“The show must go on” was on display as the Lloydminster Comprehensive High School Garage Band program worked to perform despite the pandemic.
The music class would have normally performed a live concert around this time, but COVID-19 put an end to their ability to do it. Despite this, the class made a musical event go ahead anyways, performing a digital concert that was shared with students across the schools, family and the community.
LCHS Band Director Stephan Davis says the event gave students insight as to what a normal concert would look like if they chose to pursue music as a career.
“There’s really nothing like having a performance date, having to try and get all your ducks in a row, prior to that performance date to make sure the performance goes well. There’s really just a lot of interesting experiences that happen on the fly during live gigs, that you can never prepare for. Every experience is unique, and it’s always intense and exhilarating.”
Over the past few months, students have their work cut out for them as they were learning songs they chose from a variety of music genres, ranging from metal, to rock, to country and more. They also had to work around changing pandemic guidelines while doing it.
Students began the year being able to learn as one large classroom cohort, but mid-way through, pandemic guidelines required classes to be broken up on an alternating in-person learning schedule. Towards the end of the project, students were back together again.
Davis then showed the students how the recording process goes from start to finish in the studio, using new equipment purchased for the program.
He notes that the “Day One/Day Two” schedule allowed the musicians to really isolate their parts so they could be ready to combine all the musical elements together when the time came.
“Right before the performance, everybody was able to get back together and play as a full ensemble again, and I think that transition from playing together, working on that individual practice and then coming back together at the end brought a lot of enthusiasm and excitement to the ensemble.”
The digital concert is not the last event the Garage Band has planned. As the weather begins to warm up, they may look into an outdoor performance so that the students can perform in front of a live audience again.