Oh, boy! Oboe!

Since Jacob is going into sixth grade next year at Bowman, he, along with the other new sixth graders, had to choose to take either band, orchestra, or choir. It is required for all sixth graders to choose one. He choose band and wanted to do percussion. Since percussion is so popular, there was a meeting held one evening for all kids interested in percussion and their parents. We got a quick run down of what is required for percussion and were also given a "golden ticket" to bring to the instrument placement held on April 18 in the Bowman cafeteria. Only those with "golden tickets" would be allowed to audition for percussion. They had about 30 kids interested but would only be picking 12 new percussionists. Because of that, the kids had to try out at least three wind instruments before going to the percussion audition and mark down three other choices. There were about 15 professional musicians in the cafeteria when we got there. Jacob started with the French horn. The mouthpiece was too wide for him to make a sound so we tried the trombone next.

Kyle played the trombone in his junior high/high school band so Jacob was eager to try. Most of the musicians had the kids try to make a sound with just the mouthpiece or reed before attaching it to the intsrument. He could make a sound but not a very good one. The trombonist directed us to try a reed instrument because Jacob's mouth was naturally forming in that direction.

Off to the bassoon. It is a big instrument but Jacob made a good sound. Each kid had a blue sheet listing all the instruments available to try and the musicians marked whether or not they recommened that instrument for that child. Jacob was recommened for the bassoon.

Since he had tried his obligiatory three instruments, we headed to the percussion audition. The lighting was bad and my flash wasn't working. Before trying out the xylophone, the percussionist had Jacob try beating out different rythyms on a practice pad. We didn't get a recommended/not recommended because that was figured out after everyone had auditioned.

Next we tried the oboe. We stood in line for about twenty minutes before it was Jacob's turn. He made a great sound on the reed right away and the oboeist(?) got very excited. She said it was the best sound she had heard all day. She quickly scooted over right next to him and had him try the reed several more times. Each time he got better and she got more excited. She put the reed on the instrument, showed Jacob where to place his fingers and let him blow. He really liked it. Of course she recommended it. She put a Great! Awesome! Smiley face on his sheet. He was feeling pretty good.

The last instrument we tried was the flute. He could make a sound but it was fuzzy. The fluteist told him he had rare lips because it wasn't very often you came across someone who could play both the bassoon and the oboe. She said he could probably do the flute but since he got such a good recommendation on the oboe he should go with that.

Before we left, we had to check out with one of the band directors and get information on the instrument he chose. She was very surprised by his Great! Awesome! Smiley face recommendation on oboe. I asked Jacob, if he got picked for percussion, which would he rather do, percussion or oboe. He said oboe. The band director said, "Oboe it is!" She told us about private lessons Jacob could take over the summer and gave us a list of teachers they use. One of them was the oboeist who was at the school that day. There is also an oboe camp held in August. If he does private lessons he doen't have to go to camp. We can rent the oboe from the school for the summer and the school year. It is one of the few we can rent from the school. He tells me every day that he wishes it was summer so he could take oboe lessons. I'm so happy he found something that he is excited about and can be successful at.

After picking their instrument, all the kids had their picture taken with the Bowman Raiders mascot, a knight, that funnily enough, looks a lot like the Bowman principle, Mr. King.