When it came time for Aiden Monsivais, now a senior at Bryan High School, to pick an elective in middle school, he picked band.
Since making that decision, one person who has supported him throughout the years is his mom. But she has never heard her son play a single note. Monsivais’ mom, Virginia, was born deaf. When her son was asked to pick an elective, she advised him to pick something that seemed fun.
After years of playing baritone saxophone and a four-year member of the Bryan High School band, Monsivais was selected as one of three drum majors to lead the Bryan Viking Band in the fall 2022 season.
“It’s really been fun just conducting, really helping us come together,” he said. “… It’s a good time, always.”
As a hearing child of a deaf adult (CODA), his first language was sign language, he said. Similar to how a baby learns how to vocalize when learning how to speak, Monsivais said, he went through a similar process, only with his hands learning to sign.
He called it muscle memory, but said he sometimes has to ask his mom how to sign certain words.
“Most of it is just you’ve really got to stick the motion with the word and just really go over it a bunch,” he said.
It was his grandmother who taught him English every time she would come and talk to him.
He said he considers sign language easier than other languages because there is no written portion to it. It is all about learning the signs, which include hand and arm motions and facial expressions.
Sign language and conducting a band may appear similar, but it takes a different type of skill set, Monsivais said. Sign language requires fine motor skills to convey the signs he needs to communicate, while conducting requires much larger arm movements.
However, his background in sign language has helped communicate with the other drum majors on the field.
“One of our other drum majors, he’s deaf in his left ear, so sometimes when we’re up on the stands, I taught him some stuff so we can communicate in between our podiums,” he said. “So to say faster or slower or what’s going on in between, so if we’re maybe 30 feet away from each other, we can still communicate from each podium.”
Even though his mom could not hear the music he was playing on the field or the stage, Monsivais said, she was always supportive and took him to different events.
It was different moving to drum major from marching, he said, but he embraced the change and the challenge of learning how to conduct a binder full of sheet music.
“Marching is pretty fun, but being drum major and really being able to get your whole team together and direct them and be able to help everyone out is a really fun job,” he said.
He advised anyone thinking about joining band to try it, saying high school band brings a lot of new aspects that are not part of middle school band.
“You get used to it, and then you’re like, ‘Hey I like this,’” he said. “Every Friday I get to go hang out with all my buds, and then in October go to competitions, hang out with my friends all day, come back home. I think it’s a ton of fun.”
BRYAN ISD
Children First. Always.