I used to joke that I did great in band, my hearing loss didn’t prevent me from playing, I could hear everyone… except the piccoolos. And people would laugh and say that I wasn’t missing anything, or even that I was lucky to not hear them.
When did I first realize I was hearing them with my cochlear implant? During Stars and Strips Forever. It’s always been obvious that there’s piccolo stuff going on there in that song. All the flutes play piccolos and they usually stand up and sometimes even move to the front of the stage. It’s a big show and impressive because they have to have the music memorized… but it wasn’t something I could hear.
So now I have two songs that leave me choked up and make it difficult to play. Pomp and Circumstance at graduations and Stars and Stripes. Great. 🙂
Here’s a couple of videos. The first one is hearing impaired people friendly – it’s like a player piano scroll for Stars and Stripes Forever. I’m curious to see if it helps any of you follow the music.
And this one is the piccolo part. I’m finding it actually pleasant to listen to. The ‘solo’ starts at about 2:07.
