When I was in junior high and high school, the Christmas concert was one of the most enjoyable concerts of our year for band. In 8th grade the Christmas concert let us highlight how much we'd improved, since we'd only been playing a year and a half. In 9th grade and then throughout high school, the fall had been filled with marching music, so Christmas was a fun time to enjoy new, fun pieces before we began working on our spring concert music for contests.
In my high school band, there was a Christmas song that became a tradition for us each year. Since the junior high and high school bands played a joint concert, junior high players learned of the song early and looked forward to being in high school to play them. We loved playing the song Sleigh Ride. The arrangement was a little challenging, which made it fun for us, and the percussion had a great time with it. Most importantly, the first chair trumpet player got to play the horses neigh at the end!
Looking at this from where I am now, it doesn't seem as exciting. Being a part of these fun times was so wonderful then, though! I still smile and think of some of my friends from junior high and high school when I hear Sleigh Ride.
This week I had the privelege of attending a junior high Christmas concert at my school. It was so wonderful for me to hear these kids and to see them enjoy what they were doing. They didn't play Sleigh Ride, but they had some Christmas tunes that will be memorable for them.
Do you have a special memory involving Christmas music?
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