Pop's Festival 2014 Review

I anticipate this year’s Pop’s Festival to be the greatest performance of my musical career. Each of the band students, including myself, played full-heartedly and with discipline. However, every great performance is followed by the tiniest of imperfections that are sometimes extremely hard to point out.
For instance, when we went out to perform, right before we took our places, I had realized we had completely forgotten the mutes for our trumpets. By that time it was too late to obtain them and still have time to play. So we played without the mutes—it did not distress our playing what so ever. Though, I feel we would’ve played better if we had used them. Another problem was tempo. For the majority of the band, tempo and keeping the tempo was challenging. There were a couple times in Respect or Best of the Beatles that we slowed down or sped up. My section had trouble with not slowing down at a point in the piece Respect. But I had no trouble with it and I’m very proud of that. Up until that point I had made flaws in the section, but that night I nailed it (and in the good way).

The parts that had gone impeccably did not go unnoticed. I was praised voluminous times by family, friends, and people I did not know for how we played. Not once did I or anyone else in my section miss a note or counted incorrectly. And even though we did not have the mutes, we still played very well—so well that one might not even have realized that we were supposed to use the mutes in the first place. The ending for each piece was carried out in a faultless manner, making the pieces more enjoyable. Dynamics were a key spectacle as well as. Each note that was to be played with a certain mood or feel was done.

I enjoyed the Pop’s Festival very much, as well as the audience. However, there is something more amazing than listening the music. Like a burning ember that keeps me playing like I do.