ON HARMONY...

Today, I enjoy being able to play the trumpet!  And it`s all because of my early days, learning the fundamentals of music.

Flutophone

My first experience with music was in the third grade in Grammar School, Houlton, Maine. A note was sent home to the parents that there would be Flutophones available to students who wished to learn the basics of music and play an instrument. I was eager to play the Flutophone. If I remember correctly, the cost was $3.00.

Flutophone Orchestra

Mrs. McGillicuddy was our music teacher and once a week she would come to our school to teach us. First we learned to play the C scale on the white flute style instrument. Then we learned to play several songs like Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star, Red River Valley and You Are My Sunshine. Then we performed before the rest of the school in the auditorium and we were simply called the Flutophone Orchestra.

When I entered the fourth grade I moved next door to the Lambert Elementary School. Once again, at the first of the year, a note was sent home to Mom and Dad explaining that students could enroll in the School Band. The note gave a list of instruments that a student could choose as their band instrument. I remember going down through the list with my dad. He explained to me that if I learned to play a three valve brass instrument like the trumpet or cornet I would be able to play most any three valve brass instrument. So I chose the Baritone. Before I went to bed that night he made me promise that I would practice one hour each day. I agreed!

Baritone

I recall going to the school band room for my first band class with Mr. McGillicuddy. That day I received my Baritone. Now if you have never seen a Baritone before, it’s about 15 lbs of brass tubing twisting around until the end flairs upward into a large bell. It is just a little bit smaller than a Tuba. Since I was always quite short...(thanks mom!)...it was literally as tall as I was, without any exaggeration. That same day I carried the Baritone in its’ big black case all the way home from school, stopping every few feet to switch hands. The thing was a monster. I didn’t know how I would do this every day! I remember climbing the long set of steps to our home on the second floor of the church in Houlton, stopping at each step to catch my breath and to re-adjust.

When I finally struggled through the door, I thought my dad was gonna “split his sides” as he burst into laughter when he saw me carrying the huge Baritone case that was bigger than I was. He literally stood there laughing his head off!  He said, “Let’s see it, son!” as he chuckled. When I got the baritone out and sat down to show him how to hold it, he took to laughin’ again! Then he said, “Let’s try something!” He got me to get into the big black case and lay down. I can still hear him laughing as he closed the top and fastened it!! I was pounding on the case for him to let me out! .......Folks, It’s no wonder my head is so messed up!! HAAA!

Alto Horn

For one full week I carried that thing back and forth to school until one night dad said, “We need to look the list over again because there must be something a little smaller that you can choose.” That night I chose the E-Flat Alto Horn which was about one third the size of the Baritone. Much nicer! I played that horn for the full school year. Each school night Dad made me practice the horn for one hour...as agreed! Thanks Dad!

There were many great things that I learned during those early years of playing in the school band. I learned about the importance of being in tune and playing in harmony with the others.

Harmony is defined as the use of simultaneous pitches, tones, notes, or chords played or sung together and in balance. Harmony usually sounds pleasant to the ear when there is a balance between the consonant and dissonant sounds. Therefore disharmony is an imbalance between sound pitches and tones and is most often unpleasant to the ears.

It wasn’t hard to recognize when an instrument was out of tune or when the student wasn’t playing the right notes during a song. Believe me, the first few weeks of ‘school band” was almost unbearable. The sounds that came from us would have made a grown man cry! Thank God Mr. McGillicuddy had faith in us!  The wrong tone or note always stood out and would literally mess up our performance. There were even times when my horn was out of tune and Mr. McGillicuddy would stop everyone and he would help me tune my instrument by adjusting the tuning slide on my horn. Every day he would bring out the “Tone Generator” which was a device that was perfectly tuned to “concert C” or another note if so desired. The Tone Generator would sound out the note and individually we would bring our instrument in tune with the sound from the Tone Generator. Sometimes it took quite awhile, but he knew it was very important that every instrument be in tune with the same reference point.  He never tuned one instrument to another instrument. He always used the Tone Generator. This guaranteed an orchestra in perfect tune!

The success of the orchestra depended on all of us being “in tune” and playing the right notes at the right time. And eventually we did it!! And we sounded great!!

I say all that to say this. Everything we do in life requires HARMONY. Whether at home or at work, at play, or even in the church, harmony is so very vital! The Apostle Paul talked in several places about disharmony and how detrimental it can be to everything around us. 

Marriages need harmony and that is something that doesn’t just happen. Sometimes we as married couples need to stop and get ourselves in tune with Jesus so that the home will always be a place of harmony and joy.

In our Christian faith we need to walk in harmony with each other. Sometimes there are disagreements but in those times we need to stop and examine the Word of God and bring ourselves back into tune with the harmonics of the Bible. You see, the Bible is our “tone generator”, our “Concert C”, our reference point! If people would tune themselves constantly to the Word of God and more particularly, Jesus Christ, there would be no division in any aspect of our lives. 

The Apostle Paul said it like this, “Confusion?...We have no such custom!” Because confusion is like disharmony and it just sounds awful! Another place in the Bible says that confusion is not of God, therefore it must be of Satan!

The Bible speaks of unity, which, in a manner of speaking, is like harmony. Psalms 133 describes what unity is like. It's like the anointing oil of the Lord that runs down upon us and we all know that oil always makes things run smoother! That oil creates in us a spirit of kindness and love.

As for having harmony, sometimes it’s just learning the Bible way of being kind to one another! And YES!!....LOVE HAS EVERYTHING TO DO WITH IT!!   SRR

Let me out of here!

PS:   By the way, when I die, just find me an old black Baritone case...I fit! I tried it one day!!



Click here to hear a Flutophone Concert