Joshua Gaugler

The Concert of a Lifetime

The concert has begun after a fifteen minute delay caused from the powder snow that started early on in the day and continued through the evening. There I stood up in front of the small crowd on this snowy Sunday evening. I glanced out upon the crowd as the piano picked up speed and intensity. I knew that I was about to strike that F chord in a few measures. I quickly removed the moisture from my fingers with the cloth I brought with me.

The band had a special meeting planned after we played the music for our church's Thanksgiving Supper. We showed up to the church on a cold Saturday morning, making our way to the auditorium. We began to discuss the plans, ideas, or even the thoughts that we had for what we should do next. Dan, the first to talk whatever the occasion, said, "I think we should work on writing our own songs." That idea was quickly reviewed and considered to be an option. I thought a little bit harder about what to do and suddenly it came to me. "We should have a Christmas concert. We can all pick out our favorite Christmas songs and perform them." Now this was a first class idea.

Now the band had an idea, we had the backbone for our future, but we were still missing our guitar player; whose absence haunted us for the fourth week straight. We had to begin regardless of the scenario, and we began picking out songs, one by one. The most obvious choices were the most popular Christmas songs, such as: Tran-Siberian Orchestra, Mannheim

Steamroller, along with other Christmas favorites. NFL draft style, the selections rolled on until we had picked out close to one hundred songs. Now we must eliminate certain songs based on the instruments that they use, the difficulty of the song, and making sure the song was church appropriate, since that was were the concert would be held. We picked four of the TSO songs, one of the Mannheim Steamroller songs, and a few carols for after the concert, so everyone could join in.

Now the concert was in place, we picked out our music, but now we were missing our other guitar player. He told us that he was going down to Tennessee to record an album with his other band and would be gone for two weeks. If this wasn't bad enough, our other guitarist was nowhere to be found. This forced us to make different roles for each member to fill. I had to play lead guitar for the TSO songs, including the famous Christmas Eve Sarajevo, better known as Carol of the Bells. Practices began