Brody Clarke ‘25 struggled to tell his mom he broke his trumpet after just one year with the instrument. Instead of facing this confrontation, he decided to take on a new instrument in sixth grade. Because of his prior piano lessons, it was only natural that he should switch to percussion.
“I started playing the drum set because in seventh grade I was gonna try out for jazz piano, but it went really bad. I really wanted to be in the jazz band and I was worried I wasn’t gonna be in it. So I’m like, ‘okay, what can I do?’ I play percussion. I decided to go out for drums. Then I started working on drum set with my private lesson teacher, and then I just never quit,” Clarke said.
Clarke is involved with Combo, Concert Choir, Wind Ensemble, Jazz Ensemble, and two personal bands because of his belief that music is important for a balanced life.
“I don’t know if I would [do band] if the community for music and performing arts at City High wasn’t as good as it was. I found a lot of friends through music, and also music is just a way of expressing yourself a little bit. Honestly, I just enjoy performing music a lot. It’s really rewarding just doing something well and doing something impressive. Unlike a lot of other extra correct extracurriculars, it’s less stressful because A, it’s not like sports where you’re gonna feel pain, and B, it’s not like speech or debate, where you have to improvise on the spot and you can embarrass yourself. With music, you know everything that you’re gonna do in the moment and all you gotta do is show up and perform and put your heart into it. Music and Performing Arts is the only type of thing you can use your heart rather than your brain. That’s pretty special. And I feel like I found myself through doing that,” Clarke said.
Besides the rewarding art of music and the community around it, Clarke believes that music and his other interests just clash well together. His love to be busy works well with the consistent practice needed to be good at an instrument.
“Either music works for me because math works for me or vice versa. Because with music, I’ve always just accepted the fact that you get this music and then you have to practice it outside of the class and practice until you learn it. With music, I can just consistently put work into it and then get rewarded by it. That’s kind of similar to math. All you have to do is do the homework. That’s also why I like working out too. There’s just consistent workload, consistent reward, and I very much find that in music,” Clarke said.
Although Clarke has many extracurriculars spanning various areas, he is grateful for his experience with music and the performing arts. Through these programs at City High, he has found both himself, and his people.
“I’m really grateful that my parents forced me to try an instrument very early on because I think it has been the most positive overall extracurricular and the most consistently positive thing I’ve done in my life so far. There’s a lot of valuable lessons from music as much as there are benefits from it, but I think the biggest thing is making yourself vulnerable and doing something uncomfortable. Everyone should try music because the music program at City High is just so heavily emphasized, and there’s just so many cool people through here,” Clarke said.
