Today was the audition for district band- a 2 day clinic and performance for the best band geeks in our district. I don't know how big our district is, though.
Percussionists had to audition on snare, mallets, and timpani. I did better than I expected, although my expectations were just above rock bottom, so that's not saying much. =~] Anyways, here's how it went.
Snare- I had to play 3 rudiments and a choice rudiment (Long Roll, Flam Accent, Ruff, and Paradiddle) in open-close-open form. I did pretty well on Long Roll, great at Flam Accent, and the best I've ever done at Ruff, but on Paradiddle, I stopped randomly. I was able to pick it back up at the tempo I was at, but it still wasn't good. Then I had to sight read. The piece was really easy and I played triplets and dotted quarter notes successfully, expect I messed up on sixteenth notes.
Mallets- I had to play a full range chromatic scale, and 4 other two octave scales in pattern. I did great on chromatic, and I did okay at the other scales, but I hit a wrong note on the arpeggio of both the F scale and A flat scale. On sightreading, I was really proud of myself. Not because I did well-I didn't- but because I managed to read and play about 3/4 of the notes correctly!!! That doesn't sound like a big deal, but I'm horrible at reading notes, so sightreading and getting most of the notes correct was great. However, because it takes me forever to tell what a note is, the tempo went out the window. I played everything like a half note. I went so horrifically slow that I seriously thought one of the judges would say something like, "NEXT!" or "Today, please!" But I managed to complete the whole piece before leaving the room.
Timpani- This was my worst one. The sight reading piece was really easy, except we had to tune both drums. I'm completely lame at tuning by ear, so who knows what note I tuned the drums to! I played the piece decently-ish.
Everyone else did horrible too, so it's not like I'm the only one! Everyone except for this Indian kid who played Triple Ratamacue as his choice rudiment. I can't even spell it, much less play it!
It's a rainy day...perfect for writing!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Very interesting and clever. Band sounds hard. You've got the vocabulary down pat, though. You've come a long ways in a short time. Hope you make it to district! I like your last line. Seeing a report that "it's a rainy day" for some reason always gives me a cosy, dreamy feeling--good for writing, or taking a nap...
ReplyDelete