Music and Memory

My freshman year of college, I started clarinet lessons and I was definitely in the process of learning how to practice, what to practice, and everything that came along with it. Let's just say that I was a newbie to the metronome and could barely get through an etude. Well, my clarinet teacher decided to assign me my first piece of solo work over Christmas break, and the Weber Concertino was what he chose. I was so determined that I was going to come back in January ready to play through this entire piece. I practiced and practiced, I listened to recordings maybe a thousand times. I LOVED it. Sure enough, I came back to school and played through the entire solo for him. I hold so many dear memories to this concertino. Not only was it the first solo I learned on clarinet, but it's the first piece I ever performed, and it's the solo that molded me into where I am today. I just love this piece, and it makes me so happy and think of all the bittersweet memories attached to it. Here is the recording I listened to probably 900 out of the thousand times I listened to it. (and no, I didn't perform it this fast lol)

Next up, this piece is yet another piece of classical music, but also something that molded me into the clarinetist and musician I am today (and also make me viral on instagram!!) For wind ensemble my sophomore year, we played Molly on the Shore by Grainger, which I love anything by Grainger, but this one is HUGE for the clarinet section. This was my first experience playing a solo part with the wind ensemble and it really pushed me to be a better clarinetist. It's also just a bop for both the people playing and listening to it. Anyways, anytime I hear this piece it takes me right back to sophomore year when I was so, so scared to perform this piece and I practiced it allll the time to perfect it. It was the most rewarding concert I've ever had, and also the most fun I've ever had performing with the wind ensemble. I love this piece so much that I would just play the solo for fun all the time, and one day this percussionist at my school started playing drum set while I was playing in the rehearsal hall. I thought it sounded so cool, so we recorded it and I uploaded it on my clarinet Instagram page. I woke up the next morning to 15k likes, and it continued going viral for the next few months. Molly on the Shore is just such a bop. Here's "The Presidents Own" band playing it ridiculously fast.

 Lastly, this one is a bit different than my last couple, but it's Amazing Grace played on the piano. My mom grew up taking piano lessons and stopped playing after high school, but she can still sit down at the piano and sight-read pretty much anything you put in front of her as if she never took 25 years off playing. I've only heard her play piano a few times in my life, but the times I did hear her play, she started playing her very unique version of Amazing Grace where she adds in all sorts of notes and it's the one song she just has locked in her memory forever. Anytime I hear that song, I think of when I was little and got so excited to see my mom playing the piano and I truly looked up to her so much and wanted to learn myself to be like her. (I'm still trying to talk her into playing piano more, but we'll see)

Obviously I don't have a recording of when my mom played it, but here's a recording of Amazing Grace on the piano that's kind of similar.