Mariachi Cont...

The past few weeks we have been a little busy not as much as the summer time. We recently had to perform for MLK Day and it was really fun. We didn't play for a long time maybe 20 minutes total performing for that event. But it was voluntary and worth the cause. We were also featured on many of the local news channels which was nice to see. We are also having intense practices as we have our second annual event coming up on March 11 2011. We are also busy getting the final things for our new suits as well such as the hair bows for the girls and ordering our new boots that we really need. We are also preparing to bring Laura Sobrino after our concert. Laura Sobrino is a great musician and has played with the worlds best Mariachi groups. She has played with Mariachi Vargas. I am also having to teach the new students that we have joining the group. This is difficult as many have never had previous experience. Many of them are at different levels so i find it difficult to find what to study during our practice. Most of the time i put each individual student to work on the song they need to most help on and i move from one to the other helping, if they have any questions.
We also recently performed at our church. We had to learn three new songs for this Mass, and we had to learn them an hour before we actually had to perform. We never did this before so we had to focus 110%. We were able to accomplish this at the last minute. The good thing about performing in church is that we get to use sheet music. This is common for all mariachi's as the mass can contain lengthy songs that would not be worth memorizing if you don't perform at churches often. At church performances you also have to pay attention to the father as he will give the Mariachi signs of when to start a song and if you aren't paying attention then he will continue without you and at the end of the Mass he will come to us and tell us how we messed up which is not a good thing because the father will then find another mariachi that can get the job done. It is an honor to have the approval of the father to perform for mass especially on big celebratory masses such as the mass for lent or guadalupe.

I have a video of us performing at the event. The above picture is of our current group. We also have other students who are learning so they can start performing with us and get the new suits as well.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f_UC7JzuXwk

This video was from the MLK Event :]