Hi, I'm Ewura-Ama, and I was on a music scholarship at school. If you studied music like me, you'll remember everything from the long rehearsals to the even longer lessons learning instruments you don't even play anymore!
If I've already unlocked some core memories for you, read on for more things only we music kids will understand...
1. We all had an over-enthusiastic music teacher who fully expected you to be just as eager.
2. And you must remember your conductor's ~lively~ movements as they bounced to the beat?
3. Having rehearsals and lessons at ungodly times was the absolute worst.
4. And of course, all those rehearsals led up to performing in countless school concerts.
5. Your parents would always cheer too loudly in the audience, like you were playing at the O2 arena instead of a dingy school hall.
6. But that support always disappeared whenever this question came up – "why aren't you practicing? Do you know how much I pay for *insert instrument* lessons??"
7. Going on residential choir trips to different cities and even other countries was the best!
8. Who else forget their instrument once or twice and got stuck with a crusty spare?
9. Bluffing your way through rehearsal when you forgot to practice was the true talent of any music student.
Me faking and air bowing on the first rehearsal because I didn’t practice
Awkwardly playing just as badly as last week because you forgot to practice was torture, but the good thing about ensemble rehearsals was you could just mouth the words or mime playing the notes to pretend you weren't lost.
10. And why did I not have time to practise? Because SO MUCH was expected on top of all my other homework!
The anthem of the Ling Ling Kingdom
Yes, I chose to play an instrument, but thinking about it, both my parents and my music teachers expected A LOT from a literal child who also had eight hours of school and homework from 10 different subjects to contend with!
11. And when you actually practiced, it never showed when you needed it to.
Playing at home VS playing for teacher
It was so frustrating when you really did put the effort in, and you then slipped up in front of a teacher. Don't even get me started on playing a wrong note in a grade exam after working towards it for months!
12. Sore fingers from holding down strings/buttons/gripping your instrument were a regular fixture of our lives.
13. It was a super fun time working out your voice type in choir.
14. Anyone else recall composing and recording music with programs like Sibelius or Logic Pro?
15. Compulsory learning was a drag, but we loved to learn popular songs for fun!
16. Discovering a bunch of listening tricks for identifying a key, genre, or time signature by ear was a necessary evil.
17. As was using endless acronyms to remember everything from note orders to the spaces in staves!
18. Doing silly vocal warm-ups at the start of each rehearsal was good fun though.
19. I loved whenever we would sing rounds (which were pretty catchy tbf).
20. And no choir's repertoire was complete without many, many religious pieces.
21. Remember being told to bend your knees to hit high notes in rehearsal?
22. We all had to memorise a ton of terms for music theory!
23. And finally, something most music students will remember is developing a specific music-based sense of humour.
Did you just move from the V to the I?
The V – I chord progression is called a perfect cadence, in case you didn't get this stellar dad joke.
H/T to @TwoSetViolin for making the most relatable music oriented videos I've ever seen!
When you hope you can just wing it in music lessons