THURSDAY, AUGUST 29, 2002
NEWS
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN = 3A
Student's marching-band music a hit
By Vonna Keomanyvong
Kansan staff writer
Patrick McCarry listens hard to the beat of Alice Cooper.
The Emporia senior sits in an empty room with his headset on and his electronic keyboard and drum pad in front of him. He hears the first eight beats of a song and taps the notes on the keyboard. These notes will soon turn into a marching band show for high school students.
"Sometimes it comes really quick, sometimes it doesn't," McCarty said. "It's trial and error for me. Although I've gotten a lot better at it."
While some might confuse arranging music with composing music, arranging involves rewriting and adapting songs.
Arranging music has always been a hobby for McCarty. He has adapted songs such as "Born to Be Wild" and "Over the Rainbow" for marching band music.
McCarty recently turned his hobby into a paying job when he arranged the football show for the Shawnee Mission North band.
Instead of buying music from a company the director wanted to do a show
that was our own," McCarty said. "I tried not to be too pushy, but I showed him some of my previous work so we put stuff together."
McCarty has been a percussion instructor for Shawnee Mission North for two years. He helps 12 students learn how to play the drums twice a week for about two hours.
Chad Reed, the band director for Shawnee Mission North, said McCarty's expertise and consistency makes him a talented teacher.
"Music is his life," Reed said. "I don't ever remember a time that he bailed out on anything because of another commitment. If he says that he's going do something he's followed through."
McCarty is a member of the KU Wind Ensemble and the KU Symphonic Band. He has also been on the KU marching band for three years. Last year, he was the lead drum set player for the men's basketball team and served as the drum line section leader for the football team during his sophomore year.
While instructing at Shawnee Mission North is McCarty's first paying job, it is not his first stab at arranging music.
"It's cool to hear your own music and to know that people also are hearing your
music,"
Patrick McCarty Emporia senior
He spent more than two months arranging a show for his dad Gary, who was the band director at his high school in Emporia.
"I finished it the end of my junior year and I asked my dad to listen to it," McCarty said. "He really liked my show so he ended up saying 'let's do it.'"
And in his senior year, McCarty marched in his own show.
"It's cool to hear your own music and to know that people also are hearing your music," McCarty said. "It's kind of fun because indirectly you're connecting with a lot of people through something that you did."
Since then, he has written two other shows for his dad.
Gary McCarty, who has been a band
director for more than 11 years, said his son was a musician even before he was born. Gary remembers when he and his wife, who was pregnant with Patrick, were members of the Topeka Symphony. During one of the performances, Gary said his wife constantly bounced out of her seat.
"When the conductor would stop playing music, Patrick would just kick the daylights out of her," Gary McCarty said. "As long as the music was going, he was OK."
Compared to other teaching jobs, McCarty said he could see people change by playing music.
McCarty now has four shows under his belt, but he would like to compose his own music.
"When I try composing something, it ends up sounding like something I've heard before," he said. "I'm trying to develop my creative process. I'll probably start writing my own music after I get out of school because I'll have a little more time."
Contact Keomanyvong at vkeomanyvong@kansan.com. This story was edited by Sarah Hill.
Eric Broom/KANSAN
Patrick McCarty, Emporia senior, has turned his hobby of arranging music for marchings bands into a paying job when he arranged the football show for the Shawnee Mission North Band. McCarty is a member of the KU Wind Ensemble as well as the KU Symphonic Band.
New dating service geared to helping students find love
By Louise Stauffer
Kansan staff writer
The countdown is on and Lawrence singles will have the chance to fall in love: It only takes seven minutes.
That's the logic behind "speed dating" a new niche in the business of dating services that is being offered by Ready-Set-DATE, a dating service opening in Lawrence next month. The business was started by Vicki Leitnaker and her sister Rebecca Price, who are trying to cater to the college crowd, as well as their parents.
The race to find someone compatible
begins when an equal number of men and women pay a cover charge and gather in a restaurant or bar. The men and women are paired off, armed with scorecards, and have seven minutes to get to know each other, no holds barred.
"Ask about things that are important to you," Leitmaker said.
to you. But he said she said there was assistance for the shy.
"We have sets of questions for people that have trouble," she said.
After the time is up, each person is matched up with someone else, and the process begins all over again. At the end of the night, each person turns in their
cards, and is notified in the next 24 hours and told who picked them as possible interests.
Leitnaker said although Ready-Set-DATE sponsors a college night, the program is not geared toward college students. The service sponsors events for either 21- to 29-year olds, 25- to 35-year olds, 35- to 45-year olds and 45- to 55-year olds. She said the mid-40s to mid-50s has had the highest registration thus far. Ready-Set-DATE is for heterosexuals as of yet, but Leitnaker said they have considered starting more specific groups, such as one for homosexuals only.
She said speed dating enables people
Date Service
College night is on Sept. 24, Molly McGee's, 2429 Iowa Street, 8:30 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. the cover charge is $20 per person register at ready-set-date.com
to see if there is potential with a person without wasting a lot of time. Leitnaker said because many speed-dating services in Kansas City are impossible to get in because they are always full, she and her partner are planning on spreading the service to places such as Topeka, Wichita, and Manhattan in the future.
"Speed dating is huge," she said.
However, Chris Goode, Urbandale, Iowa, sophomore, said he would probably not partake in speed dating.
"I think I could do the same thing at a bar, and it would be cheaper," he said. "But it might work for some people."
Manda Barker, Topeka junior, had mixed feelings.
"I thought that dating services were for people who wanted to get married," she said. "But this could be someone's thing."
Contact Louise Stauffer at stauFFER@kansan.com. This story was edited by Christina Neff.