yesterday was made of awesome
life is ridiculously overloaded with circus stuff right now, so i wanted to take a moment to record a great day.
yesterday, i and about 7 other members of various Honk related bands presented a workshop to an instrumental music class at Somerville High School. our goal was to expose them to New Orleans brass band style street music. at this point in their musical development (generally speaking), music is played sitting down, facing a stand with sheet music, in front of director leading the entire group. it was our plan to show then another way, music made while standing (and dancing!), played by ear, freely embellished and improvised, and with no explicit leader. we went over the blues form and taught them all an easy riff they could play to fit over it. then we taught them a simple call and response style New Orleans brass band standard, had different groups take different part and then started playing it over and over. we even got some kids to take improvised solos!
at one point, i broke down the barrier of us standing in front of the class and i climbed up onto the band riser into the sax section. i don't know if they were freaked out or embarrassed (it's generally tough to read anything but disinterest from high school kids, they were it like a mask regardless of what they're feeling), but we all kept rocking along. for the most part, they all kept up with it, but only a few started to break out a bit. then for the glorious end of the class, we got everyone out of their seats (which i was pulling for from the beginning), started up the song and then paraded out into the hallway in between classes. it was so wonderfully rebellious to be making that much racket in the halls, and lots of kids poured out of classrooms to see what was happening, some even danced! the best part was when we invaded the cavernous library. one make-shift brass band along with 30+ band students make for a stark contrast to your average library environment. ;) we eventually ended up finishing the parade outside where we jammed for a bit. all in all it was an amazing experience, and a reminder of what i would be far happier doing with my life.
that would generally be enough to make a day great, but then last night we had our first major cast meeting and rehearsal for Mischief in the Machine. up until this point, everyone has been working in their own little bubbles with supervision from the director, so last night was the first time many of us got to see each other in action. many performers got to hear and work with the band in person for the first time, and the band got to see the ensemble cast and several featured performers that they've never seen before. it was so much fun to finally get so much happening in one space. we still have a lot of work in front of us, but the performances are coming along splendidly. it seemed like everyone walked away from it with an increased sense of unity and excitement, which was my primary goal and we exceeded my expectations. this has set a very strong and optimistic tone for the arduous and intense weeks that we have ahead of us, and now i am even more confident that this show is going to be amazing.
seriously, you will regret it if you miss this and hear people talking about in the aftermath. ;) tickets aren't officially on sale yet, but you can contact tickets at ensmb dot com to get ticket info.
yesterday, i and about 7 other members of various Honk related bands presented a workshop to an instrumental music class at Somerville High School. our goal was to expose them to New Orleans brass band style street music. at this point in their musical development (generally speaking), music is played sitting down, facing a stand with sheet music, in front of director leading the entire group. it was our plan to show then another way, music made while standing (and dancing!), played by ear, freely embellished and improvised, and with no explicit leader. we went over the blues form and taught them all an easy riff they could play to fit over it. then we taught them a simple call and response style New Orleans brass band standard, had different groups take different part and then started playing it over and over. we even got some kids to take improvised solos!
at one point, i broke down the barrier of us standing in front of the class and i climbed up onto the band riser into the sax section. i don't know if they were freaked out or embarrassed (it's generally tough to read anything but disinterest from high school kids, they were it like a mask regardless of what they're feeling), but we all kept rocking along. for the most part, they all kept up with it, but only a few started to break out a bit. then for the glorious end of the class, we got everyone out of their seats (which i was pulling for from the beginning), started up the song and then paraded out into the hallway in between classes. it was so wonderfully rebellious to be making that much racket in the halls, and lots of kids poured out of classrooms to see what was happening, some even danced! the best part was when we invaded the cavernous library. one make-shift brass band along with 30+ band students make for a stark contrast to your average library environment. ;) we eventually ended up finishing the parade outside where we jammed for a bit. all in all it was an amazing experience, and a reminder of what i would be far happier doing with my life.
that would generally be enough to make a day great, but then last night we had our first major cast meeting and rehearsal for Mischief in the Machine. up until this point, everyone has been working in their own little bubbles with supervision from the director, so last night was the first time many of us got to see each other in action. many performers got to hear and work with the band in person for the first time, and the band got to see the ensemble cast and several featured performers that they've never seen before. it was so much fun to finally get so much happening in one space. we still have a lot of work in front of us, but the performances are coming along splendidly. it seemed like everyone walked away from it with an increased sense of unity and excitement, which was my primary goal and we exceeded my expectations. this has set a very strong and optimistic tone for the arduous and intense weeks that we have ahead of us, and now i am even more confident that this show is going to be amazing.
seriously, you will regret it if you miss this and hear people talking about in the aftermath. ;) tickets aren't officially on sale yet, but you can contact tickets at ensmb dot com to get ticket info.