The clarinet, the clarinet, goes diddly-diddly-diddly-diddly det.

Let it be known, that I, Emily Christine Woodroof, have joined the Scandicci band. Yay!

So far I have survived the grueling rehearsals....all two of them.....grueling for me because I'm out of flute shape, and 3 hours is a long rehearsal for me anytime. I'm going to copy and paste a note I wrote on Facebook shortly after my first rehearsal to best portray my emotional state:


"Well, I just experience my first band rehearsal.....in five years. In a foreign language. That's right. I just practiced for two and a half hours with the Scandicci band for the very first time! And it was incredible.

I practiced every day for four days leading up to the rehearsal (even scarier because it was in Italian), and amazingly I could still play my scales. And sightread. Granted, not to the Sarah Covey/Lisa Orpin level, but well enough. :) Despite my having not having rehearsed with a band in four or so years, my fingers somehow still remembered their notes.

But it was with a great deal of trepidation that I sat down in front of my music stand and looked at our first piece. Sitting next to a boy in his sixth year of music conservatory for flute, I will admit I was nervous. And would you believe it? It was something we had played in high school - Blue Bell something. And then the next piece was Pomp and Circumstance (hate that song, but I DO know how to play it!). And we played Liberty March by Sousa. Once the music started playing, it didn't matter that I was the only American (and the only blonde) there. Harding University Ensemble was stamped on a lot of the music that we played. :)

I had so much fun! And it made me so thankful all over again for Mr. Smith and the years he spent teaching me a skill that I can enjoy for the rest of my life."


I also practiced almost every day the next week the music that most of the other musicians had already played before, and I felt even better after the second rehearsal last night. That was a four hour haul, in preparation for our concert that is today. TODAY! I will hopefully have a video of part of the concert to share with you guys, so stay tuned!