Pan Ramajay 2012 kickoff

I'm at it again. The third annual Pan Ramajay steel drum festival is underway. I am glad to be taking part in this event for my second year. This year, I'm going to play with the advanced band. I'm sure I'll have my hands full. I have two of the charts for the advanced band so far, and they are more challenging as expected.

We are joined once again by the same group of faculty members. This group of instructors are excellent and do a great job of engaging the students and teaching musicality. The staff are pictured below (left to right) Tom Miller, Ray Holman, Don Prorak, Alan Lightner, Jim Munzenrider, and Rick Henson.




Things got started off with orientation, an ice cream social, and them a combined band rehearsal. The rehearsal is for the chart we will won't play again until sound check on Friday! The chart is easy, to be sure, but I ended up with an instrument that has no notes marked on it. This particular pan is a Guppy-made pan, and it sounds beautiful. The low F and C sing with such beautiful harmonics, its like a choir.




Following rehearsal, I put in an hour getting acquainted with this pan and reading through the first two charts. One chart is by Tom Miller and the other is by Don Prorak. Don's chart is going to kick my butt. I fully expect to see charts by Jim, Alan, and Ray too at some point during the week.




I'm looking forward to playing with the musicians in the advance band and plan to draw some comparisons to my experience in the intermediate band.




- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Location:Denver, CO

Andy Narell rehearsal

Today I had the privilege of observing a closed rehearsal of the Canal Winchester High School advanced steel band with guest artist Andy Narell. Andy was merely passing through central Ohio on his way to other points in the Midwest.




It was great watching Andy work with the kids. The students exhibited a sense of awe and respect, which is encouraging. I wish I had the opportunity as a teenager. I may not have ended up as a software engineer...





After deconstructing a tune the band had been working on, Andy talked a little about memorizing parts. He said he had never heard a "reading" band outplay a "memorizing" band. Andy had them work on rhythms, technique and 'Trini' phrasing. He explained the importance of learning not only your parts, but the other parts as well -- even the drummer must do this.

At the end of the 2 hour session, Andy soloed a bit and stressed learning scales, chords, and music theory.

It must be nerve-wracking to trust your pans to the airlines...




I need to go practice now.

Tony

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Location:Canal Winchester, OH

Practicing for the Holiday Jam

I'm back in weekly rehearsals with the Winchester Steel Company adult/community band. We have 4 tunes now, with the newest chart being an nifty arrangement of O Come, O Come Emmanuel. The other tunes are Message in a Bottle (the Police), Follow You, Follow Me (Genesis), and Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard (Paul Simon).

Of course, we'll be on stage with the CW middle and high school bands too. Todd Phillips does a fine job developing these young musicians and introducing them to a genre of music that they may otherwise never know. Its really inspiring to see and hear them completely engrossed in steel :)

Outside of rehearsal, I think I spent 4 hours in practice this weekend, split between my individual parts, scales, and working on ideas for soloing. Today, since it was dreary and rainy, I practiced minor scales all day :(

The show is Tuesday, December 19th, at Canal Winchester High School.

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.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

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!
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

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.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Location:S University Blvd,Denver,United States