Happy Birthday

This morning, I finally got the chance to reap the fruits of my labor. (That was a lovely sentence).
My band director, Ms. Zawel, came to me and told me that Wednesday (today) was Maria Torres's 40th birthday. For those of you that don't know Ms. Torres, she is a guidance counselor at IHS. She and Ms. Zawel have been long-time friends, so Ms. Zawel asked me if I would go with her to Student Services and surprise her by playing Happy Birthday for her on my trumpet.

As it turned out, I had already booked my four free periods for that day, so I was unable to do the good deed. Ms. Zawel's Plan B was to have the Saxophone Quartet play an arrangement of Happy Birthday for her during their sectional the next day.

She searched the interwebs for an arrangement, but could not find anything good. I then proceeded into her office to offer my newfound level of expertise (ok, not really) in composing. I told her that I would be happy to hand-write an arrangement during Calculus that day, then put it into Finale during Music Theory so it would be ready for the quartet to perform the next day.

She looked at my skeptically and said doubtfully, "really?"

I assured her that everything would be ok.

I took a piece of manuscript paper from her office and walked to Calculus. Rather than bore myself by working on my final project, I channeled my inner Beethoven and wrote the entire arrangement without being able to hear any of what I was writing. Every note was in my head, and I loved the harmonies swimming around in the empty vastness of my mind.

It was a masterpiece, and I was proud to present it to Ms. Zawel. I even included an introduction of what I like to call "silky" chords.

This was one of the first times that I've really noticed how this project has helped my musical abilities. I will (hopefully) soon post a recording of the MIDI file created by Finale of the arrangement.

Today, I conclude with: success!