Funky Status...

Greetings Funk Band Fans!

Well, we're only a few weeks away from our first performance and we're really stoked. We've all been practicing hard. We have revamped some old songs from last year with the help of our new players and, even though it's been a challenge to balance school, music and sports, the band and the music are most definitely starting to gel.

From our rocking percussion section to our smooth saxes, we're developing a brand new sound for the band. This new sonic territory includes some surprises that will leave you wanting more. Now, not to worry, even though our blog posts are sporadic, our music practice is not.

We're also continuing to learn about the big picture including relating important messages (like about grooving green!) and positive vibes with our music. We're like a pebble in the big pond, sending out ripples of green funky positive vibes.

Speaking of good causes, we'll be playing for Alu Like's Literacy Fair (see the cool poster above) which supports their Native Hawaiian library. The fair starts at 10 a.m. and goes 'til 3 p.m. and you can catch us on-stage at 1:00 p.m. With the performance just a few weeks away, mark your calendars for November 21st for the funk band's debut in the local community performance circuit. We hope to see you there (458 Keawe Street in Kaka'ako). In addition to hearing us, a bunch of other great local performers will be on hand (check out the poster!), including Natalie Ai Kamauu, Danny Carvalho and the Lab School's own 4th and 5th grade ukulele wizards (catch them at 10 am).

But we've get back into the woodshed and polish our repertoire, so...

...'til next time,

The Funk Band

Meet Shawn...

Dear Funk Band Fans/Readers:

Some of you may not know me yet. My name is Shawn V. - I play drums and I have been playing and taking lessons for 3 years. I am in the 9th grade and playing drums is my passion and my favorite hobby.

I'm going to start off by talking a bit about practice. Practice is essential! I try to practice everyday, but with school, homework and sports, it is tough. When I practice, I try very hard not to make mistakes, because if you keep playing wrong notes, your body and mind will adapt to that and you will think you are playing it right when you're not. I think that you should always practice on your own when you can, so when you practice with the band, you know what it sound like and you know your part.

On November 21st, we will perform for the first time this school year, so mark your calendars. We have a really good set list and we'll be playing a variety of songs. I can't wait to play, and I'm sure that everyone who shows up to hear us play won't be disappointed.

I am glad that I joined the Funk Band and I have no regrets. The whole band is amazing and everyone sounds really good. If you did not know already, this is the first year of 9th graders and Funk Band is no longer an elective for grades 10-12. I am thankful that I have been given the opportunity to be in the Funk Band.

Shawn

First Day Playing!!!

Hey Funkband Fans!

Today was our first day playing instruments together as a group. It was a lot of fun, but we still have a long way to go before we can starting performing. We are working on a really fast upbeat ska song with awesome horn solos and a very classic ballad which I'm sure most of you have heard before. I'm not going to say the names of the songs just yet. You'll just have to come and see our performances in order to find out. :)

This year, we moved all our equipment from the band room over to the orchestra portable. At first, we were all a little worried it would sound terrible in there, but it actually wasn't bad. We didn't get a single bit of feedback :)...yet. I hope it stays that way.

As far as how we did on our first actual rehearsal day, I think we did okay. I was happy that most everyone sort of knew their parts - the new funk band members are getting off to a good start. I am proud of them.

I hope we can all keep up the hard work and that our rehearsals will continue to get better and better. Come visit the funk band website soon for new updates. We'll be posting more information about our upcoming performance on November 21st. (Mark your calendars!)

Much love,
Melissa

Ala Moana Rescheduled...

So recently we have found out that we have to cancel our big funk band performance on the last day of school. The reason is because we have to go to the Senior Aloha to help out. But don't worry everyone, because we have rescheduled. May 8th is now the big day. It is the Friday before school is over. So please, all of you, come to our Ala Moana performance.

We currently have a lot of work to do in one month. I really want to be able to play the new songs we are working on - they are all so awesome, but we all really need to get all of our parts down. It's a lot of work getting a single song down - I really hope we get all of them together for you guys.

Oh, and don't forget that this Friday is our first Friday Funk on the Lawn. We will be playing a lot of songs for you guys. So after school, just come out and dance and have fun listening to us.

Melissa

Recycling, Chilla and T's...

Hey what's up guys!

We just finished sorting the recycling. It's hard work! We were given boxes upon boxes of cans, plastic bottles and glass bottles. We had to sort them into different plastic garbage bags. I must admit, the work is tedious, but it is a lot of fun to be with my fellow band mates. If anyone ever said recycling is easy they are crazy! It's a vast amount of effort to put in in order to save the planet, but it is so worth it!

Not long ago we had an amazing chilla! For two straight days we camped out, read books (books called "Stuff: The Secret Lives of Everyday Things" and "Zen Guitar") and played music. The first book was about how much is put into products like coffee and newspaper. It truly amazed me how immoral these companies are and how they use child labor to create their products. The "Zen Guitar" book was about how the mind set of music practice is one of the most important parts of practicing. You can "practice" all you want but if you do not put your mind into it, it can be worthless.


The recording part of our chilla was just awesome. Since I am a vocalist, I got to use a killer microphone and learn how to use the recording software vaguely. It is really interesting. I really like being up there singing and laying down my vocals. It was a really fun and interesting experience and it opened up my eyes to see how it would be to be a working musician. It really appeals to me to become a performer and to record music. There is something about recording - it is fun to think that your recording could be around for all time - even when we are dead and gone, our recording will live on. It is almost difficult to comprehend. I love recording. I hope to get another opportunity like that again.

Guess what?!! If you have not heard, we have t-shirts! What? I know...how awesome! They are made from 100% pure organic cotton or cotton bamboo mix. The shirts are amazingly soft and are a great bargain. They are great for the environment for all you Earth lovers - there were no poisons like pesticides or other harmful dyes used to make our shirts, keeping our rivers and streams and oceans clean from horrible chemicals. But you must hurry - the t-shirts are going fast. Limited on bamboo, we are mainly taking orders for organic cotton so hurry and buy your very own funk band t-shirt. I promise you will love them!

Thanks for checking in!
Until next time, Groove Green!

Max

Recycling and Rehearsals...

Hey funk band fans!

Today we are recycling at school to make money for the funk band. Pretty much what happens is we get all the recycling trash cans from the whole school and we dump out all the bottles and cans into a big pile. Besides all the bottles and cans from around the school, we bring all of our own cans and bottles that we've saved up at home. And all together that is a lot of cans and bottles. So after everything is in one big pile we separate the aluminum cans, the plastic bottles and glass bottles. Sometimes it is really gross because people throw some pretty reandom and disgusting things into the recycling cans. Ewww! There were orange peels, pancake on a stick and lots of bugs. Thank goodness we had plastic gloves - it would really suck if we had to pick up everything without them. Anyway, at least for everything we recycle today we will get cash in return!

Tomorrow (Sunday) we are coming in to start rehearsing again. We have six more weeks 'til the end of school, which means five more weeks until our big performance at Ala Moana Center Stage! (Friday, May 8th) I'm scared but excited. Last year, it went really well. I just hope it's at least as good as last year. Maybe, hopefully even better. Besides preparing ourselves for our big Ala Moana performance, we are rehearsing for our Friday Funk on the Lab School Lawn, which is the same thing we did last year where we play five or six songs outside the MPB for all you guys.

We are working on a few new songs besides the ones we played for Homecoming. We have Sweet Darling by Fiji, Molde Canticle (jazz/funk by Jan Garbarek), and Iris by the Goo Goo Dolls. They are all really good songs. I hope that you all come out and support us at our Friday Funk on the Lawn and just have fun. We might even be selling our CDs of recordings by then.

Oh, and don't forget about our funk band t-shirts for sale! They are going fast and they might be gone soon, so make sure you talk to one of the funk band members to get one. So be here or be square on April 17th (our first Friday performance)!

Thanks!
Melissa

The Chilla...

Recently, Mr. Zorn told us about this thing called a chilla, which is an Indian tradition where a musician goes off to an isolated place to play music for 40 days straight without stopping. Then he had an idea that we should do a little mini chilla for one weekend. And during that chilla we would record all of the songs that are ready to be recorded. So we did Waiting on the World to Change, Play That Funky Music, Beautiful Day, All Along the Watchtower (Live!) and some kid's songs for Mr. Zorn's 2nd and 3rd graders. It was a really good experience. It was fun watching everyone play their parts and watch it all being put together like the pieces of a puzzle. We had our own little sections where we would practice our own parts, like up in the classroom. I was in the cafeteria and I set the drums up on the stage. It was so loud because the acoustics were really good - I had people on the other side of the street by the bus stop staring at the school!

When it was my turn to record, I kind of flew through it all at once 'cause it was just the same beat over and over again. I didn't get to put in that many fills because the vocals weren't recorded yet and my fills gotta follow the vocals. It was a good experience that I think every musician should try. I'm glad I got that experience.

Kule'a

Recording & Performing

Hey Everyone...

We had a very productive week-end. We got pretty much everything recorded. My favorite song we recorded was Watchtower, but I also loved our versions of Beautiful Day and Waiting on the World to Change. I can't wait to hear the final mixes because at the moment we only have rough mixes. Hopefully we get to do another one of these sessions so we can record all of the new songs we are learning. I got a lot of practice done during the weekend. I think that the best part of our mini-chilla was watching everybody nail their parts for the recordings. I loved hearing the numerous solos we recorded.

Well, from here on out all we have to work toward is our Friday Funk on the Lawn shows and our Ala Moana performance. I hope that we can get enough practice in so our live versions are as good as the recordings we did. Getting the right tone for our instruments live will be another huge challenge for us. I worked out a lot of my settings during the chilla. I got the tones all set but the sound will be very different at Ala Moana. I am super excited for our performance. The chilla gave us a good idea of how we are capable of sounding. I think we definitely are going to learn a lot from our Friday Funk on the Lawn performances. There is really no way to simulate playing live so we are going to have to make some adjustments when we get down there.

The guitar sound running through the computer sounded so awesome through the recording headphones. I think that Micah deserves the biggest high five ever for his Watchtower solo. It's my favorite one. We did such a good job on that weekend and got our stuff, but you have to remember that the classical musicians (in India) do what we did at a higher level and for 40 DAYS. I don't think anyone that I know could handle something like that. I hope we get to have another recording date because we got so much done during this one.

I want to nail all my parts at our performance. Our Ala Moana performance will be the culmination of everything we have done during the year. With a lot more practice we could put on an amazing show. We have worked so hard toward this so there is no way we are going to be unprepared at the time. The Ala Moana performance last year was awesome and I was a spectator because I wasn't in the funk band yet. I think we have even more potential this year because we have a huge set list. I am really excited for the final mix of our recordings. Gotta go practice!


Groove Green,
Tem

Well-Rehearsed is VERY Important

To be well-rehearsed means that you have practiced so much that you know everything about what you are performing. It means you have formed good habits, and you don't have to think about what you're playing anymore. When you are well-rehearsed enough that you don't have to think about your part you can start to listen to the rest of the band and hear how each part fits together. Being able to play and listen to the rest of the band can help show you your proper purpose in the song.

If the whole band is well-rehearsed, then the performance comes off sounding professional and groovy - if the band doesn't have to worry about their own parts, they can just groove! And then the audience will feed off that energy and it will exponentially grow into a fantastic performance.

That's my theory anyway...

Claire

Music Practice...

Hi Everyone!

I've decided to write a little about my practice routine. My practice is essential if I want to build strong technique. I used to rarely ever work with a metronome, but now I realize that timing when playing fast is essential. I usually just use tremolo picking when playing fast but it makes your solos start to sound the same so it's best to make sure your picking stays in time.



I also think a good practice technique is to play the few bars you are working on, walk around the room for 5 minutes and then go back to what you were playing. That is a practice technique that I think helps me and I just wanted to share it with everyone. I have also learned to practice everything very slowly and later attempt to play it fast.

Just a few practice tips there. We need to practice more than ever now because we've applied to play at Ala Moana!

See you in and out of class,
Tem

Being in a Band...

Being in the funk band is an amazing experience. I have been playing in the funk band for a year and a half and I've learned so much. I walked into funk band my sophomore year only knowing how to play power chords and not a clue how to read music. Though I still have a lot to learn about music, my skills have tremendously improved.

To me, being in the funk band is about dedication, loyalty to the music and your band mates and believing in yourself. If I didn't have those things, I would have never gotten as far as I have in the last year and a half. Most kids think being in the funk band is just about playing your favorite songs in a band and looking cool because you can play a musical instrument. I'm not going to lie, that was on my mind when I was thinking about joining in the tenth grade. But I've come to realize it is so much more than that. And I'm here to tell all the kids who want to be funk band members in the future, you have to be serious about music, passionate about music and overall just love music.

Oh, and did I mention we're going into the recording studio soon?

Melissa

Music Practice... difficult? or easy as cake?

Maybe for people like Joe Satriani and Elvis Costello, practicing music was as easy as saying "yes" to a piece of chocolate cake. Most days it's the same for me as well; however, there are those times that a little voice or feeling pops into my head that asks why should I practice bass, when I could just chill out and do something that doesn't require thought?



Those are the days I have to try so hard to push those thoughts out of my head and try to focus my thoughts into a productive practice. Which makes me think about how much harder it is to practice music and how much more skill it takes. It is not like a team practice for sports or a class where you are forced to focus because of a coach or teammate pressure. No, practicing music involves only you and your own motivation.

For very talented musicians like Costello and Satriani, their focused practices became habit. The better ingrained the practice habit is, the easier it is to practice. The easier it is to practice the more progress, the easier it is to learn new material and ultimately perform. Only good things come from this kind of music practice. (Below, Elvis Costello performs with the Liverpool Philharmonic.)



So even though it may be hard to focus yourself and find the time to practice, I think in the end it is so worth it. I know I've improved and created good habits for myself. It wasn't easy and some days are still a struggle for me, but I really think that as difficult as it may seem to motivate yourself to focus and practice efficiently, it comes with serious benefits.

These are my thoughts for now,
Claire (an eager, but sometimes struggling, good habit practitioner)