“An ensemble that messes up together, stays together.” –
Classical Guitar Ensemble Group Motto for 2018
The classical guitar ensemble is OSC’s middle school classical guitar group that meets up every Wednesday afterschool for one hour to practice pieces for upcoming events such as important end of year assemblies and musical shows like the OSC Galas. For the past few months, we have been practicing for the upcoming Winter Gala in December where we plan to play two pieces, Wheels and Billie Jean. Our group currently consists of 8 members who are trained by Mr. Marlon Perera, our conductor and teacher. Now, let me introduce you to my lovely ensemble members: we have Phillipe and Andrew on the melody, Lexi and Manon on the second melody, Joshua and Chirath on chords and Rashmi, me, on bass. Our newest member, Louis, will be joining on the chords.
Collaboration and planning are two essential components in the ensemble, and as much as we all love playing together, playing in perfect harmony doesn’t happen overnight. At least one person is almost always off-beat, misses a note, plays the wrong note, forgets a chord or even just forgets their part completely. But that is simply how it starts, and it always gets better: practice, practice and perfect practice individually and as an ensemble eventually brings the different parts together as one and builds wonderful pieces that our audience has undoubtedly enjoyed.
We plan to start with a classical piece called Wheels which is quite slow, airy and well, classical. But then, we plan to turn it around by switching to Billie Jean by Michael Jackson which, hopefully, will hype up our audience. There are some percussive parts to the latter piece which I will be playing along with the bass which, I must admit, is quite challenging as I need to get the perfect timing for both parts. Sometimes I miss a beat because of the speed I must switch between bass and percussion.
But, of course, it’s nothing I can’t handle (I hope).
This would be our third time performing as a group and it honestly brings me so much joy to be on stage and perform with such a talented bunch of kids (I’m the most senior player in the group). We plan to perform in front on Ms. Duncan, the head of OSC’s performing arts section who is, therefore, the head coordinator for all music-related events. I hope it goes well and all our practice sessions do us justice and impress her as much as it impresses us!
Until next time, keep playing!
12/13/2018
New Update: GALA was great!
The Winter Gala took place on the 6th of December 2018 we were the 4th performance. But before that, I was busy with duties from stage management to which I signed up and spent more than 14 hours working on (it was way harder than I expected). A lot of planning and coordination was required to successfully handle all the technical equipment and instruments on stage and despite our best efforts, mishaps did occur once or twice due to wrong instruments being placed on stage or the wrong headset being fixed on the singers.
It was truly the most stressful part of the evening.
I must say however, that it was a very unique experience: learning about stage setups, making sure everyone knows where they should be and what they should clear or setup after each performance, learning about the various types of microphones and the various instruments, learning about connecting electrical instruments such as the guitars to the different ports in a DI box – a sound reinforcement system commonly used as an amplifier for electric and bass guitars – and even working with the lighting and event crews who guided us during the entire show. I did learn many new things which may not be relevant in a classroom but were nonetheless very useful to me as a musician.
Coming back to music, our performance went very well! Our hours of practice payed off as we managed to play in perfect harmony while keeping a steady beat. I was proud of my individual performance given how our instructor, Mr. Marlon Bjorn, introduced me to a new part to add to our first song an hour before the performance and I had to practice it then and there without messing up the timing and really, that didn’t help my already stressed out self one bit.
I am happy to say that, despite the short notice, I didn’t mess up and honestly, as an ensemble, we performed better at the Gala than we did during rehearsals, which was great! I do love performing and due to my experience being on stage, I must say that wasn’t nervous but very excited nonetheless. I will resume guitar practice once school starts but till then, keep playing!
