(no subject)
I don't like ranting and raving in my journal, because it seems so emo, but I just have to. This is pissing me off so much, and I just need to let it out. So if you don't care, don't read it. This is for my benefit, first and foremost.
As much as I love my a cappella group, there are times that I hate being a vocal percussionist. And it all seems to have to do with respect. People just don't respect the VP aspect of modern collegiate a cappella. It's almost as if they don't take me seriously because I can't sing. Well, guess what: not everybody is blessed with a signing voice. Some of us have to make do with what we do have. And I guess what that is for me is being a vocal percussionist. It allows me to draw from experience as a drummer (oh yeah, most people don't know that, I'm a fairly accomplished rock drummer) and perform on stage. But there's no respect for it. I can't hit an A# on cue, but can you listen to a song once and replicate 95% of the percussion in the song? How about never having heard a song in your entire life, and coming up with a beat on the spot during rehearsal and having it be spot on to where it needs to be? John said it once, and I feel like it's the only time I've really been appreciated. He told me that if I had to miss a rehearsal, it was really no big deal because he knew I was set, and my parts weren't the parts that needed working on. "Yes," you might say, "But you don't have to learn complex lines of music and notes." To which I reply, yeah, but they all get music, whereas I've been a drummer throughout high school and now a vocal percussionist for a year and have yet to follow a beat that was written down on paper. If you hear me doing it, it's something I've come up with some day in my head. From 25 to 6 to 4 or Lowrider in high school, or figuring out a beat for I'll Be There For You (where there is none) or picking out all the different percussion parts from a Guster song, that's all me. Never a sheet of music. But who has people coming up to them after the concerts. Certainly not me. Everybody loves a singer... everybody ignores the drummers of the world.
Along that point, I AM NOT A FRIGGIN' BEATBOXER YOU IGNORANT FOOLS! When you ask what part I play in an a cappella group and I respond "I am a vocal percussionist," I am not trying to dress up a role, or make it more politically correct, as in the case of garbage men calling themselves sanitation workers. If you don't know what a vocal percussionist is, feel free to ask. I'll explain, I don't mind explaining. But don't say, "Oh, so you're just a beatboxer." Beatboxers, as Fig and I have discussed at length (he is a beatboxer, for the record) delve more into the techno and electronica aspects of mouth drumming. They'll scratch and whop and all those sorts of things, and frankly, I have NO skill at all at doing that. However, I am very good at mimicking actual percussion instruments such as a snare drum, a kick-bass, high-hats, toms and congas. That's what vocal percussionists do: we sound like actual percussion instruments. That's our little niche. Beatboxers are labeled as they are, I believe, because they are named after the famous beat-boxes used to play a very repetitive beat. I've seen them a lot on TV at rap concerts instead of having an actual drummer, or in techno songs playing beats that would be difficult, if not impossible for drummers to perform, especially at length.
Ugh, I have FAR more I can say here, but this is enough for one entry. I already know that I'm gonna get angry and pissed off replies, or people trying to tell me the other side of the coin and rationalize stuff and show me that I'm being ignorant. To all you people: save your time and breath. They won't get posted.
As much as I love my a cappella group, there are times that I hate being a vocal percussionist. And it all seems to have to do with respect. People just don't respect the VP aspect of modern collegiate a cappella. It's almost as if they don't take me seriously because I can't sing. Well, guess what: not everybody is blessed with a signing voice. Some of us have to make do with what we do have. And I guess what that is for me is being a vocal percussionist. It allows me to draw from experience as a drummer (oh yeah, most people don't know that, I'm a fairly accomplished rock drummer) and perform on stage. But there's no respect for it. I can't hit an A# on cue, but can you listen to a song once and replicate 95% of the percussion in the song? How about never having heard a song in your entire life, and coming up with a beat on the spot during rehearsal and having it be spot on to where it needs to be? John said it once, and I feel like it's the only time I've really been appreciated. He told me that if I had to miss a rehearsal, it was really no big deal because he knew I was set, and my parts weren't the parts that needed working on. "Yes," you might say, "But you don't have to learn complex lines of music and notes." To which I reply, yeah, but they all get music, whereas I've been a drummer throughout high school and now a vocal percussionist for a year and have yet to follow a beat that was written down on paper. If you hear me doing it, it's something I've come up with some day in my head. From 25 to 6 to 4 or Lowrider in high school, or figuring out a beat for I'll Be There For You (where there is none) or picking out all the different percussion parts from a Guster song, that's all me. Never a sheet of music. But who has people coming up to them after the concerts. Certainly not me. Everybody loves a singer... everybody ignores the drummers of the world.
Along that point, I AM NOT A FRIGGIN' BEATBOXER YOU IGNORANT FOOLS! When you ask what part I play in an a cappella group and I respond "I am a vocal percussionist," I am not trying to dress up a role, or make it more politically correct, as in the case of garbage men calling themselves sanitation workers. If you don't know what a vocal percussionist is, feel free to ask. I'll explain, I don't mind explaining. But don't say, "Oh, so you're just a beatboxer." Beatboxers, as Fig and I have discussed at length (he is a beatboxer, for the record) delve more into the techno and electronica aspects of mouth drumming. They'll scratch and whop and all those sorts of things, and frankly, I have NO skill at all at doing that. However, I am very good at mimicking actual percussion instruments such as a snare drum, a kick-bass, high-hats, toms and congas. That's what vocal percussionists do: we sound like actual percussion instruments. That's our little niche. Beatboxers are labeled as they are, I believe, because they are named after the famous beat-boxes used to play a very repetitive beat. I've seen them a lot on TV at rap concerts instead of having an actual drummer, or in techno songs playing beats that would be difficult, if not impossible for drummers to perform, especially at length.
Ugh, I have FAR more I can say here, but this is enough for one entry. I already know that I'm gonna get angry and pissed off replies, or people trying to tell me the other side of the coin and rationalize stuff and show me that I'm being ignorant. To all you people: save your time and breath. They won't get posted.