My band students performed their winter concert this evening, and WOW!!!!! I was so very proud of them! I will be bragging on them in this post, so if you do not want to read, that's fine by me!
Admittedly, yesterday's dress rehearsal after school plain STUNK! It had me all worried that I made a huge mistake selecting 7 songs for them to perform, then 3 more for the jazz band. They misbehaved and wouldn't be quiet and just sounded pretty well, awful yesterday. It also had me rethinking my career choice and trying to figure out what I might do with my life instead.
HOWEVER, I was quickly reminded that this is always the way it is before the winter concert. Bad dress rehearsal. It is always Monday the next to last week of school before winter break and the kids are starting to get all weird. Perhaps it is something I bring on myself by scheduling the date...hmmmm.
Of course, only time would tell if it was indeed I made a bad choice and too hard music, or if the kids were just being kids and squirrely. Well, THEY WERE BEING SQUIRRELY. Class today went extremely well and I felt a huge, renewed sense of hope for their performance. They showed up, and acted like decent human beings and performed the HECK out of the music during class! At one point, they got strange looks on their faces and most were looking to the back of the auditorium....my principal had slipped in and was sitting down and listening! Too bad that couldn't count for my drop in observations! I had several percussionists absent from the performance, which sort of threw all those parts off (nothing like the timpani player not showing up, or 2 other students who fell ill and missed it as well...BOTH percussionists!). But, this is the first time that I really felt the students worked exactly with me to add feeling to the music and they worked their backsides off to keep the balance and blend just right. I could see how hard they were working to make it sound wonderful, and it did! Russian Christmas had some shaky spots, but it was performed FAR better than last year. Just think, one more year and they will be even more powerful and confident! They get scared because it is indeed tough, and tend to not play as strong as I know they can!
They seemed to have fun with the concert! The jazz band even played great too! I was nervous, because I looked out, and my principal had come and was in the audience. I think it is great he was there, but he taught band for 25 years so that is what had me nervous! I hope he liked what he heard. The parents gave each of the groups standing ovations, and I was pleased with the crowd! We collected toys for the Marine Corps TOYS FOR TOTS and they got so many donations! There were certainly things I kinda botched or did not plan as well for as I should have...like transitions between the main band and jazz, forgetting to ensure the brass ensemble got started on time (I took it for granted they would), not having a better plan for striking the set after the main band, and then forgetting to introduce the Marine and thank them....grrrr. I even left 3 kid's names off the program, and I checked it so many times even!
But, several parents had a LOT of compliments and the kids seemed excited at how they played. I know I was happy! Now, to buckle down for concert contest. If I had to pick one thing to focus on, it would be making sure the percussion is confident in their parts. They most certainly were NOT at this performance and I take the blame for that. Sure, some were missing, but even if they were there, the section did not know their parts because I did not focus on it. Lesson learned, embarrassment in knowing that I am quite sure my principal picked up on that, and so on.
WHEW!!! it really was a great concert.
I am taking the day off tomorrow. I have so much paperwork to get done....final exams to type up, evaluation things to prepare for my eval. Friday, and so many other things. I also have been under the weather and need to rest. My shoulder is bothering me as well and I hope to get in and get a cortisone shot very soon, maybe even tomorrow. I'll go back to work Thursday ready to tackle it all again!
I had a 3.5 hour dress rehearsal last night with the Memphis Symphony with my church choir for our MESSIAH performance Friday. I was so tired!!!!! This time of year is just nuts. But the "worst" is almost over. I feel a huge relief tonight already! Several of my band students are in a local church's huge Christmas performance this week....The Singing Christmas Tree type thing, and they asked me to go. SO, I ordered tickets and Abbi and I will be going. Dave thinks it is cheesy, and since he is going to go to Messiah on Friday to hear me, I refuse to drag him to the Singing Tree. It is a HUGE Memphis tradition, so I am anxious to finally get to see it and hear my students perform!
Hopefully I didn't bore you too much with the details of the concert.
I am off to sleep now!
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