Wednesday, December 31, 2008

Welcoming a New Year

December 31, 2008

Well, it's time. Can you believe it? 2008 can finally be written in the history books and we can move forward into 2009. I would like to take some time away from music for a moment and ask you to take a look back at this year and find ways that you can make the next better.

Throughout the past year we have experienced so much as a nation and even more as an individual. Regardless of where you live or of what economic status you may have, make sure that your New Year's resolution is about the most important thing in the world...you. Without fixing you, how can we be expected to do greater good to in other places? Whatever it is that you decide you want to do for your resolution, remember one simple thing. It is you who makes it happen. Let's put our grand plans into reality. Let's work hard every day to be in better shape, to live healthier and longer, to become better individuals. Let's read more. Let's sit with our families more often and call, not only our mothers, but also call our in-laws to see how they're doing. Let 2009 be the year that we put things into perspective. Let this be the year that we "cut the crap" and stand tall and strong. The only way we can be useful to others is if only we have a strong self. The best marriages are made of those who grow strong individually and support each other in their growth.

Let 2009 be the year where, regardless of political affiliation, we say "yes we can". Or, be like Sherman Klump (The Nutty Professor remake with Eddie Murphy) and shout "yes I can". For you young musicians out there, let this be the time where you finally stop blaming the instrument and start learning how to practice. That's a great learning tool right there, learning how to practice. One day soon I'll write about that topic. I digress. Let this be the time where we wake up. Where we say enough is enough...that this is MY life. This is how I want my life to be. This is the world that I want to live in and this is the change I want to make. Set goals for yourself. Challenge yourself to be better.

Some of you reading this may remark on how ideallistic and unrealistic these thoughts are, but don't get caught up in sitting back and watching life pass you by. The world desperately needs individuals who are willing to act and make the world a better place. This is only not possible if you do nothing.

Will it be easy? Not always.

Will there be set backs? Maybe.

Will you stumble along the way? Most likely.

But never give up on making your life better. Never believe that you are not capable of greater things. You can lose that weight, you can be a better parent, you can be a better partner, you can work harder and more efficiently. You can do that and so much more. Realize that you are awesome and that you are capable of wonderful things. What's the trick? Make the decision. You, make it happen.

Our world needs more people like you. Be the difference.

I'll see you next year. Until then, keep on practicing and working hard...you will not regret it. During the next blog I'll write about the second half of the Marian Wind Ensemble season and the great literature we have lined up for you.

Have a wonderul and SAFE New Year!




Monday, December 29, 2008

Chicago Symphony Orchestra Brass

December 19, 2008

I think it's been about a week since I last wrote on my blog. I believe I did the last one from my blackberry...that took some time. I'm moving along a little easier sitting at my pc in my home no longer hindered by the tiny square buttons which surprise me as to how I spell decently while using that thing.


Anyways, depending where you are around the country, you might have encountered some nasty weather. I know I sure did when I left Chicago this morning. Before we headed for bed last night, I stood up watching the local tv station talk about the crazy day that would be ahead of us. Growing up in the Chicagoland area and now living in the Indianapolis area, I love hearing different reports on weather...especially snow. The projected snow fall that would be there in the morning would be 2" - 12". And, of course, when it was all said and done, the storm seemed to have mostly shifted to the north of the city, leaving us with only about 2 inches. IDOT, Illinois Department of Transportation, was asking everyone to stay off the roads if at all possible, but not us! Leslie and I were on the road at 7:45 this morning and were driving around Chicago trying to find the toll road amidst slush and blowing snow. Fun times. I like to think that I don't mind driving in any kind of weather, especially bad weather. It can be dangerous, but if you're careful and mindful of your surroundings, it can be a little adventerous (especially if you drive a jeep like me). Anyways, the drive out of Chicago and into Indiana sucked. Slush EVERYWHERE and no one knowing where the white dashed lines in the road where, no one knew where their lane was. To make things a little less
"exciting", I wasn't driving my jeep. We had decided to take Leslie's toyota corrolla it's terrific with gas these days. None-the-less, it was a challenging drive back home, but we made it back safely. Unfortunately, there were many vehicles that didn't. We saw 1 flipped moving truck, a semi that drove off the road, and a van that got stuck in the emergency lane on the Dan Ryan Expressway in Chicago (which was filled will piled up snow).

So, my wife and I headed up to the "windy city" for a day of fun and relaxation, and of course, to see the Chicago Symphony Brass play as part of the Midwest clinic. The picture to the right is outside of Orchestra Hall looking above the heads of the hundreds of people in attendance to see the Chicago Symphony Brass. Since I do want to stay happily married, I promised my beautiful wife Leslie that we would head up to Chicago for a day off from our hectic schedules and enjoy the CSO brass in concert...no work...just a day for us. We had decided to do a little shopping along Michigan Ave. a.k.a. "The Magnificent Mile" and I got to experience eating of an entirely different style. I believe it was called Foodlife. It's in the Water Tower Place and is a series of various eateries and you choose what you'd like, they swipe it all on a card that you are given when you walk in and then you pay whatever you put on that card when you exit. It was kinda neat. A little little loud and pretty crowded, but kinda cool. After that, we went to get our wedding bands cleaned at Tiffany. Such beautiful jewelry in there, but it's so expensive! Anyways, we left back to the hotel to change and get ready for the concert. We were finally ready and jumped into a cab to head over to Orchestra Hall. Holy smokes, it was pretty packed inside and outside. I guess everyone from Midwest was there to see this awesome group play. There's not much to say about the concert, except for that it was beautiful and a great treat for any music lover. My wife, a hornist, and I were discussing the volume in which the horn section was playing for the concert. She had mentioned that so many young horn players tend to back off a bit when plating, whereas they should be stronger, which usually does translate into being louder. I know this is something that I address on a regular basis with the horn players in the wind ensemble. A general rule that I have lived by as a performer, is to play mindfully strong and be able to back off, as opposed to being timid and being too soft. It always seemed to be so much easier to be strong and then back off as opposed to being too afraid to play out.

Don't be afraid to play out! Do this mindfully, of course.

So, after the CSO brass performance, my wife and I took an eventful cab ride to Daly Plaza to go see the Kriskrindelmart (German Christmas festival). Since Leslie studied and lived in Germany and Austria for a while, I always want to do "German" things with her. Since the fullest extent of my German involvement include layovers in Munich and Frankfort...12 years ago...I enjoy being able to learn more about the German and Austrian cultures. It also is pretty cool that we have neighbors with Canadian-Austrian duel citizenship. I digress, so we took our eventful cab ride (driver didn't know where Daly Plaza was) to Daly Plaza and had some fun drinking glühwein, hot chocolate, and shopping around. After that we had a nice dinner in the Walnut Room of Macy's, followed by a nice walk over to Millennium Park for ice skating. No broken bones or bruises...so we shall consider that a success. Lastly, we walked back to our hotel and watched local tv talk about the doomsday storm.

It's time for me to head on to the rest of my list of things that need to be accomplished. Update blog...check.

Percussion: the pit set up

December 9, 2008

Simple answer:

Do your homework!


As most of you already know, I am a percussionist by trade. I am part of the percussion faculty at Marian College along with my colleague Braham Dembar, principal percussionist of the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra. Being more of a full time conductor these days, I don't have time to do much else, especially play percussion as much as I'd like. I bring this up because I recently was asked to play percussion for the Indianapolis Civic Theatre's upcoming production of The Wizard of Oz. I recently did sub on drum set for that show, but it was a one time thing, just to help out a friend. Long story short, I was asked to come back as the percussionist for The Wizard of Oz. First, let me publicly say (I suppose this is considered public if anyone actually reads this) thank you to the contractor of the Indianapolis Civic Theatre for letting me play, I am deeply honored to be in the company of such talented musicians.

Well, I bring this all up because the music calls for quite the set up. 3 differently pitched anvils, large gong, 2 timp (but really 4), chimes, wind chimes, bell tree, xylo, bells, vibes, triangle, susp, cr cym, siren, "spooky noises", temple blocks, cow bell, wood block, tamb,...I think that might be all of it. A set up like that clearly is too much for a pit. None-the-less, it is our responsibility as professionals to simply make it happen. So, as you read earlier, the short and simple answer is to do your homework. Spend the time looking through each page and truly choreographing your moves. Spend that time before hand to find out what works and what doesn't. Play through it before your first rehearsal starts. Some people will tell you that you will really know what will work or not once rehearsals start, but don't rely on that. Don't rely on trial and error. Yes, inevitably, you will come across a method or movement that will work best in a different location, but come into your first rehearsal prepared. You only get one shot at a first impression. If you want to keep your job, be on top of your game. Will it require some extra work? Definitely, but your playing and professionalism represent you, so do your job well.

For this large set up, I only had about 24 hours notice of the first rehearsal with me as percussionist and looking through the percussion book. If you've played in any type of a pit before, you know all too well that there isn't much room down there in the first place. I've seen the pit before and knew that all of this equipment would not fit. So, I immediately go into plan B, plan A being the full ideal setup, and I start trying to narrow down as to the bare essentials that will fit down there. From 4 timp, we go down to 2, from vibes, xylo, and bells, now just to bells and xylo, vibe stuff now being played with much softer mallets on the lower register of the bells doing my best to give it some justice with impromptu vibrato. Perhaps now getting rid of the crash cymbals and now only using the susp with a harder mallet, and getting a slightly larger cymbal for warm rolls and larger crisp crashes. Now, I do not like doing this, I would much rather have as much of acoustic sound as possible, with VERY minimal amplification unless absolutely necessary. The composer, or arranger, wrote those sounds for a reason! None-the-less, you have to make the end product work, END OF STORY. I can't tell you how many times I have to say that to my percussionists when they are one person short in the section "make it work". I stand completely behind that statement. Yes, it challenges you, but it makes you a much better musician. And frankly, it can make you the musician that gets the job is gets asked back. Who would you hire? The person who whines on how hard it is or the person who finds a way to make it happen? Be that second person.

So, back to the set up. The drummer shows me this machine that he typically uses when there is not a percussionist in the pit. If I recall correctly, it is the Roland Hand Sonic. A series of pads intended for use with your hands. I assume that it was originally designed to imitate hand drums, but it also has a wide array of percussive sounds. So, the drummer had already programmed the machine to give me whatever sounds of timpani or anvils or chimes, etc. It took me quite a while to figure it out, and very embarrassing during the first rehearsal to figure out this machine, but it works! It takes some getting used to, but it helped me, to the best of the ability of the space situation, to get the job done. Check it out!

Until next time, keep on practicing-you won't regret the extra time and discipline you put into it. That's the first step to getting or keeping a job.

Keep on practicing

December 5, 2008

It has been longer than I wanted to write more on this blog, however this bit of time has allowed me to gain some better information about blogging. Who knew that I would find more than a few good laughs from watching the Daily Show with John Stewart. Apparently the Huffington Post has a new book specifically dedicated to blogging. Am I really that behind the times now? In my defense I did recently buy a blackberry and I am still taken back by the amount of technology that I have at my fingertips.

I must give great thanks to my wife for her support in me writing this blog with good information. She sent me a link to John Erickson's blog about horn playing. Once I figure out how to post that link onto my blog I will do so.

As the Christmas break approaches very quickly for college and high school musicians please do yourself a big favor and, AT THE VERY LEAST, continue your daily routine of practicing. So many people don't take advantage of having this time off from heavy course loads. You should certainly take time to refocus and relax and enjoy your time with family and friends but don't let up on your practicing. Don't let you skills digress during this break. Spend an extra half hour each day working on your technique so you will not only just be at the same level as to when you left for break but be better than that. It takes a tough mind to want to be successful. Take advantage of this opportunity, you can do it! If you want to go even a step further, take some time to pick up a cd or download another work on your instrument. Go to an orchestra concert, go see a ballet, whatever you do keep your mind engaged. You'll thank yourself for it much sooner than later.

Attention young musicians: Don't Forget To Breath!

November 19, 2008

I still don't know why people insist on making the act of practicing and performing music much harder than necessary, especially young musicians. I believe there are two large parts to being a musician, the preparing and the executing. In preparing (practicing) to execute (perform), particularly young musicians, tend to think too much. I know it can also be said that sometimes much younger student musicians simply don't think enough but in this case, in regards to the high school and college age students, they sometimes tend to over think a bit. I'm sure you've heard that before from a good friend or a teacher who will simply tell "you're thinking too much." It seems like such a contradictory statement. Are we not supposed to think about every dynamic, every articulation, every sticking, every possible bowing, every optimal place to breath, the precise tempo, and more?! Are we not supposed to make this absolutely perfect?!

This is some of the vibe that I get around my office, usually around this time of year when students are preparing final performances, juries, or playing exams. It seems to be even more prevalent around audition time when I receive phone calls or emails from nervous parents and students about their upcoming auditions. And although I tell them that they need to practice hard and do their best, I still have a feeling that they are not really fully satisfied with my response.

The answer? It's ok, you can relax.

With that said, please do not take that statement as to be a tolerance of lower standards, a conscious awareness of mediocrity. However, remind yourself of your state of being. Ask yourself, how do I want to play? Although there might feel like a million things we must do to successfully perform, we must do our best to keep things in perspective and I suppose even that is still subjective.

Yes, we must play with accuracy of pitch, articulation, bowing, etc., but don't let these elements come to a point where they can cripple your abilities. This is where we can have a tendency to think to much. Now, the simple answer is practice. The real question comes as "how do I practice?" Have you really thought about that? Barry Green dives really well into this with his book "The Inner Game of Music" along with Jeff Nelsen's Fearless Auditioning Clinics. These phenomenal musicians, and equally great thinkers, always come to the idea of relaxing and having us believe that we can be successful at accomplishing our goals of preparing and executing.

Why have we put so much emphasis on practicing and performing well? The answer lies within you. It may be to win that chair placement, or audition, or for self satisfaction, but whatever that answer is, it is to allow us to have greater ease and fluidity to be successful in our own terms. I warn you, do not become lazy and relaxed in your commitment to your successes, but keep practicing and set goals that are progressive and that you can reach. It's the smallest things that add up to make the biggest differences. Keep things in perspective, as long as you do your part in being responsible, you'll be ok. So, go ahead and take a breath, enjoy a little bit of PS3, and then get back to work and stay focused.

Enough reading...go practice! ;)

-Angel Velez

Avon High School Grand National Champions

They did it! Congratulations to Avon High School for their terrific performance at BOA Grand Nationals! Their hard work and efforts were challenged by magnificent bands from around the nation, but on this date, Avon High School reigns as the high school marching world's national champions.

I say this with the sincerest of heart, all of the bands that participated at BOA did terrific jobs. I hope to see all of them again in the future. I will definitely be doing my best to personally visit these programs and spread the word about Marian College's expanded bands program. Lastly, since this is already a very late hour of the night, a terrific performance by the BOA Tournament of Roses Drumline. The drumline used Marian's beautiful custon Yamaha drumline. They played and sounded awesome!

Have a wonderful evening.

-Angel Velez

Bands of America in Indianapolis (BOA)

November 13, 2008


So, this is the infamous "blog" I have been hearing so much about. Well, it doesn't seem too hard, although I do have a slight fear that, after I finish writing what I want to write, that I'll loose all this before it being sent or saved, or whatever this does. Maybe if you still have a slower computer you can feel my concern, that small part of your brain asking "when was the last time I saved this?" Ok, enough of that.

Please forgive any standards that are supposed to be lived up to in writing a blog, I've never kept a diary, and I have never really been one to write alot. On the other hand, my wife is a brilliant writer and I hope to give her some pride in that her many hours of college, and beyond, help, proof reading, and rewrites will make my writing just a bit more comprehensible.

So, I feel it most fitting, being a band director, and a resident of Indiana, to begin this blog with the Bands of America Grand National Marching Band Championships that began early today in Indianapolis. First, although today was only my third time in the new Lucas Oil Stadium, I am still very excited about our city's latest treasure. Talk about big. Even before the stadium did officially open this past summer, this wonderful venue has been very active in the news and on the public's mind. With Drum Corps International (DCI) being unable to host the first event at the new stadium and relocated to Bloomington, Indiana, the Colt's begin with a losing streek, and many complaints about the acoustics from a country concert in September, this place already had a lot going on.

Let's touch on acoustics for a second. Lucas Oil Stadium, in my most intellectual assumption, was designed not only as the new home of the Super Bowl Champion Indianapolis Colts, but also as a multipurpose venue that will add to the attraction and excitement of the city of Indianapolis. Marian College, soon to be Marian University, is also undergoing final phases of designs for a new expansion to the music building on campus. In being so fortunate to be involved throughout the design process, we have realized the purpose for this facility and also understand how it must operate in a logistical manner. This new large facility will not only act as a large ensemble rehearsal hall, practice rooms, and reception area, but it must also function as a place where we can also host other events on campus. It must also function is well in the future, as we plan for further expansion of the music building into the Marian University music complex. Will it be 100% perfect to meet EVERYONE'S needs? No. Will it be well designed to, first and foremost, serve the needs of it's students? Yes. Will there be a carefully thought out effort to accomodate every possible use for the facility? In the most sensible way. Now, with all this in mind, what do you expect the acoustics to a multi-hundred million dollar facility, to host over 60,000 screaming fans, over 70,000 fans for the 2012 Super Bowl, a retractable roof, and lots of very open spaces, to sound like? La Scala? The Met? Carnegie Hall? Perhaps more like a football stadium. That is not to say all the money that I am sure was spent on this facility for sound puposes was done in vain, but I do hope that people do their best to enjoy this magnificent facility. I believe it was Revelli who so eleoquently stated that "from the 50 yeard line to the concert hall, there should be no difference". I haven't heard anyt die-hard band parents or directors complain about the acoustics of this building yet. Just a thought.

Moving on. I do want to touch a bit about BOA Grand Nationals. First, congratulations to all of the bands that have performed so far. I know there are veteran bands and those that are only there for their first or second time but, as you well know, the effort and dedication it takes to perform at this event is great. You have worked extremely hard throughout the season, enjoy this time and continue to push yourself to be the best you have ever been.

Organizations such as BOA (Music For All), DCI, Percussive Aets Society, Music Crossroads, and more are such a gift to life. It's not only fantastic for the city of Indianapolis to have these wonderful organizations, but it's great that there are those that still care about the arts. Now, this is not the point in the conversation where I'm going to ask you for a donation to save the drumsticks, but I ask you to consider what your life might be without the influence of music. Most people make the mistake of considering "music", when talking about THE ARTS, as classical or musical theatre or musak, but they neglect to realize that their most played playlists on their ipod is still music. Would your life be impacted without music? These organizations are not providing the music, but even better, creating opportunities for us, as music lovers of all kinds, to further explore the potential of music. Our students, our children, our colleagues, all are unveiling new experiences of life and self through these organizations. Now, these organizations are not perfect, but they are a huge step in the right direction in creating more and more awareness of music and greater opportunities for young people to further explore the opportunities through music. Whether they go on one day to be music educators or performers, I strongly believe that these experiences will constantly guide them through life in the most fundamental ways.

Well, enough thoughts for one evening. I hope to do this again soon. Don't forget to stop by the Marian College booth at BOA Grand Nationals in Indianapolis. You can easily find us with the mob of students trying to see who has the fastest hands trying to win Marian prizes. Before I leave, if you are interested in continuing your musical endeavors as a music major, minor, or non-music major, you can do so and receive scholarships. You can study with world class faculty in a conservatory setting and get a degree with a great Catholic university. Marian College very well might be the perfect school for you. Check out www.marian.edu/bands for more information about auditioning or contacting my office.

Come on computer, do your thing, save! or send! or share! or blast off!

Good night.

-Angel Velez