IntroductionIt was in 8th grade when I first met Dr. Michael Scott. He had just gotten a job as the orchestra teacher for 5th and 8th grade. I instantly liked him. He was smart, funny, and very kind. He taught us much better than the previous orchestra teacher did, and I was excited when I learned he was also the orchestra teacher at Sibley, where I would be going next year. I was proud to have him as my teacher, but now I also wonder if at that point I knew the REAL Dr. Scott. He is much different than the man I thought I knew in 8th grade. SinfoniaThere was no room that year in the Philharmonic for cellos, so there was no point in trying out. By default, all eight of us (6 from Heritage, 2 from Friendly Hills) were put in Sinfonia, the lower orchestra. Unfortunately, my memory is not very good and I can't recall much from first semester. It is second semester that I remember the most. Coming back to school after break for the second semester, like any sensible person I was expecting the music to be harder and more challenging. Last semester had been a fun challenge, and I was a bit excited to see all my friends again for the 50 minute class period. Dr. Scott greeted us, and the second half on Sinfonia orchestra was under way. The First SignDr. Scott had a habit of giving us music and not telling us what it was for. Our folders slowly filled with assorted pieces such as Romance and Frontier Phantoms. And then, one day, he gave us Dragon Dances. Any freshman from Heritage or FH knew it. We had played it for our concert in 7th grade. We were confused, but let it slide. Dr. Scott also gave us Spinning Song, an easy piece that everyone immediately hated. It was ugly sounding, and for at least 75% of the composition, the cellos are plucking the same dum-ding dum-ding dum-ding rhythm. As the end of the year and our last concert on June 1st approached, we started to wonder what our concert pieces were. And then Dr. Scott broke the news: We would be playing M to the Third (a fun, slightly challenging piece THAT WE HAD PLAYED FOR OUR PREVIOUS CONCERT), Spinning Song, Dragon Dances, and Jubilant Overture with the Philharmonic (a decent high school orchestra piece). Immediately we were thrown off guard. Why in Frynn's name would we play a song for the most popular concert of the year that we had played for a concert IN 7TH GRADE and the song nobody liked?!?! On the board, somebody had calculated the concert times for each song and group. The Philharmonic had 16 people graduating, so that accounted for quite a few solos. Even so, our time was estimated at 12 minutes. Philharmonic was expected to take up 60-70. All our previous misgivings where finally coming together. Second BestDr. Scott was an absentminded man. Don't get me wrong-I loved him. But sometimes it seemed like he wasn't cut out for teaching orchestra. For one, he was a bass trombone player. Two, he put all his time and devotion into one thing: Philharmonic. He was all Philharmonic-it was obvious to us that to him, Philharmonic was like a firstborn child. Sinfonia would only get the love that he had left, which was not much. When the violins needed music, he took almost a week to get it, even with constant reminders each day. In second semester, he decided that he needed to teach how to practice efficiently-and that he would bring in his trombone and play it for us. Even with reminders each day for a week, leaving it by the door, and a Sunday email from me, he never got around to it. Another thing that really irks me is the fact that we needed to play vibrato for our auditions in June. At the beginning of the year, my mom had sent him an email asking if I needed to learn vibrato. He never replied. One more thing about Dr. Scott is he never, ever checks his email. Then, two weeks before our auditions, he told us we needed to be able to play vibrato "naturally". And, with two weeks left on the clock, he finally brought in a Philharmonic person to show us HOW. Through the entire lesson, they both kept stressing that the only way to get good at vibrato was to practice. Gee, thanks, you couldn't have told us this AT THE BEGINNING of the year, instead of two weeks before!!!??? Perhaps it had just "slipped his mind". Too Much and Too LittleIn second semester, it seemed like Dr. Scott struggled with finding the right level of teaching for us. Many of the violins and violas were still struggling with how to actually PLAY the notes, i.e. fingerings and stuff, but instead of helping them Dr. Scott just told them, "It needs to be higher/lower!" and "Second finger, violins!", which was pretty unhelpful if you had no idea where your finger was supposed to be in the first place. If he noticed, he sure didn't show it. Instead, he launched right on ahead with teaching us bits of music theory, which is good and all, except for the fact that someone who can't play correctly isn't going to be caring about where the notes came from; they're going to be focusing on where they ARE. It was like Dr. Scott was disconnected, and not listening to his students. His head was too full of Philharmonic to incorporate anything we told him. Surmounting PressureAs second semester went on, we began to become increasingly frustrated. If you took everything into account, it was like a study hall, except all you did was sit and wait to be called on to play for maybe two minutes before he moved on to a different section. The cellos rarely played at all, because we were just at a much higher level than everybody else and didn't need much help. And then Dr. Scott turned and stabbed us in the back. Nobody likes practice logs. At the beginning of the year, Dr. Scott had promised to us that we would not be doing them. About halfway through second semester, he announced that WE WOULD BE USING PRACTICE LOGS. To many of us, that was as good as the last straw. We had lost all affinity for the orchestra program. Now, it was in shambles, the class we dreaded most. The orchestra was dying, and Dr. Scott was oblivious. EpilogueIt is now August, and school is starting soon. I know that i won't be going back. I didn't get in to Philharmonic, and from what my lesson teacher told me, it seems nobody else did either. Turns out, Dr. Scott is cutting down his Philharmonic. 16 seniors graduated last year, and there were 8 cellos. I'm not how many graduated, but because of a lack of violins, Dr. Scott has only allowed 4 to remain. There were 10 cellos in Sinfonia last year, and more Freshmen are coming, not to mention the few Philharmonic that got dropped. Dr. Scott is running the orchestra to the ground, at a time when it can't afford to. Budgets are being cut, teachers are under scorn, and he thinks the solution is to exclude everybody except the elite from getting the education they deserve.
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Wow, guys! It looks like people actually enjoy reading my comics... Animazi: Gemini already has 18 subscribers! Thanks to all who read, and thank you Line Webtoons for allowing people to post webcomics for free. I would like to continue working on Animazi, so check back often! Ep. 5 is up!
Yes, yes, I know, V.4 was short lived...but with each new draft, the story gets better and one step closer to a real novel. Stay
tuned! -WaF So yes, I have renamed the series ONCE AGAIN. The draft order goes like this: Animazi |
AuthorAn 18 year old writer, drawer, tea enthusiast, beanie baby collector, INFJ, Pleiadian starseed and high schooler, Amanda enjoys mammals, drawing, and reading. She wants to be an editor, comic artist, alien, and own lots of pets when she grows up. Archives
January 2020
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