A/N: So this is a new challenge that sort of fell out of the sky and hit me on the head. I call it a 4x4. I'll write four little pieces for each of the four marching band sections (Woodwinds, Brass, Drumline, and Guard). Sooo, yeah. Readers and reviewers make the little blue man sitting on my desk very happy!
Woodwind – Clarinet 1. Hanna
I really don't understand why everyone says the woodwinds have it easy.
Seriously.
Have you ever heard a single clarinet play louder than four trumpets?
Have you?
I have.
That's partially why I got first clarinet and section leader this year. According to the papers we got back after chair placements, I 'play loudly, lyrically, and have great leadership abilities'.
In a band of this size, I really don't understand why we need section leaders.
This year, there are ten section leaders for a band that has thirty kids spread across all the sections. Hell, the woodwinds have three section leaders, and there's five of us total. Two clarinets, me and this eighth grader who doesn't play loud enough who's named Isabella. One piccolo, who's another eighth grader but plays loud enough, and her name is Casea. Two alto saxes and both of them are really good. Luke is a sophomore who kicks saxophone butt and is the section leader, while Lear is a junior who just plays for the hell of it.
For all the brass and drumline boys and the guard girls, the woodwinds are branded as 'the lazy ones'. I really don't understand how they can come to that conclusion.
The brass and drumline can play at their softest volume and still easily be heard at the top of the stands, and the guard just has to make sure they look pretty and that their hair is basically cemented to their heads. The five of us woodwinds have to strain and push and support like hell to even hope to be heard at the front of the bleachers.
It's tough being a woodwind, but so immensely satisfying.
Like every year when it comes to the section scoreboards, the woodwinds always beat out everyone else by a landslide. The brass always forgets their music, the drumline goofs off every other minute, and the guard never learned the drill in the first place.
With us woodwinds… We're different. We're… dedicated.
We test each other during lunch breaks to make sure we've totally learned the music, from every sixteenth-rest to every hairpin crescendo. We goof off, though not during full band rehearsals. Once we've gone over a piece once in sectionals and it was to our standards, we yell and laugh and play leapfrog for the rest of the woodwind alone time. And it's not uncommon to see the woodwinds out on the practice field an hour after full band practice has ended, working on our drill. Sure, it may be easier since only four woodwinds have to learn drill, considering my chair keeps me from marching.
That's another thing. If I was in another section, I wouldn't be accepted because of my wheelchair. If I was with the brass, I would be looked down upon because I was a handicapped girl who they didn't think could play. If I even tried to think of drumline, I wouldn't be able to play because the setup of the drums. Guard, I wouldn't be able to do jack shit.
But woodwinds don't care about that.
We're care about if you're dedicated to your instrument.
If you want to learn and get better.
If you're any good.
If you care.