Influential+Person

One of the most influential people in my life is my older brother’s, and now my, friend Bryce Frentz. He has been a mentor as well as a source of motivation to me. Be it in music, school, or even life in general Bryce has always been able to help me no matter what I needed. In music Bryce has helped me improve in many ways. For starters, during my freshman year he helped me to practice my solo for solo/ensemble contest. It wasn’t until I began practicing with him that I realized how much I had to learn. In approximately a semester of practicing with him I had practically doubled my knowledge of rhythms, notes, technique, and air control. As well as helping with my solo, he also began teaching me how to play trombone, which I started because of him so I could be in jazz band. During the first half of my sophomore year he also introduced me to his, and now mine as well, private tutor Rolyn Beaird. This has had and astounding effect on my playing ability both on the trombone and tuba. Due to Bryce’s and Rolyn’s tutoring I made it in to the South Dakota All-State Band fourth chair my sophomore year, as well as both All-State Band and All-State Orchestra my junior year as second chair in both. If that wasn’t enough, I was also chosen to play in the Concordia Honor Band, the members of which are chosen from across the majority of the USA. I was even asked to perform for theUniversity ofSioux Falls’ graduation ceremony. As of this year I am officially the number one ranked high school tuba player in the state ofSouth Dakota and among the top six in theMidwest region, and I owe it all to Bryce and Rolyn. Bryce has also been the motivation for me trying and doing many other things band related. He is the reason I tried out for All-State Band, because he thought that I could make it. He is also the main reason I began learning the trombone, because he said it was an easy instrument to learn alongside the tuba and, though it may sound childish, I wanted to be like him. As far as school is concerned, Bryce helped, and still is helping, me with some of my more difficult classes. He has also given suggestions as to which classes would help with my interests out of his personal experience and even attempted to recruit me to his college of choice, Concordia inMoorheadMinnesota. In high school he has mainly helped me establish a few good study habits and in my many AP classes. The main class he has helped me with is AP physics. This is one of the most difficult AP courses available atWashingtonHigh School, partly due to the fact that there is not enough time available in the school year to teach all of the information in the class. As with most high school kids, there are times when I just have no idea what to do in a situation, be it something very important, insignificant, or something small that gets blown out of proportion, which happens a lot in high school. The number of examples I will give relating to this will be limited for what I hope are fairly obvious reasons. In the past year I have realized that I have practically become a younger version of Bryce, at least in the band program atWashington. I think this is partly due to the fact that we have the same private teacher but also that, generally speaking, a person will lead as he/she were led. As the top tuba at Washington as well as the section leader for the sousaphones in the marching band I have noticed that I have adopted the same methods, and even some of the same mannerisms, that Bryce used when he was in my position. Musically I have definitely replaced Bryce almost perfectly. In tone, technique, and dynamic (volume) ability I am at approximately the same level Bryce was during his senior year in high school.
 * Influential Writing**