So yesterday evening was our performance at the Junior Public School in Burk’s Falls. It was the first time we have been to that school. The event was a BBQ & Book Exchange for the school kids and their families. Pretty cool if you like to read. The kids could bring their old books that they have read and trade them in for something new. They had tables set up with the books divided into categories (sports, animals and so on).

Well when we got there, there was a mass of dark clouds and lightning descending near by. Go figure all day until then it had been sunny. Well we were suppose to play outside under our 20″ x 30″ tent. We had faith even though it looked like rain we set up the tent, put the fringe on it and then…the yellow flag came out…we were on hold for a little bit before setting up the pans to see what was going to happen with the weather. We have in the past been caught in a couple of rainfalls but it never is something that we like or want to do, mostly because of the instruments. A few of the brand new pans were sent to this performance and we really, really didn’t want them to get wet. I guess the event organizer also figured that people weren’t going to want to stand outside in the rain. So it all got moved inside, except for the BBQ of course. We left our tent set up and put it next to the building so that the men barbecuing could stay dry.

We set up on the stage in the gym or should I say sauna (that’s what it felt like). It’s been awhile since I have been in school but it felt just like P.E. class. We were all hot, sticky and sweaty. We played a lot of songs that you could call “dancing songs”, like La Bamba, Dancing Queen, Jamaica Medley, etc. You could tell that the crowd really enjoyed it.

Ok, so ya, I know it’s taken me awhile to get this post about Barrie up. My apologies.

Barrie was great! We performed in a dome. If you have ever been to an all season golf dome it was like that but much smaller. When we got there we got straight to the work of setting up which actually didn’t take to long. The church graciously lent us change rooms so we all hung out down there for a little bit before the performance.

Since the house lights where going to be off and the stage lights would be on it warranted us getting a little pep talk about keeping our energy up and smiles on our faces since we would not be able to see the audience we wouldn’t be able to depend on feeding of of them. It wasn’t to hard to keep the energy going though you could just feel it like right before a storm when the air crackles. That’s what it feels like when it’s all clicking and your having fun and so is the audience, you get goose bumps! Oh by the way we did Woman Is Boss just fine, I guess the extra practice paid off.

We were suppose to perform from 7-9 PM we ended up going a little later till about 9:30, what can I say we were having fun and they wanted an encore. Some of the middle voices (the cellos & guitar) got new pans and you could really here them. It was sure nice and clear. I scrambled to get some pictures so you could see what it looked like.

As the audience arrives.

Performing the first set.

Where'd your smile go?!?!?

Gone are the days of encyclopedias and dictionaries or at least that is what it seems like. See a few days ago my internet went out due to a lighting strike and it’s still out. I realize how much I use the internet, even for little things like wikipedia (one of the best things ever by the way). It looks like I might be with out internet for a while but I will try and write when I do get access.

On Tuesday we had an extra rehearsal for all of us going to the performance tomorrow. It went pretty good. You never know what to expect since each small group is a different mix of players you don’t know for sure what it is going to sound like. So we do a run through ahead of time and make sure all the kinks are worked out. For instance we ran through Woman Is Boss and they made us do a little detailing. In the middle of the song we play this pattern that isn’t actually to hard the tricky part is you are suppose to suddenly drop in sound to piano and then build it back up to a forte while playing the same rhythm. Anyway we weren’t doing so hot on that part whenever we did the dynamics right the rhythm suffered, eventually we worked it out. Well I better get going we leave at 3 and I have a few things to do ahead of time like get my uniform ready. See ya there.