First Concert

Long time no see!

Symphonic Wind Ensemble by Digital Collections at the University of Maryland is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

On this past Sunday, November 6th, the Wind Ensemble performed their fall concert featuring the debut of a piece of music by Asha Srinivasan and many well-established pieces by Percy Grainger. The concert lasted about an hour and a half to two hours long and everything went off without a hitch... as far as the audience knows at least.

Finally performing in a concert after hours and hours of practice and  hard work is one of the most satisfying events I participate in. This recent concert was my first college Wind Ensemble concert and it was a very fun and to be honest, didn't feel that much different than any other concert I have ever participated. The only real difference between this concert and any other concert that I have performed in was the amount of pieces we played. In high school we never played more than 4 pieces per band because the concerts were always split evenly between multiple bands.

Another way this concert was special was that the composer of one of the pieces we performed was actually at the concert listening to us co-debut her piece. She even came up on stage and talked to us and the audience about the influences and complicated aspects of the piece. Our head band director Dr. Worman conducted on most of the pieces, but on one piece we had a guest conductor named Dr. R. Mark Rogers who actually edited and transcribed the piece he conducted. All in all, having people who were so involved with the music we were playing at our concert actually attend was a very unique and rewarding experience, and it is one of the greatest things about being in a college wind ensemble.

The Importance Of Practicing

Practice Pad by Tony Vieira is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

The image above shows a practice pad and a pair of drum sticks. These are two, or technically three, of the most important items a percussionist could ever own, because just like any other activity in the entire world, you cannot become good at something unless you practice. 

When I started playing percussion in sixth grade, I didn't think practicing was very important. I would slack off and managed to get by on natural talent and the fact that I had taken piano lessons for a few years before I actually started playing my instrument at school. In middle school, practicing became more important because we had "pass-offs." Pass-offs were little etudes or lines out of a book that we had to play for a band director at a certain speed in order to keep an A average in band class. These benchmarks challenged me enough to practice, but not enough to keep me from waiting until the last minute. But, when I went from middle school to high school, everything changed.

With high school came the advent of marching band, and the pass-offs, now known as benchmarks, were more difficult than before. If I waited until the last minute, I wasn’t always able to finish everything I was supposed to do, and I could very well get in trouble for it, but after four years of having to do benchmarks every three weeks, I developed a practice schedule that served me very well. Now, I am in college and there are no benchmarks, there are no requirements, no one telling you that you have to learn a certain piece by a certain time. You determine your own benchmarks. You are responsible for setting goals for yourself and reaching those goals for the good of the ensemble. And although I admit I haven’t quite gotten the hang of this new system yet, you will certainly find me practicing in the band room before rehearsals. Because although I might not want to practice sometimes, I know practicing is important, and I treat it that way.

Naturalization Ceremony

This past Thursday, the Trinity Wind Ensemble participated in one of the four semi-annual naturalization ceremonies that our university hosts. This was truly an incredible experience to witness. There were new citizens from eighty nine different countries and over eight hundred new citizens being naturalized. The Wind Ensemble performed eight different pieces at this ceremony which included the
"Star-Spangled Banner" and "God Bless America."

Attending this ceremony was a truly moving and exciting experience, because all of the people there were either becoming official citizens of the United States, or they were supporting their loved ones who were becoming citizens. This fact made the moment everyone was officially a citizen a very emotionally moving moment for the entire room. There were even speakers who were new citizens who volunteered to write speeches for the event about how happy and proud they were to finally be Americans. It was an excellent experience and I would highly recommend going to one of these ceremonies just to feel the energy and new pride in the room.

Now, you may be wondering, this is cool and all, but what does it have to do with being uniquely percussion-related? Well, something  you would not have known from just attending the ceremony is that the percussion section at the back actually got in trouble with the stage manager. We were using a hole in the curtain that was clamped shut because it was much more convenient than going to the middle of the curtain to get in front of and behind it each time. But, it turns out "The clamp is there for a reason" and we were not supposed to be doing that at all. Leave it to a group of percussionists to get in trouble on the one of the proudest and happiest days of some people's lives.

All in all, the ceremony was a huge success and the entire performance went very smoothly. I would love to perform at another ceremony in the future to see if I still have the same emotional and proud experience that I did that day, and if I do, I will continue to attend more ceremonies, performing or not.

Note: The unorthodox sand blocks were unfortunately NOT used in the actual naturalization ceremony. Instead, a cabasa was used.


Cabasa by Margita Perecca is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

 American flag by Kahunapule Michael Johnson is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Unorthodox Sand blocks

This week in Wind Ensemble class, we were sight-reading a piece of music called “Suite of Old American Dances” in preparation for the upcoming Naturalization Ceremony where we will be performing. On one of the movements of this piece, the part called for the use of sandpaper blocks. However, despite the plethora of percussion instruments that can be found in and around the percussion cabinet, we did not have any sandpaper blocks. There were woodblocks, but none of them had sandpaper attached to them and there was no sandpaper in sight. As a result, the percussion section was forced to improvise.

Instead of using an actual pair of sandpaper blocks, we found a box in the corner that contained some blue, plastic, Styrofoam-like substance with rough edges. After a bit of experimenting, we discovered that if you rub the correct sides of the packaging together, it sounded just like a sandpaper block! So, due to the percussion section’s collective creativity and resourcefulness, the sight-reading of “Suite of Old American Dances” went on without a hitch.

Now, whether or not Dr. Worman will be in favor of using these makeshift sandpaper blocks at the actual ceremony is yet to be scene, but regardless, it was a fun and fulfilling experience to utilize the true essence of percussion: Making the sound the director wants by any means necessary.

Makeshift Sandpaper Blocks by Tony Vieira is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.