2014 Pan Ramajay Workshop Day 2

Practice Plan

The first day I only logged 90 minutes of practice time -- mostly due to the faculty concert and having to run errands. Today, I had my instrument ready, a place to practice, and no evening obligations to get in the way. I was able to practice at 8am before rehearsals, during lunch break, after rehearsals wrapped up, and after dinner for a total of about 3 1/2 hrs, which is good. I should be able to match this tomorrow.

The most difficult charts are Ray's piece, followed by Don's piece. Ray's piece is 8 pages long, and rhythmically complex, plus it has a several runs and fast patterns in variations throughout. Don's piece 

has several key changes and meter changes.

Today's Musical Calisthenics exercise

Tom talked a little about useful ways to practice scales. First, we altered which beat we started the scale on. First on '1', then on 'e', then on '&', then 'a', then '2', etc. It was harder than I thought. That was what Tom called, rhythmic permutation. Next, we moved on to alternating the scale. We started with C Major, then F, then Bb, Eb, Ab, C# (moving in perfect 4ths). Tom says there are only 3 ways to rotate through all 12 keys: chromatically, up a P4/down P5, down a Major 3rd.

Electives

Today was the first day for electives, which take place immediately after our lunch break. I attended Don's improv clinic today, which he usually does. Don talked about devices for improvising, including leading tones, (scale tones up and 1/2 step below melody notes), the minor and major blues scales, using alternate chords -- our example chord progression was a ii V7 I vi, and we changed the I to a iii on the 3rd 4-bar phrase to illustrate. Don also talked about using the diminished scale over the V7.

Tomorrow, I think I may do the engine room session with Jim & Allen, then the technology session with Rick on Thursday.

Rehearsal Recap

To nobody's surprise, Tom's rehearsal was methodical and worked through the chart in pieces, each section addressing different goals. Alan's rehearsal was very good too, and reminded me I needed to work out a few technical issues. Don's rehearsal went as expected -- he started at the end and worked backward in chunks. This composition is really neat -- I wish I could write like this.

2014 Pan Ramajay Workshop Day 1

I feel very fortunate to have the opportunity to spend a week at the University of Denver for the 5th annual Pan Ramajay summer steel drum workshop -- 5 days filled with making music with a world-class faculty of professional musicians with expertise in steelpan and outstanding musicianship. This year, like the first year, I am staying in the residence hall (Nelson Hall). It is a spartan existence -- just the basics, but I can practice late and simply walk back to the building. I can also take advantage of the Denver BCycle bike-share program when I need to run an errand.

Advanced Band

This is the third year I am participating, and the second year I am playing with the advanced band. Mind you, there is no audition to get accepted to different skill level groups. You just have to be willing and able to play music at a certain level, or you won't have too much fun.

This year, the advanced band is smaller than the intermediate band. It is usually the other way around. As a result, the parts are very exposed. We have 4 lead payers, 2 double seconds, 1 double tenor, 2 cellos, and 1 bass.

Rehearsals

Day one of rehearsals was a mixed bag. We first had Tom, who went easy on us in terms of difficulty for his chart. I really like Tom's method, which is to take slow tempo and work on chunks at a time. Tom is excellent at communicating what he wants and how he wants parts played. Tom is just a really seasoned music educator with a fabulous demeanor and very high level of musicianship.

Don Prorak's piece is a fairly challenging to me. At the same time, it is a really fine piece of music. Don does a nice job of relaying stories and humor. This piece, Tempus Fugit, was written for his father, Emil Prorak, a watch maker and drummer who passed away a few months ago. Don loves to delve in to mixed keys and meters. He did a great job of imparting the spirit of a timekeeper in this piece. I'm excited to hear it as it progresses. I think I can get my part down with enough practice.

Alan's charts always have a great groove above all else, and this year's piece is no exception. Sometimes the music is composed so recently that the sheet music is not what you might call complete. Missing rehearsal letters, dynamics, mistakes and other errata are common, but you have to rise above to get to the music at its heart. After all, printed notes are just a way to relay music. It is the musician's job to interpret it.

Ray's piece is always the most challenging.  I'm not bashing Ray -- in fact, Ray is a fabulous musician, and composer. His charts are just a little unorthodox. For example, this year's piece was a Panorama piece and has no repeats or codas -- so it ends up being 8 pages long. Really, a nightmare for page-turning. Besides that, the fact that it is a Panorama tune, necessitates many runs, so the musicians can "show off" for the Panorama judges. The jury is out, but it is very likely that I will not be able to play the whole thing. I am making peace with the fact that I won't practice past 11pm. If that means I play only 80% of Ray's chart, so be it.

Convocation / Electives

After our hour and a half lunch break, we have a convocation (assembling as a group per a summons - -ha ha). It is fancy college-speak. We just regroup and have a little something different before resuming rehearsals. On the first day, we heard Darren Dyke talk to us about how a tuner tunes a pan. Specifically, we heard about how the note is tuned to the fundamental pitch, two ends of the note are tuned to the octave, and the opposite sides are typically tuned to the 12th (octave + fifth). I'm not sure we learned anything that would help us in our next purchase decision, but we have even more respect for tuners.

Faculty Jam

Lastly, the faculty put on an hour-long concert for us of loosely rehearsed tunes. This is always a treat, as it really allows their musicianship to shine and gives us a heightened sense of how professional musicians can put on a great show with little preparation. For me, it was really nice to hear them play Black Orpheus and Blue Bossa, because I often play those tunes. They also played Herbie Hancock's Cantaloupe Island and Roaring Lion's Caroline and Bob Marley's No Woman, No Cry among others.

New life

Resuming

I haven't made a post in many months. I'm not sure why, but maybe it's the peaks and valleys and how life takes over. I did not go to Denver for the Pan Ramajay Steel Drum Festival week in 2013, but I'm lucky enough to be going this year (for the 3rd time). As I did in 2012, I'll be in the advanced band and spending many hours practicing.

Aside from that, I started taking a one hour pan lesson every two weeks from a very talented musician and educator, Chris Patterson via Skype (he's in Nashville, TN) for 6 months now. With Chris's help, I've developed as a musician, improviser, and pan player in almost every way.

It was because of the prompting of Chris and Todd Phillips that decided at the beginning of the year to start playing solo gigs by performing to backing tracks. The primary goal being to play music for people on a regular basis. As Chris explained it (and it was explained to him years before by Tom Miller), to improve as a player, you just gotta play. The extra money will go to Tony's new pan fund.

Gigging Out

My first gigs were playing the local Senior Center, a coffee shop owned by a friend, and playing for a church dinner. I got organized by putting together a website, tonyschmitt.com, making business cards, a yard sign (for public performances), getting a friend to help with videos to put on my site and making some sound clips.

Now I have a regular summer gig (for exposure, not pay) at a free weekly outdoor community movie event (I'm the pre-show entertainment). This will hopefully drum up some business (sorry). I'm just not allowed to take any money while playing in the parks...that would be pan-handling (ba-dum-bum)!

Community Band & Arranging

I'm still a member of the Winchester Steel Co. Adult/Community Band. I have also arranged two charts for the group: Plasticities by Andrew Bird and most recently, Butterfly by Herbie Hancock. We plan to perform the latter arrangement in December of 2014.

We typically have just two performances each year: in mid-May and mid-December. This year is the first time that our adult group has been asked to record for a CD featuring the high school steel band. So, we recorded Laventile (Andy Narrell) and Spain (Chick Corea). This was very exciting to be a part of.


Tony

Pan Ramajay final day

The final day of the festival is less about rehearsals and intense practice and more about fine tuning things here and there. Rehearsals were pretty light. The tunes are as good as they are going to get in the span of a week.


I was probably the person with the least pan playing experience in the advanced band. I've been playing just under a year and a half now. Still, I was impressed by may of the others playing in the advanced band. Some were just high school graduates. I'm blown away at the thought of how far they could develop their talents. The sky is the limit.

After morning rehearsals, we spent part of the afternoon moving the pans to the stage of the concert hall. Space wise, things are pretty tight, as you can see by the photo. They have to be to accommodate all three bands. There is no band leader up front conducting. Instead, the songs get kicked off by the engine room -- in other words, the drums, cowbells, iron, and other percussion instruments that make up the pulse.

The soundcheck is just a quick run-through or partial run-through. Ray's chart ended up being 6 pages long, so I taped mine together to prevent pages from hitting the ground. Page turns are tough because there are really no breaks at all in this song. Here is a clip of the intro during soundcheck:

http://soundcloud.com/biminiroad/ramajay-2012-soundcheck-clip

Once the show is over, you say your goodbyes and hugs, then go your separate ways. There is sometimes a post-show party. Once the pans are quiet and the mallets are put away, you can't help but to reflect on the experience.

I  knew that this year would be a stretch for me and that I would be out of my comfort zone. It was definitely uncomfortable at times. I played well above my skill level just being with others who are more advanced than I am. I'm still surprised that I was able to adapt so quickly to a pan that had no notes written on it. I guess I don't need that crutch now. I'm also inspired by the musicianship that I got to be in the company of on a daily basis.

The festival was fun despite all the hard work. I pushed myself, and grew as a player. That is what I set out to do.

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Pan Ramajay Day 4

Pan Ramajay Day 4

Thursday was a good day to catch up on some individual practice.  I reminded myself that I'm supposed to be uncomfortable and that this is a stretch exercise. It's a little like running with faster runners to become faster. When unchallenged, people tend to progress slowly. I know that by playing with more advance players I will improve. I have only been playing for a year and a half, so I'm still pretty new.

Tom and Jim allotted part of their rehearsal time for working on sections of Ray's chart. This was helpful, because for once, we got to rehearse at a slower tempo.  Ray always rehearses at a fast tempo. By the time we got to Ray's slot, we finally ran through the verse and chorus sections. We also ran through the entire piece. We really must work on the transitions between sections. I'll probably play a portion of Ray's chart. It should be noted that this is a Panorama piece, that would typically be worked on for months by a steel band in Trinidad. We are doing a scaled down version of the chart in the span of a week.

Tomorrow is Friday. Final rehearsals ... sound checks ... last chance to work out tricky passages ... then the (free) show for the public. Light at the end of the tunnel.

Here is a clip of Jim telling stories about calypso from Wednesday:

http://soundcloud.com/biminiroad/ramajay-2012-jim-storytime

Pan Ramajay - day 2 & 3

Tuesday

Day two was full of intensity. I logged about 2 1/2 hours of individual practice after rehearsals. This was the day that I realized that the average age in the room of advanced band musicians was probably about 23. I'm 43. Yep, I feel old, old, old.

After lunch, we had four electives to choose from. I went with the one on improvisation, with Don Prorak. It was hands-on and pretty good, but it would have been nice to have a handout to take away, and help remember some of the lesson.

Wednesday

I suppose I hit the proverbial "Wednesday Wall". Although I kept up with much of the tunes we played in the morning session and early afternoon, I just got frustrated with Ray's chart. It's just chaos! Why bother learning your part when it is so likely to be changed? As usual, Ray kept modifying all the parts and jumped around the chart. Half the time, I didn't know where we were - Ray's chart has no rehearsal letters. I really respect Ray for the caliber of musician that he is, but his style of leading a rehearsal is such a departure from everything I've come to expect. I don't think I will play on Ray's tune.

After lunch, Ray gave a Q&A for us. Anonymously submitted questions. Ray talked about a variety of topics, including his early childhood in Trinidad. It's pretty amazing the turns that Ray's life has taken.

Don was happy with his tune, so we spent a little time reading through his arrangement of Ozzy Osbourne's Crazy Train. I have audio, posted below:

Crazy Train (sound cloud)

Pan Ramajay day 1

Day one seemed like three days long, to be honest. The leap to advanced band is huge. There are many fabulous sight readers in the group and a lot of musicianship. I was in the intermediate band last year, where there was a wider spread of talent and experience. You could say it was a little more social.




There are seven of us lead (tenor pan) players, so I can skip over passages if they are too hard -- if only for a while.

We started the day off working on sticking technique. This is something not developed well in the steel world, unlike classical percussion. Next, Tom rehearsed the group on his chart, Aria's Groove -- named for his niece. This is a piece I can handle. In the second session, Don rehearsed us on his piece, entitled Vague Memory, which has something to do with a bird song (that Don vaguely remembers). Ok, seriously, what am I doing here? I was playing less than 50% of the notes. And *now* is when the television news cameraman comes in to shoot footage for the five o'clock news?!? Ugh.

Lunch didn't arrive too soon. Following lunch break, Darren gave a lecture (convocation) on steel pan construction. Once break was over, it was time for the remaining afternoon rehearsals.

Allen led us through his funky tune, which we he handed out just then, so more sight reading. I think I can handle this, but I need to work out some sections on my own.

Last, was Ray. It was like controlled chaos. Multiple handwritten pages, some of which was not even on staff paper -- more like notes to himself. And then he changed it all! To Ray, notes on a page are just drudgery. Something. He'd rather do without. But by the end of the day, we had a nice sounding intro. It will probably change tomorrow.

The videos below are from the evening faculty jam. One clip is from Don's arrangement of Pat Metheny's April Joy, and the other is Ray playing his solo rendition of Somewhere, from West Side Story.

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Location:E Asbury Ave,Denver,United States