Literacy Narrative

When I was in the 3rd grade my grandmother asked me, Do you want to take piano
lessons like your Dad?. My life has always been and will continue to revolve, almost solely,
around music. When my grandmother, who I call mawmaw, asked me that question I said duh
mawmaw and she signed me up for a year worth of lessons. That year was probably one of the
most difficult years of my childhood. Between arguing with my grandma about music practice,
balancing sports, my involvement in the church and school, it was a lot for me to handle in 3rd
grade. Since the start of 3rd grade, music has always played an important part in my life whether
it be as simple as a few lessons on one instrument or as big as an entire marching band, it will
always hold a special part of my life.
One day after school, I got off the bus and was walking toward my house, excited to tell
my grandmother about my day. As I walked in my house I could smell my grandmother cooking
in the kitchen and I heard music coming from the back room (I know this sounds like a fake, full
of crap story, but its not). I walked back and saw my dad playing on the piano we had. I sat
down beside him and banged on the keys which produced horrible sounds. He showed me how
to play some little riff (a short strand of notes) that I cant even remember but I just remember
that I liked it. The next day after school I came home and my grandmother sat me down at the
table and asked me do you want to take piano lessons like your dad? and I said duh
mawmaw!. She then signed me up to take piano lessons and I did for about a year and then
realized it wasnt for me, at least not yet.
In a couple years when I was in the last part of 5th grade, the middle school band came
recruiting and played for us in the auditorium. My friend, Joseph, was in middle school and

played the trumpet and I had thought about trying it. When I got home, I told my grandma about
the band coming to the school and why I wanted to try to play trumpet. She then told me that my
dad, in fact, also played trumpet when he was in school and was very good at that too. This just
made me want to play it more to prove that I could do something better than he did considering
that I failed at piano. She helped me fill out all of the paperwork and went to the store and
bought me my first trumpet. It was a gold Jupiter trumpet, which I valued higher than anything
else I had. At first I was absolutely horrible, however, I stuck with it due to the determination to
succeed.
I was involved in band from sixth grade through high school and have since continued to
remain in the band still to this day. In 11th grade I had to step up and become a section leader
which would make me have a bigger role and more responsibility in the band. I was nervous but
my friend, Joseph, who just graduated and left the position told me something I would never
forget; that when the time for me to take over, something would just click. What he meant by
saying that was the reason why I was in band and played music would hit me and I would better
understand what I was trying to do. This was hard to believe because I had, what I thought, was
the performance of my life under him being section leader. Everyone in the stands was standing
up and dancing to the music we played during that performance at Forestview High School. To
this day that is still the show I tell people was my favorite because the sight of 300 plus people in
the crowd standing up dancing to music we were making almost made me cry, I was so happy. I
thought to myself how can I do better than that? When band camp once again rolled around I
started to find out what he was talking about.
I wanted to help the new freshman that was coming in and it felt good to be a leader, not
because I could be the boss of people, but because I felt like I was making a contribution to the

band. Band camp was always hot, it was as if the sun was cooking us inside and out with hardly
any clouds to help. Everybody always lost at least ten pounds from just sweating from being in
the heat for five hours a day for three weeks. My job as a section leader was not only to help the
new freshman learn how to march and play music at the same time, but to help motivate them to
get through the brutal heat. That was the most difficult part because half the time I felt like I was
going to pass out right there on the field from it. When we finally got through the three week
long band camp, it was time for our first performance. On a scale of one to ten, the performance
was a solid five, which I was okay with considering it was our first performance. Throughout the
rest of that year, we had multiple performances and, for the most part, performed very well.
None the less, none of those performances were as memorable as the year before at Forestview.
The next year our show was titled Les Miserables, after the famous musical. The music
we had to play was very powerful and we were trying to tell the story that our show was based
off of. We had band camp and it was just as hot as the year before but my mindset was
completely different this time, after all, I was a senior now. This was my last year to make a
lasting impression on the band director, judges and family. I viewed it as my last opportunity to
prove to everybody that I was capable of doing something special and to myself that I was better
than my dad.
The music was the hardest I had ever played up until that point which really challenged
me because before then any music I had just came naturally to me. The fact that it challenged me
is probably what made that year so special to me. One day, about a week into school we came for
a Saturday practice and we were all pissed that the band director, Mr. Reed, made us wake up
and come to school on a Saturday when we were there till 12 the night before, due to the football
game. When we walked in, Mr. Reed said instead of going outside we were going to stay in and

watch the movie Les Miserables. He wanted us to watch it because a lot of us did not know the
story that we were trying to convey through our show. Everybody was silent through the whole
movie because it was such a powerful movie. I firmly believe that the music was 75 percent of
the reason that the movie was so powerful. The sounds just gave you chills because of the parts
of the movie that they was placed. After we finally got through the movie we all understood the
story that we was trying to portray through our music. Which is what I feel music is all about. It
doesnt matter if it is classical, jazz, rock, hip hop, or any other genre, all music is trying to tell
some kind of story. Even rap, which mostly talks about sex or drugs. It is still a story.
We spent the rest of the marching band season trying to tell this story through our music
as perfectly as we could and it finally happened the last show of the season. It was a Friday and
all of the seniors, including me, were sad about what was going to happen that night. Our last
marching band performance together as high school students. We had prepared all year for this
night. Even though we knew there was no trophy that would be handed out at the end of the
night, we could just feel that it was going to be something special. When it was time, we
marched down to the field and played the alma mater and Star Spangled banner for the last time
before a football game. As we marched off the field the team kicked off. We played in the stands
which is what all of the fans love the most about the band except for our parents and us who
know how much work we put into our halftime show. The time finally came for us to march onto
the field for halftime. As we prayed like we did before every performance on the side of the
field, I thought to myself the same thing I thought at the beginning of the season. This is the last
chance I have to prove to everybody that I can do something special. I walked onto that field
fighting back tears because all of the memories that I had of marching onto that field flooded into
my mind all at once, from freshman year up until then. I gave everything I had into the first three

of the four songs and the break between the third and last song was the longest pause of my life.
I knew what was about to happen. The drum major gave the downbeat for us to play and a sound
erupted from the band that was unlike anything we had ever played before. As we played
through the sound, we got to the final bars and I was broken down crying because it was the best
I had ever played anything in my life as well as the last performance. More than that I felt like
we had told the story that we were trying to communicate with people the whole season. Tons of
people were crying because the music we made was just a bunch of random sounds, but it was a
wall of sound that hit the audience in the face to let them know what we could do and that we
were there. Music is about telling a story through sounds and it is one of the most expressive
ways of communication that we have as human beings that separate us from other animals.
That last performance of my senior year changed my whole outlook on how I interpret
and play music. I dont only look at music as a form of entertainment, I see it as a form of
communication. How we can tell a thousand different stories to each other through music. In that
last show I fully believe that I told the story I wanted to tell. Not only about what the music was
about but about how hard my band and I worked to put on that show, also I proved to myself that
I was better than anybody I was compared to and no one could take that away from me. At the
end of the show, like any band director will tell you, its not about the number of trophies you
get at the end of the night but its about that feeling you walk off of that field with. Whether you
feel you gave fifty percent or you gave every last bit of all you had to give into that performance.
That day I could honestly say I did my best.