rehearsal 4

I got to rehearsal and ran through some things. Then all the Trinis came in who are contracted to play for Seions bands. I saw Akua again who I met at the airport with Seion the first day and he made it his personal job to introduce me to all the Trini’s. That was nice. A lot of them know of NIU and the program. Rehearsal started and it was amazing playing with a band with 30 more players. Just a huge sound, really good drummer too. 20 years old. I felt like practicing when he told me that. We rehearsed the notes we know for a while and then here comes the interesting part. Seion started teaching the front line (the higher pans in the band) their notes. He would say the notes in order and then tap out the rhythm of the phrase. Then they would play it slowly. Then he would do that a few more times adding it all together and eventually speeding it up. Sounds easy right? Not as easy as it sounds. He then moved to the cellos and quads. H would say the notes and the rhythm and I would be fine with that. We would play it and then speed it up, fine again. Then he would give us a new phrase. I would learn the notes and the rhythms fine. Then he would add it together. There is where I realized I had forgotten the first one. And not like, “Oh I forgot a note” more like “there was a first phrase?” Ahhh! Luckily I quickly figured it out and caught back up because he added about 6 more phrases after that. Definitely a different style to what im used to but I really feel like it should be used more. I have always had great respect for this type of learning. It’s the main reason I came down here. To experience the traditional way of pan learning.

Well, Seion taught the Basses their part and then everyone played all together. Rehearsal lasted till a little after 1 in the morning. Yea almost 5 hours. They did feed us some nice beef pilaf (I had it twice in one day for those of you keeping score at home) and some tasty orange beverage. Then a quick bit of hanging out and we went home. We have rehearsal again at 1030 tomorrow morning and then again at 7 tomorrow night. Lots of pan. Lots of ONE SONG. But I love it. I could listen to the song all day. Especially now because I still don’t have all the notes. But I’m really getting close. Anyways I shouldn’t have stayed up this late but my day was soo eventful I had to type it out before I forget it. And who knows, tomorrow might be even more eventful. So long for know.