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disney_j
05-28-2004, 09:39 PM
Hey,

Haven't posted in a while but i've been reading for ages :) I was just wondering if anybody has ever done the 'Disney Magic Music Days' and what the general feeling of it is? Is it hard to get accepted to it? Now the reason I ask next year our high school band is supposedly doing a band trip. Now the main idea so far is Cuba, but I think this Disney Music Days might be a new and unique experieince, as since my school is located in faaaar nothwest British Columbia, Canada, me and only one other classmate out of 19 have accuatly left Canada. So, to cut my rambling, is 'Disney Magic Music Days' worth it and is it hard to get accepted into it?

Thanks alot,
I always appreciate all your guy's responses,

Jared

Pirate'sLife4Me
05-28-2004, 09:57 PM
I was part of the Disney Magic Music Days my senior year of high school in 1995. So it was a while ago, but I can tell you that if you get the opportunity to do it, you should. I had SO much fun. We didn't get as much performance time as I would have liked though. We basically just marched from the gate near "It's a Small World" to the main street hub/train station. We then set up for a small concert and it started raining, so we packed up. On another night, we did get caught in a huge rain/freezing cold storm, but that made for a good story in and of itself :).

They also let us record music to a movie in a recording studio to see how that is done in time to the picture.
I don't know how easy/hard it is to get accepted as our band director took care of the whole thing, but I had the time of my life and would recommend it to everyone :). (I am, of course, a Disney freak tho and now that I live in L.A. - from Texas - I'm an annual passholder). :)

Laffite
05-29-2004, 04:03 PM
it depends which program (or both) you're doing. There's a parade one (very hard to qualify) and a studio one. I did the latter and got to play the music of Fantasmic to sync with the film. It was in a professional recording studio backstage behind Toontown. The Disney conductor taught us how to play in the studio environment. Basically we had a min or two check out the music. Then we sight read the music, and we play it a few more times. Then they take our best take and put it to the Fantasmic film and we watched it on the screen on the wall. I enjoyed it.

Of course we didn't play the whole 28min of it. The music comes in segments.. each being only a page long. What you play depends on the band's level. We played Flowers, Pinocchio and something else. Of course we didn't keep the music (had they had Property of Disney stamped all over everything.. so I memorized them. But, we did get tshirts.

crinklebat
05-30-2004, 02:25 PM
I went to Magic Music Days in the 7th grade and it was fabulous...we weren't an advanced enough orchestra that they even wanted us to play so instead of that we went to a lecture that was an hour or two long about how DL develops a show (which was very, very hokey, but not too long) and then we had the run of the park all day--and this was a Wednesday back when there used to be a real off-season, so we hit a lot of rides and had a lot of fun. The tickets were reasonably priced, too; I recall paying around adult admission at the time, and that included hiring a school bud for our orchestra, so I have to imagine the park tickets themselves were substantially discounted.

Cloud Buster
06-02-2004, 12:05 AM
MMD (Magic Music Days) has changed a LOT since 1995. Back then, all MMD really did was have you perform at the plaza, and / or MAYBE march the parade route from Small World Gate to the Egghouse Gate (Town Square).

I've only started working closely with MMD for the past few months, and I haven't seen them do a single "on stage" performance in either the form of marching or a mini concert at the plaza (personally I think what MMD gets to do now sounds a lot more fun anyway). That being said, that doesn't mean they're not doing it.

The really big thing that MMD does now is hold very cool musical clinics. You'll be in one of the recording studios that have been built just for MMD. They are very, very nice, professional recording studios better than any I've personally seen (but I haven't seen any). They are complete with a large digital projector, wireless headphones for each member of the band / orchestra, and an actual recording session. Full percussion is provided so you don't have to transport. The music is provided to you, which you rehearse, then you actually get to score a piece of Disney entertainment. For example, one recent school did some stuff from "Beauty and the Beast". They practiced the music from the scene where Belle wanders into the West Wing, and when they were ready, they actually record the SCORE that part of the film the same way it would be done professionally. It's really very exciting and fun!

I know that you can at least get a CD of everything you record, but I'm pretty sure you can also get a VHS of what you scored. Your band will also get pictures taken on the day by Kodak digital photography people. (We have a small Kodak digital lab in the building with the MMD studios).

If you are interested in getting more information for MMD, please PM me and I will give you the contact information for someone who organizes MMD trips. I highly recommend it!