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Volume 24 - Percussion General Effect 03/27
In this last weekend before State Finals, I had a single question that kept coming-up in critique: “What can I do in rehearsal this week to put my GE score over the top?”.
The answer is simple: MUSICALITY. Not just sweeping dynamics in ensemble playing and phrases that rise and fall, but real shaping inside of the segment features. Everybody will being their different segments forward and featuring them doing diddles, flams, drags and speed drumming in every conceivable combination! But the groups that not only play these featured combinations technically accurate, but shape them dynamically – within the featured phrase – will be the ones that separate themselves.
Secondly, you can look and listen to see if the featured lines are actually featured and not covered by the accompanying lines. Are your performers aware of when they are featured, when they are accompanying a feature, when they are background support for the visual, when the ensemble is in unison? Do they know where these roles begin, end and change? These transitions are some of the most overlooked pieces of the puzzle from the groups I’ve seen this season.
The last thing you can do this week, is step back and look at an entire run of the show from the point of view of the Effect and Visual Judges. Look at the finished product. Is it what YOU envisioned at the beginning of the season? Does it have the musical and visual shapings and nuances that you intended? Can you actually hear the solo and featured passages as you intended them to be heard? Does the story or the theme (if you have one) make sense to someone that sees the show for the first time?
Best wishes to all of you for State Finals, Indy Regional, and WGI Worlds. We’re looking forward to seeing the finished Michigan products, and hope our comments have helped prepare you for success at SVSU and beyond!
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