For the secondary school musical, the school’s main creative activity for the first semester, Ms Duncan chose me to play in a small band accompanying the acting, which consisted of about 10 players. The musical was the popular “Oliver!”, so we were all looking forward to a fun and interesting performance in November. However, the music we had to play was quite challenging, owing to the speed and the long pauses between playing sections of the same song, which required me to count the bars all the time when I was not playing. The musical, based on the book by Lionel Bart, shows the struggles and violence in the lives of poor people in 19th century England though the young boy Oliver’s experiences.
In total, there were around 30 songs that we had to play, and since we only had 1 hour per week, we really rushed through the performances and were expected to practice extensively at home. This was very challenging due to the high work load, but I tried to go through the music at least once a week at home, to be better prepared for the next practice session. Although I had dengue fever, I practiced regularly during the one-week October brake as well, which was beneficial to improve, as I was really struggling with the music. The music we always play in the concert band, which is right before the musical band on Monday afternoons, is usually quite easy, so it was very unexpected to suddenly have very challenging music.
The GeckoNet service group made a video about the upcoming musical.
The reason the music is so challenging is because we have to play extremely fast and the music is often in a 2/2 beat, which I find difficult. My feeling of rhythm is not very good, so this makes it problematic for me, especially as I have rest for many bars in most pieces, so I have to count in order to play at the correct place when I come in again. In addition to this, there are many accidentals, so I have to familiarize myself with the music before I can play fast and accurately.
Despite these difficulties, some songs are fun to play, especially later in the rehearsals when we got to play together with the performers. Some pieces I really enjoyed were “I shall scream” because of a nice trumpet solo and some songs were I did not play. Although I only rarely had the melody, it was nice to listen to the melody played by others, especially the violin, as well watching the acting or listening to the singing.
On Saturday October 26, we had our first rehearsal together with the performers. It was very tiring, as we had to be there from 9:30 to 15:00, but it was interesting to see how the music and performance fit together. I was impressed at how well the teachers managed to organize everything, and although most parts still require practicing, it was already fun to be part of the group.
Playing during a Saturday rehearsal with the actors. Photo credits: Aidan McCoy
After our first rehearsal with the actors, we got a feeling of how the songs should sound and hence the rehearsals were much more fun. Playing while others were acting and singing was much more dynamic, particularly as some of the actors started wearing their costumes.
On the dress rehearsal, which was during school time on Wednesday, we went through the entire musical once, although we stopped a lot, redoing some scenes or practicing certain dances, etc. After that, we ran through the play without stopping, to see how long it takes, practice transitions, and allow actors and musicians to get the overall feeling of the musical. The rehearsal lasted from 7:30 in the morning until 15:00, which was extremely tiring. However, this was probably the best of all rehearsals as well, since the acting and the music were really good by now, and it was very enjoyable to play.
Waiting during a scene in the dress rehearsal. Photo credits: Joshua Wright.
The whole practice was a lot of work and a big challenge as it was very time-consuming. However, being part of a musical is really great (I only played in one musical before). One of the most interesting parts of this activity was that I got to see the development from people seeing the music for the first time and much being tedious to everything coming together and being a lot of fun to participate in. For myself, I saw great improvements in my playing of the music. Since I had little time to practice the songs on my own due to a lot of schoolwork, I relied on the rehearsals we had. It took some time of course to feel truly confident, but by the dress rehearsal, I thought I played really well. I am looking forward to the performances, and feel happy about the fact that we as students can present such a good musical, although the teachers naturally were of immense help and their skill in music, acting and directing were incredibly important.