For the Band Kids

The Babies (Part 2)

Some quick background: Our band program has an intern. Basically, he's a Music Ed major from a college in the state. As our director explained to us, you spend the first three and a half years taking college classes, learning to play/teach instruments, etc., and then the last semester is spent as an intern (called your senior internship).

Mr. H (that's what I'll call him here) is usually a pretty quiet and observant guy. He's nice to us, helpful, can tell/take a joke (although he stares at us sometimes and doesn't make any noise when he walks, which is kind of creepy).

Anyways, our director usually has him help out individuals or small groups. Generally, I don't need the extra help as much, so I hadn't really experienced his teaching style until this point.

Moment Two:

So, this was last Friday. During the last ten minutes of class, our director let Mr. H teach the band.

It was like he was a completely different person.

He got on the podium and boisterously shouted "All right!" That was basically his personality for the next ten minutes. The guy was so energetic that it was scary.

He was excessively praising us for little things too. ("Thank you, thank you, thank you for holding out that whole note for four beats!") Honestly, I was just kind of shocked that the guy held this much energy.

So, Mr. H sent us to pack up. Beginning French horns keep their cases along the perimeter of the room, usually next to each other. That particular day, Samantha and I had left our cases next to each other. We were putting our horns away when he looked up at me and said, "I think he just doesn't want to tell us we're terrible."

I think this kid is smarter than I give him credit for.