Transcripts of Joe(Bretts4thNarrative)



[ Interviewer ] Alright. Uh why don't you introduce yourself? Yeah. Uh I'm Joe Plattenburg. Umm I play the trumpet and the clarinet. I played a lot through high school. I've been in marching band and concert bands and stuff. So uh, go... with it I guess. 

[ Interviewer ] Cool. *sniffs* Could you tell us about your very first experiences with music? Um yeah. I mean I guess I never was really formally introduced to music 

[ snare drum hit ] until probably middle school. We had like a um instrumental program type thing where you like played different instruments and picked whatever you liked best. But I guess before that um I had had some friends that had older siblings that played instruments and one of them had a clarinet and I thought it was really cool and had lots of buttons on it and stuff so um... 

[ Interviewer ] Did they ever let you play it? I never actually played it before but I just thought it looked cool so as soon as I got to middle school um I was like I wanna play this. So once we got to the that section of the experimental like program or whatever I, I played the clarinet and I really liked it. So, played it through middle school and high school and um bands and stuff like that there. 

[ Interviewer ] Did any, did any of like your older siblings your younger siblings did they have any, play instruments or your parents? Um the only would be my mom played piano when she was in high school. And she didn't continue after that though. And my uncle, who's like far out of town, played trumpet. But aside from that I reallly didn't have much um like hands on experience other than people just telling me about their own experiences with it. 

[ Interviewer ] Do you remember much about your, er, did your earliest music educators, like in middle school and high school, did they like leave a big impression on you? I would say so. Especially in probably high school more than school. Um in middle school it was sort of like, people were just doing it because their friends were doing it, I thought. And no one was particularly serious until once we got in high school. My high school band director, I thought, really left a strong impression on me. Just the way that he taught, I felt was uh influential. And he was also the marching band director and that had a strong impact on me. as I continued with that. 

[ Interviewer ] What was marching band like in high school? Umm, I feel like it was probably pretty similar to a lot of other high schools. We had rehearsal a few times a week. Um we would 

[ sousaphone plays ] have one show that we practiced all through the summer. Um we would memorize our music and go to competitions during the fall. Uh play at football games and travel to away games. Same kind of deal as probably a lot of other high schools. 

[ Interviewer ] And was uh, did you also continue in your concert bands in high school? Yeah I played in several groups, aside from marching band. I did a um a concert band, which we called the Wind Ensemble, for a few years. I was also in jazz band, I played saxophone there. And I did like the pep bands and I also played in the pit orchestra for the musicals. So yeah. 

[ Interviewer ] See I didn't, I didn't know that you played saxophone. Were there any other instruments that you like maybe experimented on or tried out for a little while? Um mainly clarinet and sax were the only ones that I did through high school. Uh I played several different saxes. I did like alto, tenor, bari, through different years in jazz band. And then I played clarinet. I guess I played bass clarinet in the community orchestra in my city and E-flat clarinet a few times in Wind Ensemble. But I mainly stuck reeds up through high school before I got to college. 

[ Interviewer ] Did you do any, uh, solo competitions? Yeah uh I did a solo and ensemble competition the my last three years of high school. So sophomore year on. And I got a grade of 1 in all of those. And um I guess two of the times also I did the uh ensemble competition, portion of it. So I played with other people from Wind Ensemble in, in like a woodwind quintet or something like that. 

[ Interviewer ] Did you ever receive um private instructions? Um not regularly or frequently. I, I had a teacher for a little bit in middle school. Um high school, I really didn't have a teacher. Uh eventually my second year of college I took lessons for a quarter but in terms of private lessons that was, it was never very formal or very um lengthy or anything. 

[ Interviewer ] How come you decided to continue playing the clarinet in college? Um a lot of this probably has to do with the fact that uh my senior year like halfway through the year, as an early graduation present, my mom got me a brand new Buffet wood clarinet which was kind of expensive. And so I would've felt bad if I had just like stopped playing once I got to college. But honestly though at the same time, um, I've just enjoyed playing all through high school and I wanted to keep that up. And the, my teachers always impressed on me the importance of being a lifelong musician as they would say. So I felt like it would be something good to, you know, meet other people and just have something to do. 

[ Interviewer ] What have you done in high -- in college? In regards to continuing your musical experience? Um I've performed in the Collegiate Winds, which is a concert band. I play clarinet there for the past four years. I've also been in the Athletic Band, I play clarinet and trumpet there, and in the Marching Band, with trumpet. 

[ Interviewer ] So when did you make this uh transition to trumpet? Um that was the fall of my freshman year of college. Uh I came here at Ohio State and I came to the football games and everything. And I'd heard the marching band before and how um impressive they were and everything. And once I saw them at the football games I just decided that I really wanted to be a part of this organziation. And just almost became obsessed with it. So I just um, I made it a decision that fall that I wanted to be a part of that er do everything in my power that I could. So I started practicing trumpet as frequently as I could, probably about an hour a day, every day. I got the DVD of 

[ outside chatter ] the fundamentals and I talked to other people that I knew -- known that were in the marching band. To get help with my marching and everything and um up until that summer where I tried out and made the marching band. 

[ outside chatter ] 

[ Interviewer ] And what's, what's the marching band been like since you've been in it? Um probably the single most beneficial and positive experience in my time in college, I would say. Um between the performances um and everything, that's always amazing. Being, having the opportunity to perform in front of thousands of people that are all cheering for you, in addition to the social aspect of it. Just being able to meet all these new people all these new friends and everything that I feel like truly will be lifelong friendships. Um those, those two things together have made it a really beneficial and positive experience. 

[ Interviewer ] So once you're finished all up with college, are you going to put up the trumpet and the clarinet? Or are you going to try and continue in some way? I mean, I would like to ideally say that I would like to continue. Um I mean I guess if I did try to pursue that it would probably be with the Alumni Band. I know they have different functions they do in addition to the Alumni Game. Um or like a community orchestra or band or something like that in whatever city I end up moving to. I, like sometimes churches will have things like that or like community organizations will have bands and that sort of thing. So at this point I'd like to say I'd like to continue but um I guess that's yet to be seen. But there's plenty of time probably down the road. 

[ Interviewer ] Alright. Thank you very much. Yup. Thank you.