Qatar National Music Competition

The Competition

In the winter semester of the 2016-17 school year, our concert band at ASD learned that we would be participating in Qatar’s first national music competition. Specifically, we would be competing with other school bands, both large and small, to see who would come in 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place in the country. While this competition was happening in October 2017, we started the previous semester to help prepare for the competition. This meant that we were given the pieces we’d be performing ahead of time, and practised them in class. As the jazz band didn’t have a class for it, we had to meet up in our sectionals outside of class, and meet up once a week or so to rehearse our parts together. If an opportunity was given in the concert band’s class to practice as a whole group, that’s when the whole jazz band got to perform together. These sectionals happened for the whole winter semester, until the day of the competition – with the only break being our summer vacation.

Then, it was the week of the competition was upon us. As the competition was over several days, we had to go on the date and time given to us by the organisers. When it was time to leave school to get to Katara, we all got on the bus with our instruments and school bags – with a bit of excitement and nervousness. As we got into the hallway and placed all our things down, we got our instruments ready and warmed up a little bit before we waited for our turn to perform. Soon, our concert band was called up to perform. So, with my euphonium, I went with the band and got on stage to my seat, and prepared my music to play. I then looked up at the conductor, and when he lowered his baton, we all started to play the music in the order we were told to perform them. After we finished all of our pieces, we got up and bowed, before heading off stage. While most people got to go home afterwards, I had to stay with the other jazz band students so we could perform. After getting to listen to the other competitors while passing the time, we finally got to perform. So, I got my bass trombone and music, and went with the other jazz band students on stage and performed.

The Recording Studio

While we were waiting for the results, we were told by one of our conductors that if the concert band won, we wouldn’t be able to go to the recording studios as they wouldn’t be able to fit us all in. That explanation, we understood. However, when we learned the results, we saw that our jazz band came in 1st place, our percussion group came in 2nd, and our concert band got an honorary mention. We were all excited and happy about this news – especially myself and the others in the jazz band, because it meant we got to go to the recording studio and work with an Emmy award-winning producer.

When were at the recording studio in Katara, we had all went to the recording room and figured out where we were meant to sit before getting ready to set up. I was one of the few people in the band that had the microphone to myself, and not have to share between two or more people. Once everything was set up and were ready to go, the room went dead silent as the metronome started playing through our headphones. Then, as the count ended, we immediately started playing the first piece all together until it was done. We did this for all of our pieces, with us having to repeat them a few times until they were just right. Though, after our first piece, we got to go into the studio and listen to our playing played back to us through the sound system. After a long 8 hours that day, we got to go home and relax before we got our recordings professionally worked on and sent back to us about a month later.