Solo & Ensembles

Once a year in band, there is solo and ensemble. This is when band students put groups together, pick a piece to play, practice, play for parents, and then for a judge who rates the groups' performances. The judges then post what they judged each group. The best you can get is Superior, then excellent and so forth.

This year I participated in solo and ensembles and I was in two groups: a percussion trio, and a mixed duet with Christy playing the flute, and I playing the vibraphone. :)
In the percussion trio, I played river rocks- I know, I know :Dwhat I did was go to the library, pick out a big river rock, (clean it,) go to the neighbors house , pick out a smaller rock, (clean it,) and hit the bigger rock with the smaller rock. Sounds interesting huh!? :) Then the two other boys in my group hit wood with mallets, and slapped their legs and clapped! Yup, it was a pretty genius song alright! :) Well, the day of the performance for the parents, the boy that played the "skin" (slapping and clapping), got suspended at school, so he couldn't come! ugh! We were soooo bad when we performed! But atleast we didn't sound as bad as Christy, and I must have sounded.
In Christy's and My duet we played the worst we have ever played- we got off, and it was horrible! I didn't know where Christy was because I thought we were somewhere else, so I kept playing a steady middle C, which I have to play many other parts of the song. I heard Christy kind of trying not to laugh while playing the flute, and we both stopped and laughed! Then we picked a spot, finished the song, and didn't do the repeat! oh boy! But gladly the next day, Friday, we got it down pat!
Saturday: performing for the judges! :)
I got up, got ready, (couldn't eat absolutely anything because of nerves) and went to the school! I was soooooooo nervous, but I kept telling myself that I would mess up!
First: played with the percussion trio- good. One of our players started slowing down but I managed to slow my beat down so the piece wouldn't go all over the place- luckily, we ended it perfectly and the judge told us we did a good job and we picked a fun piece to play.
Second- Mixed duet- BRILLIANT! We messed up once in the piece, got it organized, kept going, and finished strong!
The judge (Mr. Bill Wells)- "If you mess up in a band, does the band stop? Or does it keep on going?"
Christy and I- "It keeps going."
Mr. Wells- "And If you go through a whole line, mess up, and play wrong notes,and keep going, that isn't a failure. That is when you get an A. And that is exactly what you guys did. Good job"
(something along those lines)
He also, helped us out, and gave us a couple pointers- he was a really nice judge :)

Final results............................


Percussion Tio......................................................... Superior!
Mixed Duet..............................................................Superior!
Yay!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We were sooo happy! :D :D :D