The Band Camp Day begins with a
three hour session of Wiz Kid activities. Wiz Kid Brandon Leito
has chosen to learn to ride a unicycle, which always seems an
impossible task until suddenly he takes off on his first day and
actually rides about nine feet. After that he is determined to
learn this new skill of balancing. Before Band Camp began,
Brandon had taken some Wiz Kid Lessons on performing magic and
juggling scarves and bean bags. He now looks forward to the day
he will be able to ride that unicycle and juggle at the same
time- two impossible tasks accomplished!
The afternoon from 1:00 PM to
4:00 PM is filled with EOUMB activities. The drum line on the
left, made up of Wiz Kids Jazmine, Brandon and Khamani, learn to
sight-read drum music for the first time, guided by Wiz Kid Jim
who is playing a recorder that requires everyone to play very
softly in order to hear it. Wiz Kid Miriah on the right is
playing the main melody on her trumpet that she first learned to
sight read that same day. They are playing an arrangement of
Jingle Bells, and hope to be able to get a full Band ensemble to
gradually join in with them so that by next December it will
become a concert piece in their Christmas programs.
This activity will be followed by
everyone learning to sight-read and play a brand new piece
written especially for them and played on a new instrument that
none of them has tried before - the xylophone. They are quickly
learning that every day of Band Camp will contain new and
exciting learning experiences upon which they can build for the
future.
Day Two - 06/29/16
Wiz Kid Miriah walks on short
beginner stilts for the first time, guided by the stilt builders
Director Frederick Goode and Wiz Kid Elijah Shy who, as we previously learned, is
an experienced stilt walker. In the background, Brandon takes off
on a 15 foot unicycle ride, surpassing yesterday's distance.
L-R: Background Rail Cherry works
on his Baritone Horn until his turn to come to the xylophone
table. Seated at the table are Khamani, Isaac (sharpening his
pencil) and Elijah.
Now you can see what the
xylophone lessons in sight reading music is all about. Each of
the participants gets a sheet of music he has never seen before,
and learns to read the notes and writes them down. Then the sheet
is hidden underneath the xylophone and the player is challenged
to once again read the music without his written help in order to
play the simple tune. They can peek, but their pride keeps them
struggling not to have to peek at their notes but only be guided
by the written music in front of them. Since none of them has
ever played a xylophone before, it is a new instrument on which
all start equally as beginners.
The Band portion of the day
always ends with rudiments of marching that teaches them to work
together. Wiz Kids get to perform as individuals, but a Band has
to perform as a team.
Day Three - 06/30/16
We began the day with unicycle
and Y-Flicker practice at the park. They came back in time for
Brandon to take a walk on the short beginner stilts. The video of this is on the Wiz Kid site.
The EOUMB took over in the
afternoon with some drumline practice. They use the wooden seats
as drum pads.
After lunch, a new member joined
the EOUMB/ Wiz Kids. Meet Noah Shy, the brother of Elijah Shy. He
chose the Mellophone as his instrument, although he had played
trombone when he was younger. Noah will be taking his mellophone
lessons from alumnus Lloyd Tomlinson, our resident expert. Lloyd
taught him to play the scale in F.
In the photo Jim Gerrish checks
Noah's work as he writes out the scale in his blank notebook, the
first step in learning to sight read. Later, Noah learned to
juggle scarves.
The day ended with marching
fundamentals and with Ah! Bright Wings!
Day Four - 07/01/16
Samuel Myrtle and Elijah Shy
requested to work on the Wiz Kid keyboard, so today Samuel
brought it out of storage, cleaned it off, and the two of them
had their sight reading lesson underneath the shade of the front
yard grape vine learning to play "My Country 'Tis of
Thee" with both hands, instead of using a single mallet
stick to strike a xylophone. Along with Wiz Kids Isaac Agyapong
and Noah Shy, they also worked on tablehopping magic,
juggling, Rip-Stik riding, Y-Fliker riding, bicycle riding,
unicycle riding, balloon twisting, mathematical integers and more
but everyone was too busy to take photos, so this is the only
picture we have to show for the day.
* Note: The name "East Orange Unified Marching Band"
is registered with the State of New Jersey as the property of
Frederick Goode, as is "EOUMB" and
"E.O.U.M.B."
