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.
No comments:
Post a Comment