Richard's Christmas Concert

Richard Johnson and his family lived in Salt Lake City, Utah. The Johnson's had six children: three girls and three boys. Their names were: Doug: 16, Richard: 13, Craig: 10, Sally: 14, Laura: 11, and Emily: 8. They loved music, and their dad's parents and siblings all played musical instruments. Mr. Johnson learned how to play the trumpet because his dad did. Mrs. Johson loved to play the piano, so did the Johnson girls. Doug enjoyed playing the violin. Richard first decided he wanted to learn how to play the drums so he was given drums as a Christmas gift. He joined a musical group where he got to play the drums twice a week at their concerts. Richard was a great student in his seventh grade class. Math was his favorite subject, and one of his classes was music. He learned how to sing in that class.

Day after day Richard came home from school and diligently practiced his drums in their garage with the garage door open. At first, the neighbors handled the noise from his drums, but the more he practiced, the noise got on the neighbor's nerves. Richard went to one of his friends' houses and practiced the drums in their garage. His friend's name was Bruce. Bruce was also learning how to play the drums, but he was getting the hang of the drums better than Richard did. His friend's family liked to have their garage door closed while their family liked their garage door open. Thus, the noise of the drums didn't bother the neighbors. He was practicing the drums to prepare for a spring concert at his junior high school. Two songs he was supposed to learn to play on the drums were the Beatles "Ticket To Ride," and Michael Jackson's "Billie Jean" song. Try as he might, Richard could not play the songs on his drums. He got discouraged. After talking it over with his parents, he decided that he would like to learn how to play the trumpet because his dad learned how to play it, and his dad's dad played the trumpet. At their spring concert, Bruce played the drums, and Richard sang with a bunch of other students at his school. The concert went very well. Richard's dad decided to let Richard learn to play his trumpet if he promised to take really good care of it. Richard promised his dad that he would take very good care of his trumpet as he learned to play it. Songs he decided he was going to learn to play on his trumpet were The Beatles "Love Is All You Need," and "Just The Way You Are" by Billy Joel Richard practiced these songs many times until he could play them really well.

Richard was glad he had decided to give up learning to play the drums and learn how to play the trumpet instead. He looked forward to the following Christmas when he would be playing his trumpet in a concert. In the beginning of October, Richard got the trumpet music for the songs: "Mary Did You Know,", "Silver Bells", and "White Christmas." He wanted to have plenty of time to learn these songs. He practiced these songs faithfully once a week for the next two months. He learned the songs quite well. A week before the Christmas concert, however, he was told that in each of the three songs, he had a solo part. He was nervous about that. He asked his friends for advice, and he was told to imagine that the audience was watching the concert in just their underwear. The auditorium was full When he played his solo parts during the songs, he did imagine the audience wearing just their underwear, and it calmed him way down. Richard did very well at the concert.

The next Christmas, one of Richard's gifts was his very own trumpet. He was very happy to have his very own trumpet. He found songs to practice on throughout the year. The next year at their Christmas concert, he had solo parts again, but he was more confident this time, and he didn't have to imagine the audience wearing just underwear.