Another High School Musical

It has been a tough few months for the cast of DCHS's "The Wiz." The cast has been working for months on memorizing their lines, choreography and vocals for the upcoming musical. Just last week, the pit orchestra joined the cast in order for both the musicians and the actors to get a better feel for each other to prevent any major timing mistakes from occurring during the actual performances which begin this weekend. This is the final week of practice and dress rehearsals before the musical. I am a part of the pit orchestra and this is my first year being involved in any type of musical. I knew it would take a lot of hard work and time out of my days but...I never expected this much. For the first few months, the pit orchestra has come together for practice once a week, gradually adding a practice as we entered the month of the performance. Practices usually lasted two hours. As I mentioned earlier, the pit orchestra and the cast came together last week and have practiced every day with practices lasting from 2-4 1/2 hours. My job as a musician is simple. Play when it's your turn, don't mess up and make sure you don't play louder than the vocalists can sing. Covering up the vocalists is a major no-no. In a musical, the vocalists tell a part of the story by singing. To cover that up would be like trying to read a book with a missing chapter. The pit orchestra also has to watch the director because he/she will cue the vocalist as well as the orchestra when to begin playing. The orchestra and vocalist must make sure every measure lines up with one another so as to not throw the flow of the music off. The pit orchestra is also in charge of creating sound effects. From birds chirping to genies appearing, the variety of sounds effects a pit orchestra must make is very large.
During this final week of rehearsals, it has become even more vital that the pit orchestra has every song, measure and note down and as close to perfect as possible. The actors must remember every line and dance number as well as being in time with the tempo of the orchestra when they sing. Practices will last much longer and will become more intense everyday...well almost everyday. For actors having a practice on the Wednesday before a performance is bad luck. It is a strange superstition but a good one for anyone looking for a break from rehearsal. I'm not exactly sure what lies ahead for the musical this week, but I invite you to join us sometime this weekend to see actors and musicians come together in order to put on a spectacular performance of "The Wiz." "The Wiz" is an urban version of "The Wizard of OZ." The show should be a sight to see as well as hear. I hope you can make it.

Marching Band. Developing Mental toughness

To be successful in marching band, band directors preach three things. Memorize your music, memorize your specific sets and movements, and do them both at the same time well. Mentally, marching band is one of the toughest sports invented.
Memorizing your music is just as tough as memorizing a play or formation in basketball or football. Now add your sets and formations to the memorization pot. That's a lot of work to do. Spending countless hours working on music as well as marching allows memorization to come a little easier to you but if you don't have some idea of how the music should sound or where you are supposed to go, you will be holding the rest of the band back. From day one, the band directors will beat every note, measure, beat, set, move, formation and articulation into your head. By doing so, being able to perform all of those tasks at the same time becomes easier, although still difficult. If you are able to march well, play your instrument well, remember where you are supposed to go every set, play your music with style, stay in formation and articulate each phrase, you are very capable of marching in a band. It is very difficult to perform these tasks all at once but when many people bring all of these challenges together onto one field, an amazing acomplishment will be performed.

Pep Band

At the end of my last blog I mentioned that I would begiin explaining the mental challenges of marching band. The DCHS girls basketball has been playing extremely well in these tournament games so I decided to talk about pep band and the role we play.
This past week, the pep has had to play both the boys and girls district basketball tournament games which takes a lot of time out of your day. Unfortunately, the boys lost a close battle against Apollo but a good game nonetheless. In order to keep the crowd energized, the pep band must learn many different songs and add the occasional body/instrument movements and sometimes have the wonderful opportunity to sing a song verse. The school's fight song is the ultimate song played by a pep band. When played at the right time the right way, your team and your crowd's moral can get a needed boost.
A true pep band will watch the game and react as the crowd reacts. Without the pep band, an atletic competition becomes somewhat dull. The pep band is what keeps the crowd entertained when nothing exciting is happening. It is a fun experience to play in the pep band and having a good basketball team makes it even better.