Last weekend, I travelled with my high school percussion ensemble to Bowling Green, KY for the Winter Guard International Midsouth Regional Championships. It is two days of intensive rehearsing, performing, competing, and scoring.
My ensemble participated Saturday afternoon and again Sunday morning.
The kids played spectacularly well and I was a very proud instructor. Their prelims score was a 90.8 and their finals score was an 89.4.
Most schools at the competition averaged a score of 84, so my school was specifically thrilled.
Band and percussion directors usually compose or arrange music and drill for their students to perform, and in the past, we have been one of those ensembles.
This year, however, we were honored to have two very prolific and renowned percussionists write our show.
These two men are Dr. Iain Moyer and Colin McNutt.
Moyer is the arranger for the Cadets Drum and Bugle Corps. front ensemble, always giving them the upper hand in DCI, Drum Corps. International, or "summer band" as those familiar with it, have happily nicknamed. Moyer is also the percussion director here at the University of North Alabama. He's given our percussion sections an edge against the competition and brought percussion education to a new level here in Alabama.
McNutt is the arranger for the Cadets Drum and Bugle Corps. battery, made up of the snare drums, bass drums, tenors, and cymbals. McNutt is known worldwide as one of the best percussion players, writers, and instructors in our time. He works at UMass as the percussion director and has turned their drumline into a powerhouse as well.
Both Moyer and McNutt collaborated to create a masterpiece in music, providing our high school students with every tool they could hope for, to succeed.
Both these men will be at our rehearsal today to give the students feedback on their performance, offer suggestions, tinker with their arrangements so as to make it flawless, and give the students peace of mind.
We are thrilled and honored to have these percussion legends at our school today. Hopefully I will be able to video some of the rehearsal and provide you with an inside look at what happens at such a rehearsal!
Monday, March 19, 2012
Sunday, March 11, 2012
Multimedia Project- Adding the RIGHT Music
Hello all!
I'm guessing most of you have started your second project for this class, which asks us to mesh many forms of writing together to form a multimodal feature, using Windows Movie Maker.
At first, I was stumped about what I should do. But eventually the ideas started floating and I think I've come up with something exciting.
I have a tip for those of you having problems with your music. I went through this problem where I wanted to use a piece from a soundtrack but it was too long, parts needed to be cut, and I had no software to help me!
Audacity. Download it. It will be your best friend.
http://audacity.sourceforge.net/
Now, you may use any music from your iTunes or any other program, download it into Audacity and cut and paste as you please. It offers many techniques to get a seamless sound, although the only one I've really needed is the 'Fade In.'
It requires little knowledge of computers, which is good for those of us who are computer-illiterate (myself, honestly). It is free. Video how-to tutorials are available on YouTube, and they were very helpful to me.
It offers many opportunities that WMM doesn't offer on its own!
One thing to anticipate when trying to move music into Audacity is having the wrong file type. If your song in iTunes won't open correctly in Audacity, all you do is convert it to an AAC file. Then it should work without a hitch.
Good luck to all of you on your quest to make awesome projects!!
Natalie
I'm guessing most of you have started your second project for this class, which asks us to mesh many forms of writing together to form a multimodal feature, using Windows Movie Maker.
At first, I was stumped about what I should do. But eventually the ideas started floating and I think I've come up with something exciting.
I have a tip for those of you having problems with your music. I went through this problem where I wanted to use a piece from a soundtrack but it was too long, parts needed to be cut, and I had no software to help me!
Audacity. Download it. It will be your best friend.
http://audacity.sourceforge.net/
Now, you may use any music from your iTunes or any other program, download it into Audacity and cut and paste as you please. It offers many techniques to get a seamless sound, although the only one I've really needed is the 'Fade In.'
It requires little knowledge of computers, which is good for those of us who are computer-illiterate (myself, honestly). It is free. Video how-to tutorials are available on YouTube, and they were very helpful to me.
It offers many opportunities that WMM doesn't offer on its own!
One thing to anticipate when trying to move music into Audacity is having the wrong file type. If your song in iTunes won't open correctly in Audacity, all you do is convert it to an AAC file. Then it should work without a hitch.
Good luck to all of you on your quest to make awesome projects!!
Natalie
Tuesday, March 6, 2012
My Role in Music
For those of you who don't know, I teach at a local high school.
I'm not a math or english teacher, I help with the music department.
A group of 20 students have taken over the school, the south, and perhaps the whole world... how, you may ask?
Percussion. :)
The director, David Waters, was my teacher from 6th grade until my high school graduation, and I started working for him shortly after that.
He has three techs working for him. The first is a technique person, who watches how each person plays their instrument. The second is a musical person, who listens without watching, making sure the melody is heard in each delicate phrase. The third is the overall tech, who watches, listens, and makes sure each person looks identical to the next. I am the third tech.
We've had astounding success since 2007, when the percussion ensemble began competing.
My senior year, 2008, was the first year we competed worldwide, at a competition called Winter Guard International. We competed in the Percussion Scholastic Concert Open class, and placed third overall.
We could not have been more thrilled!
With the recent success in our minds, the ensemble took full advantage of every resource available in 2009. By the end of the season, we had beaten our opponents by 5 points in the Championships. We received a gold medal in PSCO. Still, we wanted more.
2010 brought many changes, but particularly the jump from Open to World class, the most competitive, tough, and elite class in the world. We went into the competition with blind faith, biting our nails but believing in our students. A Bronze Medal isn't bad for our first year, right?
In our most recent 2011 season, we received a gold medal in PSCW.
We have high hopes for the 2012 competitive season.
Here is their first performance on March 1, 2012.
I'm not a math or english teacher, I help with the music department.
A group of 20 students have taken over the school, the south, and perhaps the whole world... how, you may ask?
Percussion. :)
The director, David Waters, was my teacher from 6th grade until my high school graduation, and I started working for him shortly after that.
He has three techs working for him. The first is a technique person, who watches how each person plays their instrument. The second is a musical person, who listens without watching, making sure the melody is heard in each delicate phrase. The third is the overall tech, who watches, listens, and makes sure each person looks identical to the next. I am the third tech.
We've had astounding success since 2007, when the percussion ensemble began competing.
My senior year, 2008, was the first year we competed worldwide, at a competition called Winter Guard International. We competed in the Percussion Scholastic Concert Open class, and placed third overall.
We could not have been more thrilled!
With the recent success in our minds, the ensemble took full advantage of every resource available in 2009. By the end of the season, we had beaten our opponents by 5 points in the Championships. We received a gold medal in PSCO. Still, we wanted more.
2010 brought many changes, but particularly the jump from Open to World class, the most competitive, tough, and elite class in the world. We went into the competition with blind faith, biting our nails but believing in our students. A Bronze Medal isn't bad for our first year, right?
In our most recent 2011 season, we received a gold medal in PSCW.
We have high hopes for the 2012 competitive season.
Here is their first performance on March 1, 2012.
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