Fond Memories

On Friday, Patrick and ten of his classmates (all the junior high students...all eleven of them) went to New Hampshire to compete against eight other Christian schools from Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, and Connecticut.  Represented by 213 students, these schools came together to compete in 49 different events in 5 categories: Bible, Art, Academics, Speech, and Music. 

Trinity Baptist School - Junior High

 Our students participated in twenty-four events and brought home many first, second, and third place ribbons. Trinity's new hand chime choir competed against three other handbell choirs who were well-established and experienced ringers.  We didn't place, but they did their best and performed admirably.  As their teacher has been out of school quite a bit in the past few weeks, I was asked to substitute teach the chimes as they prepared for competition.  On competition day, the teacher asked if I'd direct them since they were clearly used to me by now.  It was fun to be directing a choir again, although I do miss my old handbells.  At Trinity, everyone participates in hand chimes, regardless of musical knowledge or ability.  That can create some musical challenges, but also demonstrates a good message that participation is more important than winning.

Patrick competed in the Small Ensemble category with fellow seventh grader, Sophia.  They played Irish fiddle tune "Road to Listoonvarna", which is apparently the only song Sophia can play.  Patrick made it work by scheduling an extra guitar lesson specifically to work out the mechanics of this unknown piece.  And I spent some time at school helping them practice together; to stay focused, work on their stage presence, and fine-tune their timing.  I also helped them stretch this super short (only two lines of music) song into a performance piece by adding a second run through the piece where Patrick plays chords to Sophia's melody, and then adding the tag at the end.



The really cool part of their performance was what happened before the competition.  Their duo was the first event of the Small Ensemble category.  We arrived at the judging room about ten minutes before they were to start, but the room was empty.  We went inside and took our seats, and waited for the judges to arrive.  While I was setting up the camera and the seats were filling, one judge walked in and took a seat.  Patrick (probably in an attempt to quiet some nerves) started playing the guitar.  His friends coaxed him on to play this song or that song and he just kept playing at their request, telling stories and working the crowd the whole time.  One parent spoke out and asked if he knew any scales.  Patrick immediately ripped off two flawless scales and then went right back to playing songs for the crowd.  Eventually the judges were all seated and ready and gave them "the nod" to start their piece.  This is Patrick vamping for the crowd.

Proud smiles for Sophia and Patrick as they take home first place for The Road to Listoonvarna.

It's fun to watch Patrick get so jazzed about music (Did you see what I did there?  Jazzed about...oh never mind.)  We have definitely turned the corner from forced practices to having to take the guitar or mandolin away so that he can get his chores done.  He takes either the guitar or the mandolin to school almost every day, and is always looking for opportunities to use his music at school.

As Trinity has seen a consistent drop in enrollment, our resources for things like music instruction have taken a hit.  A once vibrant and active music program has been reduced to interested musicians taking private lessons, and a patchwork of volunteers coming in to teach music history and songs for concerts.  Changes are afoot for next year...exciting times.