Tuba Informative Essay

I carry a tuba mouthpiece in my backpack. Being a girl who plays the tuba is pretty surprising to people and can start an exceedingly long conversation on music. People ask why I wanted to play the tuba, what I have to do, what music I play and who I play for. I sometimes will ask if the person can ‘buzz their lips’ and they usually give up either because they have no clue what I'm talking about or because they look like a babbling baby. Music, to me, is not just some hobby I picked off the streets. Music allows me to express my passion for it just by buzzing my lips on a mouthpiece – by creating music.

My first notes on the tuba made me realize that sometimes you have to go back to the basics to move forward. In the middle of December of

I practiced every single day not only in school but at home and tried perfecting what I knew couldn't be perfect. Sooner than later, November first arrived and so did my audition. Nervously, I sat in front of a judge and a recorder and played three to four scales, my audition piece and a sight-reading piece. To my little seventh grade self I was fine with knowing that I probably wouldn't make it but a couple weeks later I opened my email to my director saying I made it in. The three-day experience has made me love music and is making me want to do play and perform more and more.

By the start of ninth grade, music has been transforming me into a person I never knew. This person believes that music is a way to express emotion to others and yourself. Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp was a family to me – and still is – for 3 years. I went to the camp for band two years and made it into the top band the second year. I was then introduced to their Exchange Program where a group of students travel around Europe to play

"Going to concerts of bands and orchestras isn't worth the cost and the drive." This is what is normally told to the performers or the conductors. In reality, music is the complete opposite. Not only playing music, but listening to a performance of musicians is a splendiferous way to express emotion to not only yourself but to others too. My homecoming performance was a week after the trip at Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp in Muskegon. There, we played a selection of pieces that our group played in Europe and O Magnum Mysterium was one piece that is a very moving and touching piece to play and hear. To my conductor, Papa Heath, it was just that. Behind Papa Heath, cheers came from the crowd, but the only thing we saw in front of us was Papa Heath in tears. "That was such a beautiful piece," he mouthed to us. "I love you guys." Looking around, I saw not only saw Papa Heath in tears, but almost half the group. The trip changed us, and still is. Music is not what we hear, it is what we feel. We were strangers in the beginning, family at the end and will never forget the special experience that we have made with one