I've always been an avid reader. I love to read. I wish I had more time to read. I can't remember ever not being able to read. I could read long before I started school. In fact, my mother sent me to kindergarten a year early--at 4 instead of at 5--because I could already read.
My brother is two years older than I am. When he was in first grade, the highlight of my day was when he read from his reader. I would hang over his shoulder and read along with him. This annoyed him to no end. What annoyed him even more was when he didn't know a word, and I would read the word for him. My mother finally had to forbid me from being in the room with him when he was reading. But I couldn't wait until he was done so I could grab his reader and read the stories myself. He hated this with a passion.
To this day, he doesn't like to read. I think in my childish ignorance, I put him off reading forever. He is, however, quite proficient musically.
When he was in 6th grade beginner band, and I was in 4th grade, he decided he was going to teach me to play his band instrument. He was playing the coronet at that time. He later switched to the tuba.
So he got his little sister, his beginner band book, and his horn and we sat down at the dining room table so he could teach me to play. He opened the book to the correct page, pointed to the note on the page, and said, "Play a G".
I didn't have a clue as to how to play a G, but I was willing to give it a try. I pursed my little lips, put my mouth to the horn and played:
"BLAAATTT!"
"No!", said my brother. "Play a G!"
Needless to say, the light of revelation had not struck me in the ten seconds which had passed since my first attempt at playing a G, so I tried again.
"BLLAAAAATTTTT!!!"
"I said," huffed my brother, "Play a G!"
One more time I tried, but the results were the same:
"BBLLLAAAAAAAAAAAAAAATTT!"
"Oh, you don't know how to do it!," snapped my brother, snatching the horn out of my hands and stomping off to his room.
To this day, I cannot play an instrument of any kind. And that brother, who was so impatient with me...
He is a music teacher in the El Paso, TX school district.
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4 comments:
He is a music teacher in the El Paso, TX school district.
And one hopes his teaching skills have improved since the "play a G" days!
:-)
Yes, one hopes...
I had problems trying to post a comment yesterday. I loved the brother story. My brother is only 13 months older than I am. He was always the "studious" type. I was the silly, social type. It made him furious when he would be trying to memorize a poem for school, and I would have it memorized before him just from hearing him read the lines over and over.
Thanks, Lou. That is one of our favorite family stories as well. I told it to Cody for the first time last year after he'd joined the band. I thought he was going to pop something from laughing so hard!
My brother was never the studious type, and really neither was I. I could remember things easier than he could, though, and usually made better grades. It always made him so mad!
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