Gabe 9: District Band

Two weekends ago, I was at district band. For those of you who don’t know, district band is a large concert band made up of students from a number of different counties in our area. In order to get in, you have to audition, which is a very difficult and competitive process that involves months of practice and preparation. I made it in by dumb luck.

I play the french horn. This year, around forty or so french horn players auditioned for the sixteen spots at districts. I went into much more detail about this in a previous blog, but basically, I screwed up my audition and was sure that I wouldn’t make it in, and yet for reasons that are still unknown to me, I managed to tie for the sixteenth spot. I literally made it in by the seat of my pants.

At district band, there is a reaudition. Basically, the first audition that lets you into districts determines the part you will play (1st horn, 2nd horn, etc.). Then you get your music, and have to practice relentlessly for the reaudition, which determines the order you sit in within that part, first of course being the best. It also determines who gets to go to regions. The original auditions have no weight on this. Technically, the person who scored the lowest on the district audition could score the highest on the reaudition and would then make it to regions.

Going into districts, I felt like I wasn’t supposed to be there, and that the only reason I was there was because I got lucky and not because I was a skilled enough musician. I felt like everyone else was thinking the same thing about me, that I didn’t deserve to be there. Sure, that mindset was not great for my self esteem, but it actually motivated me to prove them wrong. I practiced like my life depended on it. Every moment of free time was spent on that reaudition music.

The reaudition was held on the first day of the district festival. At first I thought I did pretty well. Those thoughts were cast aside after they seated us. I knew I was going to be on 4th horn, because that was where I placed with the first audition, but to have any chance at getting into regions, I thought I would have to be seated as the first 4th horn. I was seated second 4th horn, which meant that at least one person scored higher than me on the reaudition. But I wouldn’t know for sure until after the concert, two days later.

During the festival, my mindset became very negative. We had cafeteria food for every meal, I was surrounded by musicians who I thought were way better than I could ever be, and we practiced for a total of 16 hours in under 3 days, which was A LOT. By the end of it, I was convinced that I didn’t make it into regions. Imagine the shock when I found out not only did I make it, but I scored third highest out of all the french horns. Have you ever experienced something similar, where you lowered your expectations so much for something that you were actually surprised when it worked out?