Pan Ramajay Steel Drum Festival 2011 - parting thoughts

Final Thoughts
Tom Miller does a tremendous job putting the festival together. He is always poised and very approachable. The rest of the faculty are excellent too. I have it on good authority that these are the finest group of steel pan educators around.

Why Did I Do This?
Well, the short answer would be, because my wife let me. A better answer would be, because I'd just begun playing the pan in February of this year and Todd Phillips highly recommended it to me. Todd is an excellent high school music teacher in central Ohio, and I joined his adult / community steel band. I'm hooked on the pan and wanted a challenge to keep from languishing over the summer. Todd also attended the festival as he has for many years. In fact, "Team Phillips" was 5 members strong at this year's festival.

Further Information
Pan Ramajay Website

Tom sent out the schedule a few days before the start of the festival. He also emailed the mass band chart in PDF a week beforehand because there would very little time to rehearse it.

If you have to fly, it makes a lot of sense to rent a pan ($75). Tuition was reasonable ($525), but those of not from the Denver area must account for accommodations, meals, and transportation. Tom does give group discounts, if you have at least 4 people.

The 2012 Festival starts July 8th.


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Location:Sawyer Rd,Columbus,United States

Pan Ramajay Steel Drum Festival - day 5

The last day of the festival has arrived. Today has been a blur. It really is up to the individual how seriously one approaches the festival. There are some who have built their vacation around the festival. Others are very dedicated to improving themselves to the maximum extent, and there is the in-between. I suppose I'm one of the more extreme improvement types.

I would also venture to say that the majority of participants are repeaters. This is only the second year that the festival has been held in Denver. Before that, the festival took place in Morgantown, WV. The DU campus really is beautiful, with first rate facilities. I'm told that this is the first year that they have offered a residence hall option. I opted for this to have access to practice as long as I want.

The schedule for Friday consists of shorter rehearsals to leave time for moving gear to the stage and doing soundcheck. This was also the first time we rehearsed the mass band tune with all of the bands together. Wow, the last run through was blazing fast!


Here we are for the mass band tune in soundcheck

We finished soundcheck at about 3:45, so I took a power nap. Afterward, I had dinner and kept practicing my the melody for the first tune in my head. Not only does the band I'm in play the first piece of the concert, but I'm right out in front. I also happen to be the first one out as we enter the stage. I was worried about tripping or knocking over a pan.

Showtime

The first tune went pretty well. No train wrecks - credit Jim on trap set for cuing us with a fill into the outro. Whew! Alan's piece was next, with the tricky ending. It wasn't perfect, but decent. Don's piece, with the tricky part in the coda went ok. Personally, I nailed it through the most difficult passage, but missed a few notes right after it. No "red" notes though. In my mind it was like, "wow, I am nailing this... Crap! I'm screwing up now. Just keep playing and smile..." Next came Tom's piece, which went off with just a few mistakes.

I made up my mind before the show to accept the fact I am not perfect and will make some mistakes. You just need to recover and move on. There is no time to dwell on such things. Hmm... sounds like a life lesson. I probably put in 12 hours of individual practice this week, so I can say I gave my best effort.

After Don's arrangement, the composer was recognized in the audience. How cool is that? Ray's composition sounded hope very sweet. I tried to visualize Ray strumming the guitar and singing as I played.

Time goes by so fast when you are backstage and someone else is performing. Most folks quietly mingled. The final piece of the evening was a piece by Blue Boy called Rebecca. It super fast. As in, put your seatbelt on and keep your arms an legs in the vehicle at all times!


The pans are quiet now

The pans may have stopped ringing now for this year's festival, but they sure had some time in the sun!
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Location:S High St,Denver,United States

Pan Ramajay Steel Drum Festival - day 4

Today is the fourth day of the festival. A lot of what we're doing today is refining the pieces that we will play for the public on Friday evening (tomorrow).

Rehearsal time was spent going over the form of our pieces and working on difficult passages mostly. Don unleashed his metronome app on us, over a loudspeaker, to force us to play together and stop rushing the tempo. It worked. Jim's piece is so solid that he added a little part to add some interest in the chorus section. The faculty are always trying to out-do each other.
My elective today was, "tune up your engine room," which exposed us to each instrument and it's part of a rhythm section. They call it the engine room because, like a steamboat, the engine room is responsible for making everything go.



Alan & Jim break down the engine room for us
Alan and Jim showed and played us each of the parts for cowbells, shaker, iron (a car brake drum to you non- Trini's), scratcher, congas, and trap set. I got to play the traps while everyone else rotated on each of the instruments as we played to a soca beat. Today I learned that the word soca comes from the words, soul & calypso. I had a blast with this!

I nearly forgot, but we now have a complete chart for Ray's piece, and I think it's gonna sound ok! I was pretty worried about that one.

Tonight's concert featured the student group, Rocky Mountain Steel Band and a part faculty part advanced student band, featuring Ray. It was a real treat to hear a master like Ray play a ballad on the pan.



I need to go practice some more... It's beginning to sink in that tomorrow is our last day.

Location:S High St,Denver,United States

Pan Ramajay Steel Drum Festival - day 3

Musical calisthenics were review of yesterday's 12/8 rhythms. Jim's piece is almost performance ready. Tom's piece is close too. We worked out the second half of the tune (chorus & coda) before running all the way through it. He may speed up the tempo a bit next time.

I was able to get into the building @ 7:55 am, so I got an extra 45 minutes of practice. The biggest difficulty has been Don's piece.

Ray discusses his life in pan
Ray says about music, "if you can't dance to it, what is the point?"
Today's highlight for me was listening to Ray Holman talk informally about how he came into contact with the steel pan while growing up in Trinidad and Tobago.

Ray's contact with Ellie Manette and Lord Kitchner, two legends in the world of steel pan, seem unreal. But, Ray is just a man, whose life has been shaped by some important figures. After telling some entertaining stories, Ray played a few songs on the guitar and sang. I was moved by the lyric, "the sun just kissed us goodbye," which he used in a song about two lovers in the Caribbean.


afternoon rehearsals
Because Ray's ran late (nobody minded), our rehearsal schedule was off. We worked on Don's piece, which I'd say is the most difficult. Us lead panists got to play the evil E section. It's coming along, but still has a ways to go.

We also worked out the coda on Alan's Michael Jackson tune. It will be ready. Tonight was a free night, so I went for a bike ride with a friend in Denver.
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Location:S University Blvd,Denver,United States

Pan Ramajay Steel Drum Festival - day 2 con't

To mix things up, we had a choice of electives for our first afternoon session (same for Thursday). I chose arranging with Tom for today. Tom used his arrangement of Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow as an example to walk through.


Tom offered helpful advice on how to approach an arrangement, from choosing a groove to voicings. Thought is put into the ranges to prevent clash with the melody for example. A lot of good information here, so a good choice in retrospect.

Rehearsals

Afternoon rehearsals were with Ray, then with Alan. Its a really neat thing to work with Ray. He has a very musical mind. At the same time, it's a bit scary because you wonder if the that was written for you will stop changing and whether the rest of the chart will get put down on paper in time to perform the piece for an audience at the end of the week. Oh well, I guess the don't write much down in Trinidad Tobago. There is some level of comfort that comes from Ray never being worried or rushed, and exuding confidence.

Alan's rehearsal was great. We got through all of page one, and the second page is mostly rehash. The Michael Jackson tune is a really tasteful arrangement for steel band. One observation about Alan, though, is that he tends to allow noodling while he is working with a section of the band. This sometimes leads to a cacophony.


Our rehearsal space

Evening Concert
For the concert, we were treated to the Pan Nation, an ensemble of graduates and current advanced students at DU, featuring a composition and performance by faculty members. The music was great - even better than last night! I felt the strong urge to go practice directly afterward. An hour and a half did the trick.


Pan Nation performing with Jim Munzenrider
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Location:E Iliff Ave,Denver,United States

Pan Ramajay Steel Drum Festival - day 2

I'm ready for day two. Some have told me that my brain will be mush by the end of Wednesday. There really isn't much pressure, other than what we put on ourselves. We want to maximize the experience for the sake of value, but how you measure your experience is a personal thing.

a couple memorable moments from Monday

Glen (the tuner) was emphasizing the importance of cleaning our instruments by telling a story about Andy Narrell. Andy does not clean his pans, and after Glen tuned them, Andy came to pick them up from Glen's shop. Andy saw a set of double seconds and remarked, "these are nice." He didn't even recognize his own instrument because it was clean!

Jim was working on 12/8 time signature with us because we are doing an African tune. He once studied with an African drummer and during some difficulty, Jim was told through an interpreter that 4/4 was not *his* idea! This drove home the idea to not think in the traditional western sense.

morning rehearsals

Jim spent some more time on 12/8 rhythm with us before starting on his tune. We worked through the entire tune, except for the intro. The piece is really sounding great. It's fun to play 3 against 4!

Rehearsal two was our first rehearsal with Tom. Tom's chart is a Carol King tune. It's pretty simple but set to a fast calypso beat. You have to be on the ball though, because the melody is well known (will you still love me tomorrow?) and there are 8 others playing the lead pan part, so you stick out if you make a mistake.

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Location:E Asbury Ave,Denver,United States

Pan Ramajay Steel Drum Festival - day 1 con't

Our afternoon started with a talk on buying and caring for steel pans by our expert tuners.



Glen & Darren

After the talk, we had two more rehearsals, each with a different tune & faculty member. The first afternoon rehearsal was with Ray Holman, who is a "Trini" held in the highest esteem. Ray is a very gifted musician in every sense. Ray's approach is not much unlike the Panorama way of taking a work-in-progress and involves some learning by rote. Fortunately, Jim was there to assist and keep things on schedule. Ray knows exactly how the tune sounds in his mind and more than once covered his ears with his hands to tune us out and make sure our parts were indeed correct. If nothing else, this exposure to a wide range of teaching styles was a positive experience. Are parts ended up being the A & B sections of the tune only, so the rest of the chart is forthcoming.

Afternoon session two was with Don, who has yet a different way of running a rehearsal. We ran through almost the entire chart, but if it were up to me, I'd have spent more time learning manageable chunks. It's less overwhelming that way.



Don Prorak

By 5:00 pm, I was definitely ready for dinner break. After grabbing some quick dinner I headed back for the faculty jam @ 7:30, knowing I'd stay in the building for practice since it locks and I needed to work on my parts.



Faculty jam
The faculty jam was a really nice way to unwind a little and still appreciate the instrument and music the we all love so much that we came together in the first place. Fun!

I guess it made me want to practice. I logged 2 hours of it. Feeling tired now...

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Location:S York St,Denver,United States

Pan Ramajay Steel Drum Festival - day 1

It's Monday morning. First official day of the workshop and I'm a little nervous. I rented an instrument, so I need to get used to it. It only has half of the notes marked. I need to sight read my parts and I don't know most of the others in the intermediate band yet.

I made it to the rehearsal room 20 minutes early to warm up. It's going to be ok now. I ran through all major scales and this pan, made by Mappo suddenly isn't so unfamiliar.

Jim is our faculty for this part of the morning. We start off each day with 30 minutes of "musical calisthenics", which, today involved a little music theory, and playing/singing/counting/clapping exercises. It looks like our band is 19 members strong.

This segued into the first rehearsal period. Jim had us work on his piece, a Papa Wemba composition in 12/8 time. Jim is good at breaking parts into manageable chunks to practice. We learned the whole A section at performance tempo by the end of the period.



Jim works with the ladies on bass

After a short break was rehearsal with Alan. After a short delay, we had printed charts to use. Alan has a different teaching style, where parts are learned at or near performance tempo. His chart is an arrangement of Human Nature.

After lunch is a lecture on buying a pan before rehearsals resume.

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Pan Ramajay orientation

I'm attending the a steel drum workshop in Denver this week, called the Pan Ramajay Summer Steel Drum Festival.

The event takes place on the campus of University of Denver, and is run by Tom Miller. The faculty is pictured below.



left to right: Rick Henson, Jim Muzenrider, Tom Miller, Don Prorak, Ray Holman, & Alan Lightner

Sunday was registration, orientation, and an ice cream social. Participants who opted for the on-campus residence hall also checked in on this day, like yours, truly. More on that later.

Since I rented a lead pan, I'm going to head over to the Newman Center to get familiar with it before rehearsal. Here is a picture of it.

Location:S University Blvd,Denver,United States