The Story of Juana’s Musical Life

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Once upon a time there lived a girl named Juana Corio. Her mom had decided long before she was born that all of her children would play piano, so as soon as Juana started kindergarten, her piano lessons started as well. Being a very enthusiastic 5-year-old, Juana enjoyed the first several weeks of practice. Then it began to be monotonous. For the next 5 years, she despised playing the piano with all her heart. Most of her lessons were spent sitting on the piano bench next to her mom crying tears of frustration until she couldn’t even read the music.

Right after fourth grade, her family moved to Fallon, Kentucky, where, unlike the school she used to go to everyday, music was a class where she could actually learn more than she already knew. She learned a little bit about lots of instruments, including the xylophone, recorder, and even guitar. Her teacher also found lots of fun songs for them to sing. One day the class was singing The First Noel and Juana sang particularly loud since she knew the song but not many others did. Once the song was over, he complimented her soprano voice and told her she should join choir once she was old enough to go to junior high.

Two years later, Juana was ready to join the ranks of the big, bad 7th graders. She still despised the piano, but the praise from her teacher had been in the back of her mind ever since that Christmas, so she decided to give choir a try. The first day of school she walked into choir and by the end of that forty-five minutes, she was quite sure her teacher had completely lost his marbles. He lost his glasses everywhere, danced like a ballerina, and, worst of all, he thought she was an alto. The horror! For two years, she had known for certain that she was a soprano. Her m...

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...adences and printed out the ones she thought would be good for her section to start off with. Everyone else in her section was just as pumped to be amazing, and Mr. ming said he was doing to start an official drumline right after Christmas Break. She eagerly counted down the days until then, but her section slowly lost interest and went back to their lives. When drumline finally came around, most of them didn’t even show up. They all had legitimate reasons, but she was still a bit annoyed by it. Then one of the people who had graduated the year before showed up for a basketball game. Juana was re-inspired. She remembered how much fun it was to play when everyone was together and decided that all hope was not lost. It was ok if not everyone in her section wanted a drumline advanced as she did, and that she would just do her best and not worry about anyone else.

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