Stories of My Life

The Failed Trombone Concert

So, this is a bit different. This is a situation that just recently happened to a friend, so I'm going to attempt to write about what happened. She described it as "it sucked", so the details are probably wrong. Enjoy!

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Siere POV:

"Siere! You're on!"

I popped my head up, surprised at the sound of my name. I slammed the book I was engrossed in, The Giver, and grabbed my trombone. Swallowing my fear, I felt my lips go numb.

Taking a deep breath, I reminded myself where I was, and what I was doing. Alright, for starters, I'm at a band concert. There are only three trombone players including me, so I had to make this right. Which, I doubted would happen. After all, the three trombone players, me, Min, and Rina, were basically switching roles throughout the song. None of us had fully mastered the piece - we were just relying on each other for standing out and making the rest of us sound good. Min could play the fast and complicated sections, while Rina and I just followed along. Rina could play the prettiest, masking Min and my non-existent ability to play beautifully. For me, I played the loudest, making up for the lack of volume coming from Min and Rina.

Filing with the other students, I found my seat in the mass of metal chairs onstage. Sure enough, I was smack dab in the middle, front row of the theatre. Oh god. My lips were sore from practicing earlier, and they were the tiniest bit numb.

Before I even brought the instrument to my mouth, the lights blared on stage, and seemingly straight at me. The rest of the band burst into song, leaving me fumbling to play. I staggered along, grateful the attention was focused on the oboes and flutes at this point in the song. But in this same song, the melody would go to the trombones, including a 10-second solo performed by yours truly.

The trombone and trumpet players lowered their instruments, since the attention switched from the woodwinds to the french horns. I took a deep breath and calmed myself, hoping the cameras that lay on the stage couldn't pick up my nervousness. Closing my eyes, I reminisced on the memories of encouragement I received from my friends.

Leane: Ohhh good luck. Band concerts are always easy :p

Honey: you'll be fine. There's nothing to freak out about - doesn't ur band hav like, 100 band players?

Sara: girllllll ull live. just remember how much you practiced for this song.

20 seconds before the melody of the trombones came up. Clutching my instrument, I took a shaky deep breath and looked to Rina and Min, scared at what their reaction would be. If they were calm, then I would look like an idiot, freaking out over a 10-second solo. If they weren't calm, then I would look like an idiot among idiots.

Taking another jagged breath, I brought my trombone to my mouth and played. I tried to play brightly, but my lips continued to fail me. Of course, Min covered for me when it came to the complicated parts, but brought to light that he was playing too fast. He was a whole measure ahead. Great. My lips were becoming more and more numb by the second. I swear I was sweating a waterfall.

Rina and Min's trombones faded away, letting all attention go to me. I tried to perfect Min's ability to play intricately and Rina's to play beautifully, but they both were bad endeavors. Then, once I hit the double G note, my lips gave out and made a bad E sound. Silence encased the auditorium, as my lips refused to move. From the corner of my eye, I could see my best friend, Avery, doing a face palm. My teacher gave a frown, yet reeked of embarrassment.

The rest of the band came in, playing loudly and continuing the song. I fumbled through the entire thing, once again. When it came time to bow, everybody glared at me. I stood in the back, where the cameras wouldn't see me, and where the audience couldn't see me.

Shame flooded my face, mixed with embarrassment. As I fled the auditorium, voices kept repeating "All because of the trombones...", and "Why'd Siere do that?"

When I arrived home and logged on my Mac, at least seven people had IM'd me about the incident - two apologized for their rude comments at the concert, the other five were people who didn't attend the concert, and wanted to "kno WTH hapend"

Of course, there were three people on line who I knew would not know about this incident - ever. They're on the other side of the world after all.

Siere: OMG sara... my concert sucked. so badly.

In less than fourteen milliseconds, Sara was booming with "WHY" on the other chat, labeled "Dream High", a private group chat for just Sara, Leane, Honey, and me.

Sara: GUYSSSSSS siere's claiming her band concert sucked.

Leane: hth is THAT tru? she spends like, four hours a day practicing trombone.

Siere: i choked during my solo - my lips went numb. its a trombone thing.

Honey: ... aww

Siere: the teacher is super mad at me now. he kept glaring at me. T.T

Sara: ... dick.

Leane: ...

Honey: ...

Sara: we were all thinking that. you made a mistake, and hes gotta go all *_* on yo booty? so unfair.

Leane: yeh i was thinkin dat too.

I laughed, happy at how accepting the three were. Even though I lived in Taiwan, and they lived in Canada, they didn't give a crap if I messed up. Everybody at my school tomorrow would be ready to pounce on me for screwing up. Whereas they - would not give a flying turd.

Siere: thanks... the other trombone player even told me i was the star of the show because I sucked so much. ㅠ.ㅠ

Sara: WHO USED KOREAN CHARACTERS AND DID NOT NOTIFY MEEEEEEEEEEE?

Leane: XDDDDDDD yeh.

Leane: do u wanna talk about wut happend or do u just wanna move on from eet?

Siere: Forget pleez. how late can you guys stay up. i wanna hav an all-nite IM session

Sara: hon, we're 13 hours behind. its 7am for us, not 9pm like u. duhhhh we will

Honey: hell yea

Leane: yeaaah

Siere: Sooo all night?

Sara: OKIEEEEEE

Honey: YEH

Leane: YESH!