Drumline

Your humble narrator, the RocknRollScientist lives in the city of Detroit (if that isn't already obvious). Specifically, in the shadows of Northern Senior High School. Literally. I can go to my front porch and watch football practice. Today, it's marching band practice. At least, it's the drumline. I haven't heard any wind instruments, just quads, snares, and bass drums. When we first moved to this house four years ago, we would hear the band practicing, and they would be playing songs from Dr. Dre. That kinda freaked me out, because I was used to marching bands playing old classic rock when they played pop music. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, I was a band dork. I started playing the trombone in fourth grade and never found a good reason to quit. If, like me, you were particularly shy throughout grade school, band was a good place to meet people. It was also a good way for me to get exposed to music that I wouldn't normally hear because there were people from all the grades in the band classes. I went to 8th grade and the first half of 9th grade in Mt. Pleasant, MI, which is a college town. Central Michigan University is there. Marching band is a reaalllllly big deal at CMU, and at the high school. When I was in 8th grade, I was already playing in the high school marching band because they didn't have enough trombones, so they asked me to play with them. (those kids over at Northern have no concept of rhythm. I'm ready to go over there and insist on helping) Being in marching band is also a way to get out of taking gym class at most high schools. That was probably the second biggest reason I stayed in it, right behind the fact that I liked playing in band. It's so easy to refer to people who were in band as band geeks or band dorks, but honestly, most of the people I know who were in band in high school are much more well-adjusted individuals than those who weren't in band. Now, I'm not saying you had to be in band to be normal after high school. I'm just saying that some people need a creative outlet when they're younger, and if they don't get a chance to express themselves, they could become very uptight adults. Band was a good thing, that's all there is to it.

proud former band dork