In preparation for Culturama, our Marimba ensemble worked on consolidating the first part of our new piece. We were given a pretty short deadline as we were only informed that we would feature in Culturama last week. As a result, we needed to pick things up quickly. I am playing on a soprano which is the instrument with the second highest register after the piccolos, and this is good because I am most familiar with playing this type. As there are two other people sharing my part, this session we actively helped each other out and sought help when we were unsure about a certain rhythm or sequence of notes. This form of collaboration was really effective because we didn’t bear any judgement on each other when we were uncertain, nor was there judgement when minor slip-ups occurred. It seemed like this applied to the ensemble as a whole therefore by the end I felt that it had really come together and was very groovy. Collaboration is often overseen or underestimated in musical performances, but in order for one to succeed, constant attention and signalling with one another is crucial. This act of listening and reacting to one another throughout the music felt very evident during the session which is what made the music so great to learn and play together.