Last Wednesday night, I attended the second annual Westside Band Festival at Petaluma High. Probably like a lot of parents who attended, I walked into the gym a little tired and distracted. But by the time I left an hour later, I was energized and refreshed.

As you might guess, the Westside Band Festival brought together the bands from all the elementary schools on the west side, plus the junior high and high school bands.

Attending band events is something new for our family. My only experience with a musical instrument was a year of accordion lessons that my father insisted that I take when I was 10 because he wanted a family polka band; that whole experience is more like the punch line to a joke than any real exposure to music. And Steve's Norwegian sense of rhythm meant that his time as a blues guitarist was pretty short-lived, so the activities in our house have centered more on the artistic rather than the musical.

In spite of her limited musical heritage, I'm grateful that our youngest daughter, Jennifer, had an opportunity to begin playing clarinet in elementary school; she is the first one of our three kids to play an instrument. And now that she is at Petaluma Junior High, she's part of Mr. Bailey's advanced band class.

In the Westside Band Festival, the elementary school bands played first. The progress that the band teachers make with their young students is absolutely amazing to me. There are probably many students who have never even held a real instrument before, and in a matter of months, the kids can recognize notes and rhythm so they can play a Mozart melody, aka "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" in tune and in sync. And they aren't just teaching one instrument, they're teaching fingering on trumpet, flute, trombone, and on and on. Those teachers deserve another round of applause for their patience and energy.

Next in the program, the junior high bands played and the improvement that they have made as musicians in the year or two since they left elementary school is dramatic. Not only did the "Stars and Stripes" sound great, they group looked great. The training Mr. Bailey gives them in focus and presence is really impressive.

And the high school bands showed off yet another jump in the students' growth as musicians. Their musicianship probably would have been every bit as good, but I don't think I would have enjoyed it as much if they had been playing symphony music; marching band music is bouncy and just plain fun to listen to. How could you not listen to their a zippy arrangement of "Funky Town" and not leave invigorated? It's still playing in my head. But unlike so many songs that turn into ear worms, this song takes me back to the gym that night and the upbeat energy that filled the room.

To cap off the evening, all the bands joined together to play the theme from "Star Wars." That's fourth graders through high school seniors playing together as a music community. I left with the feeling that I had been around people - both the teachers and students - who really love what they are doing. I felt better for having been there.