Most of the time the band is seen as a whole group with a lot of people, but sophomore Estelle Anderson is involved and seen in almost every band opportunity offered at PLHS. Anderson is in marching band, concert band, show band, and jazz band. There is a lot of work that goes into being a part of all the band activities Anderson is involved in.
One of the first band activities of the year is marching band. The Monarch marching band practices for hours from about June to October. That takes a lot of work to get through, but Anderson helps herself and others get through it by being a positive person.
“She’s enthusiastic, she cares, she has a desire to be good,” band teacher Tim Keller said. “I also think she never tries to be too high or too low, she’s just about coming in and doing the job.”
Even though Anderson isn’t an upperclassman yet and is sort of in the middle of experience levels, she still finds ways to contribute positively to the band and is given leadership opportunities.
“We were able to give her the responsibility of being a back field conductor in one of the movements in the marching show because of her growth as a musician,” Keller said.
Although Anderson plays trombone in every other band activity, Anderson’s favorite thing is playing bass in jazz band and she’s playing bass in MJO this year. MJO is different than the Tuesday morning jazz Anderson played in last year, so her dedication is prevalent.
“Definitely putting in more work, whether it be working on auditioning for jazz band this year, the time, effort, and energy she put into auditioning for All State,” Keller said. “She’s always had a good work ethic, but I think she’s becoming better at spending quality time preparing for things.”
By putting in more effort Anderson is improving in her musical abilities.
“I would say musically like she’s improved in her ability to be expressive with her instrument, minor details, and being a lot more expressive in articulation and dynamics,” Keller said. “She’s been playing a lot more with confidence.”
Anderson didn’t start on the trombone either, she started on the guitar. She had inspiration to begin music in 3rd grade because of her dad.
“My dad works in radio, so I always grew up with a bunch of music playing in the house and mostly rock,” Anderson said. I was like, I think it would be cool to do that and I could do that, and I guess I did.”
Even though it takes a lot of time and effort to be involved in so many ways in band activities, Anderson wouldn’t want to give any of it up. She values all the different band opportunities she has and music as a whole.
“The people you get to meet and I think there’s something really special about making music and being apart of a group,” Anderson said. “It might sound a little bit corny, but it’s an escape you don’t have to think about anything else, you can just listen to music.”
