Background: When I started playing with the band in November of 2008 if everyone showed up (rare) I was the 8th flute player. The front row was pretty consistent. Sitting on the outside was the piccolo player who was quite good and a reasonable flute player (1A). 2 of the other firsts (1B and 1D) were just not good players. When playing with the entire group they just chug right along. But solos were painful. The one remaining (1C) wasn’t quite so bad but still not at all so much good. The three of them were frequently out of tune. Ouch.
In the second row on the end (2A) we had a moderate-ish player who was quite nice and frequently told me I was awesome. I appreciated this. 2B was frequently absent but a rather strong player. 2C was probably at the same level that I’m playing now. As 2D I sat next to her for quite a while and so struck up an ad-hoc friendship. I like her. But she was the first to go.
After a good many absences it was determined that she had too many other things going on and so 2C was out. I was sad but ended up striking up a good friendship with 2B, she was a highly amusing/fun and nice individual. But she got quite sick and was out for a long time. By the time she was back in attendance 2A was scheduled to be leaving.
Sometime in the midst of all of this a new player joined us. She had previously subbed with the group. A good player she is a strong believer that she is the queen of all flute playing. She likes to make comments about how oh she’s played this piece a million times but only on the first part. Or complain about other sections sounding poor. Or that the conductor is taking the wrong tempo.
The queen started playing sometime when I was really unsure about who was still playing/showing up. So I let her sit on the outside edge. I don’t care enough to pick battles with people like that. 2B started being able to attend more things and couldn’t stand the Queen. This amused me greatly. But then 2B decided to give it up entirely which was very sad.
After a bit of time I learned to deal with the Queen in a way that worked out well enough. I’d just roll my eyes or sometimes even make snide remarks back to her. One time I totally just shot her down randomly. But all in all I think it worked well for both of us.
And that’s where the season ended.
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