One of my interest is watching band performances. Unlike commercial entertainment bands, school bands and professional bands perform musical pieces for learning and competing. Entertaining audiences is not the priority for these bands. Instead, they are there to compete with other similar bands in terms of sound, level of difficulty performed, creativity, overall synchronisation and many more. As I'm unable to post the videos in my blog, below is the link to a video of the percussion section from University of Hawaii.In the beginning of the clip, you can actually hear some of them shouting a cue in unison. These members are the initiators of this segment and they help to get the drumline started. All of them will then contribute by playing their required parts on the drums.
By grouping themselves according to the instrument they play, they are able to share a close interaction. This helps them to focus their overall sound and be in sync with one another, and also with other instrument. (ie. the snare drummers with the bass drummers and the tom-tom players) It will help to prevent them if missing out on the tempo and quality of tone. If you also notice, grooving up and down to their beats is another shared behavioural standard here. This further enhance their collective identity as a percussion section of University of Hawaii.
However, if I were to be hypercritical, there would be some imperfection about their performance in the video clip. At times, the overall beat doesn't sound perfectly synchronised and the loudness also seem to vary...Maybe the group will be playing more optimally if the group selects the best players among them and narrow the group size to about 5-7?
Like the previous group, they dressed in similar uniforms to portray their collective identity to the audiences.
In conclusion, I believe different levels of synergy is present in different groups. Depending on the amount of training they received, the amount of effort spent in coordinating the group can they slowly work their way to perfect their musical skills.
By grouping themselves according to the instrument they play, they are able to share a close interaction. This helps them to focus their overall sound and be in sync with one another, and also with other instrument. (ie. the snare drummers with the bass drummers and the tom-tom players) It will help to prevent them if missing out on the tempo and quality of tone. If you also notice, grooving up and down to their beats is another shared behavioural standard here. This further enhance their collective identity as a percussion section of University of Hawaii.
However, if I were to be hypercritical, there would be some imperfection about their performance in the video clip. At times, the overall beat doesn't sound perfectly synchronised and the loudness also seem to vary...Maybe the group will be playing more optimally if the group selects the best players among them and narrow the group size to about 5-7?
Here's another percussion group from this link, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1c_giB0Ivoc
Like the theme suggested in the beginning of the clip, synergy is obtained from the well-synchronised rhythms of the performance. As we can see, everyone takes on a different instrument. Thus, a high level of concentration and commitment is required from the players. They seem very confident of their parts and are able to share trust and support to do well.Like the previous group, they dressed in similar uniforms to portray their collective identity to the audiences.
In conclusion, I believe different levels of synergy is present in different groups. Depending on the amount of training they received, the amount of effort spent in coordinating the group can they slowly work their way to perfect their musical skills.
1 comment:
I know almost nothing about band performance. However, i am quite opposed with the idea on saying that the priority of a band is not to entertain audiences. A band performaces should have an aim. The aim might be to win a competition, to achieve a harmony from a number of instruments. But the reason to achieve these aims is mostly and primarily to get approval or responses from audiences.
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