It’s storytime boys and girls so buckle up.
When I was in high school, I was in fact a band nerd. More than that, I was a percussionist, so I played everything that wasn’t a wind instrument. And even more detailed, I mainly practiced mallet instruments. If you remember the little toy multi-color xylophone you played with as a child, then imagine that but 10x bigger, that is what I played in band.
I was in band for 6 years and during that time I had the opportunity to get pretty decent at vibraphone, marimba, and xylophone. Then when I graduated from high school and I went to college I had the opportunity to be in college band. I decided against it though because I really wanted to focus on my degree rather than still be the band kid I had been for the past few years of my life.
This decision has filled me with just a little bit of regret ever since.
Mallet instruments aren’t cheap. Because of that the only realistic way I could have kept practicing and playing would be by playing in the college band. And since I hadn’t been in college band I haven’t been able to play… until recently a very strange thing happened.
A month or so ago I was at work and I was talking to one of my co-workers about high school band. If you want to know what the easiest most fluid subject you can talk about to any band kid, it is band. Turns out my co-worker was a band kid, and he played euphonium, he then asked what I played. I explained to him that I was a percussionist and I mainly played the mallet instruments, and how I really wish I was still playing but those instruments cost a lot of money so I don’t play anymore.
This is where it gets interesting. Once I explained what I used to play he told me how his dad was a band director and percussionist. Then he went on to say that he thinks there might actually be one in his garage that he is trying to get rid of and if so, I could have it.
Turns out, that is exactly what happened. A couple of weeks ago he handed me the frame and keys and resonators to a xylophone and explained that there wasn’t a stand for it. That’s fine, I can easily build it.
And with that I built the frame.
And when the frame was built I put it into my closet (which is surprisingly spacious).
And now I have a xylophone I can readily practice on and hopefully master, which brings me to my next big endeavor.
For at least the rest of Summer starting next week I am going to try to upload a video a day of xylophone. All the videos are probably going to be short melodies that I’m getting from a book of melodies, and hopefully by the end of Summer I will be much better than I am now. The link to that YouTube channel is here.
It’s a strange thing, because I know if I was watching a movie and this happened to the protagonist I would be in utter disbelief and probably call the movie unrealistic. But here I am now, the newest owner of a xylophone.
Max Endeavors 