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Wednesday, January 18, 2017

How to start off in Music

By Braden Hanks

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One question I'm asked quite a bit is "how did you get started in music education?"  While it took lots of hard work, a lot of it was just being forced into it by my parents and having a love for music grow through that pain.  To begin, I took drum lessons from ages 6-10 just for fun, because my dad plays drums as well.  While I didn't enjoy these very much, he thought I did, and kept me in them.  I eventually stopped due to financial reasons, and entered band in fifth grade.  Playing trumpet then, like almost everyone else, I just went to band every day all through middle school and didn't think anything of it.

It was in 8th grade that everything changed.  My future high school band director, David Larzelere, visited the middle school to recruit middle schoolers to be in the marching band.  He then came up to me and asked, "you wanna play Euphonium (see image above) in marching band?".  Naturally I just said sure, not thinking anything of it.  Little did I know that this would be the difference maker in my musical career.  Through high school, with each day, I grew a larger love for music, becoming first chair my sophomore year, and section leader my junior year.  My senior year, with no other career field in mind, I decided to audition for the MSU college of music, and I got in, getting me to where I am today.  So it was all because of my parents and my high school band director.  A little hard work didn't hurt either.


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2 comments:

  1. UnknownJanuary 23, 2017 at 4:27 PM

    Braden, I really enjoyed your blog post! I was actually forced into playing multiple instruments throughout elementary and middle school as well, so I understand how you felt at the beginning. It is awesome that you kept such an open mind and actually ended up loving what you were doing after a few changes in instruments and levels. I read the "about us" page as well, and noticed you hope to become a college professor. That is an awesome profession, but I was wondering how you chose that field with a Music Education degree and what other career options students with your major often pursue after school?

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  2. Music & JusticeJanuary 25, 2017 at 12:10 PM

    Through my abbreviated time here at MSU, I've discovered I have a love for music theory, and I'd love to go to graduate school and study it, and hopefully end up teaching theory at a college or university.

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