I continued concert band this semester, and we had several performances over the five months, making it challenging but very enjoyable. For the Spring Gala Concert we played two songs, Soul Bossa Nova and The Blues Brothers. From the start of the semester we practiced exclusively for these songs, apart from the practice for National Day on February 4th. Several rehearsal times were lost due to public holidays, so we got into time pressure before the concert. While Soul Bossa Nova was quite easy to play, The Blues Brothers was a challenge it it took me a while to become comfortable with the rhythms. An added difficulty in the latter piece was the high notes in many parts of the piece, and although I usually have no problem reaching the high G, we usually played the piece last in rehearsals and so I was already quite tired. However, the last rehearsal before the dress rehearsal went very well overall, and all parts finally fitted quite well together, so that was a relief. The concert itself went quite well (read the post here) but I was also doing stage management, which required a lot of concentration and organization, which made it hard to focus completely on the performance.

The band during the Spring Gala Concert. Photo Credits: GeckoNet.

After the Spring Gala Concert we spent the rehearsals practicing for the Graduation, in which we played another two songs, Royal Fireworks and Pomp and Circumstance. These two songs I played last year for the graduation as well and therefore was still familiar with them, but this gave me the opportunity to focus even more on the expression and dynamics. I especially like the melody of Pomp and Circumstance, and since I play the melody part most of the time, I really wanted to do a good job. Royal Fireworks, a typical Baroque piece by Handel is also quite fun to play and a bit more challenging than Pomp due to the high notes. The whole band progressed quickly though and I was happy with the results on the final practice before the graduation dress rehearsal.