The view most people get of a musician’s life is his or her performance, which is truthfully just the tip of a very large iceberg of disciplined practice. Music is a practice that requires daily dedication—or at least most days. Luckily, Santa Maria High School director of bands Ulises Valdivia has his students for five days of the week.
Valdivia directs the Santa Maria High School marching band, concert band, jazz ensemble, and jazz combos. These ensembles make up the instrumental music program at the high school, which will be presenting a winter concert on Dec. 5 to showcase the concerted efforts of the students while raising funds for the music program.
“Our budget is slim so we fundraise a lot,” he said. “Every year I take the jazz ensemble to one jazz festival and the concert band to one music festival, which is fairly expensive.”
Competition-level groups need to be on their game and top notch. All of the Santa Maria High School ensembles are audition only, meaning only the most capable musicians get to join the group each semester.
“Students who don’t work hard, who aren’t putting in an effort to being dedicated, could be removed from the program,” he said. “They also have to keep their other grades up, just like sports, because it encourages them to do well musically and academically.”
Once in the class, Valdivia hits all of his students hard with scales, sight-reading, and music theory—essentially the vocabulary, reading, and philosophy of music. This daily exercise helps make students conversant and capable in the universal language.
“It’s really hard, but I really give them a lot of structure,” he said. “They have no choice; they have to know this stuff.”
Things get especially involved in the jazz classes. Unlike concert music, which has every note written out, jazz involves a communicative improvisation among the instrumentalists over an agreed-upon harmonic platform.
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“I teach a lot of jazz theory, music improvisation, jazz vocabulary, and syncopation,” Valdivia said. “One way to learn jazz is by listening. You have to know what the musician is doing or thinking, so they have to do a lot of paraphrasing, transcribing the solo, and then play it again and make it their own.”
The jazz ensemble and jazz combos—smaller jazz ensembles—will be performing favorite standards by the likes of John Coltrane, Miles Davis, and Duke Ellington. Jazz artists, especially Davis and Coltrane, are well known for developing involved chord progressions and melodies.
“It’s really cool because this stuff can be tricky and really hard,” Valdivia said, “so the kids have to really listen to and study the piece before they play it.”
The concert band works no less than the jazz group, but more so on sheet music reading, timing, and blend. The group will be performing a selection from Modest Mussorgsky’s “Pictures at an Exhibition” as well as a “Christmas Around the World” selection. The age or style of music in any of the ensembles is never an issue with his youthful students, Valdivia explained.
“They like it; anything I give them, they never complain,” he said. “That’s why it’s fun to work with this group of kids; they are always hungry to learn and broaden their knowledge of music.”
Feel the frequency
Ian Franklin and Infinite Frequency perform live original rock music on Nov. 29 at 7:30 p.m. at the D’Vine Wine Bar, 107 W. Ocean Ave., Lompoc. More info: 430-8356 or facebook.com.
The guitar master
Guitarist John Stephen will perform live on Nov. 30 at 7 p.m. at the D’Vine Wine Bar, 107 W. Ocean Ave., Lompoc. Free. More info: 430-8356 or facebook.com.
For the kids
The Santa Maria Public Library presents a concert with Craig Newton performing a “Holiday Songfest” featuring sing-a-longs and interaction on Dec. 3 at 6:30 p.m. at the Santa Maria Public Library, 421 S. McClelland St., Santa Maria. More info: dhildinger@ci.santa-maria.ca.us.
Live in Guadalupe
Creative Juices features regular live music on the weekends including an acoustic set by Ted Larkin on Nov. 29. Ernie Rodriguez and Legends perform live on Nov. 30. Ted Waterhouse leads a Blues Jam on Sundays. All concerts are from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. at the Creative Juices Lounge, 874 Guadalupe St., Guadalupe. More info: 219-0518 or creativejuiceslounge.com.
En route
Root 246 presents live music Fridays and Saturdays from 8 to 11 p.m. at Root 246, 420 Alisal Road, Solvang. More info: 264-4726 or bethany865@live.com.
Sharing creativity
Lucia’s Wine Co. offers an open mic event featuring wine, poetry, and live music on Wednesdays at 5:30 p.m. at the tasting room, 126 E. Clark Ave., Orcutt. More info: 332-3080.
Live at the Maverick
The Maverick Saloon offers live entertainment, including The Molly Ringwald Project on Nov. 29 at 9 p.m. “Concert on the Deck” featuring Guy and Friends is Nov. 30 at 3 p.m. The Wil Ridge Band performs on Nov. 30 at 9 p.m., followed by “Late Night with guest DJs” at 11:30 p.m. at the saloon, 3687 Sagunto St., Santa Ynez. More info: 686-4785 or mavericksyv@aol.com.
Contact Arts Editor Joe Payne at jpayne @santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Nov 27 – Dec 4, 2013.