Rehearsal Report #1

January 11, 2026

Welcome everyone!

Introductions made of key personnel and new band members.

T-Shirts:  We have a designer. More about T-shirts later.

Parking:  Leave spaces out front for those with heavy equipment.  Use the parking nearby if you can carry your stuff.

Two entrances: Late-comer band members use Interstate Ave. entrance. Observers use Failing St. entrance.

Instrument Cases:  Put them along the back of the rehearsal space.

Seating:  Flutes and plectra, please sit in your sections. Other instruments can also look for their like kind to sit by. Fiddles will be spread out all over, although usually many fiddles are on the right-hand side of the hall as you are facing the stage.

Mic’d backup:  Refers to mic’d guitar, bass and piano

Bathrooms:  Up the stairs on either side of the stage.

Covid: Don’t come if you’re feeling sick or test positive for Covid. Your choice to test or mask.

Products to sell:  Bring stuff you want to sell or fliers for events. Put them on the front of the stage.

Advance Tickets:  Not in place yet.  Band members will be able to buy tickets for family/friends at rehearsal.

PCDC Grants:  Join PCDC and become eligible for grants to attend music/dance events.  Membership cards will be available at later rehearsals

Band roster. You may opt-out by emailing Sue that you don’t want listed on the roster.

Announcements:  No announcements other than Megaband stuff.

Label your belongings so when lost they can be returned to you. Binders, music stands, etc.

                Be on time!

                No tuning or noodling while leaders are speaking

                Read your email and check the web site for much information.

                No unsupervised small children

                Observers are ok; no playing along.  Follow covid protocols just as band members do. Seating on the                                         stage.

Play and learn the tunes! Easier versions will be posted on the web site as necessary. Use the practice recordings or even slow them down more by using the Amazing Slow-Downer app.

No rehearsal next week on 1/18. Potluck and Jam at Sue’s. Look for info in emails.

Practice recordings…using the web site, you are able to slow down or speed up the recordings. You can also download the recordings and play them through the application The Amazing Slowdowner and adjust tempos there as well.

Baker’s Favorite: Some jumped notes and syncopation. Keep the swing going. Bars A8 and B8, don’t pay attention to those quarter rests.

Gondolin: Make sure you have the latest music. The last note in bar B2 should be a quarter note rather than an eighth note. Watch the syncopation and jumped notes. Don’t forget to swing the tune in addition to paying attention to the rhythmic stuff. One technique to get the rhythms is to play it first leaving out the ties, then add in the ties once that is well in hand.

Doughboy: Keep the swing and lift as we did with Honey/Bogan’s. Same concept. After a reminder from Sue, the swing came back. Beginning of the B part, those four quarter notes, give those good punch. Same with each phrase in the B part. Be ready for that E at the start of the last line. Saxes, play off-beats rather than down beats.

Old Joe: Also very swingy. At 88 bpm we kept the swing. Don’t lose it when we get to higher tempos.

Eugene (You jen’): The bars that start with a quarter note, lift off those quarter notes to give the tune a lot of lift. And pay close attention to the rest in the A part second ending. Leave a space there.

Turlute: The A part may be good for drones from backups and bowed cello. We’ll work on that more later on. We’ll probably go to drones right at the switch.

Honeylocust: We sang Honeylocust with profound alacrity. Play it that way, with swing, dotted feeling. Watch the jumping of the beat in the B part.

Bogan’s: We over-exaggerated the dotted swing as an exercise. This is a great way to get the swing in your music; exaggerate to an absurd level in your home practice, then when you back off and play it in the band or otherwise without exaggeration, it’ll still be there. And some find the tunes easier to play with lots of swing. When we picked it up in tempo at rehearsal, the swing persisted very nicely. Good job!!

Last tune in the Kitchen Jig set which we did last year. The staccato G takes place at the top of the phrase three times in the A part. Those G notes are the reason to play the tune. In fact you could play just those notes and leave out the rest of the tune and it would be awesome (for a very short time). We played with really good lift and dynamic emphasis.

Pirate: Whether to put the off-beats on bars A1 and A9…? First time through, play off-beats on A1 and A2. After that,…Hmmm…we’ll work it out. If we leave out the off-beats, everyone has to leave them out. No solos there.

Old Wife: Good to pop off the F in bars B2 and B6 and the G in bars B4. That’ll give the tune lift.

Daffodils: The coda is to be played only the last time through the tune when we’re going out. Bars B 7&8, backups play the Dm and pop off leaving those two measures for the melody players. But put an A chord at the very end of B8 to lead into the Dm at the start of B2.