In A Rehearsal for 80 Hours
A/N: I will answer or reply to your reviews if you have any questions, comments, blah. The usual.
Hour Two and Three 1:00pm
After the equipment was set up, the pit began to warm up. The warm up only consisted of the 4 marimbas, 4 vibes, xylophone, and timpani. The accessory players went into the percussion room to "practice". Joseph and the others pulsed with their section leader, Dave, who pulsed 5 6 7 8 and we pulsed 7 8, the rhythm in their hearts and minds, slowly bringing them together when………
Dave was tall and white, but even being section leader and a senior himself, didn't always act like one. He played Marimba 1.
Just as they were about to strike the first note, someone got in early. Mr. Mason stopped them.
"Remember guys, anticipate the first strike. Try it again…" Mr. Mason grabbed a pair of sticks from his bag and clicked them off, but they still focused on Dave and pulsed along with him.
5 6 7 8……
7 8……
All together as they began the first warm up. Minutes flew by and did tempos. Throughout the 2-mallet warm-ups and up until we get through the 2 mallet packet, then we stop. Tempos now soar to 200, our mallets flying, but we're not together.
"Relax, put the tension on the back part of the fingers, and let them do the work. We continue on and then………..
Mr. Mason gets a smile on his face as the last time we hit the mark and end up together and play as one instrument.
"Good job guys, ok take a short break and in the next hour we're going to start on our 4 mallet warm up packet…and the run."
Joseph sighed as he heard the news. Right now, the "run" was at 200 bpms, and was played with 4 mallets; the pit hadn't gotten it together ever since they first got the music. The run was 5 measures of 16th note chords/single notes jammed together and played at 200bpms.
In the hall as the group sat down, some taking drinks, Dave sat down and Jessica sat down next to him and put an arm around him and he put his arm over her shoulder.
'Those two…' Joseph said to himself, chuckling a bit.
Jessica was sighing and Dave was silent. Lopez, the second in command of the marimba section, who was Mexican, just got a drink of water. Joseph remembered when he was section leader, Lopez and him had always pushed each other and "trained" each other to get faster.
Lopez walked back inside to practice, and Joseph knew that when Dave and he left, Lopez would probably be in charge, or Jessica. Jessica was there the longest as much as Lopez and she was more experienced at a Vibraphone more than Joseph. Joseph was taken off Marimba his senior year, and he was furious until Mr. Mason told him that he needed Joseph on the part, for the sake of the Vibes, and he immediately straightened up about it.
Joseph listened to Taylor, the tall white sophomore boy also on the Vibes talking to Ronald, the annoying "redneck" of the accessory pit members. Joseph never liked Ronald, somehow Ronald always found a way to get under Joseph's skin and annoy the heck out of him.
They were cracking jokes along with Silent Bob, a white sophomore, or so we nicknamed him because he hardly spoke when he first came into the drumline.
Mr. Mason stepped out into the hall and called them back in.
The accessory pit members went into the percussion room and "practiced" some more and the group gathered 4 mallets in each hand.
They went through the warm-ups as usual and then got to the run…….
"Ok, we'll take it very slow and try to get up to tempo." Mr. Mason said, starting to click his sticks.
They started off at 90bpms…
The first time was horrible, and it wasn't looking good.
They got it faster when they finally got it together, or at least, semi-together. The ending part of the run sounded horrible, but it was because most didn't learn the notes and went along with Dave, to try and match him. Mr. Mason however didn't seem to notice.
After the huge run, the group took another break when they got it up to final tempo.
End Hour Two and Three
A/N: Yes, slow I know but it'll get better. Promise.