Did you bring your embouchure?
I like analogies. One more way of making sense of my world. I’m not going to bore you with a list of popular ones; you can do that for yourself. But when a situation can be compared, that’s my game.
Right now, I am working through a basic musical skill set, to complete the requirements for an online course. Tonight, we reviewed chromatic and major scales. With a lifetime of such stuff to draw upon, the exercises are easy as… well, almost too easy. Hardly a challenge. A reaffirmation of previously mastered material. Which draws me to another thing. My old high school is closing its doors, and there is a (possibly) well-attended reunion in the works. I don’t need to revisit the building: it has a place in my dreams, right down to the awful paint scheme in that sick room under the stairs.
What I do regret is not going to the “final” band practice. An extended afternoon of cacaphony, where well-meaning individuals will learn (in a public way) that the embouchure (human) must be maintained. More than the physical one, which will have been caressed by generations of learners. There’s a special sanitizing liquid to get past that. No, what I’d like to hear is the enthusiasm. I wonder if someone will bother to record things (along with the identities). Some of my former classmates still play, but I doubt that they will form a majority. As a percussionist, I’m safe from such things. Yes, I wish I was going.
Back to the present. I’m currently enrolled in two courses, and the workload can catch up with me in a hurry. Why isn’t the history quiz online already?
