Musical Chairs

A little more than a week ago, Darcy came home from school more upset than I have seen her since she started. I couldn't imagine what would have her so heartbroken and waited patiently until she was ready to talk about her distress.

"**Sniff sniff sob** I'm not in 1st chair anymore!"

Oh.

Now Darcy is an insanely competitive overachiever very driven to do well in everything she attempts, and Band is no exception. She has occupied the 1st chair in the clarinet section since August, and clearly she had become quite comfortable in that spot and felt more than a little proprietary toward it. And to be honest, her news came as a bit of a shock to me, too. I asked her what had happened to cause the shift in seating and the whole sad story came tumbling out.

"One note! I missed ONE note!" It turns out that in the particular tune that she had to play for her test, there was a B flat that she was supposed to play several times, but each time she came to that note she simply played a B, not realizing it was a flat. And then it all came rushing back to me . . .

"Darcy, by any chance was the song you had to play for your test the same song you were practicing at home last week--the one where I told you I thought the note was off?" Now far be it from me to exult "I told you so!" when my daughter is suffering agonies untold, but it's times like these that I just want to say, "You know, every once in a while your old Mom might actually know what she's talking about!" When Darcy had practiced the tune at home and I had questioned the sound, she argued with me and insisted she was playing the right note. Turns out she was wrong. (I told you so!)

She was absolutely miserable all afternoon and the thought that she had to now occupy 2nd chair really ate at her; later, though, she did admit that there was one positive thing about the whole experience: "At least Julian (she said his name like a dirty word) didn't gloat about getting 1st chair." I told her it was very thoughtful of Julian to act so humbly, and I still think so. I wouldn't know Julian if I tripped over him, but any 5th grade boy who resists the urge to say "Nanny-nanny-boo-boo" to a girl in such a case as this gets high praise from me.

The next day I happened to see Mr. Brown, the band director, while waiting in the carpool line to pick up the girls. I had only just met him the previous Saturday at the Signature Event but he recognized me and stopped at the van to talk. He said, "I learned something new yesterday." "What's that?" I asked.

"Your daughter is extremely competitive." "NO!" I breathed in mock disbelief. "Darcy? Never!" He laughed and told me to assure Darcy that everyone has a "brain fart" (I'm REALLY REALLY REALLY sorry--I hate that term but that's the one he used) once in a while and she was simply due. He said, "Tell her to give it a week and she'll be right back in 1st chair where she belongs."

And she is. Told ya so!