For a while, there has been a flier in the bandroom for the "2010 North Alabama Day of Percussion". All of the percussionists had glanced at it once or twice, but none of us had really thought about going.
So would you imagine our surprise when Mrs. Moyer gathered us in the office and told us that we would be taking a field trip to go there?
Wednesday was the day of the event. We all grabbed our drums, sticks, and mallets and headed out for the buses. But what were we missing? Sunscreen.
See, what we didn't know as we loaded that bus was that we would be out in the sun. All day. Sure enough, we all returned to the bandroom with varying cases of sunburn. Ouch!
The drive was long...about an hour and a half. It wasn't so bad, though; we had friends and iPods and such, and heck, there's always the knowledge that we're getting out of class!
Upon finally arriving, we unloaded the instruments, walked onto the field, and set up. Each player had their choice of doing snare or mallatics (xylophone, marimba, etc.) I started on snare, but within 30 minutes, switched over to a xylophone. Not that the snare was hard, it was quite easy, actually, but every percussionist has an instrument they tend to gravitate to. Mine just happens to be the mallatics.
The "drumline" broke up into its own separate groups for a while: marching snares to one section, concert snares to another, basses to another, tenors (quads/quints) to yet another. The mallatics...well, we stayed where we were.
It was time to work on exercises specific to the instrument. Unfortunately, there were several first-year players attending the event, therefore, the music was very, very easy. Oh well, I suppose that means I'll get it all right.
When the instrument practice ended, there was a break and all the percussionists were dismissed for lunch. Upon returning, we had some time to digest our food while the local high school's percussion ensemble preformed.
And they were freaking good.
All of the mallet players used four mallets. I've been working on a few basic four-mallets patterns myself, and I'm currently the only one in my band who can do it. But I've learned it on my own...it appears that this group gets to learn it in their classes. And it's worked, too. They did an amazing job at it. I suppose I'll have to work a bit harder.
Our school did our concert last Tuesday. We (the strings) were okay, but I think we could have done better. Anyway, after the orchestra, the percussion ensemble played. They were awesome. I especially liked the xylophone melodies. My sister will probably end up being a percussionist...
ReplyDeleteWhoa, Catherine, your school has an orchestra? That's pretty darn awesome! We just have band.
ReplyDeleteWhat do you play?
I play violin. I'd probably be better if I kept my fingernails shorter, but as soon as I cut them, they're magically long again. We're starting our winter concert pieces. We have a bunch of Nutcracker songs and an arrangement of Carol of the Bells. They are awesome. I play 2nd violin, so I play harmony most of the time, but they're really cool harmonies and I don't mind as much. Though in the Carol of the Bells, we basically have three different phrases that we play over and over and over and over again. Annoyingly repetitive.
ReplyDeleteOur school has an orchestra and a band (though I believe the orchestra is significantly smaller) and we have some flutes and percussionists playing with us in our concert.
Natalie--you ARE a mallatic! :)
ReplyDelete