Classical Music

My second area for my research was at the Classical music class in Pease auditorium. It's not uaually held here, but they are getting ready for a concert on sunday. When I walked into the auditorium I remembered how big it was from when I was there for orientation. I went and sat up in the high balcony so I could get a good view of the entire place. The auditorium has a large stage with spot lights every where. There was the balcony in which I was sitting in, lots of seating. I noticed music cases everywhere, and other students sitting down on the audience. At first I thought that they might have been friends or spectators, but later I would realize that They were in the band also, they were just waiting for their parts. Behind the stage there were the biggest organ pipes I have ever seen in my life. They extended from the stage almost to the top of the enormous ceiling. The ceiling is round and looks like it made that way on purpose for sound purposes. There were all kinds of percussion instruments set up on the stage. There was a grand piano also. Overall the entire auditorium was very impressive.
This class was very comparitive to the choir class in the sense that no one recognized me. They didn't look at me in a bad way, they just did not recognize me. They all warmed up on there own while they were waiting for class to start. they warm up their lips, lungs and they get focussed. I noticed there are three main sections. Percussion, Winds, and Brass were the main three. There were no strings what so ever. All of the students were sitting down with music stands accept for the percussion people. They were serious in preparation, but at the same time they were having a good time. Some of them would talk a little bit and then go back to practicing. I saw some instruments that were for some reason strictly one gender. The flutes were all female and the trombones were all male. Everything else was a mixed gender. There are about sixty strong in the class. They seemed like they were very relaxed and ready to go to work.
The instructor stepped up to a stand that was on a box. He was pretty young looking, tall, and looked like he was having fun. He was dressed pretty casual. he had the class play a few notes together to get their rythum set. Just like the choir instructor, this instructor can pick out distinct sounds and sections and what they need to improve on. He can tell when people are early or late on their parts. After each piece, they would switch things up, different songs and different people with different instruments.
One person I noticed was the percussion person in the first song. He was amazing. He play on a lot different things other than drums. They looked like pans or something, I couldn't exactly tell. He played very quck, but at the same time he was very smooth. His knowledge of the song was very good, he didn't read any music while played. He just kept going and going. The song that he was a part of was from mission impossible. At least thats what it sounded like. He was an extraordinary musician.
One other person that I noticed was another professor that was helping out. He was sitting right behind me. He was alsovery good at what he does. he looked about ten years older than the main instructor, but he could hear the same things from where we were sitting. I think it helped the band a lot though have two people directing them. Of course it all sounded good to me, which is why I thought it was amazing how both instructors could pick out the distinct sounds.
I just want to thank Jacob Nurse for getting me into the class.... thanks.