The CDH Band Room: More Than Just a Rehearsal Space
by Nick Zahler, Band Instructor
January 10, 2023
For the recent holidays, many of us engaged in something of a pilgrimage home; a wayfaring back to our roots and to where we once spent a great deal of time.
I love returning home. I love the sights, the smells, the food. Most of all, I love the opportunity to connect my fading memories to real places, people, and things. When possible, most of us relish the opportunity to visit our old neighborhood, see our old home, and visit loved ones.
Yes, for many of us, a visit to our childhood home is nostalgic. The people living there now might be different and the front yard might have changed, but even decades later, its purpose remains unchanged: to serve as a safe place of refuge and harbinger of hopes and dreams.
In high school, music rooms serve a similar purpose. They are more than a rehearsal space. They serve as a refuge, home base, hangout, and secondary cafeteria to our students. Our musical sanctuaries serve as a remembrance of the past, connection to the present, and launch pad for the future. They serve as a place to survive the growing pains of high school and safe harbor from the occasional storm of adolescence. They serve as a place to not only succeed and fail, but to take risks and be challenged. My high school band room did this for me and I know that it is doing the same for our CDH music students.
This is why I teach. This is what I love about this profession. This is what I remember, not just about my home in high school, but the one I am attempting to create for my students.
Yes, we work hard and make some incredible music. But, in the end, I suspect that those memories will fade far quicker than those related to laughter, joy, and the feeling that there was a safe place where your child can rise, fall, and be cared for regardless of the outcome.
The inhabitants of my building may change from period to period, day to day, and year to year, but like my home, its purpose remains the same: to be somebody’s safe space and memory keeper.
So as we reflect on Christmas and the New Year and look forward to the future, let me say that I am thankful that you trust me with your child each and every day as I unlock the door and say, “ Welcome home!”
Given all that we have been through, home matters now more than ever.
