Sorry I didn't write last week. It was fall break (ahem, UEA Weekend) so we had a half week, and nothing really happened that week. But a bunch did happen this last week so here we go!
This week was crunch time. Our concert is next week, (Thursday Nov. 1) and we are not ready! Panic. This is the feeling all directors experience about a week before a concert. And I think this happens regardless of how prepared or even how great your band already is. As directors continually seek perfection, it makes them feel like they are never prepared.
As for us, we actually weren't prepared.
You see, the week of UEA we were supposed to assign percussion parts to the Percussion Ensemble. The last day of school that was some sort of SAT Pre-Test, so every student in the school felt they should go do that and alas we have a very empty percussion class. This did not make Todd happy.
Fast forward to this week and that is where this blog post actually gets interesting. So as soon as Tuesday comes around we assign the percussion parts to all the students. We did our percussion class like this: all students have levels that they need to pass off for grades. Students with the highest numbers of pass offs are selected to play with the Wind Ensemble, and everyone else plays with Symphonic Band. Upperclassmen's levels carry over year after year so they pretty much get priority. And hopefully you can see, this could be a problem. Well herein lies the problem that we had to deal with. A senior, whom doesn't practice all that much and really only wants to go on the trip, was passed up by a sophmore who practices every day after school and is constantly passing things off. He passed her up this week and was selected for Wind Ensemble.
She wasn't thrilled. But that's life kid. It sucks.
Todd was really nervous about how late he assigned parts so he was pretty hard on them this week. As some of you may know, percussionists can be pretty unruly at times. There was no BSing this week. We didn't put with any of it. Rehearsals went quite well this week but they weren't particularly fun. Hard work is never fun.
Todd was also on edge when it came to Wind Ensemble and Symphonic Band. Mostly the latter because some of them still don't know all their notes and rhythms, so needless to say rehearsal wasn't very much fun this week. We actually chewed them out pretty hardcore when it came to talking, practicing and just generally being disrepectful. The Wind Ensemble in particular has been behaving poorly, so much to that point that I don't even like rehearsing them. It's a terrible situation. Our sophmore Symphonic Band is better behaved than our senior heavy Wind Ensemble. How bass ackwards is that?
One student felt it in their heart to write a letter to the Wind Ensemble describing his feelings about their behavior. In this letter he said everything Todd and I have said, but I think it stuck because it came from one of them. He called them out on always talking when the directors are, or always having to get a comment in, or how certain people would always play after cut-off. It was quite heroic really. And I think it was exactly what they needed to hear.
Now, this week was interesting for me because my supervising teacher Dr. Ely came to visit. The first time he visited he said nothing (which I took as a good sign) and left. This time though, he had comments galore. He told me that I need to work on my problem-solving. Most of the time my solution for a problem was something several steps later, such as intonation, dynamics or them not even playing the right articulations when in reality the problem could have been something as simple as the band not starting together because they didn't breathe in time.
So frustrating.
I'd thought I made a lot of progress but apparently I'm still not seeing the fundamentals. I chock up that farsightedness to being a college musician, where fundamentals like that are naturally worked out. Nonetheless, I was humbled. Of course he had good things to say, but his criticism stuck. I felt a little lousy after that because it was something so simple that I had overlooked. But alas, I will work harder because I desire to be the best. He told me that I will be one of the great teachers of our time, and I actually believe that he means it. So I must embrace my destiny and be everything he sees me becoming.
In other news, our Football team is now in the state 4A quarterfinals for Football, which apparently is a place we haven't been to in many years. Which means more games for me to conduct :|
Our concert is this Thursday, November 1st at 7:00 PM at Woods Cross High School. It's free and every ensemble will be performing. Let's hope that I bring my A game and show that I will be one of the great ones.
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