African music seminar
Last weekend I was away in Hamar on a trip with the band I play in, Vivo Brass ad Libitum, some "old friends" from Sørkedalen Brass, and four africans that are in Norway as part of an exchange programme called Bands Crossing Borders. Keep reading for more information on what we got up to.
Friday
I made the mistake of staying up until 4 AM the night before the seminar hacking away on a spare time project so I was already amazingly tired when I met Even who was driving me up to Hamar. We arrived at our accomodation, Hamar Vandrerhjem in good time for dinner, after which we took over the conference room and relaxed, getting to know the people from Sørkedalen before getting in a good night's sleep ready for the difficult day ahead.
Saturday
Breakfast at 8 AM was an early start to the day followed by driving 5 people packed into Even's little car over to Folkets Hus in Hamar, our rehersal location for the weekend. During the course of the day we were taught how to play four different african songs without music.
This was an interesting experience as it forces you to listen more to the other people and exercises parts of your brain that aren't used very often. I think I speak for almost all of us when I say that it was very difficult in the latter parts of the day to try and remember the songs we had learnt during the morning session.
It wasn't all work an no play though, after lunch we had a fun session of Vivo Brass games (I can't believe how much I sucked at the darts hangs head in shame) and we ended the day with a fun party, thanks to the party committee.
Sunday
Sunday morning got off to a fun start. There were a few who woke up feeling the effects of the party and Rolf Birger, who was one of the drivers for the weekend, was nowhere to be found when it was time to head over to Folkets Hus after breakfast.
Trying to remember the songs we learnt the previous day was difficult with heavy heads, but after a few prompts things began flowing back. During the morning we managed to play through all of the songs a few times and learn one extra before taking lunch and driving back to Oslo before the queues started (well some of us made it before the queues).
Monday
Not part of the seminar as such but Monday evening is our regular rehersal time so we used this rehersal to see if we could remember the songs without help from the africans. Without having my recording from the last rehearsal session on Sunday and Renate's excellent work transcribing during the day I think the rehearsal could have been a lot more difficult ;-) but I think we managed pretty well.
Performance
It will be very interesting to see if we remember all of the songs on Saturday when we will be performing at Årvoll Gård. The repertoir for the concert will be the five pieces we learnt by ear, three Brass Brothers pieces and the african band will play some pieces of their own.
If you want to come, feel free, concert starts at 1800 and costs kr. 50.
