Conference Weekend

Wow what a day. Today was the first day of my Music Conference. I am in Spokane and I have had some great sessions with some great teachers. First today I went to a class on teaching rhythm. I know I'm a percussionist, this should come easy. Unfortunately this is not true. Rhythm has come fairly easy to me so it has been hard to understand why some of my students don't get it. Well a very famous percussionist by the name of Garwood Whaley talked about the importance of the kinestetic relationship needed to learn rhythms and transfer them from one song to the next. I came out of that class with a lot of good ideas for my classes. And it should only take 5-10 minutes of class.

After that class I went to the coolest concert by the Dallas Brass. They put on one incredible show and had a cool tuba solo that used multiphonics and all sorts of other weird techniques that allowed him to create a one man band that had this weird techno sound to it. Words really can't describe it.

Lunch was fun, I was able to catch up with Dr. Weiss. He and I talked about different ways to work with my choir as well as recruit. The biggest issue he pointed out but I already knew was scheduling needs to be evaluated. I have some conflicts with AP classes.

After lunch I went to a workshop on getting a more balanced sound from the choir. It was a really good class and I came away from it with a lot of stuff, but he had way too much information and we could have gone on for more than an hour and a half. It was really good information and I am definately going to try some of it.

The last workshop I went to was about the importance of communication through gestures and how to use it in a warm-up. The presenter was so funny and engaging. He had a lot to say and demonstrate with a local high school band.

The final event of the night was a concert with the Spokane Symphony and my favorite concert perfomer Evalyn Glennie. It was a phenominal concert that started off with a Webern piece called Langsamer Satz. Then Evalyn Glennie came out and performed my favorite percussion concerto Concerto for Percussion and Orchestra by Joseph Schwantner. Wow she was incredible. The finale of the concert was Suite from the Firebird which is always a great finale.

Well now that I'm home I should go to bed.