Channeling Excitement

Author: Brittany Thomas

In my all-girls 6th grade class, there is a drum set player who truly inspires me every week. I am constantly impressed by the professional level at which she plays. She is always excited and ready to make music with the rest of the group.

I believe this excitement gets her into trouble sometimes. She is ready to move at a pace that is ahead of the rest of the class. She has a hard time sitting still and not playing when the teacher has to work with others. Because of this, she gets told over and over to be quiet and to put the stick down. A lot of times she doesn’t want to listen and begs to just play along.

At the end of one class I told her that I really enjoy listening to her fillers and riffs in the music and had a conversation about her journey on the drums. At the end of the conversation I told her that I could tell how much she enjoys it and how her excitement makes her want to always be hitting the drums. Then, I mentioned that maybe we could work together to find a way channel that excitement in a different way when she is being asked to not play. We are going to work on this over the next few weeks!

Before she went off to the next class, she looked at me and said “You know, you are awesome, too!”

I looked at her and said, “That’s so kind! What made you share that with me?”

Her response was, “I saw you play French horn last year, and you were always smiling and I thought it was very good!”

It was pretty cool to feel inspired by this girl and then find out that she remembered a performance of mine from the year before! I hope that I can find a way to help her feel challenged and artistically fulfilled over the next semester.