June 11, 2010

Is it the end of the year already?

Despite a great deal of confusion, reorganization, misinterpretation, and stressful situations, my junior year actually turned out to be pretty good. Since seventh grade, something has been forcing me to take whatever classes are the highest for each year. I never knew exactly why, but I've always somehow managed to get myself into Honors This or Accelerated That. In hindsight that was a good thing, as many of the classes do get more interesting in high school, and of course they are the ones all your friends take anyways. But this year was different. I was so proud of myself to be finally breaking free of the must-be-the-best-at-everything mentality. I seized the opportunity to pass up such outrageous course selections as AP U.S. History and AP Chemistry. And man, was it worth it. With that little bit of extra space, I was able to focus more my music, and relax a little at the end of the day (Don't get me wrong, I still had a couple classes here and there that required plenty of extra brain power). For my senior year, I am even going to pass over the science credit all together. Though I am very interested in Physics and would've loved to take AP, the calculus requirement and high difficulty level of the class put together would be too much for somebody who will be practicing for waaaaay to many college auditions next year. But I'm looking forward to AP European and AP English next year, and there's no doubt that I will have plenty of space in my schedule for band and orchestra.

June 5, 2010

MASH Marching Band brings the heat..... And Meadville drumline supplies the spice.

You may know that I've asked my band director if I could write the drum feature for next year's show as my senior project. She graciously accepted the offer. As of now I have a good section of it done and revised, even played it for the drum section. But of course I must endeavor a bit further than that. Following the regular corps-style section of drumming, there will be a break into an entirely different funky Latin section. Or shall we say, Spicy (the theme for next year is "Hot"). The problem is that I'm a white guy living out in the country where there is a hoedown for every 10-gallon hat and a metal mosh for every pair of skinny jeans. But Latin? It's a dead language to everyone else, and here it might as well be a style of music that never even lived in the first place. A tad frustrating, but I am determined to watch videos on YouTube and practice what Salsas and Mambos I can on the drumset until something comes into my head that will get the Friday night football crowd onto its feet. 'Cause we're pretty sure the football team wont be doin' it..... OH SNAP!!