Mr. Beggs and the High School Band

by Gary White

I just realized that I never posted my article on Mr. Beggs to the CV blog. Sorry if you have already read this one, but thought it ought to be here to complete the picture.

In the sixth grade I started trumpet lessons with Mr. Beggs, the band director of the Cedar Vale schools. Mr. Beggs was himself, an excellent trumpet player, and I tried very hard to live up to the high standards he set for himself and his students. I remember my early lessons were a struggle for me. I was trying so hard to get everything right, and more than once, I broke into tears when I couldn't perform up to our mutual expectations. Mr. Beggs was always kind, but a bit cool. He answered my frustrations by telling me that I would be able to do it if I would just practice more each day.

Somewhere in my second year of study, I must have had a breakthrough, because I can remember Mr. Beggs asking me to join the high school band. I was in the seventh grade at the time, but Mr. Beggs would pick me up at the grade school and drive me to the high school for the rehearsal. There were two or three other grade school students who were given similar treatment, but I felt very special, because I was the youngest. I thought that playing in the high school band and having my own band uniform was the most exciting thing that had ever happened to me. Now that I look back on it, I'm sure that Mr. Beggs simply needed to fill out the trumpet section, but at the time, I was sure that it was because of my superior musical ability.

I redoubled my efforts and practiced the trumpet every available minute after school, trying to reach the level of the high school players. Don Schaffer, who was three years older, and already sitting first chair in the trumpet section, particularly inspired me. Don could play the most demanding solos, higher and faster than anything I had ever heard. He was at least as good as Mr. Beggs himself. I gradually worked my way up in the section over the next few years, so that when Don graduated and began studying music at the University of Kansas, I took his place as the first chair in the trumpet section.

Mr. Beggs always showed his appreciation for my effort, but kept my ego in check by finding some more challenging solo for me to master. And, of course, there was always Don Schaffer, who came home from college playing circles around me. Mr. Beggs encouraged me to play by ear as well as performing from printed music. He was a member of a local dance band, and an accomplished improviser on the trumpet. In the last year or so of high school he occasionally invited me to join him on the bandstand at local dances, and we shared the solos. This experience of playing by ear was excellent training for my ear, and a good starting point for later compositional work. The most important lesson that I learned from Mr. Beggs was that I would have to set very high standards for myself to be successful in music. I sensed that he had to work very hard to meet his own professional standards, and I tried to emulate him as best I could.

It was because of him that I chose a career in music, and I certainly owe him a debt for instilling high personal standards, which were indeed necessary for success in the music profession. Mr. Beggs went on from Cedar Vale to direct bands in larger school systems, but he devoted his entire life to the public school band. In 1980, when I learned that Mr. Beggs was retiring after nearly forty years of teaching, I wrote a piece for band and dedicated it to him. This work, called Homage, became my first published composition for band, and it was a proud moment for me to be able to send Mr. Beggs a copy of the published score.