Art & Music

With every passing day, there's more brown and less white.  Only the ice in Frobisher Bay refuses to follow the yearly trend.  The streams of melted snow have stopped flowing in the town centre, leaving deep canyons in the unpaved roads.  Some even appear to cut the roads in two.  Thankfully, the city jumps into action and fills the small canyons and potholes with fresh brown dirt.  As I watch countless vehicles traverse over the freshly laid dirt, I wonder how much it would cost the government to pave all the residential roads?  The melting snow also reveals rock gardens and carefully crafted rock sculptures.

            

Arctic Ventures, one of the main local stores in town has stopped blaring classical music outside its main entrance to drive away loiterers.  The business now plays Indian music (and I mean music from India).  Maybe in a few weeks they'll switch to country?       

            

Last week, I assigned my Grade 9s their last guitar test of the semester.  They have a choice: either perform a chosen piece from a list of three; or play six popular music riffs.  For extra credit, they may perform in front of the class.  The chosen piece is written in traditional notation whereas the riffs are written in guitar tab.  Riff is a guitar word for melody.  Guitar tablature is similar to traditional music notation except it only shows the strings and fret numbers.  It doesn't show the rhythm and which fingers to use on the left hand.  The player would have to listen to the song in order to figure out the rhythm. 

            

For Grade 11 English, we concluded the media unit by examining product placement, propaganda, and viral marketing.  Product placement is where products and/or services are advertised through movies, tv shows, radio plays, and music videos.  Propaganda is a form of communication aimed at influencing a group of people towards a common goal or position.  Although originally meant to have a neutral position, propaganda has garnered a strong negative connotation due to its use in political warfare, and promoting negative messages.  Viral marketing is used to promote products and/or services via 'word of mouth'.  Next week, we'll be looking at the last unit of the semester: feature film study.

            

The highlight of the week was the high school art show on Thursday, May 10.  Linda, the art teacher, had been planning the afterschool event for several months.  The art show would give students a venue to display and sell their works of art to their friends, families, and the visiting public.  As mentioned in my previous post, Linda had asked me if the music students could provide background music for the event.  I agreed and we practiced as much as possible until the big day.

            

When the final school bell rang at 3pm on Thursday, several senior music students and I moved all the necessary equipment (music stands, drum set, bass guitar, keyboard, amps, cables) down to the main hall.  The large squared hall is located in the centre of the school.  Hundreds of paintings and drawings were posted all around the walls and tables were set up around the perimeter, displaying crafts & jewelry   The bands would be performing in the centre of the hall.  Fifteen minutes before our scheduled performance, my music students assembled in the music room to tune their instruments and organize their pieces.  Taking deep breaths and putting on brave faces, we marched down to the main hall.

            

The art show began at 5pm but we began our concert at 5:15.  The hall was filled with chatty parents, students, teachers, and curious customers.  I would later learn from Linda that in the middle of our concert, the number of visitors would peak at 200.  After being introduced by Linda & one of her art students, I took centre stage and opened the festivities with Eye ofthe Tiger, a rock song written by the 1980s band Survivor.  The piece was performed as a mass band; the seniors were supporting the juniors.  In total, I had 10 players (2 flutes, 2 clarinets, 2 tenor saxes, 2 trumpets, 1 baritone, & 1 drummer).  I would have had more but several junior students were away on field trips.  The juniors had been learning the song for quite a while and I wanted to give them a chance to perform in front of an audience.  Overall, they played very well.

            

After the juniors left the stage, the seniors and I continued the concert with an excerpt of Handel's Water Music.  After that, we moved on to Yellow Submarine by The Beatles.  Giving my seniors a chance to relax and rest their lips, I performed a piano solo.  I chose the piece Failing Virtues by Patrick Griffin.  My performance was good but it was a challenge to get used to the sounds coming out of the amp.  I'm used to playing on a traditional piano.  I stayed on the keyboard and played The Pink Panther theme along with my students.  From there, I hopped over to the drum set for the Latin-jazz piece Song for San Miguel.  One of my tenor saxes played the solo for the enjoyment of onlookers.

            

My next piano solo turned out to be the most daunting because the selected composition had never been publically performed until now.  The piece is called Tattoo and it was written by me over the course of two years.  It is based on a girl's tattoo I saw back in 2007.  Tattoo is split into three equal parts and written in the style of classical music.  The melody is similar to the main theme of Pictures at an Exhibition by Modest Mussorgsky.  I originally didn't want to perform it but my seniors convinced me to change my mind.  Despite a few mistakes, I received a positive reception from the audience.

            

The final two pieces were I'm a Believer and Cyberspace Overture.  I'm a Believer is a popular rock song written by Neil Diamond but performed by The Monkees and Cyberspace Overture is a band work in one of the music textbooks that we have been using throughout the semester.  I played drums for both.

            

In my view, the concert was a success.  We played a variety of music and had a blast.  While we were putting away all the equipment, I received numerous compliments from the principal, teachers, and parents.  However, I would like to apologize for not taking any photographs or videos of the concert.  I was more focused on putting on a solid performance. 

            

The many days of practicing piano before the concert has reignited my desire to relearn some of the 'old' piano pieces I played while studying under the Royal Conservatory of Music program.  One of those pieces is the difficult and intense Prelude Op. 23, No. 5 by Sergei Rachmaninoff.

            

On the 795 air cadet front, my drummers are practicing hard for their demonstration on the Annual Ceremonial Review Parade on May 26.  Last week, they began practicing with their drums on the parade square.  The drill hall has a loud echo so I made sure they didn't play too loudly.  With extra practices planned for the next two weeks, the drummers will be ready.  Even though I only volunteer at the squadron on weekends, I feel like a full member because my face is visible on the squadron's Facebook page.  One of the officers came into the practice room with an iPad and took several photos of the drum lesson.  He also filmed us practicing in the drill hall.