Getting the 'Blog' Rolling

Hello Tecumseh Area folk! I'm here to get the ball rolling on this blog thing. Survivorscribe is your friendly neighborhood "Neighbors" staff writer Cristina. This here area of our new website is for community members to share what they are doing in and around Tecumseh by keeping their own Tecumseh Herald sponsored blog.

To get the ball rolling I'll most likely post little bits about what I'm doing in an around this little town. Yes, I live in Ypsilanti. Those of you who happen upon this blog may wonder why I give a hoot about Lenawee County. I've been working in Tecumseh for almost nine years, so it feels like home to me. My kids go to school in Lenawee County. Their friends live in Lenawee County. We simply keep our home in Ypsilanti. That's not to knock Ypsilanti, but this area does feel like home to me. I just have to drive a few miles southwest of my house each morning to get home.

Being that the "Neighbors" section is my beat, I've come to know the Clinton and Britton areas a little bit. I even lived in Clinton for a brief period. I enjoy getting out and getting into those communities, and most recently, I've dusted off my old flute and joined the Britton Community Band. It's not a major commitment like some community bands. We only have a few rehearsals and then it's performance time. We'll see what happens considering we are a rag-tag bunch of folk who, for the most part, haven't pulled our instruments out of their cases in some years.

I'm learning just how much I've forgotten in the twenty-blah, blah years since I actually played flute in an ensemble. Just last night at our second rehearsal all the flutes hit a high C note and I heard this horribley out of tune sound. As our conductor went down the row of flutes every player sounded beautifully in tune until he got to me. I eagerly put my flute to my lips and out came a really sharp C. He told me to roll the mouth piece out to get the note back in tune. I'd forgotten that.

I'd also forgottoen a lot of the lingo like "pick up," which is the note or two before the full measure we start at. Then there is fermata, which is holding a note indefinitely until the conductor cuts us off. I love the way the word sounds even if I had forgotten exactly what it meant. Many of us have forgotten that the key can change in the middle of the piece or that the time can change as well, so a few of us got off key and off count.

Just as we were feeling confident in the relatively easy music that we were given, the conductor pulled out a new piece, which for many of us was an old piece, but it had been so long since any of us had played it that it could have been a new piece. That was John Philip Sousa's "Stars and Stripes Forever." Yeah, we were all thumbs and wrong notes again, at least I was.

Still, it's been fun trying desperately to get my chops back a little. We'll be performing Tuesday, March 4, at the Britton High School Band Concert.

That's what's going on with me in Lenawee County.

~C

p.s. Come blog with me:)