Good morning,
Just spending Monday morning catching up on the videos from this weekend. Loving the music I'm hearing all over the world.
For those who read regularly a few weeks back during an update I mentioned I was having a lesson. This was thanks to the wonders of technology.
I had my first Skype lesson with Mr. Graham Brown of Ontario. It was a real treat. For an hour we worked through my band scores, some exercises to take to the corp and discussed musical philosophy.
Graham is a true musician at heart. He hears and sees the big picture and views his composition work as more of a producer's role in the pipe band. This is exactly how I feel about my role.
In the studios of New York, L.A., and Nashville, producers sit listening to bands and coming up with arrangements to get the modern audience to buy into the music, or just to make the very best version they can.
Flash over to the pipe band world.
Pipers create beautiful melodies, gorgeous harmonies, and complicated music. However, it is tremendously one dimensional when it comes to emotional expression to the average listener. Enter the drum corp. In today's modern pipe band, snare corp, tenors, and bass, are all utilized to create what I refer to as motion.
Some in the pipe band world call it tension and release. It creates the illusion that the music is always going somewhere, never a dull moment.
The combination of beautiful piping, motion based drumming, and good rhythmic consistency, is what we call good ensemble.
Rightly so.. it makes people wanna tap their foot to the beat!
How many times have we all heard "I hate bagpipes, sounds like a cat being hit with a baby"? Answer, alot. I always challenge these people to listen to the Fraser's Medley from 2007, or SFU's medley from 2009, how about some 1987 Strathclyde MSRs.
Never fails, there's that foot tapping.
Throw on Master Blasters and dare them not to enjoy Top Deck in Perth or Up an Adam.
Talking with Graham about the concept of Ensemble makes me think of all the times I've wanted to throw some ridiculous drum lick into a score and didn't....
Composing drum music is about sacrifice. A balance between the Can, and the Should. But restraint can be rewarded. Graham writes his music for ensemble. Look at this year's Ontario results and you'll see Peel right across the board. He told me he wasn't concerned with the drumming prize, Drew Duthart is a machine, but he was confident his pipers would take at least one first in piping. Of course then it becomes a battle for ensemble. There's where Graham shines.
Listen to the way his music moves the piping.
But there is a pay day for the drumming ego. This weekend Peel not only took the contest but won the drumming prize as well.
I've personally been told my music isn't difficult enough. This took its toll on my confidence for a long time. People you look up to as a kid tell you you just don't cut it and you question yourself.
Then you sit down with a Reid Maxwell, John Fisher, or Graham Brown, and they tell you "don't worry I did that too when I was your age" and they help you grow and improve as a composer.
Consistent message from all of the greats.. don't worry about the drumming prize those will come, get ensemble as good as you can, that wins competitions.
So, practice tomorrow, busy as ever. Wes is away teaching in Saskatchewan at Diefenbaker so I'm sure rehearsal will be a blood bath of hard work, our pipe sergeant Cam Ballantyne is a great drill sergeant.
Then this weekend is a busy weekend rehearsal, last one before the plane ride.
Can't believe how close it's getting.
Ok, I'm off to write some drum scores. For fun.
Cheers,
Sean
No comments:
Post a Comment