THE DUNGEON – ISSUE 01

HELLO AND WELCOME TO THE VERY FIRST ISSUE OF THE DUNGEON!

The Dungeon is a monthly newsletter for music kids, named after our music centre’s very own dungeon. It will feature each month’s music events, photos of those events and an advice column for some problems that you may come across as a music kid. We also have created an email address where you can send suggestions on topics to cover for the advice column, and/or photos for the newsletter, so feel free to contribute!

As for who’s running this… we’ll leave that for you to find out 😉

GENERATIONS IN JAZZ: 3-5 MAY

Generations in Jazz is something that a lot of our music students look forward to each year. It takes a lot of preparation, but it is so rewarding once you get up there on stage. This year, Brighton took 5 ensembles: Big Band 1, Big Band 2, Jazz Choir 1, Jazz Choir 2, and Jazz Combo. Each ensemble worked incredibly hard and delivered captivating performances. GiJ is a competition between schools all over Australia, so of course these performances had to be adjudicated. We did well this year, with Big Band 2, Jazz Choir 1 and Jazz Choir 2 all placing third in their divisions. Although these are amazing achievements, adjudication is possibly the least important part of the experience. You can mark things like sound and articulation and style, but you can’t measure the amount of effort and passion that goes into preparing for this, or the work that the ensemble directors put in, or the way that each ensemble member cares for each other so much, with just a number. The community that we’ve created is wonderful, and for that reason alone, we all won.

Besides the competition, there were also really cool concerts that we got to watch. Some highlights were definitely the GiJ Big Band and Hot Potato Band (essentially a brass band but jazz and made up of muscly guys). The sousaphone player spun around in circles, and many voices were lost on that Friday night from screaming. We got to see some great vocal performances
from Kate Ceberano and Budjerah, along with Coco’s Lunch and the Sai Brothers. There were workshops on the Sunday, although they were arguably not particularly useful. The weekend also featured someone supposedly trading a chicken for a cutlery set (fair enough, it was pretty dry), and a football getting kicked over a fence on the way home resulting in some mild trespassing. Overall, it was very fun. Would recommend 100%.

PIANO CONCERT: 21 MAY

This is a concert where piano students can show family, peers and teachers what they have been working on over the semester. About 10 students from years 8-12 played in this concert and were treated to tea and biscuits after, where everyone chatted and had a chance to meet in a casual setting.

WINTER CHORAL CONCERT: 28 MAY

Winter Choral Concert is a chance for Bel Canto, Brightones and Treble Choir to practice their pieces before taking them to the Eisteddfods. Both Jazz Choirs also hijacked the concert. As always, paper snowflakes decorated the Concert Hall, along with biscuits and famous mulled wine. Everyone sung well and had a great time.

ADVICE COLUMN: HOW TO DEAL WITH FAILURE

As musicians, you are going to fail. It’s inevitable. You are going to try to learn a piece that is too hard. You will make mistakes in performances. You’re going to have auditions where you don’t get the position you wanted. You will try things, and sometimes they won’t work. However, failure doesn’t need to be a negative thing. I get it, feeling like you are doing as much as you possibly can and still not being good enough, is really tough. We’ve all had weeks where we’ve practiced a lot, only to be told more work still needs to be done. But it’s not despite your efforts, but because of them, that you are failing. If you are genuinely trying, and challenging yourself, of course you won’t do everything perfectly all the time! But you will learn, and become a better musician because of it. Sometimes it’s really not from a lack of trying, and that’s okay. Although it’s frustrating, the world won’t end when you make a mistake. The only thing you can do is move on, and keep trying. If music was easy, everyone would be a professional. Be proud of yourself!