Great performance, everyone! Thank you for all you do. We had an audience from many different schools, and I know (because I've already gotten emails and texts) that you touched a lot of lives today. To use a baseball metaphor, that wasn't a home run, that was a grand slam!
Great job, again. Thank you. I continued to be humbled by your talents, and honored to be a part of this organization. I know that Dr Waters is going to say pretty much the same thing. No rehearsal this weekend - please enjoy it and spend it in a way that you can enjoy it. Have a great rest of the week!
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Just wanted to remind our fabulous members of a couple of things.
Tonight, LAYO (NOT Cadets) have a performance at 5:00 at the Allen County Fairgrounds. Dress is black bottom white top. Call time is 4:30. Tonight's "set list" is (in no particular order): Firework Music, 1812, Ear-Igami, Scheherazade, and Vistas Espanolas (both movements). Provided we start right around 5:00, we should be done around the 5:30 PM mark. Reminder: NO rehearsals tomorrow, for either LAYO or Cadets. Reminder: YES Rehearsal March 20... this is going to be an important one, for sure! And a final reminder that the Lima Noon Optimists support us, a lot. And, conversely, we should support them. So please come to the home show this evening. This Saturday, there is District 3 Solo & Ensemble competition. Good luck to all who participate. I know that I've been working with a few folks. I plan on being in the room and listening to folks play for most/all of the day. If you are a little worried, and need a little help, feel free to send me a video or audio recording of you playing. If you get REALLY daring, you could FaceTime me.... maybe a good idea to text first to see if I'm available.
The NEXT day, please don't forget that Dr Waters has called rehearsal for this coming Sunday, 3-6 PM. I have shared all of my scores with her (and I have hers as well) so she'll be rehearsing my pieces, as I will not be there (I have a personal commitment). During this time of year, it's easy to lose our focus, and be very hard on ourselves. Please exercise excellent mental & emotional health along with your own physical health. Depression is real, and it almost took one of more former students recently. Please know that I would never want anything bad to happen to any of you, and the world would not be as bright without you. It's easy to feel worthless because of smaller mistakes that we make. But we often lose sight of the positive things that we have done, and continue to do, and the positive FAR outweighs the negative. So let's get out there and do some great things, together! I have put up a link to order your shirt. It's in the Members section, just under the list of members. If you already have a LAYO shirt, you do not need to order a new one. If you want something other than a polo shirt (which we really do get a good deal on, by the way), please order your stuff from Cappie's directly. My wife bought me a lovely quarter-zip Under Armour top and I love it. I feel like the sizes tend to run a little large, so I would recommend ordering your regular size. Cadet Orchestra members do NOT need said shirt.
Someone is going to tell me that the member list is ALL messed up. I know. I'm working on it. Between school, home life, some personal issues going on, and taking care of the home, life gets a little busy some times. I'm working on it. Just a reminder that the next practice for BOTH groups is January 23. That's next Sunday. See you then! So much going on!
First of all, great rehearsals this past Sunday! Wait, shouldn't it be rehearsal, as in singular? No, because... Congratulations to our new Cadet Orchestra students! Right now, it's a small group. And that's OK. We're learning to play music with each other, which is what it was designed for. I am 100% not joking when I tell you that these kids are the future of LAYO. Check back in 5-6 years, and they'll be toward the top of the string section. Which reminds me, check out their 2 pictures on the members page! Now, for number three... I'm NOT going to say that there's going to be a song taken out. And, if there was, I'm surely not going to say which one it is. However, I'm going to have a new song for our LAYO group some time in the next... 24 hours-ish. Some of those who have been around for a few years may have already played it. If so, all good, just be patient. It's still one of my favorites. I think I might have too many favorite classical pieces of music. Thank you all for staying safe & healthy. I know our recent rehearsal attendance wasn't the best. For sure, the COVID is going around right now. Personally, I wouldn't be surprised if a couple of local school districts went to remote learning or something like that, just for a week or so. Would I enjoy that? No, but I just know that there are a lot of teachers sick, and a lot of students sick. Try to practice when you can. Reminder: our next rehearsal is January 23! Mr MacBenn will be "flying solo" on that one. Apologies if I get tired - 4 hours of rehearsal PLUS set-up/take-down will definitely wear you down! I'm not saying this officially, but I'd love to be done by 5:30. wink wink. Hey, if you're reading this, and you're in LAYO, and you started looking at that newest music for "Danse Negre", please don't freak out. #1, that's for a performance WITH the Ohio Northern University Symphony. So, advanced college level stuff, right? Please don't freak out about it. That piece is something we're going to be working on slowly. #2, if you're a clarinet or a trumpet player, on all things holy, watch for the transposition! Clarinet in A? How about Trumpet in F?!? These tasks can be very daunting, no doubt. When I was your age, I got scared of them too. You'll get it. Maybe you won't get EVERY single note, but you'll do well enough to fit in with a collegiate symphony.
I have a very good friend, who happens to be a cellist, who says something like "the best players know when to play, and when to get out of the way". As a symphony player, you don't have to get every single note perfect (unless you're in one of those major symphony orchestras. Then, you do.) to be a positive contribution to the ensemble. Should you try to at least get most of them? Sure, absolutely. But no one is perfect. And a perfect performance? That's rare. And by perfect I mean EVERY note, dynamic, rest, bowing, articulation, accent/nuance, style, and following the cue of the conductor AND the lead of the concert master. That's a lot to take into consideration. OK, now that's I've gotten that stuff out of the way. I also have ALL of the music uploaded. In the words of TwoSet Violin, "go practice." Again, Merry Christmas to all. Happy New Year. See you in January. Hi all. New music is up. I'd like a rest now, so I'm going to "disappear" for a little while. If you need help, ask away via email. On the Satie ("Sat-ee-ay") piece, yes, French is hard. Backward eighth rest = quarter rest. I can definitely see a theme in our music. I hope that you enjoy playing it. I hope that you PRACTICE it before our first rehearsal.
Merry Christmas, all. Happy New Year. See you soon! |
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