Low Ding Zone

Pressure’s On…

admin — Sun, 12 Feb 2012 02:33:30 +0000

Well, the pressure’s been on for awhile now. We have just one more rehearsal before the concert next Saturday… hope to see you there!

“Insane Collaboration”

admin — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 11:18:50 +0000

It’s good to be an “insanely collaborative” ensemble. I know that’s not for everyone – some directors/leaders/bosses (okay, and maybe “slavedrivers”) have a fundamental insecurity about letting the reins go free. But Low Ding Zone has found that to be a linchpin of identity – we thrive on it because we’re willing to respect each other’s ideas no matter how “out there” they happen to be.

Everyone has an idea. Some of us even have ideas that most people find they can appreciate. And then there are the rest of us – and so LDZ’s approach is more of a shotgun thing: Take ‘em all into consideration, and see which ones make sense… or which can be made to make sense in our somewhat twisted part of the universe.

Four Weeks to Go…

admin — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 16:38:43 +0000

We still have lots of work to do to prepare for the concert(s?) in February. But at least we took care of most of the passages needing sectional work last week, and so we should be rolling along. A few pieces still have sections we need to nail down, though, so we’ll be giving those attention today.

And then.. logistics, program, etc.!

Mo’ Sco’

admin — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 11:05:58 +0000

The score revisions continue… it’s mostly about preparing for the next round, because we just can’t keep playing the same music forever. So… “Down to the River to Pray” and “Yes, We Have No Bananas” are ready to go, hopefully in a form that will make relearning them faster.

Back to rehearsal

admin — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 11:11:05 +0000

We had a nice bit of time off between Christmas and New Year. Now that we’re back, the concert’s only seven weeks away – so we need to get moving! On Sunday, we made some nice progress (get well quickly, Bob!) Things are going well, but we still have a tremendous amount of work to do.

Hmmm. Right now, life is an outtake video. But it’s a fun outtake video.

I Heard It Through the Grapevine

admin — Sat, 24 Dec 2011 13:06:44 +0000

There still are a pile of scores to revise into the new format. Whitfield and Strong’s I Heard It Through the Grapevine is the latest one to be completed!

Lisa secured the copyright permission for us to use this one, and we’ve played it with six, seven, and eight ringers. The problem, though, was that the original sextet version had very strange assignments because that just happened to be the way we figured out how to play it. So most of us had a rather weird collection of chimes and bells back then.

Extension to seven or eight ringers ended up being a short-term attack on the problem of playability by splitting existing parts, so that didn’t really do anything to drive us to our current “bells left, chimes right” philosophy (much, much easier for piece-to-piece reset, by the way).

So… now Grapevine has been restructured for seven parts, and in “bells left, chimes right” format. It’s a relief to know that’s been done, because it also makes the piece easier to parcel out to new ringers – they don’t have to rely on the scribblings we’ve put on the old scores.

Merry Christmas! Happy Holidays!

Yay! Rehearsal!

admin — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 20:30:14 +0000

After missing a Sunday afternoon rehearsal because of the Bay Bells concerts (it’s that “shared equipment” thing), we couldn’t practice on December 11th. But on the 18th, we worked on California Dreamin’ and Rock the Dance and both of them went well!

I love the way the teamwork’s coming together for us, too – that really is the most important thing, not just the music, because a unified spirit and expression makes all the difference in presentation.

Rock the Dance

admin — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 22:32:35 +0000

Hooray! I finished (the initial draft of the second version of) the arrangement of Rock the Dance. It seems to have come out to be a rather quirky bit of music, and that’s good. After all, we thrive on the strange and unusual.

We’ll be performing this with Kendra‘s bell choir from the Stratford School where she teaches. They’re a Level 1-2 group, so they have a part that’s on the easier side (it does occur to me that this arrangement could be rebuilt again and again based on whoever is playing with us!).

They should have fun, and so should we LDZers. Come to the concert in February and find out!

Nine-Year Old Review Team

admin — Sat, 10 Dec 2011 00:46:08 +0000

I sent nine-year old Owen an MP3 of Rock the Dance. It was partly something to amuse him, and partly a way to test the arrangement on someone who’d have no obvious handbell-based bias (for or against…). So – a somewhat objective critic.

It turns out that he doesn’t know some of the interspersed tune, such as Scotland the Brave. Not to worry – he does know the song by Queen! And so he actually listened to it more than once. Carla said he was playing it on the computer this morning.

It’s an occasion for smiles when you get a measure of approval for something you’ve done!

Progress

admin — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 03:11:34 +0000

I had some time to work on Rock the Dance today, and ended up with what seems to be a decent full score! The next task is to break the LDZ part into the “core 7″ structuring that spells out each of our parts; I think the last few weeks of working on them have helped me to understand what has to be done. No doubt, however, that I’ll be relying on everyone else to catch the musical, notational, and logistical problems!

I have no doubt this one will also generate its own shtick, by the way. It’s just too much fun, and Kendra‘s school choir will be dying to “add stuff”. I tried it out on Owen, Carla’s nine-year old son, and he was having a good time with it – he didn’t recognize all the tunes that were spliced into the score, but that’s okay. What matters is that he enjoyed it.

Okay… off to the next step, probably tomorrow!