The flute let me down in high school… It made me a lame school musician… Like the nerdiest of the
nerds…

Learning an instrument at school is great… It helps with a lot of things, including brain development… But it is an activity often taken up by nerds… Either because their parents told them to, or they thought they could be the musician that defied the laws of school ground class groups and become a cool musician… Adored by all, young and old, girls and boys, nerds and jocks alike… But the truth is… Most school musos are fairly studious and pretty well behaved nerds… Not surprisingly… I did music… Because I thought it was cool… (Which it is, but only now that I am older and I can see it with my older me eyes, and it’s a different cool than what I was aiming for in high school).  At school I learnt flute… Which wasn’t my first choice… But it’s where I ended up… And until last weekend, I was content in being a flautist at school.  But that was until I went to Mt. Gambier… To the Generations in Jazz competition… I had known about the competition since I was at school, the stage band went and back then didn’t win much, and Dave’s school, which I had taken an interest in went and won a lot.  Over the weekend Dave and I returned to Mt. Gambier with a stage band from Dave’s school and it dawned on me that I had missed out.  There were lots of kids there who had been just as nerdy as I was, but here they were kings… Those from schools with great music reputations were famous, it was like a whole new world… One which I think I would have enjoyed very much, but the flute ruined that for me.

You see, while there are often flute players in stage bands… They are there because they play more than one instrument… Flute is just one… Because playing the flute alone doesn’t get you into a stage band.  An orchestra, sure, a concert band, absolutely, even an incredible ensemble.. But not a stage band… And not to Mt. Gambier… So, it turns out I missed out… I missed out on Mt. Gambier, which just isn’t the same when you return a teacher… Especially when you aren’t a music teacher…