Pep Band is my favorite thing to do when it comes to band. I really enjoy going to the basketball games and playing. Getting together and getting the boys pumped for the game is really fun. I only ended up missing one volunteer pep band game. I would say that I got an A for pep band, since I played at all of the required games and went to many of the volunteer games. I believe that I deserve an A because I always tried my hardest at each game and tried to help the other percussionists as much as possible. Pep band is very important to our band, because it brings the whole band together to play a bunch upbeat songs that we all seem to enjoy a lot. It helps everyone outside of band realize that being in band can be fun and very beneficial to the school. If we did not have pep band at the games many people would be upset and most likely wonder where the band is. My favorite pep band songs are Livin On A Prayer, Crazy Train, and Party Rock. I really love Livin on a Prayer because it is just a fast song that I enjoyed to play on the drum set. We started playing this song last year and the foreign exchange student was on the drum set and I liked watching him play so this year I took over the song and decided to play it more. Crazy Train is also great because the beginning is really cool and Micheal does an amazing job on the electric guitar. If it wasn't for Micheal the song wouldn't sound as cool. I love Party Rock, because the transitions between the songs are really cool to play. I also really love the songs that are in that song, especially Born To Be Wild. Last year I was not able to play the Wipe Out drum solo at all, but this year I worked on it and was able to play it. I'm still not the greatest or the fastest, but I can still do it. If we could add a song to the list for pep band I would want to add See You Again by Wiz Khalifa. I really love that song and it is really cool and sounds awesome. The bell part is also really awesome.
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Grades on Smart Music Scales Bb: 100% g minor: 100% Eb: 100% c minor: 100% F: 100% d minor: 87% I feel that I know all of the scales 100%, even thought I got an 87% on my d minor scale. The reason I got an 87% on that one is because the bell was just about to ring as I was finishing it up and I hit the wrong note and didn't the time to go back and fix it. If I were to go back and do it again I would have gotten them all perfectly right. I believe that I know all of the scales by memory even the new scales that we just learned. Rejoice The Season!: For this song I am playing the xylophone. I am very excited about this song and hope it goes very well. It sounds like it is going to be a fast moving song that is festive. When we played this song I was not ready. I started to play, but I then decided to just label my music and finish numbering the measures.
Once in Royal David's City: For this song I play the snare drum with Marissa. I think this song is going to be very easy and fun. I looked over the music and was pretty much able to play it all on the first try. Christmas Eve/Sarajevo 12/24: For this song I play the bells and the xylophone. It sounds really cool and I am excited to actually start playing it once I know my music a little better. How The Grinch Stole Christmas: For this song I play the triangle and the woodblock. I just know this song is gonna be fun and easy to play. I only play for about 15 measures, but just from playing it the first time I can tell those 15 or so measures I do play are very important. Newark Band has 8 percussionists. Alex Tollefson, Tanner Kunkel, Emma Davidson, Megan Christian, Alec Albrecht, Marissa Williams, Micheal Kulakowski, and Faith Thompson.
Out of the 8 percussionists 5 of them are new to high school band. Two of them have never been in band before. To me this is just a challenge that will have to be conquered. As the oldest percussionist I am the one they will come to, to ask questions. I hope that all the knowledge I know will be passed onto them before the year is over. At the beginning of the year we had to take a short little playing test on the Ipad. This playing test is on Smart Music. We had only one chance to play it so that the next time we play it we can show improvement. My score was 19%. That is really bad but I hope to get that up to at least a 50% next time I play it. 9/11 Performance Last year for the 9/11 performance I was not there. I heard nothing good from it. They were off and could not hear one another. This year was a different story. We played a few songs. The star spangled banner which is a song we all basically know by heart and play very well. We also played America the Beautiful. We had to play America the Beautiful while the choir sang to it. We practiced the song at a faster tempo and we were louder, but when we performed it for the ceremony we did very good. We played quieter and did not play too fast. |
AuthorFaith Thompson Percussionist of Newark Band Archives
February 2017
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