I’m in band and I feel like I don’t belong. I’m not great at playing my instrument. There’s this really hard song “creed”, and I cannot play it at all! Practice doesn’t work. I feel like I should quit, but soon the band is going to an amusement park, and that’s sounds fun so I don’t know.
Dragonflymagic answered Saturday June 1 2019, 5:40 pm: When the going gets tough, the tough get going, or so the saying goes. The other option is not to get going on working out how to stay but to quit instead. If you quit now, you may not have the chance to learn how to work through something difficult and hard. I know that schools want kids either playing an instrument or singing in choir or another school vocal group. Sometimes, you have no choice to opt out but have to pick an instrument and go with it. My girls had to pick an instrument in grade school already, no choice not to. THey all chose flute. Only one daughter still plays today and without lessons learned to play a keyboard. The other two were more like you, found it hard, wanted to quit but as I asked, stuck with it. I see the tendencies in them as adults now to face a difficult situation instead of giving up and running from it. They learned this already in school, to stick with something and be tough. Yes, you may improve, and also you may not, but you will still learn something, how to work together with others and how to not give up so easily.
If this is really bothering you so much you can't stop thinking about it, ask to meet with your music teacher after class or after school and tell teacher how difficult you find it, and ask if you can play the song you say you can't. Let him/her listen and then ask if they can give you more one on one training or if you need a tutor. Let the teacher decide if it is time for you to quit or to hang in there. [ Dragonflymagic's advice column | Ask Dragonflymagic A Question ]
Raven3838 answered Thursday May 30 2019, 8:31 am: Hi there,
I definitely think you should not quit band. I know my son felt exactly like you did when he was a freshmen and even partially into his sophomore year, and he was really thinking about quitting. I told him to stick it out, and now he is so glad he did. His band friends are like his family, and he's graduating this year with a great group of friends, strong musical skills, and he even won his school's band award.
I know it's hard, but it's really worth it, and you'll make friends for life. It just might take a bit.
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