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"Sorry but we have the assembly hall booked for rehearsals." "So do we..."

The above is a snippet of a conversation most Aloysian musicians have dealt with at some point, during the run up to one of St.Aloysius' many music-related events. To keep one example constant, we'll be referring to this year's edition of Unplugged.

20 bands, 1 assembly hall, 1 piano, 0 drumkits, 0 guitar or bass amplifiers. It doesn't take a genius to figure out the problem. This problem is always somehow forgotten after an event is over. It's as though the problem is solved since people don't have to deal with it any more, except it then returns during the run up to the next event, such as SAC Fest.

Temporary and inconvenient solutions are always found, and not without time being wasted to try to find a room with a piano, drum kit and appropriate amplification. On occasion you might sneak into the theatre, except there's no drum kit there so if your group involves a drummer, get him ready to stare at a wall and stamp his foot on time for the duration of the rehearsal. There's the music room in the secondary basement, which sort of works, since it's actually equipped with most things... when it's not being used by the secondary students of course. To make matters worse, there is an absolute lack of a universal booking system for all rooms, except the assembly hall. Depending on which room you need to use, you always need to find a different person, and this tends to mean finding a teacher, who would in turn direct you to another teacher or technician sort of person, who might just be able to give you a room to rehearse in.

Once you consider all of this, it's obvious that the school needs two things: a properly equipped music room and; a universal booking system, that involves interacting with someone or something that can be found or accessed easily and consistently. For example, if booking a slot to rehearse in the theatre, secondary school music room or assembly hall could all be done through the secretary, that would be brilliant. The concept of going up to the secretary and asking which room is available is blissfully simple. One might understand that a music room is a much more of a costly endeavour on the school's behalf, so starting out with the booking system might be the better idea.

The first question about the music room would probably be 'Why bother?' The answer is simple. It is because we have a school overflowing with musical talent. Unplugged alone allowed 18 musical items to perform, and those were only the ones chosen after auditions, and the ones who felt confident enough to go for it. True, this is an expense, but it’s an expense that would give so much back, to so many people. And fundraisers are always helpful - music-related events or activities that would always add a bit more to the funding for the project. Another point is that events like SAC Fest become slightly pointless if full bands are discouraged, since rehearsing is such a nightmare. We often see many musical items and say: Oh there clearly aren't any problems since so many people manage, but what these people don't realise is that all the items they're watching are of the same kind, which is that of a simple structure involving: a pianist, vocalist, possibility of an acoustic guitar and everyone's happy. These bands often sound fantastic, but bands with more complicated line-ups tend to be found in minorities because of this issue. St. Aloysius has many amazing musicians and singers, and has produced some of Malta's greatest, such as Ira Losco and the majority of Red Electrick. The more resources the school gives, the more of these Aloysian-bred artists will start appearing in the local music scene.