I have always loved music. Throughout my life, this passion has guided me to make a continuous effort to explore music of all genres and origins. During my time at Joseph Knox Elementary School, my music teacher, Ms. McKean, introduced us to numerous instruments and musical concepts. From boomwhackers to glockenspiels, I had the opportunity to play a wide array of peculiarly named instruments over the years; however, it was in fifth grade I truly started to engage with music on a different level than I had before previously.

In August of 2017, each of us had to purchase our own recorder. Unlike the collection of school-owned instruments we had previously used in class, these recorders were entirely our own. For me, making music was always the highlight of my week, so the freedom to bring the music home with me was incredible. To incentivize practice, my music teacher gamified learning and performing musical passages through “Recorder Karate”. Like many types of martial arts, we used colors to denote how proficient one was in their study. Beginners of Recorder Karate started as a “white belt” and received a single white bead on a piece of yarn, which they could then wrap around their recorder, not dissimilarly to the manner in which students of Taekwondo don a white belt around their bodies when they begin learning their craft. After adequately performing an introductory piece of music, such as “Hot Cross Buns,” we students would progress to the next color tier, again adding a colored bead to our yarn belts.

After learning how to read and play music at a basic level, I became enthralled with expanding my knowledge and learning to play more challenging songs. Very few children enjoy any form of homework, especially in elementary school, but learning songs for Recorder Karate never felt like a work to me. In fact, after reaching the black belt status, I felt certain that I wanted to continue learning more about music, so the choice to join band in sixth grade was an easy one. At Teasley Middle School, new band members had the option to try out three instruments before they committed to choosing one, but I knew before trying any of them I wanted to play the saxophone. Lucky for me, the finger placements required to produce notes on the recorder were extremely similar to those of my new instrument of choice, so learning the basics was a breeze.

I continued to play alto saxophone throughout middle and high school, ultimately concluding my K-12 musical experience with the almost thirty-minute-long piece from the Masterworks Repertoire: “Carmina Burana” by Carl Orff. Comprised of thirteen movements and innumerable complexities, this performance was the ultimate culmination of the work I poured into my musical development. Now in college, I currently plan to join the UGA concert band in the Spring. I cannot wait to grow further!