Needs Analysis & Research

Tonight I spent quite a bit of time thinking about my needs analysis plan and looking for articles.  I have a hard time focusing in on one thing and was working on the paper and several upcoming events for the marching band from 7pm-midnight tonight.  Many thanks to Darlene for pointing out the "summons" link on the first page after Stockton login as I was able to find about 30 articles to start pulling information from.

It gets better...right!?!?

I am becoming increasingly worried about how I am going to get this done along with carrying on with my professional responsibilities as planned.  Thursday we have rehearsal until 9pm, Friday is a 10pm return from the football game and Saturday is an 8a-1am (Sunday) competition.  This leaves only Sunday to revise my first topic paper if I can't find a way to squeeze it in somewhere else.  This will make it very difficult to revise another time if it needs further work.  I would really like to take "a little bit each day" type of approach, but that's just not how my schedule has ever allowed me to work!

I'm not technically "behind" on any of my work and I'm already feeling completely overwhelmed!!

The Beginning of the End...

While I'm nervous about the amount of work I'm thinking this course is going to entail, I'm excited to be working on a topic I'm very passionate about.  Finding ways to explain and evaluate tone quality is always something that's difficult for me to do, and I think my capstone will really help me with that.  It did not take me long to decide on a topic, but I have a feeling ironing out the "how's" and "why's" is going to be something that I never truly settle on and will constantly evolve.  Here's to our last year together!!!

Finished Product! (Well...sort of...)

Last night I played at Mainland Regional in their Theater Company's production of the Drowsy Chaperone.  Southern performed the show last year and of the few musicals I've seen it's my favorite by far.  I played the percussion book last year for Southern and it was the first time I actually had to put in some quality time practicing in order to get performance-ready.  The percussion book is very challenging and I'm glad I attended a rehearsal on Wednesday to refresh my memory of the show.  I couldn't imagine someone who is unfamiliar with the show walking in and playing it after only one or two reads.  It is next to impossible to play the entire book as intended without either A) making substitutions to the part (playing a chimes part on bells, bell part on vibes, etc.) or B) having multiple sets of most of the instruments to allow for smooth transitions from one instrument from another.  I would imagine this is how it is done on Broadway, as they have the resources to purchase multiples of instruments if needed.  All-in-all it was a great experience and was happy I could help out with the success of the show.

Today's Indoor Drumline rehearsal went really well - we reached the end of the show with drill & music!  The co-director Brian and myself have been hard at work writing music and designing the program since December so it is nice to see this continue to come to life.  Below is a video - there are still some more things to add (props, uniforms, changing & adding some of the voice-overs to name a few) but the skeleton of everything is pretty much there.

Apologies for the poor sound quality - not a fan of the volume level for the camera on this phone!

Visit From a Friend

Today at Southern we had a unique opportunity to bring in an alumni of the program to give a world percussion and drum set clinic.  Joe Goglia and I became great friends in high school and graduated together in the class of 2002.  Joe currently works and lives in Tempe, Arizona which means we do not get the chance to see each other as either one of us would like.  He is home visiting family in New Jersey and offered to come over to Southern today to provide instruction on various percussion instruments.  Our students benefitted greatly from his clinics and we had a lot of fun working together once again!

Drumline Competition

Saturday was an indoor drumline and color guard competition at Radnor High School.  So far all three groups from Southern have been doing extremely well.  The drumline had a great performance of the first 4:35 of their show (there is still another minute left to add).  The show explores the use of technology to improve the human race and uses a heavy amount of electronics including MIDI-trigged voice overs, electronic mallet instruments, and synthesizers to help convey the idea.  It was a nice day which allowed us to warm up and play outside for a change!

All-South Jersey Jr. High Band Concert

Yesterday was the 40th annual All-South Jersey Junior High Band Concert.  Southern Regional had eight students successfully audition for the two bands that performed.  Each rehearsed five times and put on an outstanding concert at Rowan University.

It was interesting to see the difference in the two bands that performed yesterday afternoon. The Blue Band performed first and had a nice run of its five pieces.  Everything was performed accurately which is an accomplishment considering the small amount of time the group had to rehearse.

However, the Red Band performed second and was at an even higher level.  The conductor seemed to have developed a deeper bond with the students in the short amount of time, which lead to a sense of ease and comfort on stage.  It could be said that this conductor placed a higher emphasis on humanism as a learning theory as everyone on stage was clearly working towards an outstanding performance.  This relaxed approach lead to a very dynamic performance that all could be proud of!

Seussical Finished!

Yesterday we finished our final performance of Seussical!  We had a very successful run and performed in front of a packed house from Thursday to Saturday!  The level of professionalism in the production cannot be overstated and the memories made over the past two months will stay with all of us for a long time to come.

While each show was good, I felt our strongest performance was Friday night.  Thursday night was probably our weakest as we were coming off a strong opening night and may not have been on our toes as much as we should have been.

Before the final performance the cast gave Jannah and I flowers and directors chairs.  I thought it made for a great picture!