Second Chance at School

My first chance at High School was not an unmitigated disaster, as some teachers may have thought, but part of growing up. Being a teenager meant going through the growing pains of learning about myself, my strengths, and weaknesses. It was a time of succeeding and of failing. At the time, when I reached graduation, I decided to delay my passion for classical music and composition, to follow a standard Accounting and Business tertiary education that my parents had come to expect from my HSC results.

Many years of work later and I suddenly had a brainwave, to return to night school as a mature student and to start studying music more seriously. Sure, I had played classical guitar and the piano as a kid, but I wanted to be able to play to a high enough standard, to join a band. My current instruments were the electric guitar and the saxophone.

Being a little on the older side when I walked into the class for my first evening class, I glanced furtively around and was pleased that I had dyed my grey hairs into a believable shade of red. Maybe I looked their age even though I was a 50-something year old attending the music school.

The other students all looked to be in their late teens, 20s and 30s, somewhat younger than myself. It was then that I had to try and decide whether to be cool to get in with the crowd or remain myself as a bit of an older fuddy-duddy.

My recent dabble with downloading TikTok and having the guilty pleasure of watching the puppies, kittens, and shuffle dance moves, was perhaps something I shouldn’t mention to my new classmates. Some of these students looked as if punk rock and hard-core electro or techno were more their genre. One tall guy stood out amongst the rest. He was dressed all in black, wearing a Pink Floyd T-shirt. It was from their album “The Wall”. Of course, I recognised that album design from back in the day when I was in High School. So, I took a leap of faith and walked over to him, in order to introduce myself.

“Hey there, I like your T-shirt,” I commented in what I hoped was a nonchalant yet friendly way.

His head shot around, and his eyes bore into mine, then he proceeded to look me up and down. It was an uncomfortable few seconds before he simply replied, “Thanks!” I was hoping that wasn’t the end of our conversation, so I asked whether the seat next to him was free.

“Yeah, you can sit here if you want,” he replied in an offhand manner.

I clutched my bag tightly to my chest and sat down cautiously next to him.

“What’s your name, red?” he asked. I looked behind me to see who he was talking to and then realised that it must be me, with my dyed hair. First class and I’d picked up a nickname already!

“Sarah, and yours?”

“I’m Chase,” he responded shortly.

“Like the bank,” I joked. For that comment, a frown crossed his face.

“No, Chase as in pursuit, ya know.”

“Um, okay.” I was now wondering why parents would be naming their child after a pursuit or race. Maybe it was an American thing. Being a Brit, I was still coming to terms with the variety of names of the students in my music class.

A hand shot out next to me and I heard another deep voice say, “… and I’m Tony. One of Chase’s friends.” Tony looked like he had spent too many nights as a DJ playing EDM, as this form of music is produced by DJs who add dozens of tones to a piece to create a unique piece of music.

Being the friendly soul that I believed myself to be, my hand came out slowly to shake his hand. His hand felt warm and soft. I had expected to feel callouses from guitar strings or his sound board.

“Great to meet you, Tony. Are you two in the same band?” I asked.

Tony smiled and nodded his head in an enthusiastic way. “They call us The MED. It’s a remix of the letters for EDM,” he tacked on.

Wow, I thought to myself, these guys actually know how to use a double entendre. Maybe I had low expectations based on their looks and my earlier assumptions.

“Cool,” I replied, “maybe I can come to one of your gigs. Where are you playing next?”

Instead of replying, Chase asked me what instrument I was learning to play.

When I explained, “Electric guitar and the saxophone.” He seemed surprised and a little impressed.

“Unusual combination of skills. Maybe you can audition for our band. We are looking for a sax player.”

My eyes opened wider and my pupils dilated at the thought of joining their band, with my lack of experience of playing in a band. My solo attempts to learn in my bedroom and family room, would be no match for a live gig.

“Can you sing?” Tony threw out there. Of course, I could hold a tune, but I was a little shy to be a lead singer, where I may feel as if too many eyes were on me and I wouldn’t have the confidence to perform.

“I’d rather not sing unless I’m a backup singer,” I added. Chase looked sceptical and Tony looked as if he didn’t believe that such a mature student would have any worries with performing in front of a crowd, whether the crowd was drunk or high. However, they sensed my hesitancy.

It was then that the music teacher arrived and began to teach the concepts of music such as the texture, duration, pitch, tone, colour, structure, dynamics, and expressive techniques.

“Structure refers to the idea of design or form in music,” the teacher explained. However, I was getting distracted by Chase’s doodling and noticed that he had sketched out a stage and was drawing figures in the band. Much to my surprise, the lead singer out front. looked remarkably like me, red hair, and all. Not wanting to disturb our music teacher in full flow, I wrote a little note to Chase: Am I included in your band drawing?

He nodded in acknowledgement and I felt proud that he thought that my singing would be good enough, even though my classical music training had been some time ago.

After the class, I waited behind to speak to Chase and Tony. We all agreed to audition each other on the weekend, in Chase’s garage. A garage is such a common place for a band to rehearse, that I thought nothing of it.

On Saturday afternoon, I turned up at Chase’s place and we all greeted each other, and I tried out my saxophone and lead vocals with his band. It turns out that I was a natural fit and we are on our way to our second Grammy Award!