#ilovedci

Hello, I am Tessa, and I am a band geek.

I've been playing piano since I was five, I've played Guitar on and off for three years, I taught myself saxophone over the summer last year, I've been playing oboe (Yes, I know you don't know what it is, see here for reference.) for five years, and now I'm picking up the trumpet for marching season this year.  Obviously, I have issues.

On average I practice the piano for about two hours a day or so, just randomly sitting down at the bench when I'm bored, hammering away for a good half hour or so, and then becoming disgusted with myself and watching TV like any good American teenager.  I try to practice trumpet for at least 30 minutes a day, or until my chops die on me (Yes, chops. It's a cooler way of saying embouchure you n00bs.) and I'm actually getting better at it.  Now it doesn't sound like a dying animal trapped in a wind tunnel, it just sounds like a 7th grader playing trumpet.  I count that as an achievement seeing as I've only been playing for less than a month.  Saxophone, I usually don't even touch unless I'm super bored, and the oboe usually just sits on my desk until the next school year begins and I'm forced to actually pick it up and play it again.

I like to end most of my nights watching some DCI (Drum Corps International, see here) on Youtube on my laptop in my room by myself.  Because if I watch it in the living room, my sister will laugh at me.  And that's totally depressing.  Especially considering that she's not even a teenager yet.

Since it's summer right now, and I'm not in school and I live ridiculously far away from pretty much all of my friends, I've taken to the habit of being pretty much the most annoying band junkie on Earth.  First, I sleep in until about 11, then I blast my school's marching show for the coming year on my speakers until I'm sure everyone in my house is awake.  Next, I consume food, while watching DCI on my computer.  After that I torture grace my family with the beautiful sounds of my trumpet playing, and then I practice my marching show.  Then I go to my calender and stare at it all depressed like as I count down the remaining days until Band Camp (Because we all know what happens at band camp...).  After that I text one of my band nerd friends about how excited I am that band camp is almost here, which really it isn't, since it's actually about two months away (Oh, depression.), and then I spam all of my friend's dashboards on Facebook with my posts about how much I love band, how much I can't wait for band camp, links to DCI videos, and etc. 

By now it's about 10 at night, so I drag my laptop into my room, watch MORE DCI, and then eventually fall asleep to the sweet sounds of extremely loud space chords that really make no sense when put together in a "show".  And there you go, that's a glimpse into the daily life of a band geek.