Reflection on the Trip

During this past week, I was in Montreal with my school's band and choir trip. I am part of the choir's alto section. The essentials of this trip were to participate in a competition and attend workshops to receive feedback on our performance before the competition. We had learned three acapella pieces, which are the hardest songs to perform, since the singers create their own tempo, and you don't have an instrument to keep you in tone. This was a great challenge to us; our choir consists of about 40 people.  Two of the songs had eight different parts, which made them more complicated. The pieces were chosen from a group the conductor gave to the seniors to choose from.

When we went to the workshop the second day of the trip, the workshop master was surprised with the abilities of our choir. This workshop overall made us all more flexible, since we are used to the way Ms. Baird conducts. The workshop master was Dave Martin. He was very kind, and wasn't picking on us, he really wanted us to improve. Our group received constructive criticism, he mentioned we had great blending.

What I really got from this trip was blending and bonding. I got to meet people I had never even thought I would talk to. I met people that, since our high school is medium sized, I knew by face but not by name. In Montreal I learned lots of names and got to bond with younger kids who I had just seen but not really interacted with. In this trip, the band and choir bonded and grew together. The band got superior, and we got excellent performance. The band also believed we deserved a superior performance for our hard work and dedication.