Princeton High School Concert Band, March 25, 2016

     On the next day that concert band met, March 25^th, I went back to the school to observe all of the same classes again to see how the ensembles performed on the last rehearsal before their concert. The band had their rehearsal on the stage in the auditorium so that they could get a feel for what their sound was going to sound like while they were in there. It also allowed for the technicians to do a sound check so that they would be ready for the concert. For this rehearsal, the band warmed up with Band Basics in F and then ran through the same #17 through the end of the Warm-up in Four Keys. They did this to warm-up and adjust their sound to the new location and acoustics. They then ran through each piece like it was the actual concert, but Mr. Crawford did stop at the end of each of the songs to comment on things that he wanted to come back and fix. They did this for all five of their songs and then went back and specifically addressed only the sections that he wanted to fix previously. Some moments got a little intense because there were some notes and rhythm issues that should have been figured out by then and Mr. Crawford was frustrated that they were still having issues with technical things.

     It was good that they ran through each of the pieces like they would at the concert, but I think that they should have just kept going and saved the comments for the end, because you weren’t actually going to stop and go back like that in the middle of the concert. I thought it was good as well that they focused on the pieces today and didn’t spend a ton of time warming up their key signatures. I think it was important as well that Mr. Crawford expressed his disappointment at some of the simple mistakes that some of the students made because it was too late in the semester for them to still be making those mistakes. It is up to the student to learn his or her part and I want to be able to express that someday as well.