One Voice
Summary
Every member of a community has a voice.
Every member of a community has a voice, and nowhere is this more apparent than in communities of music. When we play music, our tones are voices in a conversation, voices that may be raised in unison and harmony in one moment, and clash in dissonance the next. Like our words, music can be used in poetry, in argument, and in idle chatter. Music, like words, can reflect our deepest thoughts even when we do not intend so. Like language, music takes practice and experience to be able to be used for this deep expression. Music is what the community of the Waunakee High School Band is built around.
My voice in this collaboration. We say what we wish, what we can, what we will. We may argue, but we strive for agreement.
Percussion plays the marching cadence as we return from a morning performance. Sometimes we can’t resist the urge to chatter a little.
When I first joined band so long ago, I didn’t know how to speak properly. Nobody did. We were infants again, introduced to a language completely foreign to us. In time, we gained our voices. The far greater challenge was to learn how to speak together. Our first attempts were a chaos of arguments and clashes. As for me? I might have gained an extensive vocabulary, but all I did was ceaselessly argue. I now understand why I struggle so much with cooperation in music: I don’t understand other people. Both in small groups or the entire community together, I could never find the voice that allowed me to cooperate completely.
However, I could learn. It is to more of the band’s credit than my own. Like any community, the band exists for support. When it works in harmony, the failure of a single member is insignificant. As long as each individual listens to the voices of the whole, their own voice will be able to find its place. To follow the rest of the band, I merely started to listen. A community is not burdened by its weaker members. It uplifts them. Likewise, the strength of an individual is meaningless if they do not blend their voice with that of others. I am still learning that lesson.
One of my friends in band performs at a community concert in the library. Our voices can be used for countless purposes, and we should choose to use them for the ones we believe in. Photo by Echo Wu
Every community has a home, but a home for a band is also a person. A place both shapes and is shaped by the community that inhabits it, and our teachers, the ones who guide this community, are much the same. They are the voice that seeks to unite all the others. I recently learned how difficult that responsibility is, as I had to organize a concert myself. Giving people a direction to point their voices in is a task in its own right, and I now appreciate the work that our teachers do, giving us opportunities to use our voices, all the more.
We prepare for our final concert in middle school, our community about to travel to a new home after two years of building one. Our home may change, but as a community, we may adapt. Photo by Echo Wu
Sometimes, we give a lone speech, a soliloquy; other times, we have a discussion with only one other friend or a small group; and finally, we will work as a large community. As pleasant as a single voice may be, there is no comparison to the complexity of many. Each voice is a person with their own strengths and shortcomings, but the beauty of a community is that it will bring out the best of all within it. What one does not have can be given, and what one does not need can be taken. A community gives more than equality; not just an average of those within it, but an improvement.
Our community raises our voices in unison, in support of our school’s football team at the state game. We inspire others to cheer with our own loud voices. Photo by Warrior Media
It does not matter how skilled a musician in the band is, because their peers will uplift them. It does not matter if a musician fails to understand the value of cooperation, because they will learn. Yet in a community, the individual still matters. The voices of people may be more apparent in music, but voices are present in every community. Every member, no matter what value they assign to themselves, has a voice that they may use to speak with others, and may learn from them while doing so. I now understand that a community is not a loss to myself, but a gain. I am part of the community of band, and it has allowed me to grow beyond what I ever could be alone.
Comments
Post a commentWaunakee Community High School Advanced English 10 - 3B
Mrs. Swanhorst's Advanced English 10 students
Luke - I love how you describe your experience through the metaphor of language acquisition - this is incredibility powerful and illustrates the experience of travel into new territories and the capacity for group and personal development. I especially appreciate your description of learning via listening. This seems particularly important and transferrable to so many other areas of life. Thank you for sharing this story!