Solo Contest #2 - Buffalo Grove (or, perfectly imperfect)
Welcome to round two. This one took me to a school I haven't been in for 18 years, yet I was just there last year. This was Mr. C's home school; he lived nearby for many years and his kids went to school there. When he died last year, his funeral was held at the adjacent church. Like the other school, reminders of him remain.
This week was much colder than last. Then, it was nearly 70F; this week, it was barely in the 20s. Brr. Once again, I wasn't sure how to dress, since the music room is in the basement and I figured it would be cold. It was, a little, but the windows face west so it did get a bit warmer as the day went on.
The music room is set apart from the rest of the school. You can access it from an outside set of stairs, which is how I went in. There's not much down there. The little hallway from the outer stairs ends with the music room to your right, and if you turn to the left, you have the bathrooms on that left and the old locker rooms, now storage rooms, on the right. That's it. Go to the end of the longer hall and you hit the stairs to go up into the rest of the school. I was glad I'd remembered that layout when Mrs. S and I were brainstorming how to logistically plan things out there. Ultimately, only the currently performing soloist was in the room with me; for the most part, a parent would bring down another kid once the first one was done. The parent would also take the score sheets from me. I think there were four moms who got to do this--and get their steps in--but almost every time I would get up as well and hand them the sheet and let the next kid in. This was good for my back, which was really sore last week since I barely got up. I'm not feeling it as badly today. Mrs. S had also recently been diagnosed with back problems and even had a contraption of sorts she was wearing, almost corset-like, that she was able to hide under her blazer, but when no kids were around she'd adjust it. It's new to her so she's still getting used to it.
With easy proximity to the bathrooms, and actual breaks this time thanks to the moms doing all the running around, I also used the facilities about five times throughout the day. Here's the thing--being isolated means nobody is coming down there to clean or do maintenance. Mrs. S has to make sure she takes her own garbage with her, for instance. The washroom did not have any paper towel dispensers, only air dryers, I imagine in part to curb any trash issues in there. I mention this because my hands are super dry today. No amount of lotion is doing anything for them. Also, the stripes are still in the hallway. They're about elbow to shoulder height on me. Top one is sort of creamsicle orange; bottom one is a darker shade. The band room seemed a different, paler shade of yellow than I remember it, so perhaps that got refreshed at one point. Like at the other school, a lot of what Mr. C had in the office remained, including the pins on the cork board from past band contests. I recognized a few of them. Sadly, mine were toward the top of the board, because I'm that old, heh. I also recalled there being old programs in the drawer, and I dug them out, and I found my Vegas cousin's name in there. She attended this school until junior high and had played clarinet for a year. It was kind of wild that we both had the same band director despite never going to school together. I took a couple pictures and I may reach out to her to go, blast from the past!
I have to say, solo-wise, these kids did a really nice job. I only gave out two 2nds, and they were deserved. One was to a clarinet player, older, who just didn't have it going on. The other was a beginner trumpet player who played everything on the same note. Her entire range was four notes total. Like...have you considered baritone? When she finished her solo, I had her working on trying to hit higher notes and it just wasn't happening. She went upstairs and apparently told her mom, I didn't know G was higher than C! When the mom approached Mrs. S about it, Mrs. S had to go, yeah, she knew; we've been working on this all year. I think Mrs. S was going to suggest lessons to this family, that the child would really benefit from them. The amazing part is that she can count, so I could tell exactly where she was in the song, despite the notes themselves just being blah. I also had a little boy who'd switched from trombone to clarinet halfway through the year. He was the meekest child, very quiet and shy. No other child was that way with me, and I got a number of them to open up about their families and pets and things while we waited for the parent to bring the next player. With this meek boy, I made it a point to tell the parent who was about to bring him back upstairs, if Mrs. S hadn't noted it for me, I wouldn't have known he'd only just switched to clarinet; he sounded just like the other soloists. Like, you could tell he was a kid who needed that bolstering.
And I had one kid who needed nothing. He played his scale and solo so well that I did something I'd never done before: I awarded my first perfect score. I was really excited and proud of him. He was my very first player of the day, too. Literally the next kid walked in and asked, how many perfect scores have you awarded? One. ...And he did not earn the second, heh. I mean, most kids fell into the typical patterns--they cut certain notes short; they played the long notes too long, or too short; they had one measure that tripped them up and they went super slow on it, but the rest of the song was played at a much faster tempo; I had a bunch of kids doing the same clarinet solo and basically every single one of them got faster at the trio. Guys, it's the same tempo as the rest of the song.
Some of the memorable ones:
--The little fourth grade trombone player. She's not getting her As into the correct position, so that her A naturals sound like A flats. When I told her to watch that, she said, oh, it's my braces. ...No, it's not. Your braces are not on your arm. Your arm needs to learn where second position is.
--One older clarinet player had bad allergies and kept having to stop because she either couldn't breathe or her throat was filled with phlegm. I felt bad for her. What she was able to play was fine, but there was no continuity, but I certainly couldn't ding her for that.
--There was a set of twins, back to back, who wore identical outfits--pink dresses and boots.
--Another clarinet player had an older clarinet that clearly was leaking. I looked at it once she was done and three of the pads were torn. Yeah, you're going to want to send that in for repair ASAP.
--The sole drummer was trying to move his stuff directly in front of my table. Uh, no. Go put the stand back where I'd had it. I'm looking to keep what remains of my hearing, dear.
--Two of the kids didn't show at all. I think one might have been the girl who had a dance competition in Oswego, which is a good 25 minutes from my house, which itself is an hour from this school. I happened to be in charge of the judge's sheets, since I had time to kill and the pile was there, so I put them in order as best I could. Three of the kids, their moms put their own names in the time slots and they have different last names, so I'd had to set aside those sheets until the kids came in. I realized toward the end of the day that one child wasn't listed at all. Mrs. S told me that, as of last Monday, he no longer attended the school. Ah. I'll set that one aside.
There were two bass clarinet players who did the same solo the older clarinet players did; Mrs. S transposed it for them. They both did really nice jobs, but I noticed they were both sort of hunched over while playing. Guys, you need to sit up straight. When I asked the first one if her floor peg moved, she said, well, it does, but it slides when I play. Ah. So when the second person came in, I asked if his floor peg slid on him, too. It did, but not as badly as the other; his main issue is that the G didn't work. He and I were having a whole conversation about this and other things, and then he went, so can I finish my solo now? ...OMG. Oh crap. I told him, this is what happens when you are busy writing and not following along with the solo; the previous section had ended and sounded like an official ending, so I just thought he was done. Oops. Yes, please play the trio. And here I was, writing up my comments, thinking it was over. He was the last kid, too. Luckily nothing changed from what I'd already written, though I did get to ask, so, do you have dynamics written in your music? He went, yeah...oh! Was I supposed to write them on the judge's copy? Yeah, kinda. But I knew that was the case because his fortes were very obviously loud and his pianos were very obviously soft. I commented on that and congratulated him on them. But, yeah, my brain was not entirely there yesterday. I cannot tell you how many times I said solo when I meant to say scale, and scale when I meant to say solo. Like, I would have the kids play scales, then go, and now your scale, and they'd be like, you want me to do my scales again? D'oh. No, please play your solo. Sleep deprivation does not help me in the least.
We did have a proper lunch this week. After last week, where Mrs. S had bought breakfast foods that it turned out I couldn't eat, she'd asked me to send her ideas for lunch. She ended up getting tortilla chips and a couple different hummuses, though we only opened the roasted red pepper; a salad; a grilled chicken breast from the deli that she cut up; and a berry salad. It was a pretty good spread, actually. Then, afterward, she asked if I'd be up to going to her favorite hangout, this pub near Palwaukee Airport. She's talked about this place over the years so I was curious to check it out. She had to be done by 5 PM as two of her girls had a performance that night, and that worked out. We had over an hour to hang out there, and she goes there often enough that they know her by her first name, heh. Norm! She said that was her place to work during covid, when she needed to get out of the house so she could concentrate but didn't want to be alone at school. She could sit at a table or booth and get something to eat. I joked that it was her Starbucks. This time around, we got different food; I went with the chicken salad salad--yep, chicken salad plopped on top of a regular salad. I found it on the menu online and there was zero mention of cheese or croutons there, so when the salad showed up sporting those two items, I had to eat around them. Oh well; it was fine. She got some sort of steak dinner, I want to say, and there was plenty of it for her to eat and take most of it home for her girls.
Solo contest is over for another year. We'll see if it continues in this format. Now that we have both schools under our belts, we'll know what to do differently next year. I think, for what it was, it went okay. And even if it stays this way, it'll be fine. I don't mind being the only judge. I do like the sign-up format, too, where the kids or their parents can pick a time slot that works best for them, within X timeframe. This did create a slightly longer break for me, as three times were skipped before the last boy did his solo, but it worked out. All in all, I think it went well.
This week was much colder than last. Then, it was nearly 70F; this week, it was barely in the 20s. Brr. Once again, I wasn't sure how to dress, since the music room is in the basement and I figured it would be cold. It was, a little, but the windows face west so it did get a bit warmer as the day went on.
The music room is set apart from the rest of the school. You can access it from an outside set of stairs, which is how I went in. There's not much down there. The little hallway from the outer stairs ends with the music room to your right, and if you turn to the left, you have the bathrooms on that left and the old locker rooms, now storage rooms, on the right. That's it. Go to the end of the longer hall and you hit the stairs to go up into the rest of the school. I was glad I'd remembered that layout when Mrs. S and I were brainstorming how to logistically plan things out there. Ultimately, only the currently performing soloist was in the room with me; for the most part, a parent would bring down another kid once the first one was done. The parent would also take the score sheets from me. I think there were four moms who got to do this--and get their steps in--but almost every time I would get up as well and hand them the sheet and let the next kid in. This was good for my back, which was really sore last week since I barely got up. I'm not feeling it as badly today. Mrs. S had also recently been diagnosed with back problems and even had a contraption of sorts she was wearing, almost corset-like, that she was able to hide under her blazer, but when no kids were around she'd adjust it. It's new to her so she's still getting used to it.
With easy proximity to the bathrooms, and actual breaks this time thanks to the moms doing all the running around, I also used the facilities about five times throughout the day. Here's the thing--being isolated means nobody is coming down there to clean or do maintenance. Mrs. S has to make sure she takes her own garbage with her, for instance. The washroom did not have any paper towel dispensers, only air dryers, I imagine in part to curb any trash issues in there. I mention this because my hands are super dry today. No amount of lotion is doing anything for them. Also, the stripes are still in the hallway. They're about elbow to shoulder height on me. Top one is sort of creamsicle orange; bottom one is a darker shade. The band room seemed a different, paler shade of yellow than I remember it, so perhaps that got refreshed at one point. Like at the other school, a lot of what Mr. C had in the office remained, including the pins on the cork board from past band contests. I recognized a few of them. Sadly, mine were toward the top of the board, because I'm that old, heh. I also recalled there being old programs in the drawer, and I dug them out, and I found my Vegas cousin's name in there. She attended this school until junior high and had played clarinet for a year. It was kind of wild that we both had the same band director despite never going to school together. I took a couple pictures and I may reach out to her to go, blast from the past!
I have to say, solo-wise, these kids did a really nice job. I only gave out two 2nds, and they were deserved. One was to a clarinet player, older, who just didn't have it going on. The other was a beginner trumpet player who played everything on the same note. Her entire range was four notes total. Like...have you considered baritone? When she finished her solo, I had her working on trying to hit higher notes and it just wasn't happening. She went upstairs and apparently told her mom, I didn't know G was higher than C! When the mom approached Mrs. S about it, Mrs. S had to go, yeah, she knew; we've been working on this all year. I think Mrs. S was going to suggest lessons to this family, that the child would really benefit from them. The amazing part is that she can count, so I could tell exactly where she was in the song, despite the notes themselves just being blah. I also had a little boy who'd switched from trombone to clarinet halfway through the year. He was the meekest child, very quiet and shy. No other child was that way with me, and I got a number of them to open up about their families and pets and things while we waited for the parent to bring the next player. With this meek boy, I made it a point to tell the parent who was about to bring him back upstairs, if Mrs. S hadn't noted it for me, I wouldn't have known he'd only just switched to clarinet; he sounded just like the other soloists. Like, you could tell he was a kid who needed that bolstering.
And I had one kid who needed nothing. He played his scale and solo so well that I did something I'd never done before: I awarded my first perfect score. I was really excited and proud of him. He was my very first player of the day, too. Literally the next kid walked in and asked, how many perfect scores have you awarded? One. ...And he did not earn the second, heh. I mean, most kids fell into the typical patterns--they cut certain notes short; they played the long notes too long, or too short; they had one measure that tripped them up and they went super slow on it, but the rest of the song was played at a much faster tempo; I had a bunch of kids doing the same clarinet solo and basically every single one of them got faster at the trio. Guys, it's the same tempo as the rest of the song.
Some of the memorable ones:
--The little fourth grade trombone player. She's not getting her As into the correct position, so that her A naturals sound like A flats. When I told her to watch that, she said, oh, it's my braces. ...No, it's not. Your braces are not on your arm. Your arm needs to learn where second position is.
--One older clarinet player had bad allergies and kept having to stop because she either couldn't breathe or her throat was filled with phlegm. I felt bad for her. What she was able to play was fine, but there was no continuity, but I certainly couldn't ding her for that.
--There was a set of twins, back to back, who wore identical outfits--pink dresses and boots.
--Another clarinet player had an older clarinet that clearly was leaking. I looked at it once she was done and three of the pads were torn. Yeah, you're going to want to send that in for repair ASAP.
--The sole drummer was trying to move his stuff directly in front of my table. Uh, no. Go put the stand back where I'd had it. I'm looking to keep what remains of my hearing, dear.
--Two of the kids didn't show at all. I think one might have been the girl who had a dance competition in Oswego, which is a good 25 minutes from my house, which itself is an hour from this school. I happened to be in charge of the judge's sheets, since I had time to kill and the pile was there, so I put them in order as best I could. Three of the kids, their moms put their own names in the time slots and they have different last names, so I'd had to set aside those sheets until the kids came in. I realized toward the end of the day that one child wasn't listed at all. Mrs. S told me that, as of last Monday, he no longer attended the school. Ah. I'll set that one aside.
There were two bass clarinet players who did the same solo the older clarinet players did; Mrs. S transposed it for them. They both did really nice jobs, but I noticed they were both sort of hunched over while playing. Guys, you need to sit up straight. When I asked the first one if her floor peg moved, she said, well, it does, but it slides when I play. Ah. So when the second person came in, I asked if his floor peg slid on him, too. It did, but not as badly as the other; his main issue is that the G didn't work. He and I were having a whole conversation about this and other things, and then he went, so can I finish my solo now? ...OMG. Oh crap. I told him, this is what happens when you are busy writing and not following along with the solo; the previous section had ended and sounded like an official ending, so I just thought he was done. Oops. Yes, please play the trio. And here I was, writing up my comments, thinking it was over. He was the last kid, too. Luckily nothing changed from what I'd already written, though I did get to ask, so, do you have dynamics written in your music? He went, yeah...oh! Was I supposed to write them on the judge's copy? Yeah, kinda. But I knew that was the case because his fortes were very obviously loud and his pianos were very obviously soft. I commented on that and congratulated him on them. But, yeah, my brain was not entirely there yesterday. I cannot tell you how many times I said solo when I meant to say scale, and scale when I meant to say solo. Like, I would have the kids play scales, then go, and now your scale, and they'd be like, you want me to do my scales again? D'oh. No, please play your solo. Sleep deprivation does not help me in the least.
We did have a proper lunch this week. After last week, where Mrs. S had bought breakfast foods that it turned out I couldn't eat, she'd asked me to send her ideas for lunch. She ended up getting tortilla chips and a couple different hummuses, though we only opened the roasted red pepper; a salad; a grilled chicken breast from the deli that she cut up; and a berry salad. It was a pretty good spread, actually. Then, afterward, she asked if I'd be up to going to her favorite hangout, this pub near Palwaukee Airport. She's talked about this place over the years so I was curious to check it out. She had to be done by 5 PM as two of her girls had a performance that night, and that worked out. We had over an hour to hang out there, and she goes there often enough that they know her by her first name, heh. Norm! She said that was her place to work during covid, when she needed to get out of the house so she could concentrate but didn't want to be alone at school. She could sit at a table or booth and get something to eat. I joked that it was her Starbucks. This time around, we got different food; I went with the chicken salad salad--yep, chicken salad plopped on top of a regular salad. I found it on the menu online and there was zero mention of cheese or croutons there, so when the salad showed up sporting those two items, I had to eat around them. Oh well; it was fine. She got some sort of steak dinner, I want to say, and there was plenty of it for her to eat and take most of it home for her girls.
Solo contest is over for another year. We'll see if it continues in this format. Now that we have both schools under our belts, we'll know what to do differently next year. I think, for what it was, it went okay. And even if it stays this way, it'll be fine. I don't mind being the only judge. I do like the sign-up format, too, where the kids or their parents can pick a time slot that works best for them, within X timeframe. This did create a slightly longer break for me, as three times were skipped before the last boy did his solo, but it worked out. All in all, I think it went well.