I love doing service activities through my chapter: cleaning
the score library, helping the marching band execs at the end of the season and
getting them ready for the next season in the spring, ushering at the annual
Christmas Vespers, and volunteering at USSBA competitions. But all of these events would get done
without our help. Granted, our
involvement makes completing the tasks much easier, but we are not necessarily
crucial in accomplishing the goal. These
events are usually once or twice a semester, so they’re good for scheduling
purposes and allowing everyone to get their service hours. They are fun events to do, but I rarely felt
a sense of accomplishment after these events.
I like a challenge.
The fall of my senior year, my schedule was really
busy. I was Manager of Lehigh’s Marching
97, which took up a decent chunk of my time each day of the week between
rehearsals, meetings, and performances.
I was also working on my senior composition projects, which had weekly
checkpoints. I couldn’t do service
projects for the band and meet my requirement because band execs get half
credit for service hours for the marching band (which makes sense because it’s
their job to do things for the band, but it can be frustrating at times). My weeknight evenings were all taken up by
rehearsals, meetings, and class, which made weeknight activities like score
library cleans impossible to fit in my schedule.
So I began waking up at 6:30am to walk half a mile to the
local middle school. They have rehearsal
before school under the direction of an alumna of West Chester University (she
was a sister at WCU and an honorary brother of Kappa Gamma). I sat in with the clarinet section with a
girl that needed more help. They played
through a march, and I watched the girl’s fingers stay still, maybe fumbling
around, but not hitting any of the notes.
I pointed to the music to show her where the group was, but it wasn’t
much help. For the rest of rehearsal, I
had her read through the music, telling me note names and showing me fingerings
on the clarinet. A few times I had her
clap rhythm for me, but then rehearsal ended.
I asked her to do the same thing on a few of the other songs before the
next rehearsal. I felt frustrated and
nervous; would she take practicing seriously? Would she get frustrated and give
up music altogether?
For the next rehearsal I printed out a fingering chart and
made flashcards with the staff on one side and the letter name on the
other. I also brought my clarinet this
time to play along with the group. I was
glad to see that she was excited about the chart and cards as I explained to
her how to read the chart and the do the flashcards when she was walking to
school or during commercials if she was watching TV. When we played during rehearsal, I saw her
watching my fingers instead of the music, but at least she was imitating and
getting some sound out. I told her to
make sure she practiced at home.
“I know it’s not always fun and can be frustrating,” I
said. “But it’s the only way to get
better. It’s hard work.” She replied, “But it’s worth it.”
Over the next few weeks, she got faster at telling me the
note names of the music they would play in rehearsal, and I could actually hear
her play in the ensemble. The director
told me that in sectionals she has become more confident and was actually
playing pretty well. I could see in her
face that she was actually happy to be at rehearsal, not apathetic. She began talking to me more, asking about my
band experiences, becoming more interested in music. I knew that once I was done with the semester
(and they didn’t have marching band anymore), she would keep working on getting
better and growing as a musician. This
was the first service project that I felt like I truly accomplished something
important. Instilling a love of music is
the greatest service of all.
Liz Zeffiro
Kappa Kappa Psi
Lehigh University – Kappa Gamma
NED Historian/Alumni Liaison 2012-2013
