Here is my third annual list of yearly highlights. I challenge you to compile your own list and see if you had a more exciting 2019 than I did.
Best Worst Time to Wear a Band Shirt. A colleague of mine had a student who was arrested wear her band shirt in the mug shot.
Best Prank. I boarded the bus to leave a jazz event and was startled to find that not one of my jazz band members was on the bus like they were supposed to be, only to find out they were ducking down in their seats. They thought they were so clever.
Best and Most Addictive Oldie I Discovered This Year. Psycho Killer by Talking Heads.
Best Desk Ornament Idea That I Didn’t Follow Through On. A personalized bobblehead of my principal so I could see him nodding his head “yes” to every question I ask.
Best Heartwarming Moment. Attending a Texas A & M football game and seeing how much the home crowd gets into the Aggie Band’s halftime performance.
Best Student Excuse for Underperforming in Beginning Band Class. “My brain hurts.”
Best New-to-Me Conducting Concept. On how to conduct music emotionally, but maintaining the concentration required for a great performance, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, music director of the Philadelphia Orchestra, suggests that one “keep the mind cold and the heart warm.”
Best Example of Making a Once Simple Task Annoying and Difficult. On school checks: “Remove Stubs at Both Ends First, Then Fold, Crease and Remove This Stub at Perforation.” It took several attempts for me to learn that all perforations are not created equal.
Best Classic Reading for Getting Those Positive Vibes and Endorphins Going. The Complete Far Side by Gary Larson, and The Complete Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson.
Best Worst Inservice I Didn’t Have to Attend Because I Retired. Thirty hours of training in literacy, most of it during time that would have been summer marching practice time in previous years.
Best Marching Mystery I Never Solved. How two students can arrive at a drill set with the same, exact incorrect marching interval with amazing consistency but cannot arrive at the right interval consistently.
Best Thing I Learned That I Should Have Known Already. I always assumed the brass mouthpiece visualizer was just for taking a look at students with possible embouchure problems. It actually opens up a brass player’s sound even more than mouthpiece buzzing does.
Best Humorous Orchestra YouTube Videos. Any featuring humorist and conductor Rainer Hersch.
Best Annoying Song I Actually Like. Baby Shark.
Best New Book on Leadership. Leadershift by John Maxwell.
Best Musical I Saw In Person. The Lion King in New York City. What’s not to love? Catchy and familiar music, drama, great spectacle, and mesmerized children young and old in the audience.
Second Best Musical I Saw in Person. Beautiful in New York City. The very entertaining life story of singer-songwriter Carole King.
Best Tip That Really Has Nothing to Do With Music But Might Prevent You From Having to Pay a Plumber with Money You Could Use to Buy a Ticket to a Musical. Do not put grease, fat, rice, pasta, cornhusks, celery, asparagus, bones, fruit pits, or anything hard in the garbage disposal.
Best Worst Oldie Rediscovered That You Will Never Find on My iPhone. The 1974 #1 hit (You’re) Having My Baby by Paul Anka. (Sadly, he also sang “. . .but I’m a two-timing man” on a later 1974 hit.)
Best Novelty Item. The Brasstache, a clip-on mustache for brass mouthpieces that even comes with its own carrying case.
Best “New” Artist Who Makes Me Look Cool Because I Downloaded His Song. Canadian singer The Weeknd and his catchy number one hit Can’t Feel My Face.
Best Confusing Experience that Needs a Name. That short period of musical limbo when you lose concentration during extended rests and don’t know exactly when to come in.
Best Facebook Experience. Reconnecting with my favorite band director of all-time and bragging to her like I was still in 8th grade so she would be proud of me.
Best New Organizations I Have Joined Upon Retirement. Association of Concert Bands and the International Tuba and Euphonium Association.
Best Addition to Marching Band Rehearsals. Cool Towel, a super cooling towel that you soak with water, wring out, and snap several times to get relief from the heat. Just snap it again several times whenever you need it cool again.
Best Personal Technological Advance. About 50 percent of the time I actually think of taking a picture of something with my smartphone as opposed to searching for another hard copy.
Best Professional Move. Retiring!
