Self Potrait

Part two: Self Portrait

ETHAN HONEYWELL

When I look back to around five years back I see a kid who was really cocky, who was into music and didn’t understand what being in highschool actually meant. I remember failing my math 8 exam and getting under 40% and never finding out until the next year. When I realised this, I stopped and finally understood what high school was actually about. High School was not this easy thing I would just be able to coast through. It would challenge me, make me grow, make me think completely differently and show me more concepts and ideas. Since the beginning of high school i discovered my passion for music as well as the benefits it provided. Ever since I have discovered music in late grade 8 and early grade 9, my life has expanded so much with my ability to learn music. I was already enrolled in all of the musical ensembles in music outside of school and I just wanted to do more and more. I started creating bands outside of school. Me and another started a blues rock band where he played guitar and I played drums. It was fun for a while but it just kinda stopped because I realised that me and him could not work together. I learned this the hard way too. My ability to seek out people who work hard and play the heck out of their instrument just bursted beyond that point. That skill has long satisfied my needs. In late last year, I heard a band play on a stage in vancouver and realised that I had to play with these kids. I went up to talk to these kids after the show and said to them if they would like to play in maybe a combo together or just to see if they needed a drummer. I completely forget their responses. But anyway I thought about it all summer. When I was in winnipeg for a little bit of the summer I got a call from one of the most known sax players in vancouver. He asked if I wanted to be in a big band that he was putting together at the VSO school of music. I immediately said yes. The summer finished and our first rehearsal with this big band was coming up. I got to the location and when I realised that the players that were in the band were members of the band I saw the previous year who I asked to play with. So we organized some jams and we sounded pretty good. So we decided to get gigs and start making money. During one of our jam sessions we got an email to go and perform at a presentation house. We immediately said yes and planned for the gig. We practiced our butts off, made so many rehearsals and got together so many times leading up to the actual performance. When the day came, we were stoked and completely ready. We arrived, unpacked, set up and did a sound check. The night was being completely professionally recorded by the main tech engineer who works at capilano. There was a full house in the crowd and we just couldn’t wait to play. The whole night was great and everything went smooth. At the end of the whole night, we got some really nice recordings of the entire night. The recordings were really the high point because they captured exactly what we had worked towards. The recording represents me as being an example of what I have become over the past four to five years. They represent the people skills, the hard work practicing and the development of musicality. I cherish these recordings because they are what I have become.

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