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