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Have you ever been in the band?


Airehead

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I played alto and baritone sax in the high school concert, marching, stage, and pep bands, and also the ancient town band.  It was fun!  Mostly I liked the band director - my favourite high school teacher who took a liking to me, largely because he played alto sax also, and he was and still is very very good. 

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No one in my extended family --though several nieces and nephews did learn piano for several years, trumpet and violin.  The youngest is 9 yrs. old and learning guitar.

One of dearie's American nephews was in marching high school band for several years.....I think this is more U.S. schools and colleges. He loved it and it taught him a lot about self-discipline plus have social fun. None of the colleges nor universities in CAnada have much marching bands at all. The university I went, had a little one which I found odd...I transferred from another Canadian university that had less of a marching band.

In our city, we probably one of the very few Canadian city marching and performing bands, that go internationally. It is associated with the Calgary Stampede.  They practice often in a playing field, not far from Saddledome Stadium in non-snowy weather. It's serious practice.

My boss' daughters were dance and band performers before they became instructors themselves.  

 Local marching band's attire requires a black Stetson cowboy hat --year round. Calgary AB May 2014.

This is great local band that performs internationally, primarily older teens below.

fiddlers.jpeg

Calgary Fiddlers, local group of gifted young people perform locally and internationally. East Village Performance, Calgary AB 2016. Photo by J.Chong

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Yes.

I played B flat and alto clarinet in high school stage, concert and jazz bands.

B Flat clarinet and oboe in the Burnaby concert band

Alto sax in the Vancouver Beefeaters marching band

B flat clarinet in the Burnaby Hastings Rotary band

Guitar in Ezra, our garage band, but we toured Western Canada bars so we were ok. 

Band was my thing. 

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I played trumpet in high school and FSU Marching Chiefs.

So many memories but one that stands out was the liquor store next door to our hotel when playing Miami in the original Orange Bowl which doubled as their stadium. I was underage and never carried a fake ID, and off to a great impression as I tripped over the owner's poodle and hearing "Hold it sonny, how old are you?" She was mathematically challenged as she counted the years on her fingers and stated "You just made it." ? She then proceeded to give me a tour of the store, educating on the various types of liquors.  Told my bandmates about the experience, pooled together $$, and went back. We had a great party!

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I played trumpet in my high school concert, pit and marching bands.  I generally hated the marching band, but one highlight was we got to play at halftime at a Baltimore Colts home game in 1964.  We sat in chairs on the sideline during the game.  I got to see John Unitas, Raymond Berry, John Mackey, Jimmy Orr and the rest just a few yards away from where I sat.  The Baltimore Colts was my favorite team ever.

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In high school in the 60's, I played rhythm and sometimes lead guitar in a low-skilled rock band that had a pretty, very shapely, very-good singer named Lauretta and because of her we actually played TWO times for money.  Once was when another band we knew paid us $25 to play whenever they went on break at a club.  The other time was when we talked the student officers and advisor organizing a gym record-player sock hop to pay us $50 (the going rate for a decent band was about $125 then) to play instead and they went for it since they could charge an extra quarter for admission to cover to cost!  So we made $75 split four ways and could technically call ourselves professional musicians!

So was it fun?  Yeah, but mostly we just enjoyed band practice - which we did once a week in my parents' upstairs rooms.

In college I also played in a band but we never planned to play for money and played at friends' parties, etc.

My younger brother, who got into music and learned guitar from me and my friends when my band practiced in our parents home, has been in bands as a bass guitarist his entire adult life and on occasion I've played with them - usually one number to try to make it easier to pick up women in the bar, etc.  Now, in his 50's, his band practices in his basement on Wednesdays and they're all in their 50's and in it more for fun than money but they still get paying gigs 2-3 times/month on weekends.

My brother, playing bass and standing in the middle, playing in his band "Switch" at our cousin Eddie's "The Birdcage" bar and restaurant.

812594_461925943860551_1514786655_o.thumb.jpg.43612e28ea7677a807e1d05275ce0a24.jpg

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