaper, but I was like, "what's a clarinet?"

Funny. But if it hadn't been for my mom I wouldn't have gotten close enough to my current boyfriend by being in the same section our freshman year and clarinet section leader 8th grade and senior year

Hey Duane! It's Meadow. I'm sure we met back in the days of the Bow and Ten Masa. I was wondering if you could remind me of the line up of Slam N Groove and how it was formed. From what I remember Slam broke up and Cold Shot broke up. Ricky an old friend of mine joined up with I think it was John-can't remember from what band and formed Slam N Groove. It's been a long time and a lot of beer later : )
It's one of those strange things that has stuck in my head for a while. My boyfriend's best friend is Reece Turner from SLAM. They were once in a band called Smith and Wesson, my boyfriend is Billy Wesson. Anyway...Never knew you guys got a record deal. Probably around the time bands like South Gang-what a dumb name change got theirs and the strip was fading sadly. That sure was one heck of a time though! I searched on Google and found your post here and at a Mustang lovers site where they didn't have a respond area that I could find. Hope you don't mind refreshing my memory~

Meadow

Back in the day, my band director asked me if I would be interested in playing bass guitar in the highschool jazz band as the current bass player was a graduating senior. I told him "yes". However, as I remember it, I was asked to do this in May and I only had the summer to purchase a bass guitar and take lessons and to learn how to read bass clef as I had only read treble clef being a B flat trumpet and baritone player. I played in the jazz band my junior and senior year and did a passable job but never felt that I was competent on it! After graduation, I never played the bass guitar again!

Fourth grade, my mom stuck a cornet in my face and said, "here, fascinate yourself and keep quiet"

My story begins in 5th grade. I wanted to get involved in music because my dad played guitar and drums for about 35 years at the time. So, when I was to sign up for a instrument, I looked at the list and didn't know what any of them were (except the trumpet). Trumpet was my natural choice.

In 7th grade, my band director asked for someone to switch to valve trombone. I, regretfully, volunteered. After that I looked into euphonium. Mainly because I was embarassed to be playing on a valve trombone. I figured out the only way to get to play on a euphonium was to make a need for one. So I went for CCS honor band. My band director knew I couldn't go into that on a valve trombone, so a euphonium was brought in.

Later, I wanted to learn how to play the slide trombone so I could use it in jazz band. So, when I was in 8th grade, I went to the high school director (Dr. Zuniga) for help. He agreed to help me out. Apparently it hurt him to see valve trombones used in his feeder school.

Later, I learned to play clarinet and saxophone so I could teach my sister to play. After that I was introduced to tuba because we were going to be missing 2 of our 3 sousaphone players for the 2007 Vallejo Band Review. So I was given 3 days to learn and memorize the competition march. French horn came just from some after school lessons.

That's my story on instruments so far.