Part of the Band

This year Tanner decided to develop a new talent - he's playing the Baritone! Band is a huge thing where we live. When we first moved here, we were amazed at the number of kids in our ward that played in the band. There were only a couple that weren't in the band. Growing up in California, band was not seen as a "cool" thing to do. Here band is a way of life. They have major competitions - it is a big thing. So in order to get into band you have to start when you are in sixth grade. If you don't they feel you will be too far behind everyone else. At the end of fifth grade the band director comes and get the kids pumped up for playing in the band. Then you have to decided if you want to do it or not.

The decision was a little hard for Tanner. He had to decide to be in band or do the enrichment track. The enrichment track has things like greek mythology. Tanner loves greek mythology, but he also wanted to play the saxophone (no not the baritone - keep reading, I'll explain). So it took Tanner a couple of days to decide what he wanted to do. The band teacher had an informational night for the kids to come try the instruments to see which instrument worked for them. Unfortunately, we couldn't make it to the meeting so the band director told us to go to a local music store to try the saxophone.

Tanner was excited to try the saxophone when we got to the store, but he soon found out that it is hard to blow into the saxophone continually. He was able to do it, but it took a lot of his energy. So Tanner tried out some other instruments. One of those instruments was the Baritone. After playing the Baritone, Tanner decided that he would rather play it than the saxophone.

Tanner has really enjoyed the baritone so far. The baritone is a big instrument. When I saw it in its carrying case I thought about Tanner riding the bus everyday. Band is cool here, but I didn't think carrying that huge case on the bus everyday would help his social status (not that Tanner is really worried about that). Plus the thing isn't exactly light. Luckily, we found out that the school has enough Baritones for the kids to have one at home and one at school. All Tanner will have to transport is the mouthpiece!

Tanner has fun showing off his instrument to his brothers. I keep having to remind all of the boys not to put their head or hand into the Baritone.

So far I haven't had to remind Tanner to practice his Baritone. He enjoys practicing so he can learn how to play better. We are excited to see how Tanner improves over the course of the year. We look forward to attending his first concert!