Memorial Day parade

The Memorial Day Parade was great this year! The kids knew the song better than ever. Well, overall, that is..... Some kids didn't know the song at all, while others knew bits and pieces. Some knew the whole song, and others made up parts that sounded decent. And three kids forgot their instruments. But it really did go well. I have to remember to set park in the right place (UCA's parking lot next year), and work on learning the song sooner so more kids do get it, but I'm very happy with the bands.

FRUSTRATING

This is the most frustrating time of the year. I'm competing for kids' attention with the weather. On nice days I have to practically drag the kids to band. AND when we get a performance opportunity, they just groan! They don't want to put any time into memorizing a march, so I have to walk them through it, bit by bit or else the song will completely fall apart during the parade. Plus, they could play a fun little thing at the end of the year, and there's almost no interest - they just don't want to do anything! Arrrgh. Unfortunately, the few who do work at it end up being short-changed by the majority who won't do anything. Arrrgh.

CONCERTS!

Woohoo! Great performances the past few weeks. I always get nervous when our dress rehearsals go well, because the formula seems to be: Good dress rehearsal = bad evening concert. This year, though that doesn't apply. Both of my schools had good dress rehearsals and performances. At DES, Basses Are Aces featured a strong trombone & bass clarinet, and Sabre Dance turned out to be SO good. At NCES, we were missing a featured sax player (poor girl - she was sick!) so we played something we hadn't played in weeks, Sousa's Stars & Stripes Forever, and the crowd loved it! Both Beginning Bands watch me better than any group I've had, so they were VERY together. I have to figure out how to compress the videos better, then I'll get them posted to TeacherTube.

AND THEN, the jazz bands went to the JSC Middle School Jazz Festival yesterday. It was a great experience for us. Because of absences, I combined the two jazz band, to great effect. We played for two judges, who gave us great comments afterwards. Very good stuff!

DES Spring Band Concert

What a great show tonight! Jazz Band played - I get to play my bass with them, and not just conduct. I love doing that; the kids play so independently. The Beginning Band was great, too - they watch me SO well. Whenever they have a longer note, or feel "uncomfortable" with the beat they look up to get back on track. I don't think I've ever had a group that watched me so well. And the Advanced Band is so strong. They played with power and confidence, even on very exposed parts, like bell solos and low section solis. I loved some of the music they played, like a theme from Dvorak's New World Symphony and Katchaturian's Sabre Dance. Weird notes, eighth rests, and alternate fingerings galore, and they got most of it!

NCUHS Concert

I enjoyed tonight's high school concert, especially Rockabye River, a Duke Ellington piece, Epitaph for Moonlight, Go Lassie Go, The Boys of Wexford and Spitfire. Russ did a great job writing an energetic & fun cadence for his section.

COMPOSING inspiration

Being able to post my music online lately is really inspiring. Unfortunately, I can't easily multi-track record like I used to, since my studio is now a bedroom. I'll have to figure something out with that, and I'll have to make sure I keep posting more music online, as well as recording live stuff. There was recently a performance that included a piece of mine called "Taming the Festival Monster." Keep in mind that was recorded by elementary school students, so there are a few inaccuracies. Possibly. My music can also be heard at http://pruestudios.wikispaces.com/ and http://www.reverbnation.com/wdprue

ELEMENTARY SCHOOL CONCERTS

Concerts starting this week. Stressful, but I enjoy them. This week about 80 kids, two groups and then next week about the same. I hope the kids don't freak out, though they usually do. It seems like no matter how prepared they are, and know what's going on, they STILL have a thousand questions.