"I want you"
The past 24 hours or so have been amazing. A day and a half ago, if I had told myself that I would be in the UW Orchestra as of now, I would have thought that I was crazy, but lo and behold, here I am, in the UW Orchestra :) Here's the long story of how I got here.
As some of you may know, I really enjoy playing music (specifically percussion) and it has been a dream of mine to play in an orchestra. Back in August, I learnt that in September 2004, the university would be starting up an orchestra of their own, open to anyone associated with UW. This excited me greatly, and I spent a fair bit of time practising. However, I always felt like I wasn't actually going to make it in. Stupid lack of confidence. At the open rehearsal in September, I was terrified by how many skilled percussionists there seemed to be. And to make things worse, I completely messed up an important Timpani part, multiple times, causing the conductor to stop the orchestra to correct me, multiple times. Due to these reasons, I decided that I had no chance and that it would be a waste of time to audition (Although for most people, I said that I just didn't have the time.) Fast forward to December, when I attended the orchestra's first concert. I felt somewhat bitter, because the percussion parts seemed relatively simple (except for that one tympani part), and the skilled percussionistst from the beginning of the year were mostly not present.
Fast forward to 2005. At the beginning of this year, I was still not planning on joining the orchestra. This was partly due to leftover lack of confidence from my one my experience with the orchestra in September, and also because I was feeling extremely tired in the evenings. Yesterday evening (Wednesday) I was over at a friend's house for dinner and they asked me if I was going to join the orchestra, and I said "No". The open rehearsal and all the auditions had already taken place, and so I was resigned to the fact that I would not try to get in this term.
However, while walking home, I happened to take a detour through the engineering buildings, on my way to the ATM (made by NCR :)) in DC. In E2, I saw a flyer for the orchestra saying that they were still looking for certain musicians, and it included percussionists! I took this as a sign, literally and figuratively, that I should give the orchestra another try. I hurried home and checked out the orchestra's website. On their website, they claimed not to be looking for percussionists after all. I didn't let that stop me though, and I sent off an e-mail anyways. Within a half hour, I got a reply from the conductor, explaining that they "may indeed need another player," and that I could audition the next day (Thursday) around 4:30 in the REV (V2) Great Hall. I wasn't sure what she meant by "may", but I was excited nonetheless. The sudden realization that I was going to have to go through an audition the next day was scary though. It brought back memories of the night before my Microsoft interview, and we all know how that went. In the e-mail, the conductor explained that the audition would consist of tuning a set of tympanis (yikes!), a one-handed sight reading of a short piano piece, drum rolls on the snare drum and tympani, and some rudiments on the snare drum. Rudiments, although I can do them ok, have been the bane of my existence since my early days of taking drum lessons. If you don't know, rudiments are basically rudimentary patterns of hitting the snare drum. Like "left right left right right - right left right left left." Try doing that continuously very fast. It requires a fair bit of wrist/hand coordination, and my left hand always gives me trouble. Anyways, I'm getting off-topic.
Before I went to bed, I reviewed the musical scale, so that I could remember how to play the piano piece for the audition. The next day (this morning), I went to work early, so that I could leave early. I spent a bit of time at work researching how to tune a tympani properly. Sadly, it's something that I never quite got the hang of during my days of high school concert band. From the research it seemed like the only definite way to be able to do it is to have perfect pitch, which I definitely do not have. One cool method I discovered though, is to hum a note at the drum head while tuning with the foot pedal. When the drum is tuned to the note you're humming, resonance will cause the drum to hum the note back to you.
My time to leave work (4:00) came quickly, and annoyingly it was raining pretty hard out. Biking through the pouring rain, with only a winter coat, on your way to something important is not fun at all. I eventually made it to V2, and drippingly walked up the stairs to the great hall. The conductor was auditioning a violinist before me and so I thankfully had a bit time to mentally prepare, and dry off. The conductor also gave me about 10 minutes to warm up with the instruments. So I practised the tympani tuning with resonance and to my delight, it worked. After practising a bit, the audition began. The conductor was impressed that I had my own drum sticks, which was a good start. We began with the tympani tuning. She asked me to tune one of them to G, so I played a G on the piano, hummed the note, and then found that note on the tympani. Simple. Once I had it tuned though, she got a funny look on her face and asked me what note I had tuned it to. I said G. She said to try it again. I played G on the piano, hummed, and quickly she says "Your humming a B." Turns out I can't hum correctly. I was harmonizing with the piano. With a little help from the conductor, I was finally able to get the tympanis tuned. So far, it seemed like my audition was headed the same way as my Microsoft interview. The next things she had me do were great though. Some standard drum rolls, some simple rudiments, and a piano piece which wasn't really a piano piece. She just wanted to see if I could get the rhythm of the piece right, and so she said I could play it all on one note if I wanted. Excellent! So I basically treated the piano like a drum. Soon the audition was over, and I was concerned that my tympani tuning would be my downfall. Instead though, I got to hear the three best words of this year so far: "I want you." I was in! Hurrah!! My dream come true!
However, there was a "but". The problem was that during the normal audition period, she had already said yes to three percussionists. She explained that two of them were only "so-so" though. One of the players had been in the orchestra in the fall, which makes me think I could have gotten in I'd tried. The conductor said she'd try to get in touch with them to see if either of them weren't very keen to be in the orchestra, and if that didn't work, she'd give them something hard to play to scare them away. This gives you an indication of how scary this conductor appears to be at times.
I went to band practice (The Warrior's Band) at 5:30, and then headed to my first orchestra rehearsal at 7:00. The conductor had not been able to get in touch with the "so-so players," and so there were 5 people in the percussion section. Strangely, all of the other percussionists are Asian. It turns out that another percussionist had auditioned right before me and he had also been accepted, and so there were too many of us. Fortunately, the "so-so" that had been in the orchestra last term, said that she would take a break from the orchestra this term if there were too many of us.
The other "so-so" wasn't budging though. At one point, she was playing the triangle (it was her first time at it, and so she was a little rusty at it), and the conductor stopped the orchestra, and told her that "No offense, but some of the other people haven't gotten a chance to play anything yet tonight. Why don't you let someone else play the triangle." And then she pointed at me. I found this quite awkward, somewhat embarrassing, and fairly blatant, because I had played something already and the "so-so" triangle girl had not. Oh well, I enjoyed playing the triangle. In the next piece we played, the conductor assigned the "so-so" triangle girl one of the hardest parts (the snare drum), which she had a lot of trouble with. The conductor didn't even bother trying to correct her. I got to play cymbals, tambourine, and triangle for that piece. I love cymbals and tambourine!
After rehearsal, the conductor discussed with me about doing the snare drum part that triangle girl had done. I'm excited, but I feel really bad for the girl. It seems like the conductor should have been more picky during the initial audition phase, although perhaps she felt that she had no choice. Interestingly, the conductor has been steering me away from the tympani parts, heh.
It's interesting to note all the events that happened that led to this. Like the detour through the engineering buildings and me not being able to go to CUSEC (which would have made it impossible for me to audition today). So now I'm sitting here, thanking the Lord for the way things worked out the way they did. This post has been way too long, so I'm going to stop now, with this final thought: First I conquer the UW Orchestra audition process. Next I conquer the Microsoft interview process!
As some of you may know, I really enjoy playing music (specifically percussion) and it has been a dream of mine to play in an orchestra. Back in August, I learnt that in September 2004, the university would be starting up an orchestra of their own, open to anyone associated with UW. This excited me greatly, and I spent a fair bit of time practising. However, I always felt like I wasn't actually going to make it in. Stupid lack of confidence. At the open rehearsal in September, I was terrified by how many skilled percussionists there seemed to be. And to make things worse, I completely messed up an important Timpani part, multiple times, causing the conductor to stop the orchestra to correct me, multiple times. Due to these reasons, I decided that I had no chance and that it would be a waste of time to audition (Although for most people, I said that I just didn't have the time.) Fast forward to December, when I attended the orchestra's first concert. I felt somewhat bitter, because the percussion parts seemed relatively simple (except for that one tympani part), and the skilled percussionistst from the beginning of the year were mostly not present.
Fast forward to 2005. At the beginning of this year, I was still not planning on joining the orchestra. This was partly due to leftover lack of confidence from my one my experience with the orchestra in September, and also because I was feeling extremely tired in the evenings. Yesterday evening (Wednesday) I was over at a friend's house for dinner and they asked me if I was going to join the orchestra, and I said "No". The open rehearsal and all the auditions had already taken place, and so I was resigned to the fact that I would not try to get in this term.
However, while walking home, I happened to take a detour through the engineering buildings, on my way to the ATM (made by NCR :)) in DC. In E2, I saw a flyer for the orchestra saying that they were still looking for certain musicians, and it included percussionists! I took this as a sign, literally and figuratively, that I should give the orchestra another try. I hurried home and checked out the orchestra's website. On their website, they claimed not to be looking for percussionists after all. I didn't let that stop me though, and I sent off an e-mail anyways. Within a half hour, I got a reply from the conductor, explaining that they "may indeed need another player," and that I could audition the next day (Thursday) around 4:30 in the REV (V2) Great Hall. I wasn't sure what she meant by "may", but I was excited nonetheless. The sudden realization that I was going to have to go through an audition the next day was scary though. It brought back memories of the night before my Microsoft interview, and we all know how that went. In the e-mail, the conductor explained that the audition would consist of tuning a set of tympanis (yikes!), a one-handed sight reading of a short piano piece, drum rolls on the snare drum and tympani, and some rudiments on the snare drum. Rudiments, although I can do them ok, have been the bane of my existence since my early days of taking drum lessons. If you don't know, rudiments are basically rudimentary patterns of hitting the snare drum. Like "left right left right right - right left right left left." Try doing that continuously very fast. It requires a fair bit of wrist/hand coordination, and my left hand always gives me trouble. Anyways, I'm getting off-topic.
Before I went to bed, I reviewed the musical scale, so that I could remember how to play the piano piece for the audition. The next day (this morning), I went to work early, so that I could leave early. I spent a bit of time at work researching how to tune a tympani properly. Sadly, it's something that I never quite got the hang of during my days of high school concert band. From the research it seemed like the only definite way to be able to do it is to have perfect pitch, which I definitely do not have. One cool method I discovered though, is to hum a note at the drum head while tuning with the foot pedal. When the drum is tuned to the note you're humming, resonance will cause the drum to hum the note back to you.
My time to leave work (4:00) came quickly, and annoyingly it was raining pretty hard out. Biking through the pouring rain, with only a winter coat, on your way to something important is not fun at all. I eventually made it to V2, and drippingly walked up the stairs to the great hall. The conductor was auditioning a violinist before me and so I thankfully had a bit time to mentally prepare, and dry off. The conductor also gave me about 10 minutes to warm up with the instruments. So I practised the tympani tuning with resonance and to my delight, it worked. After practising a bit, the audition began. The conductor was impressed that I had my own drum sticks, which was a good start. We began with the tympani tuning. She asked me to tune one of them to G, so I played a G on the piano, hummed the note, and then found that note on the tympani. Simple. Once I had it tuned though, she got a funny look on her face and asked me what note I had tuned it to. I said G. She said to try it again. I played G on the piano, hummed, and quickly she says "Your humming a B." Turns out I can't hum correctly. I was harmonizing with the piano. With a little help from the conductor, I was finally able to get the tympanis tuned. So far, it seemed like my audition was headed the same way as my Microsoft interview. The next things she had me do were great though. Some standard drum rolls, some simple rudiments, and a piano piece which wasn't really a piano piece. She just wanted to see if I could get the rhythm of the piece right, and so she said I could play it all on one note if I wanted. Excellent! So I basically treated the piano like a drum. Soon the audition was over, and I was concerned that my tympani tuning would be my downfall. Instead though, I got to hear the three best words of this year so far: "I want you." I was in! Hurrah!! My dream come true!
However, there was a "but". The problem was that during the normal audition period, she had already said yes to three percussionists. She explained that two of them were only "so-so" though. One of the players had been in the orchestra in the fall, which makes me think I could have gotten in I'd tried. The conductor said she'd try to get in touch with them to see if either of them weren't very keen to be in the orchestra, and if that didn't work, she'd give them something hard to play to scare them away. This gives you an indication of how scary this conductor appears to be at times.
I went to band practice (The Warrior's Band) at 5:30, and then headed to my first orchestra rehearsal at 7:00. The conductor had not been able to get in touch with the "so-so players," and so there were 5 people in the percussion section. Strangely, all of the other percussionists are Asian. It turns out that another percussionist had auditioned right before me and he had also been accepted, and so there were too many of us. Fortunately, the "so-so" that had been in the orchestra last term, said that she would take a break from the orchestra this term if there were too many of us.
The other "so-so" wasn't budging though. At one point, she was playing the triangle (it was her first time at it, and so she was a little rusty at it), and the conductor stopped the orchestra, and told her that "No offense, but some of the other people haven't gotten a chance to play anything yet tonight. Why don't you let someone else play the triangle." And then she pointed at me. I found this quite awkward, somewhat embarrassing, and fairly blatant, because I had played something already and the "so-so" triangle girl had not. Oh well, I enjoyed playing the triangle. In the next piece we played, the conductor assigned the "so-so" triangle girl one of the hardest parts (the snare drum), which she had a lot of trouble with. The conductor didn't even bother trying to correct her. I got to play cymbals, tambourine, and triangle for that piece. I love cymbals and tambourine!
After rehearsal, the conductor discussed with me about doing the snare drum part that triangle girl had done. I'm excited, but I feel really bad for the girl. It seems like the conductor should have been more picky during the initial audition phase, although perhaps she felt that she had no choice. Interestingly, the conductor has been steering me away from the tympani parts, heh.
It's interesting to note all the events that happened that led to this. Like the detour through the engineering buildings and me not being able to go to CUSEC (which would have made it impossible for me to audition today). So now I'm sitting here, thanking the Lord for the way things worked out the way they did. This post has been way too long, so I'm going to stop now, with this final thought: First I conquer the UW Orchestra audition process. Next I conquer the Microsoft interview process!