"Great question, sadly I do not have a satisfying answer. Everyone up there plays with multiple bands, but this band is just part of the cast for the Busch Gardens Rock-a-Doo-Wop (RAD) show and we don't have a fancy name for the purposes of the show. We are just the "Busch Gardens Rock-a-Doo-Wop Band"." -Dan Wheeler
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"Both! You have to understand: although each individual person in the whole group (there are 12 performers: 4 band, 8 singers/dancers) might be different on a different day (there are several people trained for each of the 12 positions), we were doing this show 4 or 5 times a day every day of the week for many years (just 2 for me, though tens of years for some). We know every detail of every aspect of that show inside out. There are two sides to how this affects us: 1. We know this so well, we can anticipate every detail and optimize the way we present it to the audience. I know when the guitar solos are, I know how this bass player does the key change, I know when this singer looks towards the piano, I know when this guitar player turns around. We are here to do a great job and give the crowd the best time. 2. We might be burned out from doing the same thing so many times and being on stage right now does not even feel real or different from being asleep or riding in the car by ourselves. Everything is the same. We need something to break up the boredom. We feel each other's boredom and acknowledge it on stage, but in ways that we can still be proud of as professionals. We still deliver an awesome show. But, we look at each other with looks, smiles, and nods that indicate our sympathy for each other. Or maybe it is an acknowledgement that I know you dropped your ice cream backstage right before this, the 3rd show of the day. Sometimes we even make up games to play on stage -- where the most important part of the game is to make sure the audience never has any idea that anything is going on. This might be confusing -- but it's super fun. Ask me about that sometime! But yeah, I honestly really enjoy engaging the crowd and I feed off the crowd enjoying the show -- and I can't help but do everything I can to make it easy for the crowd to enjoy the show. Ask me about the different versions of how "my character" fits into the show on different days with different other cast members -- that can be fun too! "Ha! I'm going with Shake If Off. The feel of this song I think is the perfect mindset to embrace (at least at some point) when processing negative feelings. Yes I believe it is important to acknowledge and to not avoid negative feelings. But, I believe it is very important (and often very hard) to avoid *dwelling* on negative feelings. Whenever I find myself slipping into brooding about something (mistakes during a performance, negative feedback, a rude person, a global pandemic) I need to remind myself to Shake It Off!" -Dan Wheeler "This question prompted my wife and I to spend an hour looking at all of our favorite Taylor Swift songs! What a fun time! I have to say that though Taylor Swift has a wide range of wonderful and well written songs, my favorite at the moment is "Lover". It's such a wonderful song about making a space with someone who you love. Having just gotten married this summer, this song lets me reflect on being married!" -Kyle Lamb "Basically all of Folklore." -Nicole Wilder "I don't want to pick one. I guess making music, though dancing is super duper fun. Some cultures make no distinction between dancing and making music though. There's the belief that if you're not moving with the music you're not making music." -Kyle Lamb "I feel like these are one and the same. If I really had to pick I'd go with making music though -- go ahead a try to stop me moving to the beat while making music!" -Dan Wheeler |
About the Question BoardThe Question Board is a whiteboard in the music classroom and/or an online form on which students can write any music-related questions they have. They can be questions that are unrelated to what we're doing in class, questions that I student prefers to ask anonymously, or questions for our house leaders. Follow this page to see the intriguing and wide variety of questions that students are asking! Archives
April 2023
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