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Robyn Guest, 24, of La Habra, began her music career, not with a horn in her hand, but with a dare. A very stubborn and ambitious dare.
At age four, she watched a local school band perform a concert for her day-care center. As the musicians showed the various instuments one by one, Robyn took note of two in particular. "One was the french horn. They wanted to show us how long the horn was unwrapped, so they had a garden hose, put a funnel at one end and a mouthpiece at the other, and tried playing it. It made me laugh. The other was the piccolo. I watched that girl play notes so high it made us all cover our ears, all that noise coming from such a small thing, and I thought 'That's what I want to play.' I told my friends that afterwards. They of course laughed. I was a tom boy; I couldn't be talented enough to learn music. So I told them, quite stubbornly, that I would one day learn the piccolo, and more than that, I would march in the La Habra Corn Festival Parade playing piccolo." That determination sparked an interest in music. She picked up her sister's accordian and taught herself how to read the music. She tried her hand at guitar, but never fully accomplished learning the chords. When a music teacher went around her elementary school to teach piano, Robyn took the lessons seriously. Then, when her sister began a college piano course and the family got an upright piano, Robyn practiced on the college books, teaching herself to play. "I took Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata and swore I'd learn it. I played that thing over and over, memorized it. I sucked at simple songs, but I was proud that I could play Beethoven." When her best friend joined the middle school band, Robyn's eagerness increased. "The first thing I asked was 'Do they have piccolos?'" It turned out the only instruments left were an alto sax, a french horn and a flute, and two other girls wanted the flute. It the end, Robyn was given the flute and told she had to learn that before she could learn piccolo. For six months she practiced 6-10 hours a day. "I was obsessed. I wanted to be perfect on it, because I knew I'd have to fight for the privledge to play piccolo." After her beginning class was over, Robyn moved to the advanced band... and found she hated the piccolo. "I got the piccolo because [the first-chair player] didn't like it. I was so stoked, you can't imagine. Then I played it, and couldn't get out a note. It was very frustrating. I worked all weekend on the little stick. It was shrill, it was loud, it hurt my ears. I realized why no one wanted to play it." But realizing she did not like the shrillness of the piccolo did not stop Robyn's musical aspirations. She continued practicing long hours on the flute. "It got to the point where I was bored. I got books from stores with tougher music. I was just outgrowing the middle school level. I wanted something, a challenge." And so she decided to learn a new instrument. She picked what she thought was the most difficult instrument, the exact opposite from flute, something so outlandish it would drive her music skills to the brink: she picked the trombone. "I remember picking up the trombone on the last day of seventh grade to learn it over the summer. My best friend came up to me, simply astounded that I was going to learn trombone. I recall she called out to one of our clarinetists, told him I was going to learn trombone, and he was shocked too, said something like 'She's going to learn what? Are you crazy?' It made me wonder if I was mad." Robyn worked alone on her new trombone. Despite complaints from her family that it sounded "like a dying cow," she learned how to buzz, how to read bass clef, how to play a scale. Yet when it came to playing in class, it was quite a different story. Robyn played trombone only in the jazz band. On her first day as a trombonist, she was given a song with a solo. "There were two trombonists, me and my friend Christina. I thought she'd play it, since she had learned trombone in beginning band. She thought I would play it, since I had more experience under my belt. I was finally assigned the song. I couldn't play it. We eventually cut the solo. It was very embarrassing. I've hated solos ever since." But Robyn continued learning both trombone and flute. She played jazz, she played flute duets, she played woodwind quartets. And then came high school. "I met Mr. Pergola sometime before summer band camp. My parents introduced me, because I was shy. He asked what I played, and they answered flute and trombone. His eyes sparkled and said 'Really, trombone?' I told him 'Yes, but I hate it.' That sparkle did not fade with the knowledge. When I joined the band, he told me he had no flutes at the moment. I agreed to play trombone that day. I was the only trombonist there. I walked in the following day and asked if they had flutes. He said no, he wouldn't get any for a week. So I gritted my teeth and played trombone that week. He kept commenting 'Doesn't the band sound fuller with a trombone' and such things. After a week I went back and requested my flute. He said the order didn't get through, they wouldn't get flutes until school started. Meanwhile, I had to memorize the march we were to play in the Corn Festival Parade. I was mad. My first time marching in the Corn Festival, and it was not on piccolo, not even on flute. It was on trombone." Despite frequent requests for a flute, it seemed her band director never had one available. "I eventually shrugged and gave myself over to trombone. I didn't even bother when they listed me on the roster, not as flutist and trombonist like my freshman year, but merely 'trombonist.' It was forgotten that I ever played first-chair flute in middle school, that I hated trombone. Still, it took me until my Junior year in school for me to accept the trombone as a primary instrument. I even bought my own, a '57 Olds Super, my baby." In the meantime, Robyn dedicated herself to learning as many instruments as she could. During her high school years, she taught herself clarinet, tenor sax, french horn, trumpet, baritone horn, and tuba. Whenever there was a mention of a need for an instrument, she was there. She learned baritone at age 15 because their baritonist was away for the summer, and she played it for Corn Festival that year. She learned tuba in an afternoon because both of their tubists were away and they had a basketball game that night. And then she made a fateful decision. "I learned french horn because the band director formed an all-male brass ensemble, yet they lacked a horn, and I was their only choice. The band supported me, hating the idea of an all-male anything, and so our band director couldn't refuse. I didn't even know what key the thing was in, and I was given no learning books. I taught myself to play via Encyclopedia Britannica and a tuner." Robyn's love for music flourished in high school. She joined the concert band, marching band, jazz band, pep band, orchestra, brass choir, and was picked as a member of the Fullerton Union High School District Honor Band. "I was called Jane of All Trades. I played in everything I could." Band became an obsession. There were days Robyn was at school from 6:30am to ten o'clock at night, practicing field shows, concerts, and parades. But the long days and tiring schedule gave her something to do, something to keep her mind busy, some happiness in what could have been turbulent teenage years. She nostalgically admits, "Music was what kept me in school." Robyn went on to receive Sonora High School's Honor Certificate for Band, the music department's Outstanding Senior Musician Award, along with the prestigious Semper Fidelis Award from the U.S. Marine Corps for musical excellence. During her graduation party, a friend came up to Robyn and told her about a youth band of which she was a member. "I had, of course, heard of the Santa Ana Winds. They were our competition every Corn Festival. They were legends on the parade route." Despite the beginnings of pain and stiffness in her jaw, Robyn joined the Santa Ana Winds Youth Band that summer, playing french horn. "It was like high school all over again. I came in with my trombone, but the minute I mentioned I played french horn, a mellophone was shoved into my hand. They hadn't had a french horn in months. I didn't play trombone again for over a year." The Winds took Robyn's skills up a notch. She learned quite rudely the differences between her Double French Horn and a marching mellophone. She perfected breathing techniques to cut down on her frequent asthma attacks which had plagued her through high school. Here she also met her significant other. "We both played mellophone, and we'd angle our bells so we could see one another in the reflection. But we were both so shy, it took a disasterous sectional to bring us together. We were supposed to meet the other horns and the trumpets. No trumpets showed up, and the other hornist gave us a wrong number. It was me and Matt alone. It turned into the perfect date: music, ice cream, and a walk along the beach." Matt also introduced Robyn to two new groups: the Orange Coast College Wind Ensemble, where they both played french horn, and what was then The Legacy Band, now known as BandX, where Robyn finally picked up her trombone again. "It had been over a year since I played my horn. My chops were shot. But it was loads of fun, and more intense than anything I had known." Meanwhile, Robyn was studying music in Fullerton College. She took piano lessons, voice lessons, received top grades in musicianship and theory, yet played only one semester in the symphonic band. "By then, my jaw was troubling me too much. I was suffering every time I played. I had hoped piano would carry me through, but my wrists were getting arthritic. It was like my body was fighting against me becoming a professional musician. I was even invited to play with the highly elite group Cabana Boys and I had to turn them down. It broke my heart. I had never turned down playing for a group. I think that was when I realized I had to quit music." But Robyn was too stubborn to stop completely. Although she dropped Legacy Band, quit taking piano lessons, left the Fullerton Symphonic Band, changed her major to English, and (in embarrassment) changed schools, she continued to play french horn in the OCC Wind Ensemble and mellophone in the Santa Ana Winds. "I couldn't give it completely up. Music was too much a part of my life. It was life. Now that all had to change, but I couldn't let go completely." And then, thinking it was the high range troubling her jaw, Robyn switched to trombone in the Santa Ana Winds and moved to percussion in the OCC Wind Ensemble. Wrist trouble revisited and she gave up marimba, then timpani also, and within a year she returned to french horn in the college group. For the next few years, Robyn was happy to just be playing first-chair trombone with the Winds and second-chair to Matt in the OCC Wind Ensemble with an occasional appearance with the newly reformed BandX. Therapy on her jaw helped releave the pain, but she never completely regained the range and power she had in high school. "It might come back some day," she shrugs. "And when it does, my '57 Olds Super will be waiting." 2003 saw many changes for Robyn. Although she had continued as an instructor and webmaster beyond her age-out, she finally left the Winds to avoid the temptation to perform in non-competitive parades. She decided to fill the void by rejoining BandX part time. 2003 also saw her ten year anniversary of street marching. "I had enough sprained ankles, crinked elbows, faintings, asthma attacks, nose bleeds from heat, thrown out knees, and twisted vertebra to last me a lifetime. In fact, I don't think my left ankle will ever completely heal after tearing the Achilles tendon... twice! So, I knew it was time to stop marching. I've played on the streets of Orange County, Ventura County, Los Angeles, San Diego, Santa Barbara, Riverside, San Bernadino, Sacramento, Seattle, Hollywood, Disneyland, the ocean, the desert, the mountains... Somehow, I knew I wanted to end my career where it began, in La Habra." She laughs as she reflects upon her ten years in the Corn Festival. "I lost the bet, I guess. Ten years doing the parade, and not once did I march with the piccolo. Trombone, baritone, french horn... but never the piccolo." - Reona Glondia, 2003 |
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