Saturday, April 25, 2009

Off to Riverina, NSW State Band Nominations Released

A couple of things that are happening today. First, and most importantly, it is Anzac Day. Hopefully many people can enjoy this day and reflect on the occasion without drinking too much or losing too much money on two-up.

The second is I’ll be on my way to Tamworth for tonight, then down to Borambola the next day for the second regional band camp of the year; Riverina Band Camp. A lot of us are excited for the camp, especially after what the kids produced from last year. So the blog updates I said I would put up will have to wait, if I can remember them when I get back. Even if I forget the updates there will still be the report from the camp and the journey taken.

Students involved with the NSW State Band were announced earlier this week with letters being sent out in the post. Congratulations to the students selected in the junior and senior bands for this year. Hopefully I will see the lists tonight of who was selected, and I will be quite interested to compare the nominations from the regional areas. In the last few years of the program run, nominations from the North Coast have been an interesting case. It’s been a bit of a “broken Catch 22” situation; you must attend the North Coast camp to be nominated, and to be successfully nominated you must be of a high enough standard to fulfil the criteria. Reluctant nominations have been accepted since the kids attended the camp and numbers needed to be filled, and there have been exceptional children nominated and accepted where they did not attend the camp due to being well above the standard of the camp, offering nothing to take them further (hence why I refer to this Catch 22 as broken, or perhaps loose).

Almost straight after the Riverina camp will be the North Coast camp held in the second week of May. I have not been selected to go on staff for this North Coast, which is probably a good thing since my work would probably not appreciate me taking two weeks off in a row for these camps while students miss out on tuition.

All the best to everyone for the weekend and the week to come!

Monday, April 20, 2009

Brisbane Trip (Part One): Keeping it Local

I’ve just arrived home from a four day holiday in Brisbane with my wife. To be more precise, I’ve just arrived home from the physiotherapist this morning to have my back and shoulder looked at but that might be story in itself for another time. I thought I might discuss a couple of issues associated with my trip away, and I will do this in two parts. One of those issues had intentions with travelling away, and the other was a bit of a surprise tour on my sister-in-law and her husband’s part.

Keeping it Local

The main purpose of the trip away was to give my wife some holiday time. While she had the opportunity to go shopping, relax, and catch up with family, I was able to duck into the brass and woodwind store located in Brisbane. The intentions were to try out and maybe pick up some crystal mouthpieces for my clarinet and alto sax. They are a nice little feature to have with an instrument, and from reviews I had read apparently they do allow for a very nice sound. When I arrived at the store I was quite surprised to learn that there were none in stock and that they would have to be ordered in. I was determined to purchase some new mouthpieces, especially for the alto sax, so for the next two hours I was testing and comparing clarinet mouthpieces, alto sax mouthpieces, and alto sax ligatures. I eventually made my choice picking out a Van Doren B45 Lyre mouthpiece for the clarinet, the Selmer C** (no, that is not an expletive) mouthpiece for the alto sax, and the BG L10 gold lacquer ligature to go with the alto sax mouthpiece. I was a bit surprised at the ligature choice, since these days it would normally be the Van Doren Optimum as first option, but I personally found the two I picked out worked really well together.

Afterwards, the choice had me thinking about a common issue with musicians on the local scene. For quite some time there has been the unwritten code of trying to keep any music business around the local area as much as possible. And for good reason too since keeping the business within the community can earn yourself, and the company you go through, a good rapport with people on a friendly and business basis. The old “you scratch my back, and I’ll scratch yours”. These days it is becoming increasingly more difficult for teachers and local music businesses to do this. But this isn’t necessarily true for all instruments or families of instruments. I could safely say in the case for woodwind, and most likely for brass too, that resources and equipment is a little more difficult to come by at a local level but so much easier from outside of the town. The internet, for starters, is a massive promoter for businesses within NSW and companies outside of Australia. Online stores and access to music stores in capital cities could never be easier. Music or items ordered from these stores will arrive on our doorstep a lot quicker than that of ordering through a local business. I have had proof of this after ordering items from a Sydney store, and ordering items from local businesses on the North Coast. I have for over two weeks from local businesses for music to arrive, yet if I order at the beginning of the week from Sydney it will arrive on my doorstep in 2-3 days. The price difference varies little, except maybe paying a little more for postage.
        Then I have had the issue of a lack of quality items, instruments and accessories arise. Obviously at a more professional level it is accepted that you will need to visit a specialist store to test various models of instruments and accessories to find what combinations suit you best. At a student level, I try to encourage students to use more “quality” items straight away. For example, I try to steer students away from using lower quality reeds and having families purchase better quality reeds. Not only do the quality reeds last longer, but students get a much better sound and have the feeling of greater responsibility placed on them. A much improved attitude from students is evident in terms of playing their instrument and taking care of it, compared to others that have either ignored or forgotten the advice given. I’ve made suggestions to some music stores of stocking some of these items and some better tutorial and fun music books for students to play from, but the fear of spending money and not successfully selling the product always comes up.

For the teacher it’s a bit of a stifling situation; do we still order through the local business despite the cons, or do we take it upon ourselves to get the resources from alternate businesses outside of the local scene that can be more efficient and reliable? I would be very interested to hear some other thoughts on this issue. Part two will come later this week.

Saturday, April 11, 2009

New England Band Camp 2009: Major Success!

It's been just over a week since the New England band camp for 2009 ended, but with the recent floods and the last week of term winding up things have been a little hectic. I didn't realise, but there have been some other comments placed along the way that I have missed. My apologies, but I have gone back and read them and really value and appreciate the input that has gone in. I've set up the blog to notify me when feedback does come through from now on. Anyhow, my place survived the floods with only a little stream flowing from the back door to the garage door, which is a relief since my computer is downstairs on the other side of the room. The water flowed on the cement and came nowhere near the carpet.

As I said in my last post, I took my camera with me and took photos of my journey. What I really wanted to do was take some video shots as well, but I will need a much bigger memory card or a video camera to do this. I had planned on video taping some sections of the drive including Dorrigo mountain, Waterfall Way, and sections of the drive through some of the smaller towns on the way to Lake Keepit. I'll talk about the journey another time when I have the photos sorted out from the camera.

The band camp itself was a huge success. We thought nothing could rival the camp of 2007 at Echidna Gully when a lot of top musicians were finishing up being in their HSC year. The standard set for 2009 may not have quite surpassed that of 2007, but it has aimed to set 2010 up for a bumper year with the talent being produced. The average school year would be around 8 1/2 to 9, with a spread of students from year 4 through to year 12. Very few students were in years 11 and 12 at this camp, yet the average standard or charts being played was about 3 1/2 out of 5 stars across the full concert band and advanced ensembles.

Congrats is due to the director, Di Hall, for selecting a terrific set of repertoire that challenged and brought about a new world of music to the students; concert band repertoire. No longer was all of the music arrangements of operas, musicals, movie scores, and pop songs. Music was being performed that was specifically composed for concert band. Flashpoint by John Moss was performed by the full concert band to a very good standard. The best way I can describe this piece is that it is similar in its sound and harmony to that of Steve Reich's first movement of City Life called "Check it out", minus the minimalism and synthesizers of course. This piece was composed specifically for concert band, and a lot of the students really enjoyed it. The feeling that they were performing "real music", is what we feel inspired them according to their reactions. I hope the majority of this music will be taken to the next camp in the series; Riverina.

The clarinet section was fantastic by the end of the week. We had two tutors for the clarinets; myself and Andre Vikas. Andre took the firsts, seconds and basses while I worked with the thirds. It was a bit of a change for myself, but I really enjoyed working with the thirds for the week. The challenge at the beginning of the week was getting the clarinets to come out of their shells and open up their sound when they played. This was especially true with the first clarinets, since they need to not only lead their section but essentially the concert band. Andre's work with his clarinetists ensured that they brought out more sound and played together as a section, rather than as individuals. While ensemble playing can be targeted with these rows, it's a bit more challenging to do the same thing with the third row. The work that I did with the third clarinets included learning new notes, attacking rhythms, and trying to make sections look less fearful than they first appear. One really big positive about the section I took was that everyone could play across that break of the instrument, and this is a massive achievement (and an absolute dream as a tutor). A "never say die" attitude was always present, and there was always the determination to learn more or get to the end of a piece of music.

It was evident after the last performance that there are a lot of emerging musicians to come through from this camp, both from the junior (years 4-8) and senior (years 9-12) sections. A standing ovation from the audience of parents, relatives and friends was given to the students as they finished their last piece in the concert. While a standing ovation is something you would normally acknowledge and appreciate as a professional musician, it was jaw-dropping and surprising to see this for a combined group of primary and secondary students. Even reflecting on it now I still get tingles and goose-bumps. While the staff brought the standard and "set the bar", ultimately it was up to the students to embrace and take on the challenge themselves and to have us, the tutors, assist them along the way.

For people living in the DET's "New England" region, be sure to keep an eye out for the regional tour band later this year. You will not want to miss this sensational ensemble!