may 27

today we went through the pieces that we will be doing on Sunday. everything went smoothly but we can still work on some of the pieces. we need to work on 5 o a bit but everything went very well other than that

May 20th

Today in class we continued to work on preparing for our May 29th concert, which is quickly approaching. We worked on our dynamics and timing in Leap Frog, and have it coming together quite well. In Sesame Street, we worked on the coda and getting into it; as well as the solo section, where it was decided Dre would do a solo on guitar. We then ran the entire piece to try and put it together. We finished off class by working on Hawaii Five-O, where we corrected a misprint in the music. We are able to take this piece up to speed now, and most notes are correct. We still need to work on dynamics here. Next class we have to run through these three pieces again, as well as our other pieces that we are intending to perform on May 29th.

May 18th

The year 2011 of the Common Era; herein lies the account of Madill, concerning the most recent class and the finding of the Ring of Power.

Twas another day for the students of Jazz Band to practice together! At the first, we discussed the dates of our upcoming concerts. Afterward, we saw to "Sesame Street Theme", deciding to open the song with the entire rhythm section beginning together instead of a 6-bar intro. There was also some work done on smoothing out entrance into the Coda section from bar 29, which has a xylophone solo.

Next, we ran "Leap Frog"--an old favourite. It ran well and we didn't stop to correct anything. All ate, drank, and made merry!

Finally, we saw to "Hawaii Five-Oh", managing to play it at the proper speed, but also working to correct note problems, especially during the second ending. Progress was noted.

The day of May 29th, our next concert, approacheth.

Here ends the account of Madill. Let it reach unto the ends of the Earth!

May 16th

So today we started off the class with Hawaii Five-0 and we have the beginning almost up to speed and we started to work on the end of the piece as a whole group. then we worked of the dynamics in Leap Frog. Then we worked on the transition part from the solo back into the piece in Morocco. And in Open your eyes we ran through with dynamics as well. It was a fairly productive class. Things are coming together. We have a concert in two weeks.

-Laura

VCI Jazz Band May.12 2011

Today in Jazz Band we are working on specific parts of songs that need improving. For Morocco that was 16 to the end we worked on dynamics and the flow of the piece. Chameleon we worked on the solo section to the transition. We played through Leap Frog again and it sounded better than ever. Hawaii Five-O is sounding better every time we play it too.

May 10th

Happy Federated States of Micronesia Constitution Day!
Today in class we started at precisely 11:29 with a delectable rendition of our old standard Leap Frog. There was nothing outstandingly noteworthy of our rehearsal of it, save that we totally rocked it. Opting to keep from having to change drummers early on in the set we chose to do Chameleon next. Tyson grooved the bass from the start with the doctor keeping the time in the west. Admittedly the fills may have been a little over done but it was still enjoyed by yours truly. We felt no need to run it twice as it was so good the first time. We switched drummers and went on to Morocco. I felt that this was our best piece today, particularly the tasteful tinkering of my fellow skinsman, Jonathan. Another highlight for me was the incredible breakdown in the solo section by Donovan on the bass geetur and Katie on the ivories. It just screamed groove-juice. Open your eyes had a flawless run through. The solos were the highlight for me to listen to. We moved on to Hawaii 5-O which is not yet up to speed. Aside from this fact and a little of work required by the Saxes on the melody, it went great. Sesame Street was the number we ended with, and it fell apart quite horrendously. We will need to work on it at a later date.

April 28 .

Today in Jazz Band, we went over most everything that we are doing for our Sunday performance. We are playing Leap Frog, Chameleon , Open Your Eyes and Maracco . Smileyface. We went over many different parts and well it turned to PERFECTION. Bigsmileyface. And I shall not be there for this performance and Carson twas not here today, so I'm bloggin' on a loggin' . wait whaat ?

anyways thats Jazz Band on April Twenty Eighth .

April 26th

So today the Jazz Band started right on time which is great for once.
Anyways, the Jazz Band started with "Open Your Eyes You Can Fly", I actually had no idea how far we came in this song until I actually listened to us play, and I know we've fine tuned a lot of stuff on this one very song to make it perfect for our audiences. Secondly we began on "Morocco" to tune that one even more than we have. It's a great song, but were still looking to play through it cleanly and mistake-free. Next we worked on "Chameleon" again I have a solo which I'm pretty stoked and excited about for playing on may 1st, but for this song we've gotten pretty good at it I'd say. Another thing we did today was we worked on how we're going to set up the songs and in what order there all going to be in, so its going to be set up good for May 1st.

-Jray Panachyse

April 12th

so today we worked on sonnymoon for a warm up, then we worked on morocco and katie soloed and we brought the tempo up from what we had it at, it is not up to speed yet but getting close. Sesame Street is coming it still needs work, but we managed to make it to the coda. We have come a long way with all the pieces but there is always room for improvement!!!

-laura

SAINT PATRICK'S DAY

(read with Irish accent)
Happy St. Paddy's day to yuh!
The class got off to a right quick start, not twenty past the hour. "We've a gig t'mora!" Andrew O'Madill reminded the class.
Jordan O'Heaman grac'd thuh skins all lively and such on the first run through of Chameleon. All was going smashingly till there was a slight train wreck in the solo section. Jonathan O'Lesyk got the group back in the swing o' things: "Why don't we start back in with Caitlin O'Schneider's solo?"
"That'll be spot on!" Donovan O'Riemer exclaimed.
Everything was again right as rain until the second solo when the group ground to a halt again! "This'll not do!" they all said to each other as they scratched their beards (and beardesses) in thought.
"O' sakes! I'll help ya through!" said Mrs. O'Yochim. And that she did. Ever'un was every greatful they were.
In the pause between bits Mr. O'Heaman and Mr. O'Penner joked about the novelity it would be to borrow Nicko O'McBrain's drumset for the jazz performance in town tomorrow. They chuckled in mirth cuz of course his kit is of great stature!
Nextly the group moved on to the swinger Sunny Moon! Once again Mrs. O'Yochim had to step in and assist us in makin er through.
"What would we do without ye?" said Shamus O'Mally.
"Oi! You ain't in this class!" said Tyson O'Van O'Eaton without the least bit of reserve.
"O my you're right." he said dumbfoundedly, "Sincerest regrets!"
"None, none." said the group as they picked him up by the trousers and show'd him the door.
Nextly it was time to work on the moving ballad (and a favorite of me grandfather's) Open Your Eyes. Miss O'Schnieder did tickle the ivory's ever so delicately. It went without particular folly.
With the return of our guitarist Jray O'Panachyse we moved back into Chameleon so we could practise his solo section. Before starting we decided to move Mr. O'Van O'Eaton over next to the xylophone so he could hear the drumset better and the rythemn section would jam better as a whole. Great approval resounded through the ears of the group!

The Brandon Jazz Festival is swiftly approaching! After today only one rehearsal left! We spent class today working on Chameleon, Open Your Eyes, and Sonnymoon. In Chameleon, we added some background chords to the solo section, and continued to train Jordan on drums. We didn't change any solos in this piece. Overall, it is sounding quite good, with only a couple bars that could use tightening up before the show. In Open Your Eyes, we ran through the piece and continued training Teagan on drums. We decided not to change solos in this piece. Overall, this piece is sounding pretty good. We pulled up Sonnymoon, an old favorite, as a third and final piece to play on Friday. I think this one will require practice before Friday, as it is a little rusty after not being played for a few months. Soloists here were Laura, Donovan, and Teagan.

March 3

So today we worked on Open Your Eyes and Chameleon. These are the two pieces that we are playing in the Virden Festival next week. We ran both of the pieces twice. And both times they went really well. The first time for both pieces we were kinda getting them organized, like who was doing solos and when and how we were starting and ending each piece. The second run through of each piece was to make sure we had it down. Open Your Eyes Katie, Andrew, and Donovan are doing solos. In Chameleon Dre, Carissa C., and Catlin are doing solos. Everyone is playing really well. We play at Virden Festival at the Aud on Wednesday around 11:30.
- laura

Class Mar. 1 2011

It's Andrew's B-Day! Today we discussed a solution to having neither of our drummers present at our next two performances, Jordan is going to play drums for Chameleon and Leap Frog and Teagan will play Open Your Eyes. We practiced Chameleon (which I'm playing bass for) and it went pretty good but it was very improved when we played it again at the end of class. Open Your Eyes and Leap Frog went just as good as always, minus the drummers just learning. They did pretty good though.

Febuary 25, 2011:)

Today, there was only four of us, Myself, Dre, Teagan and Caitlin . We worked on Chameleon mostly and we got some done , and it was great . At the end of class we did a little work on Open Your Eyes You Can Fly , and it went alright . Disappointing to lose all of our grade twelves this class . but we can go over everything next class for sure .

Febuary 25, 2011

Carissa .

Today we worked on two songs. Open your eyes you can fly, which is an old favorite that we are re-working to get ready for festival. We also started on a piece called Chameleon, its sounding really good and it should go over well at festival.

hey we had a great practice today. we got chameleon and went over the other piece for the concert which is open your eyes. both peices are comming along swimmingly. we also went over the solos for open your eyes they are katie and carissa cole.

Welcome to the band Carissa Cole



Teagan Cole

Feb. 9th

So today we started on the Sesame theme song, we listened to a recording of the theme just to know how to play and such. We played through it I thought it went alright when we got the hang of it a little bit but we'll need to fine tune a few things but I'm confident we all can pull it together for our next performance. We started on another song to called Morocco (link below), we listed to a recorded version of this too on youtube. We're going to need more practice with it but we'll get it done, I'm positive.


By: Dre Panachyse

Morocco recording



 

Winter Concert Review

I thought our Winter Concert was a huge success. My favorite numbers we played were Watermelon Man and Leap Frog. In Watermelon Man, I liked the slow funk feel, as well as the solos, which were great. I thought we had good dynamics in Leap Frog. Blue Bossa was kept tight and the guitar solo sounded really suitable for the type of piece this is. I thought Open Your Eyes could have gone better. We were unsure of where we were ending the piece, and I thought we were playing out of time with each other in a few areas. If any of these pieces are kept for future concerts, I think we should keep Open Your Eyes, and focus largely on better setup (endings, solos, etc.) and keeping in time with each other.

Some suggestions I have for new pieces are:
Hawaii Five-O theme
Morocco
Bring Your Daughter To The Slaughter (It is a Jazz song)

Jonathan

Januray 23, 2011 Concert at the Aud

The Concert was a success! We began the concert with Watermelon Man. Some of the feedback we received for that song was that some people didn't like the slower version that we were trying out. Overall we played it very well, but now we're going to stop playing it for at least a month because we've had it all year! The next song we played at the concert was Open Your Eyes You Can Fly. I thought it was the best we'd ever played it, and the crowd loved it as well. I soloed for this song on flute and Teegan soloed on Trombone. I think it as nice to find a song where we could put in the flute! The next song we played was Blue Bossa. Having the saxophone play with the piano at the beginning was a good idea because it sounded great together. Lastly we played Leap Frog. We still need to work on dynamics for this piece, but we had a good ending, which is what we've mostly been working on. We we also leave Leap Frog alone for now and find another song. And that was the end of our concert.

January 25th

So we had our winter concert on sunday. Over all it went well. There are things that we need to work on. One thing that we need to work on is dynamics. We need better louds and softs. I had one person form the audience say that the drums were just alittle on the loud side so they couldn't hear the other instruments. Another thing that some of the members need to work on is their confidence on stage. We need to work on solos, making sure that they are solid. And for our next performance is a better organized set list with who is doing solos and order of everything.

It was a suprise to hear how well we play Open Your Eyes. It was in my opinion one of our best performances.

I feel as a solo play I played very well, though Ineeded better dynamics.

I was given some suggestions as for new songs from my family.
- Pink Panther
- Hawaii Five-0 Theme

-Laura

Sunday

Sunday was cool. Perhaps one of the best jazz performances at the Aud Theatre.
We started with watermelon man. This was in my opinion the shakiest. I blame myself. We had slowed this one down (slowed it down RIGHT! right funky.) I like to really dig into this one when we're rehearsing. I lay into the hats and snare, really bite at the cymbals. According to my colleges this was NOT too loud. However, in the different acoustics of the Aud, and in the opinion of our lovely leader I was washing out over the rest of the group. So i had to pull back. I ended up rushing it and not put as much cool fills and stuff in due to lack of comfort.
From there we moved onto newer stuff, Basa and Eyes. Eyes went really well, I manned the keys. It really grooved and I felt like it was possibly our best. This is impressive to note due to the fact that we had just recently started playing it. Blue basa went down okay. Solos were good and the aux suited it without overshadowing it.
We ended with Leap Frog, a standard for us. It went very stellar overall. A little generic dynamically but very solid nonetheless.

keep it funky
The Docter

Concert & Such.

Yeah so as most everyone knows, I wasn't there for the concert Sunday. But in fact I did hear it went extremely well, and I'm supposed to write out about the last rehearsal or something, but I did that on Friday. We decided earlier today that were taking out Leap Frog and Watermelon Man and bringing them in later like, maybe at the end of the year or something like that.
And so I don't really know what to write at this moment, so yeah uhhh.
I've noticed after our performances people always come up to us and normally tell us things they liked or disliked during our performances normally its always good things said.
I hope by the end of the year we progress and get better.
:)
thaanks.
Carissa.

Don Amero Concert

Anyone who hasn't heard of Don Amero is not cool. He's totally sweet.
This was the second annual concert we have done with Don. Although this post is about our performance I must say that he is a phenomenal performer. His songs are very tastefully arranged and presented.
Now, down to business. We pulled out a lot of Christmas repertoire in addition to our older pieces. Auld Lang Syne was a highlight for me. Laura played through the head solo the first time and she really rocked it. It takes guts to be able to do that in front of a big audience like that, especially considering how little time she had to prepare it. Mad props.
We kind of ended up winging how we set up. It worked though. We were pressed back into a corner, practically on top of each other. The bass amp was set up high and partially turned which made things easy to follow for us drummers. I thought we adapted well and pressed forward.
One unfortunate thing about our arrangement was that it was difficult for the drummer to make eye contact with the pianist. Communication was a little difficult but no major falls occurred.
Over all it was a rewarding experience and we received good feedback.

your igloo buddy
DOC

concert

The concert on Sunday went excellent in the the fact that we played through open your eyes with ease and it went quite swell. Are best peace had to be leapfrog even thought that we have been playing it for the WHOLE year. I think that we should ditch it and watermelon man for a while. Then bam we bring them back at the end of the year. It will Be flawless. We should work more on open your eyes even though we just got it. It went fairly well for the most of the part. I learned that i need to work on my soloing a bit. what should we work on next?

Teagan Cole

January 21

Well today, we figured out the set list we were going to do for the show. And so we practiced. We started with Leap Frog and lead onto Blue Bossa, then followed with Watermelon Man, and then we did Open Your Eyes You Can Fly, and then ran Blue Bossa yet again, because Tyson didn't play the first time. *sadface* I think we are going to do swell at our performance Sunday ! *happyface*

January 19, 2011

Today we focused primarily on two songs. A piece we have been working on for awhile now called "Blue Bossa" and a newer piece called "Open Your Eyes, You Can Fly". Blue Bossa went essentially well but we need to work on more dynamics to make it more of an entertaining piece for the listener. Both solo's went well but I personally feel that mine could use much improvement. As for "Open You Eyes" it is going quite well for the first time we've tried running it and it is a fun piece to play. The solo's in "Open Your Eyes" are both quite good.

- Jordan

jan 17

today we went over the peices for the concert this Sunday.we need to work on blue bossa and open your eyes.  Next class we should defiantly go over those two.  leapfrog and watermelon man went exquisitely.




teagan

January 13,2011

Today we warmed up then started class at 11:25 and we've decided that this will be our starting time from now on.  We started class by playing 'Leap Frog'.  We've really improved on our ending and it's sounding really good!!! Next we ran through Watermelon Man, and Blue Bossa.  Lastly  we decided to finally try out 'Open your eyes you can fly'.  We split into two groups and worked on the bass line and the melody.  We now understand how the first part of the song sounds and we'll work on the second part next time.

By Katie Trussler

Jan 11

today in class we pretty much kicked mega butt. allow me to elaborate.
we started off wailing on leap frog. this piece of music didn't know what hit it. it was like "woah man you rocked!" so yeah. it was nuts. we worked a section with the drum solo. i was intense on the solo sections pretty much killin it every time. threw in some duples and other nuts stuff. it was awesome. we also worked on the coda ending because it was a little sloppy. but we made it so crisp it was like someone ironed it. with an iron.
we started to work on blue basa but jononathan had to go conquor egypt or something so i had to fill in. i sucked. in a way i rocked. but in the wrong way. so we gave up.
we then did some watermelon man slo funk remix (done up by me on the drums). it was totally nuts. groovy and whatnot. it may have been a little loud. but then is anything too loud? probably actually. whatevs. we'll fix er up.
we ended off the day trying a new piece called open your eyes or some other crap like that. it was okay. we decided it should be a funk piece. wich i dug of course! its a lesykinator one but he was still off destroying grandma walruses or something. so i filled in. cuz i rule. it was okay. we decided we'd split apart next class (rythemn section and melody peeps) and work it like that.
so yeah. that's how it went down. eat it.
peace
dawkta slo funk