Today we got back our All County Band try out results. I received 2nd chair. This is the first time that I've received 2nd chair. I've gotten 1st for the last 4 years. Right now I have mix feelings, but mainly I'm mad at my self. I didn't practice the piece like I should of. I only looked at the etude a couple of times. I could of done better on the etude but that didn't really hurt me as far as my score goes. My weak part was my sight reading. I received the lowest score in sight reading. The boy that got 1st chair just totally killed me when it came to sight reading. I'm not really mad that I received 2nd chair. This just motivates me and really helps me see things a lot clearer now. Although I'm friends with the boy that got 1st chair and he's a great guy and I don't mean to sound cocky or like a jerk, but the reality of the fact is this, as far as trumpet skills go the boy doesn't come close to matching me. And that's the truth. But he did spend a lot more time then me to work on the piece and he really disciplined himself to earn first chair. And I think that it doesn't really matter if I'm better then him because he took the time to work hard and I didn't so that makes him better then me. This has also made me realize that if I want to compete for a spot in the state jazz band I have to really get disciplined and have a better work ethic. I've been wasting so much time. Not only do I need to develop a better work ethic but I also need to work on my weaknesses. My number one weakness is my sight reading. I don't know how I'm going to improve my sight reading but I'll find a way to get better. But getting 2nd chair isn't such a bad thing. It's going to teach me a lot and I think that it has made my band mates realize that I'm human. For a very long time they have had these extremely high expectations of me that was starting to get to the point that if I couldn't hit a Double G they would get mad at me because I was suppose to be the great one. Well now I think that they've realized that I too like them have weaknesses and I think that now they will relate to me a little more and hopefully my hard work ethics will rub off on them. This whole experience has been pretty funny, but I think that everything happens for a reason. In matter of fact I was told today that solo and ensemble festival was canceled this Saturday because of snow so although I wasn't planning to do Solo and Ensemble Festival this has given me the chance to prove to my self something. I was told that I can enter solo and ensemble and my teacher told me to do the first movement of the Haydn Trumpet Concerto again. So now I'm doing the Haydn Trumpet Concerto for Solo and Ensemble and I have until March 1st to work on it and polish it. I'm really going to work hard and dedicate my self to music. I'm going to start practicing every day just like I use to and start to really just take my playing up to another level. Not only do I want to improve my playing but most importantly my sight reading and musical skills. I think that this is great for me and it's like a reality check for me. So this whole experience is just going to drive me to become even better at every aspect of music.