I Uncovered The Baritone

I've been cleaning the basement and I uncovered the baritone from much debris.  When I was in High School, I played a baritone in the band.  I wasn't very good.  I was third chair because there were only three of us.  Had there been six, I would surely have been sixth chair.  I wasn't very good for several reasons.  The primary reason was that I didn't practice.  I carried that baritone instrument on the handlebars of my bicycle every day to and from the High School for a couple of years.  However, I didn't practice so I don't understand why I carried it back and forth.  Another reason which kept me in the last chair was that I couldn't tell the difference between flats and sharps.  I could hear that something wasn't right but I couldn't have told anyone what was wrong.  The baritone had those three valves so, when something didn't sound correct, I would push a different valve.  Occasionally the Band Director, Mr. Robinson, would have us play individually so he would tell if our instrument was "in tune."  That was always a bad time for me because he could tell, in front of the entire band, that my instrument was out of tune.  He would instruct me to tune it and I would try but, I really wasn't certain what I was doing, so it was difficult to make it right.  I wish I'd practiced more.