名稱：old gritar，brand-new band
內(nèi)容簡介：
Dear Arizona,
　 I want to be in a band, but I don’t know how to put one together. Do you?　　—Rockin’ in Rhode Island

Dear Rockin’,
　 Well, yes and no. The band I’m in is seriously unusual (meaning the sounds we make are not what you’d usually call music), so I’m probably not the best person in the world to give advice on the subject.

Forming a band was actually my friend Ollie’s idea. We were skateboarding outside his house when his abuela (grandmother) came out with this gigantic box.

“Ollie, love,” she called, “could you please give me a hand with this box for the rummage sale?”

“No problem,” Ollie called back.

We hopped off our boards to help carry the box to the car.

Ollie peeked in the box. “Wow! You’re giving away this guitar?” he said.

“I stopped playing years ago,” said Abuela. “Why let it gather dust when someone could use it to make beautiful music?”

“What about me? I could make beautiful music,” Ollie said. He gave the strings a strum, and let’s just say that beautiful and music are not the words to describe the noises that came out!

Abuela laughed. “I never knew my grandbaby was such a gifted musician.”

“So I can keep it?” asked Ollie. “Of course,” said Abuela.

“Arizona!” said Ollie.

“We should totally have a band!”

“Um, one problem,” I said. “I don’t know how to play any instruments.”

“Just a moment,” Abuela said, digging around in the box. “I’m sure I saw a pair of old maracas in here. They’re made of dried gourds filled with seeds, and if you give them a little shake, they make the most wonderful sound. Hmm . . . ah yes, here they are!”

Abuela put the maracas in my hands, and before I knew it, I was actually making some pretty decent noises.

Just then, my little brother and sister came skipping down the sidewalk.

“’Zona,” said Indi, “Mom says you need to come have lunch!”

“She says Ollie’s invited, too,” said Tex, “if he likes macaroni and cheese.”

Ollie strummed and sang, “Mac and cheese, mac and cheese— please, please, please give me mac and cheese!”

“Cha cha cha!” I added, shaking the maracas.

“Ooh! Can I be in your band?” Indi asked. “I could play my kazoo!”

“Me, too!” said Tex. “I could play my bongo drums!”

“We don’t have a band,” I told them.

“Of course you can be in our band!” said Ollie. “The more the merrier!”

Our first rehearsal was right after lunch—and it was anything but merry! We started off by disagreeing about every single thing.

“We should call our band Macaroni and Cheese!” said Tex.

“It should be Macaroni and the Three Cheeses,” said Ollie.

“But who gets to be Macaroni?” I asked.

“Me!” said Ollie.

“No fair,” said Tex. “I’m the one who thought of the name, so I should be Macaroni!”

“Let’s just think of other names,” I suggested.

“Let’s be the Rainbow Unicorns!” said Indi.

I could tell Ollie wasn’t wild about that idea, so I said, “Maybe we should figure out what kind of music we’re going to play, then figure out a name.”

“We should do blues,” said Ollie.

“No,” said Tex. “Rock ’n’ roll!”

“I like dancing music,” said Indi.

“I like rock and folk and pop,” I said.

“That’s two votes for rock!” said Tex.

“I guess rock would be OK,” said Ollie. “What song should we play first?”

“That song about a hound dog!” said Tex.

“I’d rather do a cat song than a dog song,” said Indi.

“This is seriously getting frustrating,” I said. “Maybe a band is too much trouble.”

“How about we just make stuff up and see how it goes?” suggested Ollie.

“Good idea!” said Indi.

“Yeah,” said Tex. I nodded.

“I guess that could work.”

From then on, we just made up words and had fun playing our instruments. We still practice together sometimes. We take turns trying out the different instruments, and we don’t have a name yet—but we have lots of fun. And that’s what matters, right?

So, dear Rockin’, as you can see, I’m about as far from a real band expert as a person can get. I’d say just ask everyone you know if they’d like to be in a band. Once you get people together, try really hard to be open-minded and work as a group.

If you want to play real music that actually sounds good, get ready to practice a lot! But if you just want to hang out and see what sounds you can make, that can be fun, too.

Ciao for now,

Arizona