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Home > MonaLisa News > Drum Concert 2008 Polgar High School

"Drums n' Roses" 2008 Polgar High

Wednesday, 4 June 2008

Hey, guys!

Lately one concert follows another. With this lots of stress came along but also much fun! (Imean ifwewouldhavebeenabletocancelabitoftheschoolstuff itwouldn'thavebeenthatstressy butweshouldn'tsaythatloud becausenoonewantstogetintrouble,right?)

This year was the first time that the drum- and the guitar concert got separated. On one day the school band performed together with all the nice drummers while the guitar players had their own concert the following day.

You should have seen the stage - no empty place on it! There were standing, lying or hanging bongos, mallets, congas, djembes, snares, cymbals, rattles, drums, shakers, and so forth ...

Our drum teacher Mr. Goehr showed up with a bunch of roses in his arms. First we were a bit confused about the sudden proof of love but then we got it: At this concert the drums- and percussion group acted under the name "Drums n' Roses". So every instrument got decorated with a rose. It looked very nice in the stage light.

The school band opened the show and played its program amid loud applause of their schoolmates. Now it was our turn. Like at the previous school concerts we weren't much nervous anymore, we were just looking forward to play. The only thing I (Lisa) was a bit afraid of was my improvisation-part on the guitar in the song "Mystics", an original by our drum teacher.

While the others were playing their different percussion instruments I should change from a little taboret to the guitar in the middle of the song. Really inventive this time ;) ... and I was expected not to mess this up.

What we love about Klaus Goehr: His compositions and arrangements and especially his ability to meld so many pupils (beginners and advanced) to one harmonic group.

Our teacher started to play the rhythm alone. The others joined in. It started very low, kind of dark and powerful as the name "Mystic" implies. Floor-toms and surdos (very low toms) joined in. It rumbled along, everything was right and it sounded great.

The song got more and more quiet and at some time it stopped. Now the turn was on the "sounds". Everybody made some noise. Kkkrrrzzz, dongdong, blingbleng, kraaastschhh, rumbubmmm... It sounded gritty but good. Exactly at that point I had to speed to my guitar. I put away my taboret and introduced the first tones on the guitar. It wasn't really much to play, just a simple melody which should bring out the feeling of the song. That made the atmosphere even more mystic. Klaus Goehr accompanied the whole thing on the piano. In the middle of the song, quasi as the "chorus", the song got faster and it turned into a three-quarter beat. The whole song took 7 minutes but I think the audience liked it. Applause!!! And our bright faces :)

Lina und Lisa am Gesang, Mona am Schlagzeug

Cantaloupe Island: Mona on the drums, Lina and I on the vocals.

Only Mona, our friend Lina and I stayed on the stage for the next song: a re-written version of "Cantaloupe Island" referring to the coming holidays. Mona backed Lina and me with a funky rhythm on the drum set.

The final word on this evening had the drum-ensemble aswell. The piece consisted of two different songs which segued from one into the other!

Late in the evening by Paul Simon: Drums n' Roses playing together with the school band.

"Late in the evening" was perfect for the daytime because meanwhile it was already 11 pm. I played a Samba rhythm on the snare, combined with a surdo, while Mona worked on the bongos. During the whole song we couldn't stop grinning. It all sounded so great and powerful ;) It was just fantastic! The band was in full action too - the wind section, the guitars and all that goes with it.

The audience was as kneen as mustard. They loved our show and called for an encore. We hadn't planned on that and therefore we hadn't prepared anything. Grinning a bit helplessly we turned our heads to Mr. Goehr. He "sang" a rhythm to us which we knew somehow, but from where? Ahh! We had played the song at another school concert long time ago. However we vaguely knew what to do and started to drum. As we couldn't scurry off the stage we had to play something. The rhythm was hot anyway and the intro worked well although we improvised most of the time :)

Finally the show was over and amid a hurricane of applause we were standing on the stage, brightly grinning and enjoying the atmosphere!

At the end Mr. Goehr handed out the roses among the female drummers ^^. And we wondered if the next day's guitar concert would be that successfull too.

Read yourself!
Bye-bye, Mona and Lisa =)

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