Page 53 - The Exceptional Harley Fetterman

THE EXCEPTIONAL HARLEY FETTERMAN

With this candid comment, Patrick about lost his composure, and
the four of them burst out laughing. Patrick quickly concluded that
this was an awesome, close-knit family. Harley, despite his dad's
“redneck” recommendation, decided the French horn, with all its
capabilities, was his choice of instrument.

Harley was Patrick's first student to use extremely difficult Braille
music annotation to read music. This was compounded by the fact that
the French horn requires use of both hands. Harley always gave his
best and ended up memorizing every single piece of music he played.
Patrick and Harley loved doing free improvisation in duets which
confirmed to Patrick what a creative touch Harley added to everything
with his personal charisma.

Harley's musical interests ranged from Beethoven to Deep Purple
to Metallica to Schubert. This teacher/student relationship affected
Patrick beyond the field of music to actually look at life in a different,
far better way—creating his worthy admiration of his unique student,
Harley Fetterman.

With his visual impairments, Harley cleverly worked out propping
the French horn on his lap, using one hand to manipulate the keys,
and his other hand to read the braille music. When band class would
start working on new music, Harley and his VI Coordinator, Carolyn
Mason, would also work together to figure out the full Braille music
code needed such as the actual notes, dynamic marking and other
special marking, like measure marking, and time signature.

Harley also fully participated in band competitions and was aided
by having another student carry his French horn for him.
Competitions often included a section on sight-reading unknown and
previously unpracticed music. In public performance sessions, Harley
was known to listen so carefully that he was hyper-aware of
everything around him. He was excellent at knowing when his parts
were to be played.
Regarding the band competitions, Harley candidly remarked, “If
I'm unsure of any new sight-reading music, I play softly so I can tell if
I'm off even a little. If that happens, I'll stop playing so I don't hurt the
band's score.”

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