Copious Amounts of Competitions With Talk of The Penniless Squirrel's Malnutrition

Sometimes it sounds like this is the case

Sorry guys I'm kind of on a squirrel kick right now, but you can't scold the squirrels! This picture was just too perfect to resist. It's both metaphorical and hilarious(squirrel double entendre).

Anyway, since squirrel talk is officially over, it's time for state solo/ensemble talk.  So, I did solo/ensemble(I did a solo) at my high school for the region competition. I was scored a 1 which is pretty durn good. I'm the only person in my school's symphonic band that made qualifies for state. To be fair there weren't that many in symphonic band doing it. Maybe six people even did the competition from symphonic band. Despite that I'm still proud I did well.

The piece that I played was called Achilles by R.M. Endresen. It was a grade IV piece with a piano accompaniment. I played it well and it was a great piece.

So I know that you want to know about that squirrel malnutrition right? Well squirrel malnutrition is just a thing I said to rhyme with state competition, kind of like Wiffletree Wind Ensemble, except five times better.
Sure a diet based solely on tree nuts can't be that great for you, too much carbs. I know that squirrels are herbivores and I'm sure that they have copious amounts of berries as well. Maybe there are squirrel kings in residential areas that govern the surplus of such nuts and berries and they are the only ones with the fat stacks. No stone unturned on this blog, we get right down to squirrel socio-economics.

Honestly I believe that the last paragraph was pure gold. Maybe you think it was nickel or maybe you think it was Californium 252 which is worth 27 million per gram.

Ok, now that we've gotten solo ensemble and squirrel socio-economic levels out of the way. I should talk about the Jazz concert. In the JV Jazz we did a set of three songs: Satin Doll, Misty and Oclupaca. A moderate swing, a ballad and a latin/swing piece. The first one and the last one went well but, the second song went very poorly, to put it candidly. It was out of tune and half-way a member of the rhythm got two beats ahead of the band, we lost track of one so the trombone missed their entrance. As long as that doesn't happen at state then we should get a 1 or a 1-.

Thank you guys for reading. I hope you will comment on the post and follow this blog if you haven't already. Have a nice day, night nice night or nice anything.

Oh,  here's the music we played at the jazz concert. The Satin Doll video isn't the same arrangement but you'll get the idea. Links above in blue.

Christmas Carol Quintets

That time of year is approaching again. Yep, that's right it's the holidays and now somehow its our job to play everybody a christmas song or whatever else they want to hear. All the family will be coming over to celebrate and they've never seen or heard you play it before. "Play us a song!" they'll say and you don't know any melodies to the songs they want to hear.

I've been in that situation before. All I had was some backgrounds for some of those songs, so with my family being so geared up to hear me play I had to do improvisation for five minutes. (Good thing I was in jazz band). The solo was bad even though all my family clapped and applauded. This year I'm ahead of the curve. I bought music for a full trombone quintet to play for two concerts. Ten songs five part harmonies, the works and I couldn't be more excited. Now I don't have to improvise and I can actually play the songs that my family wants to hear. Christmas music is fun but it isn't free. You have to buy the music if you want to get legitimate copies. Sure if you go to this link you can just print the preview pages which might just be a couple of free christmas songs. Getting a group together is such a fun thing and everyone out there with an instrument should really think about doing. It gets everyone together, and is just overall a good time.

Hip Hop Trombone Quartet Crew

Look at these guys are having the time of their lives doing chamber groups. These guys could be you guys. My quintet and I are doing a rehearsal tomorrow and It's going to be great. If you want to be a better player getting into or starting a chamber group is a great idea. Also If you want to do a solo that would be a great idea as well if you just wanted to know the melody without having to worry about harmonies. Thanks for reading and I'll talk to you guys another time.

Concerts

           Concerts they're the things that you work towards. They are the things that not only show your talents, but they show your flaws. Last night I had a concert with Park City's Symphonic Band and their were definitely some flaws show. The percussion I believe, did really well I didn't hear them do anything wrong. The Percussion owned the night, the rest of the ensemble did relatively well, what I depend on to know what the conductor thinks of the band is just to look at his face. Whether it's during the song or right after you will get a visual confirmation of what he thinks. Right after the last song we played was called Earth Dance he mouth the word "awesome" this is a link to what it sounds like on Youtube. Of course we were not as good as that ensemble, but we tried. I think that out of all the pieces that we played that one went the best. It was a pretty easy song in a rhythmic sense, but the real feat was maintaining tone quality and energy throughout the entire song. I'm sure it would of sounded better if we had more than three rehearsals to look at it, but we didn't have the time.
       
          So, I was not 100% happy with our performance, but the Wind Ensemble did an amazing job last night. The music was incredibly challenging and they maintained tone quality and note definition throughout their performance. Although there were some parts I could tell were extremely hard for them they powered through and made the night enjoyable. So, when preparing for a concert you have to make sure that you can play everything in the piece. If you can't then identify what's giving you trouble and work on that part, it seems pretty self explanatory, but there are lots of people that don't know how to practice and get better at their instrument.  Also It's nice to know what the piece sounds like or even have an accompaniment, so it's good to find the music that you are currently playing with your music group and match the playing of the people playing in the video or mp3 you find. If that's not the sound that the group wants then you can amend that sound to fit what your group wants.

            Also If you do base your playing off another group make sure that you fit into your group and don't over and under play, because the point of an ensemble is to make music as a group and not to be an outlier when you're making music. For example you don't want to recreate the sound exact sound of a band like this...

Dallas Millennial Choir and Orchestra 

                                                 
                                                        If you are in a band like this

Navy Band Brass Quintet

         So, find the sound that you want for your band and make sure that it matches the size and the style that the group wants. Make sure that you know your part and have it down and after all of this you can be ready for the concert.